Chau, Buenos Aires. For the last time.

The "best pizza in Buenos Aires" turned out to be "just OK" but maybe that was just our gringo taste buds talking. (No pepperoni?? Snobs.) The place was worth seeing though - full of locals and animated waiters. A fun evening. The taxi rides to and from, not so fun for me... my knuckles were white the whole time.

Tuesday I felt a lot better so after breakfast I went to the Reserva Ecológica Costenera Sur along the shore. It was the one place I hadn't been able to visit when I was first in BA and it was probably for the best - I am so glad I went in the fall instead of the hot, humid summer. And I am so glad I went in general. Getting there involved crossing many busy intersections so it was good (although a bit nerve-wracking) to put myself back into the crazy BA streets, but once I was there I got nature's mental reset which I desperately needed.

In the reserve there is a big loop path that goes through pretty marshland and overlooks the city. After about a mile I unexpectedly came to a small beach and sat there for a while enjoying the scenery.

The reserve houses all kinds of birds and at one point I looked around and noticed that about eight different species of birds were pecking the ground around me, and a handful of other sea birds were gliding above. No cars, no other people... just me, the birds and the waves. Chevere.


Heading back to meet Kim for lunch I went through the mall and up Florida Avenue for old times' sake (and to use the mall bathroom - when in need/doubt, hit the mall or McDonalds). What a madhouse of consumerism.

We had a great last BA lunch at a San Telmo trattoria and wandered the antique shops for a bit, then headed to the airport.

(ricotta vegetable crepes with pesto sauce for me...)

(...steak and sweet potato fries for Kim)

Surreal to think the trip is over. I saw too many truly spectacular things to list, I met some very nice people (locals and travelers) and I shared some good times with good friends.

I didn't "figure it all out" but I didn't expect to... However, I did get some great perspective on myself and on the world that I hope to put to use in my next endeavor(s). One point I don't want to lose sight of: how very fortunate we are in the US, for so many reasons. None of which involve TV, flavored coffee or name brand clothing.

So. Entonces. We now return you to my regularly scheduled programming. Not sure what that means. The 2010 Adventure is to be continued... As with Part One, I don't really know what to expect from Part Two other than lots of options and exciting times ahead.

And continued roaming, of course.

Photo of the day, 6/1/2010: if only.

much to my dismay, it was merely a restaurant

Photo of the day, 5/31/2010: exactly.

ArtFactory hostel wall art

And when I say "a little run-in," I mean... literally.

Got derailed from my original plan to check out El Tigre delta this morning when I had a little run-in with a taxi.

I have successfully avoided frostbite, malaria/dengue fever, altitude sickness, decapitation by surfboard, several earthquakes, and even a common cold for four months. I've crossed ten borders without issue, safely taken many crazy taxis/twelve airplanes/four overnight buses/too many day buses and boat rides to count, and walked somewhere around 500 miles over the length of this trip without even a blister.

So why was it in my destiny to be knocked over by a Buenos Aires taxi the day before heading home?

Bad news is, I lost a day (and man, was it a gorgeous day outside). I might have some bruises. My back is a little sore from where I got slammed into the concrete and my knee is a little creaky on the side where I got hit. I am still a little head-achy and nauseous from the whole thing.

Good news is, it could've been a LOT worse. It could have happened anywhere. Nothing on me or my person was broken (even my glasses hit the ground hard and survived) and nothing was taken from me or lost by me in the mayhem. The ibuprofin is working. I'm eating what is allegedly "the best pizza in Buenos Aires" tonight for dinner. We still have most of tomorrow here. And it reinforced my opinion that South Americans are the nicest people on the planet. I've heard of numerous bikers in Portland getting hit by cars where the drivers don't slow down, let alone stop. Here I had a nice little crowd of helpful gentlemen around me holding up traffic with their stopped cars, who wouldn't leave until I absolutely insisted. The taxi driver even offered to give me a ride back to the hostel. Um, a) it's 50 feet away and b) REALLY?? YOU JUST HIT ME, THINK I WILL BE AVOIDING YOUR CAR AT ALL COSTS. BUT THANK YOU.

So today was unexpectedly my last zero day until I can't call them zero days anymore. From now on they will be called "unemployment."

Hmm. All day I've been trying to figure out what I was supposed to learn from this unique experience. I wonder if having a last zero day was all part of the Universe's greater plan...

I will never again use "I could get hit by a bus tomorrow..." as my rationale for doing adventuresome things though. Be careful out there, especially at this intersection:

(taken the next day)

Really living it up here in Buenos Aires, I tell ya.

We spent the last day in Colonia enjoying a true fall day - rainy, cold, windy. I was very glad we did the coastal walk the day before as wise Kim had suggested. It was quite a lazy day actually, we got a late start, sat outside for a while having coffee (and stretching it ouuuuuuuuuuut as long as possible), decided to skip the museums and headed to the ferry station. Actually, I don't think we even discussed the museums. It was just understood that we both wanted to skip them.

coffee shop placemats

Anyone taking the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia/Montevideo should keep their original ticket with the entry stamp, otherwise you will be charged $75 US when exiting Uruguay to return to Argentina. It didn't happen to me personally because I have kept every bloody piece of paper from this entire trip "just in case"... I'm just saying.

It was cold and dreary in Buenos Aires too, so we grabbed some delicious pasta at a restaurant just up the street (nicest waiter too) and headed back to the ArtFactory hostel to call it a night.

ArtFactory art

I'm so glad I'm traveling with people who go to bed as the other hostel residents are gearing up for a big Saturday night on the town. I know I'm in a great city but I don't do that at home, so why would I do it here...? Besides, I'm old.

Sunday we walked all over. Through the empty and grungy financial district...

whaaa... ?

... up to ritzier Palmero and the Botanic Garden...

Oregon and California in the Buenos Aires hizzzouse!

... over to charming Recoleta for some great pizza and back to the cemetery for a little while...

... and that's when things got weird. We had two maps, two brains, and four able legs and feet, yet we still managed to get completely turned around numerous times (to the point where it really felt like we were in the Bermuda Triangle of BA).

it's not rocket science

I had been up since 4am for whatever reason but thanks to our early-to-bed habits, had gotten 7 hours sleep so I couldn't even use that as an excuse... I think we spent an hour and a half trying to get out of that little neighborhood and finally hailed a taxi out of exhaustion and desperation.

We stopped by the San Telmo market and went our separate shopping ways. In my meandering back, I found an artisan brewery where we went later for dinner - corner of Bolivar/Chile, la Poetia I believe it was called? - GO THERE. My salad of beets, walnuts, sesame seeds and green apples might have been the best salad yet. After a little while supporting the hostel bar we called it a night.

Last night we managed to stay up past 10 though. Progress! And still the days wind down... Sadness.

Photo of the day, 5/30/2010: botanical garden kitteh.

why, hello

Buenos Aires-Montevideo haikus.

Where had I come from?...
Hostel staff wanted to know
Had to stop and think...

Time is running out
Being a "person" again
Is in my future

Manta surfing pal
At Buenos Aires hostel
It's a small, small world

Planes, buses and ships
Mountains, jungles and cities
Ten border crossings

Kettleman bagel
Then no bread for several months
... Make that two bagels!

(title: in this order...)
Electric toothbrush
Stumptown and peanut butter
Shower and haircut

(title: note to self)
Nature v. culture
Solitary v. social
Balance is key

(title: BA for ~14 necessary horas)
A backpacker's life
Vamos a Uruguay hoy
Chau, Buenos Aires

Hola y chau, Buenos Aires.

Step 2 ended up involving crashing in BA for a night (at the ArtFactory - a hostel I had wanted to stay at back in February, bonus!), getting some much needed rest and heading to Uruguay the next morning. Turns out that the hostel is awesome (great breakfasts, great crazy murals everywhere and great staff who kindly ordered empenada delivery for us that night as it poured and poured and poured outside). But it was a thunderstorm in BA and that was pretty amazing. Those little things never cease to catch me off guard.

In the morning I went for a quiet walk to reconnect with the city that was my intro to South America. (Truth be told, it was to look for peanut butter - which there is a dearth of in BA and Uruguay, turns out.) The holiday was evident from the empty streets, and the barely-spitting sky seemed to keep people inside as well. It was a good 30 minutes.

And well timed, apparently. When I got back to the hostel we called for a taxi and were waiting in the lobby, and who should walk around the corner and stop in his tracks but my old Manta surfing buddy. We caught up briefly and he planned to be there for a while so I hope to hear about his adventures in Columbia. I really couldn't get over the whole "sliding doors" idea which seems to happen to a lot of people here - randomly running into acquaintences months apart in different countries. How odd to start and end my trip seeing the same person a continent's width apart, though. I wonder what I am supposed to learn from this...?

Photo of the day, 5/23/2010: there, I fixed it.

I couldn't get the blind at the hostel to stay up

Adventura! (Sigh.)

If you are ever in Concordia, Argentina on a Sunday that is also a major Argentinian holiday weekend, and you are faced with the decision between fulfilling your nerdly desire to see Uruguay's ginormous pride-and-joy hydroelectric dam or getting to a major city as quickly as possible, I recommend the latter.

I had seen that it might not be possible to cross the Concordia-Salto border on Sundays but had also heard that it *was* possible. There seemed to be enough alternate options to Plan A once in Concordia and we had no interest in staying in Puerto Iguazu for another night, so we took our chances on the overnight bus to Concordia.

What they didn't tell us was that the bus would pull over on the highway and let us off 20km from the central bus station in Concordia. At 7am. In the dark.

At least it wasn't raining.

The bus attendant impatiently showed us to a very nice lady waiting with a "taxi" (it was a car) and we took a very expensive ride into town. Judging from some of the neighborhoods we were driving through, I was fairly certain the bus station would be a shack with a bench (if we were lucky) and a bathroom (if we were really lucky), and that the ticket office would be closed on Sundays and/or major holidays.

But we turned a few more corners, the scene improved and the bus station was large, bright, had ample amenities (bathroom, coffee and wifi being the most important after that rude 7am side-of-the-highway awakening) and lots of bus companies.

oasis

The nice taxi lady offered to help us suss out our next move but I kept having communication fails and wanted some time to think things through with Kim. Taxi lady did remind us about the holiday and confirmed with an agent that there were no buses to Salto on Sunday (and no hotels/hostels in Concordia - not "none available," none period) and that was quite nice of her. But I still just wanted her to go away.

After a cup of coffee and brief discussion, Kim and I opted to head to Uruguay via Buenos Aires. Luck was on our side again - a bus was leaving for BA in 10 minutes, so we quickly snagged two tickets and settled in for six more hours of farmland scenery. Another cup of coffee and we would have been stuck there until 2pm.

And when we get to BA we'll figure out step 2. Which will hopefully involve a shower and a real bed in the next 24 hours. I am getting too old for this...

Interestingly, though, not once did I worry or panic like I would have a month or three ago. And I didn't get mad either... The situation was annoying (and more expensive than it should have been, I bet) but as with almost every other situation, everyone was very helpful and kind, and everything worked out fine in the end.

I want to remember this day especially as I reacclimate to real life and start the ominous housing and job searches. It's been a great lesson in how patience and calmness can pay off... And at least the housing and job searches will be in English!

Photo of the day, 5/22/2010: must've taken a clue from Flickr.

the laundromat guy's handy reference - common laundry-related words/phrases in numerous languages

Photo of the day, 5/21/2010: nature trail to hell...

... IN 3-D!

Oh. Ma. Ga.

Every time I think I can't possibly see another thing that blows me away, I see something else that blows me away.

We spent the day at Parque Nacional Iguazu, something I'd been looking forward to since October. A guy I met in Cuenca, who had been traveling for a year, said it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. Not just in his travels, but EVER. As I said, I listen to those people.

We arrived early and decided to do the Sendero Macuco walk first.

watch for snakes, people doing laps

Wise choice - the trail was empty other than a few capybaras, wild boars and cai monkeys...

... as well as lots of birds and a bazillion butterflies (that would be with us the whole day).

neither a bird nor a butterfly

The wildlife were easily spotted. Nature guide? We don't need no stinkin' nature guide. At the end of the trail we reached the first waterfall of the day, Salto Arrechea, which reminded me of Wahkeena Falls.

Very nice. But nothing compared to what I was about to see.

Next up was Garganta del Diablo, the park's main draw. You go about 1100m across a metal catwalk over the river to reach the head of the falls...

As you get closer you start to hear it.

And then you see it.

oh

ma

gaaaaaaaaaa

Stunning doesn't even begin to describe this. Photos and video won't do it justice. The penguins were awesome and the jaguar was intense but this was the first time I was actually breath-taken on this trip. Watching the water made me dizzy. It was incredibly loud. It was enormous.

Niagara Falls Schmiagara Falls

Spent a while there absorbing the scene and taking dozens of photos, then visited the lower and upper circuits in the afternoon. These offered their own Portland-esque hidden waterfalls as well as views of some gigantic ones.

that one teeny solo waterfall near the center of the photo is equivalent to Multnomah Falls, for perspective

There was a constant rainbow from the mist at the big waterfalls and the sun kept the butterflies out and about.

for the leprechauns

seeing double

my new BFF

Even the tourists were kind - everyone seemed happy to be there.

I mean, wouldn't YOU be happy to be here?

And as the perfect ending, on the bus ride back to Puerto Iguazu Kim spotted a blue and yellow toucan. It was the last thing to check off on her "hoping to see in the jungle" list. In my other toucan experiences the birds were hard to spot, but this one was just sitting in a tree by the road. Must have been a rescue toucan.

There's not much else to do in Puerto Iguazu other than visit Tres Fronteras (where you can see Paraguay and Brasil from Argentina) which we did on Thursday...

Paraguay to the left of me, Brazil to the right, and I'm stuck in the middle with Argentina

... so we are now Uruguay-bound. Planning was way too easy once again. Hopefully our travel and weather luck follows us to the next adventure!

Job security.

Kim and I have a future here in South America. Her, feeding stray dogs. Me, fixing typos in English translations of park and street signs. We have years of work ahead of us...

Photo of the day, 5/20/2010: a sign would've been nice.

the wet concrete I almost walked into

"I'm on a bus!"

Spending 22 hours on a bus is not as dreadful as it seems. Fletchabus line was quite comfy and the lady who fed us ("bus attendant"? "steward"?) was super nice. The movies could have been better (that dreadful: breakup movie with Aniston and Vaughan/Vegas movie with Diaz and Kutcher/cop movie with Dinero and Pachino/dog movie with Gere - all at full volume), the food was sub-airplane food and hitting the chicken wasn't so pleasant but otherwise it was fine... Hopefully the same will be true of our Uruguay adventura!

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to Uruguay? To spontaneity! It was Kim's suggestion. Having her along for the end of this trip has been like having my friends join me for the second half of my marathon. At mile 24/Cusco I was spent (mentally, physically, and in this case financially) but Kim brought a new energy that got me excited about the last phase, and ideas about places I hadn't considered. And without Viki, I would not have had such an amazing experience in Peru...

"Thanks" doesn't begin to cover it, friends.

Photo of the day, 5/19/2010: maybe that Olive Garden stint will come in handy after all.

(well, I will need a job...)

Note to self.

With the following ingredients...

- plastic toys
- small hardware
- those hard bristly plastic curlers your grandma used to wear
- office supplies
- Tupperware
- Ikea-like display frames
- about a billion 1" plastic babies in every color

... you, too, could have an exhibit in the Contemporary Art Museum in Salta. Kudos, Silvio Fischbein. Loved every piece.

Photo of the day, 5/18/2010: deadpan.

hello, tourist

A great end to the Salta adventura.

The drive to Cafayate goes along the Quebrada del Rio de Los Conchas, a gorgeous stretch of canyon where people have identified human, animal and other interesting shapes in the rocks.

bunnies, it must be bunnies!

gorge-ous

he is the lizard king, he can do anything

It's Grand Canyon-esque, only with a big rock formation that looks like the Titanic. There is an amazing 120m tall ampitheater formed from a giant whirlpool of water millions of years ago, and another huge cavern named "the throat of the devil" in Spanish (I forgot to ask why exactly)...

looking out from inside the ampitheater

... as well as parrot caves (parrot holes/nests in the rock that we misunderstood as "pirate" caves - those would have to be some tiny pirates).

In Cafayate we visited a modern winery and sampled their red and white varietals.

Bodega Domingo Hermanos

salud!

We tried local potato wine in an artisan shop, had lunch downtown (where I "sampled" a half-liter of their red house wine) and visited the oldest winery for another tour and tasting. The guy at Vasija Secreta gave the tour in Spanish and my bodega vocabulary is a bit limited but I was able to gather that he clearly thought their winery and wine was superior to any other.

I mean, look at him

wine aht

Cafayate felt very familiar - it was what a smaller-scale Napa would look like if it were surrounded by gorgeous cavernous mountains, right down to mountain bikers careening up the road causing traffic jams.

During the three hour drive back a group of local tourists sitting behind us talked constantly and at a very loud volume. (My ears were actually ringing afterward.) I was struck by the difference in temperament between the residents of places I had visited in Peru and Ecuador, and that of those particular Argentinians riding behind me. I'm not generalizing by any means - just observing. Mi familia in Ecuador was pretty talkative but this was a different vibe, a livelier vibe.

As more evidence, early one morning Kim and I saw large groups of people wandering home from partying the night before. I have seen lots of people having fun on this trip but I don't recall seeing that type of vibe since Buenos Aires in February.

I also realized that when I started in Buenos Aires I had no trouble adjusting (other than the heat and slow walking pace) but coming to Salta after spending basically a month in sleepy cobblestone areas and/or farmland and/or intense nature was kind of a culture shock. I am slipping back into reliance on Internet, access to everything imaginable and comfort with big cities. Full circle might be the best end to this trip.

Interestingly, I have noticed that my walking pace has slowed considerably compared to my recent west coast traveling companions. And a while back I realized that I stopped making all my lists. South America acclimation, phase three must be complete... just in time to go home. I need another year here.

In other news, I highly recommend these guys should you find yourself in Salta and needing a tour guide. Fun, friendly and fairly inexpensive. Thanks, Monica and Sergio!