Family Vacation in South America

I´ve decided against doing a journal entry as a series of places So rather, at least for now, I´ll be writing in chapters of experience. Chapter 1 being the family vacation.

I guess you could say the fun started not when Philip and I arrived in Santiago, Chile to join our parents, but rather when our parents left four days ahead of us. To celebrate my leaving to a distant continent for 5 months I did what anyone would do. I hung out with friends, played with my dog, and partied. Nothing huge or out of control- just enough to make our neighbors send an email to my parents complaining about ¨noise.¨

Anyway after four days of this I scrambled to tie up all the odds and ends I wouldn´t be able to take care of for 5 months and got to the airport only because Pete showed up to drive us. After being treated to dinner and going away presents (thanks pete) I said my final farewell in the States and a weary couple of brothers got on the plane for an overnight flight to Chile!

When we got to Santiago I hadn´t slept at all, but of course it was morning so we still wouldn´t have that chance. We toured Santiago and discovered that with it being Christmas Eve everything was closing. We ended up eating a great meal at one of the few open restaurants in the entire city- a miracle that we even found one). After that we finally, blissfully got to sleep. You would think it was at a reasonable hour, but then you wouldn´t be taking into consideration that in Chile, and especially in Argentina the only people eating before 10 or 11 really are gringos.

The next day we met up with the Delgado family (from Guatemala) for lunch in the Mercado Central (the delgados we know through my mom). We had a good time and made plans to get together with the Delgado kids- Andres, Javier, Juan Jose and their friend Jimmy later that night. That night we went out, again in a city mostly closed for Christmas, and hung out at a bar until 3 or so. It´s great hanging out with native Spanish speakers as they talked to everyone around us and got us included in the entire bar scene, rather than being isolated at our table.

On the 27th we finally left Chile for Argentina! The bus ride to Mendoza was beautiful. We wove our way slowly up through the Andes, passing glaciers and glacier streams streaming down off the snow covered peaks before coming in sight of Aconcagua'- the tallest mountain in the Americas.

Our arrival in Mendoza was terrific. It was then, and still is at the moment a great city. Philip and I noticed immediately that the women here are gorgeous. Sitting in the center of town and people watching is a true pleasure. It took little more then 2 hours to decide that Mendoza is where I would stay and study Spanish. And no, I wasn´t just being shallow there were plenty of other reasons. While staying in Mendoza we found the school that I would study at, Intercultural, met the family I would be staying with, continued eating at great restaurants (including 1 that´s rated the 7th best in the world), and Dad organized a tour of the areas famous Bodegas. We, the Delgado kids who we had fortuitously ran into in the middle of the city (they didn´t have our number), and Philip´s friend from WIS, Jacobo and his friend visited 5 vineyards in one day, including an amazing lunch. It´s funny, everyone always talks about how cheap Argentina is, and while it is cheap, your money can and will disappear with ¨the quickness¨. Anyway I digress. After a day in which I swore never to drink anymore wine but was nonetheless awesome, we prepared to leave for Buenos Aires. We gave the Delgados our phone number so that we could hook up with them in BA for New Years and hit the road.

Our 3 days in Buenos Aires were amazing- and far too short. We toured the city, got to know the neighborhood of Boca and the great neighborhood of Belgrano, and had the best night of our vacation by far (in my opinion). And no, that night wasn´t New Years Eve, but rather the night before where we went to a Flamenco Show and Dinner. The place looked like a total dive from the outside and we would never have found it let alone gone in without help from the hotel. But when we went in it turned out to be a great basement atmosphere. We were the only extranjeros in the entire place and the dancing was superb. Afterwards the place turned into a really active bar. On New Years Day we still hadn´t heard from the Delgado´s and Philip and I were starting to wonder what we would do for New Years. Later that day, in a city of 13 million people, we literally ran into them in a bookstore of all places. It turns out they couldn´t reach us because they didn´t have the area code of our phone. God Winks, Fate. We went out and had dinner while celebrating New Years at a really lively restaurant and afterwards spent an hour trying to get a Taxi. We ended up having to bribe a Taxi 30 US dollars to take the 5 of us to a club rather then pick up other passengers. Clubs here open at 1 and don´t get going until about 2. We hit one club and then another before I finally dragged Philip back to the Hotel at 530 AM. Early for Argentina but we had a 10 o´clock flight to Bariloche.

I know this is starting to sound like a catelogue of locations etc and that´s unfortunate but oh well. The later entries will hopefully be more interesting.

Anyway our vacation continued in Bariloche. A town nestled in a valley on the shores of an enormous lake in between snow capped mountains of the Andes. We stayed at a Hostel here- suprisingly the first hostel I have ever stayed at and took the opportunity to go horseback riding and rafting. The horseback riding was understandably through beautiful country side and we had a terrific asado for lunch- but I was totally un-prepared for the toll my body would take after 8 hours on the horse. The end of that day and the next 2 days would be just about the sorest I have ever felt in my life. Of course, one of those days we would be rafting on a river of emerald green and I could forget the pain a bit.

The 3rd day saw us leaving Bariloche for a bus ride to San Martin de Los Andes, where we played the part of tourists shoping and such. I also got a horrible haircut that left me with a mullet that Dad had to fix. After that we Left San Martin to go back to Chile and slowly make our way back to Santiago. The bus ride to Puntapilla in Chile took pretty much all day. Boring right but no. First to start off about 30 minutes up the road Dad discovered he had left his daypack in an internet cafe in the Bus Station so he got out and hitched a ride back into town hoping to catch us at the ARG-CHILE border-which he miraculously managed to do-with all our belongings and all. Afterwards we took a gravel road past the 7 Lakes- a very scenic area, and then the bus dead ended at a lake. This lake had 0 roads around it, 0 houses nothing. We took a ferry for a little over 2 hours to reach the next road. Imagine literally sailing through clouds of rain. It wasn´t raining on us, we were just sailing through rain. Simply amazing. The rain also meant that we werent´using a beautiful day for traveling on a bus. When we arrived at Puntapillah we engaged a Taxi to drive us to the Termas Liquines- a hot springs nestled in another remote valley about 100 kilometers away on gravel roads. The drive took us through hanging valleys with Waterfalls cascading down the slopes seemingly every couple hundred meters. When we got to the Springs we simply relaxed. I could see the tension dissapate off of everyone. We stayed that afternoon and the next morning before taking the last local bus out of the valley back towards Santiago. And I mean this bus was Local. It had no room for our baggage except on seats, there were more people standing in the tiny aisle (myself included) then sitting, and the bus stopped for anyone on the side of the road, and anyone could get off at any place as well. After 3 hours of this we transfered buses to a Cama bus for the ride back to Santiago.

For those of you who don´t know the bus system of South America is immense, integrated, and very very efficient/comfortable. The buses are divided into classes- some buses are local, some are akin to greyhound, some are semi-cama (higher than economy plus on an airline) or cama (almost full reclining but slightly not was nice as first class). Prices vary according to what class you choose obviously.

Anyway we got to Santiago at like 10 30 at night, took a cab back to the same hotel we had stayed at (a cab that tried to charge us about 35 dollars for the ride, which is more than my seat the next day to Mendoza 7 hours away cost). We had a final dinner and went to bed. The next day we went to Pablo Neruda´s house and then the bus station where I bid a very difficult goodbye to my family. Whom I won´t see for 5 months.

It´s funny, just like on the PCT, saying goodbye to family was the hardest part, but then here I am a week, two weeks later and I´m used to the life I´m living, happy with the choices I´ve made. And while I miss them I look back at that goodbye where I was filled with uncertaintly and fear about how this trip to Mendoza would turn out and wonder why it was so hard. Because know I have more confidence, just like after a week hiking Solo on the PCT.

Anyway in some ways I´ve probably included too much detail, in most ways it would be impossible for me to describe everything we did, nor would it be worth the effort. It was a great trip and I loved every second of it- even when I couldn´t move due to the soreness the horse caused. We ate well, traveled to great places, and had a great time all as a family. And oh yeah, that email the neighbors sent to my parents about there being too much noise at home...my parents reply ¨happy new years from buenos aires, where you have to celebrate new years in between courses they eat so late.¨

I know it took me forever to update this, and I will try to get the Mendoza story updated sooner, but life is fast hectic and truly every second is filled with activities. I will also try to add pictures soon.

Drop me a line at daharmattan1@yahoo.com love to hear from you all. Ciao, Chau, and "chow."