But all is good. Here's the quick and dirty story.
I returned to BA from Patagonia, and checked into a flea bitten hostel in Barrio Norte, a sweet neighborhood with lots of restaurants and tree lined streets, right near bustling Santa Fe street which is the border of lots of cool neighborhoods. After a week of heat and sharing a room with 5 others, some friends and I moved across the street to this other hostel that was kind of hidden. It was a total gem and the people running it became great friends - three siblings, the oldest this gorgeous lady who is also a semi famous entertainment reporter on a show like the Today Show, the youngest a great girl who is an entertainment journalist, and the middle guy a total Argentinian stud who turned out to be a great buddy and excellent BBQer. Asado - Argentinian BBQ - was a weekly event, where everyone in the hostel would get together and feast on great steak, blood sausage and chorizo and also drink tons of great wine.
The hostel was large and airy, used to be the grandmother's house. There were only 10 rooms and I got a solo room so I could get some sleep. Only $18 a night, with a discount for long stays. I'd end up there for a month. There was a fun, small number of people in the hostel, and we all got to know each other well. It was really trusting, and it was a new hostel, and the family was also incredibly nice and helpful. The only problem in retrospect was that it was too lax at the time. Key to rooms were kept out in the open, hanging above the reception desk in easy reach if someone leaned over the counter.
One night, we went out to the birthday of a friend of the youngest daughter, Vero, and had a blast. We stayed out till about 5am. Probably one of the most fun nights out in BA for me because we went to a local's house, and met tons of people, did a little dancing, which I have realized I am horrible at. Back at the hostel, Lucas, the brother, was manning the desk and he apparently went upstairs to have a few beers with some of the guests.
There was this guy who had checked in a few days earlier who threw the great vibe off just a little. He was about 45 years old named Carlos from Colombia, but worked in Bolivia and Brazil. He was in BA to visit his son, but he never really left the hostel. Ugh, in retrospect, all these things were so stinky, we all felt we should've smelled it. Anyway, I got in the habit of locking the door to my room, even though I hadn't been doing that before he came. So, we went out, and the door was locked. It was weird, because we were talking with the thief before we left, and we was acting weird, saying he wanted to go to a swingers club and showing some of the others pictures on his phone. He said, "Jeff, go to a swingers club!" I was like, okay weirdo, and didn't think more of it, tried not to judge - I'm traveling just like everyone else.
When I got back, I went into my room where I had left my computer on my bed powering up. It wasn't there. Another friend from the hostel who I had traveled to Antarctica with would sometimes go into my room and grab the computer to use it when I wasn't, which had been cool with me because we were good buds.
I got a bad feeling, but went over to my friend's room and woke him up, hoping that he had the computer and had forgotten to put it back, which he wouldn't have done. He didn't have it. I found Lucas and asked him if anyone had checked out, and sure enough, Carlos had checked out that night at like 2am saying goodbye to Lucas and telling him he was going to stay at a girlfriend's house. In his bag unbeknownst to Lucas was my computer, camera, ipod and watch. Arg! Things started to come back, like how he wouldn't drink wine with us, and was always around. I think he was a pro, pretty calculating. Even the swingers club thing was probably something he did to make us think he was weird and leave him alone or something.
Still a little drunk, which was probably a good thing, we called the cops and spent the next two hours in the police station filling out a report. He had also taken a Swedish girls camera, which had been left in the common area. The police really don't do anything apparently, even though we had his passport number. It was funny, because when this guy Carlos had checked in, Lucas said to me, "do you think there's anything shady about that guy?" I was like, hm, not sure....
I was tempted to go to the swingers club he had mentioned to stake it out and see if he showed up. I also wanted to go CSI on him, and even check his pillow for any hairs he had left. Then I wake up - wait a second idiot, you're in Argentina and the cops are playing cards right now at the station and eating empanadas, and Carlos is getting ready to sell your computer right now, and taking pix of some swingers with your camera. The dude was from Bolivia and probably had a fake passport.
So, there it went. Not a big deal, and now I'm not on the computer as much which is a good thing. He didn't get my passport or phone, but the only bummer was I had a ton of great pix and videos from Antarctica on the computer. F- it, the images are filed away in my wooden cabeza. The family at the hostel felt really bad about what happened, and obviously changed the process for getting keys to rooms, and let me stay for the rest of the month for free. In retrospect, it's been a positive experience and something I won't forget. The things aren't important, and now I travel with more finely tuned hackles up and a lighter bag. Obviously stuff gets stolen from hostels all the time. I was stupid not to lock my stuff in the locked room every time I went out. This guy will probably head to another hostel and lurk till he gets another opening. I got off lucky - some other folks in the hostel were held up at gunpoint on the street a few weeks earlier.
The rest of the month was great, I saw some incredible music called La Bomba, took a tango class, and some spanish classes, and of course ate incredible food. I also visited Mendoza, the wine region in Argentina, where I checked out some Bodeguitas, which are wineries.
Back in BA, I got the hang of the city, which is huge. I played some indoor soccer with some friends who live in BA, went into the google office once more, and also went to an incredible football game at La Boca stadium, called La Bombonera. Maradona, who along with Pele was probably the most famous footballer ever, played for Boca and the games are pretty legendary, so it was a cool experience, though I'm not huge into soccer. The fans in the Boca section don't sit the entire game, and also never stop singing. The whole game. So cool. Afterwards, security lets the other team's fans out of the stadium first, and then Boca fans can leave, so violence is avoided. To stick it to the Boca fans, the other teams fans stay for 30 minutes after the game singing their own songs, which Boca fans just sit and wait.
Here's what it was like - we were right in the middle of the singing:
Saw some great live music too, including the most amazing accordian music Ive ever heard - I know, accordian? - but it was off the hook. And also some great percussion. I planned to practice my Spanish pretty seriously, but got pretty sidetracked hanging out with friends and not practicing Spanish. But its improved a little, very little. I learned what a Perro Viejo is. I looked at some apartments, thinking of buying down here with brutha Dave since it would be easy to rent out with Lucas helping out, and lots of Googlers coming down to live and work in the office here, but I didn't pull the trigger. Real estate is relatively cheap here, and it'd be fun to have. Maybe I'll get serious about it a little later.
I just met this cool guy from New York, and we have been chatting about each other's travels. He's waiting to get into law school, and telling me about all his friends who've been laid off in NYC. Lots of guys in finance working for investment banks, and tons of lawyers are out of jobs. Its a great time to be traveling, and I'm incredibly lucky. I asked Googs for more time off, which was pretty unrealistic, and they said uh, naa. 4 months off have been going pretty quickly. Anyway, this guy from NY asked, so, in your time, what have you learned? What have you realized? Great question and fun to stop and munch on it for a bit.
At the end of BA, I got ready to head to Rio, hearing tons of stories about how unsafe it is. This big Russian guy told me that he was on a rented bike in the center of the city, and this kid came up and played with his handel bars while he was at a stop sign. Suddenly, behind him, another kid grabbed a necklace he was wearing and pulled, choking him and drawing blood. Another kid tried to grab his backpack at the same time. The chain snapped, and he dropped his bike and grabbed his bag and the kids kind of ran away a bit, then turned and looked at him a smiled for a while. Being Russian, he just nodded and smiled back. "So watch out, Jevv," he said to me.
But my friend John Stassen came here and had a blast and he still has all his necklaces. And brutha Brad lived here for a year in a freakin favela, which is a tent city, a step above a slum. People try to freak you out all the time, with tons of warnings and horror stories, that you almost don't want to go...and its hilarious once you arrive and are able to. Though its good to be careful...I had heard stuff got stolen in hostels all the time, but that didn't stop me from getting my stuff stolen....
I'm here in Rio now and its been amazing. More on that next time. Much love!
Monday 13 April 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
2 Israelis walk into a bar (the Antarctica trip)
Sitting in Rio getting munched by mosquitoes and catching up with you. Missing SF and my friends there, especially the arseholes who just went to Portland to see our friend Travis' bar. You guys had a good time, I know, I know. March Madness and Tahoe came and went while I ate so much steak in Argentina that I can speak fluent cow. Mu. Its late here.
Can't stop listening to this song as I write. This guy, Seu Jorge, is one of the best artists in Brazil, maybe like Bruce Springsteen, but sings about the poetry of love and life like all Brazilians. Feel free to press play as you read.
My trip to Antactica from Ushuaia 6 weeks ago was a highlight for sure so far. I wasn't planning on going to Antarctica from Ushuaia - southernmost town in the world - but there´s a bar in Ushuaia called "the Dubliner", where it became so damn fun to drink beer. Having a beer down there was like looking forward to a hike and listening to a comedian at the same time. Nice when it touches the lips. They have microbrews in Ushuaia - maybe that was it. Anyway, I met some great people and was at the bar most nights of my 6 day stay, as was every traveler in town, sitting at the oak tables on oak benches which were packed. Smoky as hell.
Ushuaia is sweet – a little town with red and white houses surrounded by mountains, overlooking a harbor that leads out to lots of cold ocean and Antarctica. I had been planning on hitting Tierra Del Fuego and Ushuaia for a while - thought it´d be good to go far away during my sabbatical from work. I finally reached the bottom of the continent, though it wasn´t too difficult - a few flights. But I fell in love with the place when I got there. You can only go one direction from there - back up - so you might as well chill out for a bit.
On my fourth day there, I started looking out the harbor and the bay. It´s framed by mountains as far as the eye can see, but there´s an opening, the end of which you can´t see. This is the Beagle Channel. I had pictures which tell the story so much better than I can. Sadly, they're mostly gone now, but some are on facebook.
The bay is so cool – it leads out to an opening which looked like it led off the edge of the world. I started to think that´d it would be cool to go out that channel, beyond which lay Antarctica, but I had no idea how to approach it without paying a ton of money. I started talking with my friend Alex, great German guy, about it, floating it out there, trying to rally him to spring for a cabin on a boat, or cover me while I stowed away.
So funny how things happen. The next night in the Dubliner, two Israelis walked into the place looking for someone to go to Antarctica. They needed another person so they could round out a group of 5 and keep the price low. Alex somehow picked up the conversation as they rattled through the bar looking for anyone who might want to go, and directed me to them. We pulled up to a dark table over some beer and they told me the deal: 10 days, ship leaves tomorrow night, price is as reasonable as it gets. It was 1am, I had to decide basically in the next 12 hours, and I still had half a beer left. What to do? Finish the beer for starters, and sleep on it. Coolest Israelis I've ver met. They smiled and said, do it and have another beer while you think about it now. I did, slept well, and woke up leaning towards going. After doing some research about the boat and the company, it seemed like a good deal, and the Israelis had their 6th person. The others in the group were 2 americans and a French girl.
That day before the boat took off was full of preparations and laundry. At lunchtime, I went into a bar, and some folks came in just beaming. They had arrived that day back from their own trip to Antarctica. I overheard them talking and then asked them about it, and they said it was so worth it. One guy said, "One day, we were in little zodiacs, riding around some iceberge, and a Humpback surfaced a few feet from the zodiac. It spouted and we got covered in whale snot."
His friend then said, "It was fucking awesome. One piece of advice, stay outside as much as you can." Stay on the deck, look at the sights, soak in the world down there. Great advice.
Some highlights from the 10 day trip:
--the Drake Passage is the body of water outside the Beagle Channel. This body of water is considered the most turbulent on the planet and everyone says it´s"roiling" or rolling because it connects the Atlantic and Pacific so currents come from every which way. It took two days to cross the Passage and the boat lurched like a roller coaster back and forth the whole time. It was difficult to sleep and dramamine was being popped like Now and Laters. One of the Israelis came to our table for lunch and just sat there, and finally moaned, "I think I´m going to throw up." She was sitting right next to me while I was tentatively eating some salad, watching her. Someone suggested she go to her cabin, but it was difficult to even walk on the ship. She said she´d be alriiii, whulp!!! She whipped out a barf bag and let go a few dry (I hope) heaves under the table, right next to me. Next course please.
As I walked downstairs to my cabin after that lunch, I passed a man in the hallway holding a barf bag for his vomiting wife. I nodded my head as I passed. We all survived, and reached the Islands outside Antarctica.
If the above music has stopped playing, try this one. Its by Djavan, also Brazilian, and its about a girl who he loves. I sat in a car and a buddy translated, and its sad but untimately inspiring:
--In Antarctica, animals were everywhere, around the black water and white icebergs - not scared of humans since we aren't recognized as predatory there. Penguins, seals, huge albatrosses and cormorants, whales. And the landscape was just extreme - enormous. We were dwarfed by icebergs. It was difficult to guage scope and size, unless there was a point of reference in view. This one gorgeous morning, the ship was cruising in a bay which was flecked with ice floes, and surrounded by jagged black peaks that just jutted out of the water. Some of the mountains were covered with snow, and others were flat like black marble, ripped by glacial drift. These were reflected in the dark water. Everyone was on the bow, just leaning over the railing, looking out in the quiet. You could only hear breath and feel a soft snow. I didn't realize how big it was until someone pointed out a little dark speck on an ice floe. It was a seal, forever away, so tiny underneath the quiet enormity around us.
We saw lots of penguins. They're cute, but we are over them. If I never see another penguin as long as I live, I will still feel their presence in my dreams and smell their droppings which covered the beaches we landed on. We visited a few islands and they were everywhere, regurgitating into each others mouths and chasing each other around like little drunks at a tuxedo formal, flopping into the water, and then flying like birds and leaping out of the water's clear surface. One of them bit me.
We got so lucky one afternoon - we saw a pod of 5 humpback whales. They came to our ship and just played alongside if for an hour, while snow softly fell. The captain of the boat had addressed the ships passengers on the first day, saying, "Leave your camera in your room sometimes, and just enjoy, and take pictures with your mind." When the whales showed up, he was one the deck with one of the biggest cameras and longest lenses I've ever seen, saying, "This never happens!" The whales were amazing - humpbacks have these gnarly bumps all over their faces, and are huge dark masses of strong blubber, the size of a submarine. Another day, we went for an expedition in these small zodiacs which carry 10 people, and scooted around these small ice bergs. The water is strangely light blue under them, like the sky. A huge leapord seal, which eat big animals and even go after people when they're hungry, played around our zodiac for a half hour, moving like a muscular gust of wind under our zodiac in the clear blue water; She would disappear under the zodiac and freak us out, and then poke her head up and look at us. It was exhilerating.
--I was reading this great book - "Endurance" about Ernest Shackleton, an explorer who went to Antarctica before WWI, when the continent was not charted and the pole hadn't been reached. We were told that it was like someone today going to Mars. On his most famous voyage, chronicled in the book, his ship got beset by ice, trapped, and eventually sank. He and his crew had to survive for over a year in Antarctica, trying to make their way to a place where whalers might find them and pick them up. It was hellish, but not one member of the 27 person crew died, due to Shackleton's leadership and unwavering optimism. They were constantly joking, having dog races and hunting, consciously staying upbeat, even when they were hungry as hell and it was dark all day long. It was a cool thing to read on this trip. These guys had it incredibly rough, sleeping on small rowboats as freezing water sprayed them in choppy seas in the winter, or in sopping wet clothes in small tents on top of a floe of wet ice. They would hunt for penguins and seals, which became scarce in the winter. They even started looking at each other hungrily. But they never gave up, and all made it. Funny episode from the book - one guy on the ship was plumper than the others, and at the end of meals, two of his mates would give him the bones of whatever animal they found and were eating, often penguin bones, and ask him to eat the last bits in order to keep him plump in case they had to eat him. They would joke to him, they wanted him tender.
--One of the last days, we were taken to a hotspring which occured on a beach. TWo inches of tide right up near the sand. We were all going to go in, including the ship's crew, but when we got there, it was cold and only these crazy euros went in. I had made a pact with a ship's biologist to go in, but he wasn't around, so I was heading back to the zodiac with the other panzies who decided to bag it, when the biologist showed up. "Let's do this!" he said, and so I had to. I had a good video of it. Again, it was 2 inches of lapping water that was warm. Of course, the jerk biologist was like, "Lets jump in the cold water!" So we did, racing into the surf and diving in, and the racing back to the two inches of warmth. It was like the harshest ice cream headache you could ever have, but was a blast.
It was a great trip and ended with two days returning over the roiling Drake again. Lots of time in the cabin watching Friends reruns with my roomie, one of the Israelis, Ari - incredible guy who spent an extra year in the army and was traveling solo, having trekked in the Bolivian salt flats and heading to the Brazilian pantanal wetlands soon. I have never heard someone giggle at a Friends episode more than him. We both were, sitting in our cabin, rocking back and forth with the roiling ship, chortling at Friends on a 10 inch TV. If you ever go to Antactica, drink beer before you go, and watch Friends while you're there.
When we got back to land, it was pretty surreal. 10 days of no buildings, people, civilization or anything except huge, stark, extreme peace and quiet with bursts of life. I spent a few more nights at the Dubliner before flying back to Buenos Aires, having spent a total of 1 month in Patagonia, including Bariloche where I met up with an incredibly sunny friend from school, Jamie, who was traveling coincidentally, and made it so fun, as well as El Califate, Perdito Moreno glacier, and El Chalten, in addition to Ushuaia and Antarctica. So fun.
So, I grabbed a flight back to BA, and was lucky enough to have my main homies from the ship heading there at the same time. We made a reservation for this steakhouse which I had heard of called La Cabrera, in Palermo. Everyone who went had raved about it, including my friend Ronnie who lives in BA and works for Google. On the plane ride from Ushuaia, my mouth was already watering. A great dinner was waiting for me in Buenos Aires, as well as a thief who pinched a ton of my stuff from my room in the hostel, as well as a tango class, and some incredibley cool Argentinian friends I would meet. I stayed a month. More on that next time. Hope this was a fun read, and not too much or too stupid. =) Much love.
Can't stop listening to this song as I write. This guy, Seu Jorge, is one of the best artists in Brazil, maybe like Bruce Springsteen, but sings about the poetry of love and life like all Brazilians. Feel free to press play as you read.
My trip to Antactica from Ushuaia 6 weeks ago was a highlight for sure so far. I wasn't planning on going to Antarctica from Ushuaia - southernmost town in the world - but there´s a bar in Ushuaia called "the Dubliner", where it became so damn fun to drink beer. Having a beer down there was like looking forward to a hike and listening to a comedian at the same time. Nice when it touches the lips. They have microbrews in Ushuaia - maybe that was it. Anyway, I met some great people and was at the bar most nights of my 6 day stay, as was every traveler in town, sitting at the oak tables on oak benches which were packed. Smoky as hell.
Ushuaia is sweet – a little town with red and white houses surrounded by mountains, overlooking a harbor that leads out to lots of cold ocean and Antarctica. I had been planning on hitting Tierra Del Fuego and Ushuaia for a while - thought it´d be good to go far away during my sabbatical from work. I finally reached the bottom of the continent, though it wasn´t too difficult - a few flights. But I fell in love with the place when I got there. You can only go one direction from there - back up - so you might as well chill out for a bit.
On my fourth day there, I started looking out the harbor and the bay. It´s framed by mountains as far as the eye can see, but there´s an opening, the end of which you can´t see. This is the Beagle Channel. I had pictures which tell the story so much better than I can. Sadly, they're mostly gone now, but some are on facebook.
The bay is so cool – it leads out to an opening which looked like it led off the edge of the world. I started to think that´d it would be cool to go out that channel, beyond which lay Antarctica, but I had no idea how to approach it without paying a ton of money. I started talking with my friend Alex, great German guy, about it, floating it out there, trying to rally him to spring for a cabin on a boat, or cover me while I stowed away.
So funny how things happen. The next night in the Dubliner, two Israelis walked into the place looking for someone to go to Antarctica. They needed another person so they could round out a group of 5 and keep the price low. Alex somehow picked up the conversation as they rattled through the bar looking for anyone who might want to go, and directed me to them. We pulled up to a dark table over some beer and they told me the deal: 10 days, ship leaves tomorrow night, price is as reasonable as it gets. It was 1am, I had to decide basically in the next 12 hours, and I still had half a beer left. What to do? Finish the beer for starters, and sleep on it. Coolest Israelis I've ver met. They smiled and said, do it and have another beer while you think about it now. I did, slept well, and woke up leaning towards going. After doing some research about the boat and the company, it seemed like a good deal, and the Israelis had their 6th person. The others in the group were 2 americans and a French girl.
That day before the boat took off was full of preparations and laundry. At lunchtime, I went into a bar, and some folks came in just beaming. They had arrived that day back from their own trip to Antarctica. I overheard them talking and then asked them about it, and they said it was so worth it. One guy said, "One day, we were in little zodiacs, riding around some iceberge, and a Humpback surfaced a few feet from the zodiac. It spouted and we got covered in whale snot."
His friend then said, "It was fucking awesome. One piece of advice, stay outside as much as you can." Stay on the deck, look at the sights, soak in the world down there. Great advice.
Some highlights from the 10 day trip:
--the Drake Passage is the body of water outside the Beagle Channel. This body of water is considered the most turbulent on the planet and everyone says it´s"roiling" or rolling because it connects the Atlantic and Pacific so currents come from every which way. It took two days to cross the Passage and the boat lurched like a roller coaster back and forth the whole time. It was difficult to sleep and dramamine was being popped like Now and Laters. One of the Israelis came to our table for lunch and just sat there, and finally moaned, "I think I´m going to throw up." She was sitting right next to me while I was tentatively eating some salad, watching her. Someone suggested she go to her cabin, but it was difficult to even walk on the ship. She said she´d be alriiii, whulp!!! She whipped out a barf bag and let go a few dry (I hope) heaves under the table, right next to me. Next course please.
As I walked downstairs to my cabin after that lunch, I passed a man in the hallway holding a barf bag for his vomiting wife. I nodded my head as I passed. We all survived, and reached the Islands outside Antarctica.
If the above music has stopped playing, try this one. Its by Djavan, also Brazilian, and its about a girl who he loves. I sat in a car and a buddy translated, and its sad but untimately inspiring:
--In Antarctica, animals were everywhere, around the black water and white icebergs - not scared of humans since we aren't recognized as predatory there. Penguins, seals, huge albatrosses and cormorants, whales. And the landscape was just extreme - enormous. We were dwarfed by icebergs. It was difficult to guage scope and size, unless there was a point of reference in view. This one gorgeous morning, the ship was cruising in a bay which was flecked with ice floes, and surrounded by jagged black peaks that just jutted out of the water. Some of the mountains were covered with snow, and others were flat like black marble, ripped by glacial drift. These were reflected in the dark water. Everyone was on the bow, just leaning over the railing, looking out in the quiet. You could only hear breath and feel a soft snow. I didn't realize how big it was until someone pointed out a little dark speck on an ice floe. It was a seal, forever away, so tiny underneath the quiet enormity around us.
We saw lots of penguins. They're cute, but we are over them. If I never see another penguin as long as I live, I will still feel their presence in my dreams and smell their droppings which covered the beaches we landed on. We visited a few islands and they were everywhere, regurgitating into each others mouths and chasing each other around like little drunks at a tuxedo formal, flopping into the water, and then flying like birds and leaping out of the water's clear surface. One of them bit me.
We got so lucky one afternoon - we saw a pod of 5 humpback whales. They came to our ship and just played alongside if for an hour, while snow softly fell. The captain of the boat had addressed the ships passengers on the first day, saying, "Leave your camera in your room sometimes, and just enjoy, and take pictures with your mind." When the whales showed up, he was one the deck with one of the biggest cameras and longest lenses I've ever seen, saying, "This never happens!" The whales were amazing - humpbacks have these gnarly bumps all over their faces, and are huge dark masses of strong blubber, the size of a submarine. Another day, we went for an expedition in these small zodiacs which carry 10 people, and scooted around these small ice bergs. The water is strangely light blue under them, like the sky. A huge leapord seal, which eat big animals and even go after people when they're hungry, played around our zodiac for a half hour, moving like a muscular gust of wind under our zodiac in the clear blue water; She would disappear under the zodiac and freak us out, and then poke her head up and look at us. It was exhilerating.
--I was reading this great book - "Endurance" about Ernest Shackleton, an explorer who went to Antarctica before WWI, when the continent was not charted and the pole hadn't been reached. We were told that it was like someone today going to Mars. On his most famous voyage, chronicled in the book, his ship got beset by ice, trapped, and eventually sank. He and his crew had to survive for over a year in Antarctica, trying to make their way to a place where whalers might find them and pick them up. It was hellish, but not one member of the 27 person crew died, due to Shackleton's leadership and unwavering optimism. They were constantly joking, having dog races and hunting, consciously staying upbeat, even when they were hungry as hell and it was dark all day long. It was a cool thing to read on this trip. These guys had it incredibly rough, sleeping on small rowboats as freezing water sprayed them in choppy seas in the winter, or in sopping wet clothes in small tents on top of a floe of wet ice. They would hunt for penguins and seals, which became scarce in the winter. They even started looking at each other hungrily. But they never gave up, and all made it. Funny episode from the book - one guy on the ship was plumper than the others, and at the end of meals, two of his mates would give him the bones of whatever animal they found and were eating, often penguin bones, and ask him to eat the last bits in order to keep him plump in case they had to eat him. They would joke to him, they wanted him tender.
--One of the last days, we were taken to a hotspring which occured on a beach. TWo inches of tide right up near the sand. We were all going to go in, including the ship's crew, but when we got there, it was cold and only these crazy euros went in. I had made a pact with a ship's biologist to go in, but he wasn't around, so I was heading back to the zodiac with the other panzies who decided to bag it, when the biologist showed up. "Let's do this!" he said, and so I had to. I had a good video of it. Again, it was 2 inches of lapping water that was warm. Of course, the jerk biologist was like, "Lets jump in the cold water!" So we did, racing into the surf and diving in, and the racing back to the two inches of warmth. It was like the harshest ice cream headache you could ever have, but was a blast.
It was a great trip and ended with two days returning over the roiling Drake again. Lots of time in the cabin watching Friends reruns with my roomie, one of the Israelis, Ari - incredible guy who spent an extra year in the army and was traveling solo, having trekked in the Bolivian salt flats and heading to the Brazilian pantanal wetlands soon. I have never heard someone giggle at a Friends episode more than him. We both were, sitting in our cabin, rocking back and forth with the roiling ship, chortling at Friends on a 10 inch TV. If you ever go to Antactica, drink beer before you go, and watch Friends while you're there.
When we got back to land, it was pretty surreal. 10 days of no buildings, people, civilization or anything except huge, stark, extreme peace and quiet with bursts of life. I spent a few more nights at the Dubliner before flying back to Buenos Aires, having spent a total of 1 month in Patagonia, including Bariloche where I met up with an incredibly sunny friend from school, Jamie, who was traveling coincidentally, and made it so fun, as well as El Califate, Perdito Moreno glacier, and El Chalten, in addition to Ushuaia and Antarctica. So fun.
So, I grabbed a flight back to BA, and was lucky enough to have my main homies from the ship heading there at the same time. We made a reservation for this steakhouse which I had heard of called La Cabrera, in Palermo. Everyone who went had raved about it, including my friend Ronnie who lives in BA and works for Google. On the plane ride from Ushuaia, my mouth was already watering. A great dinner was waiting for me in Buenos Aires, as well as a thief who pinched a ton of my stuff from my room in the hostel, as well as a tango class, and some incredibley cool Argentinian friends I would meet. I stayed a month. More on that next time. Hope this was a fun read, and not too much or too stupid. =) Much love.
Saturday 14 February 2009
The air in Buenos Aires is sweet
Hola from Argentina! First post - welcome, happy Valentine's Day and miss ya. It's been 3 weeks exactly since I arrived in Buenos Aires - 3 weeks today, Saturday. Feels so much longer. I'm a changed man, for sure, for the better. I wonder who will comment, "That's not possible!" Whoever does gets a bottle of Malbec wine when I get back. And things are just getting better. In fact, today is honestly the best day of the trip, I'm now in Ushuaia, the southernmost town in South America, where people leave to sail to Antarctica. My first week in Buenos Aires was sweet - full of great food, beer, wine, and music. Here's a quick video of a Japanese Garden in Buenos Aires where I met a friend and fed some fish:
Feel free to make comments at bottom and you can sign up to follow this blog - which I think means get email when I post - by clicking "Follow this blog." I've been hearing this song a lot down here and loving it – a Cuban version of Coldplay’s “Clocks.” Feel free to use it as the soundtrack while you read this post. Pictures really tell a better story - I’ve posted tons of pix – everywhere is a photo op here - on my smugmug and Facebook page. Check ‘em out!
I arrived in BA on Saturday, Jan 24 in the hot morning. The flight was really long, and I just felt like sleeping when I got to the hostel. Been feeling pretty reflective – thinking about family, friends, the Bay Area, Stanford, Google, and how lucky I am to have this time off. Disoriented, nostalgic and heavy hearted too at times in the beginning for some reason, which is fading. There’s going to be a lot of alone time I think during the trip and it takes a few days or even weeks to get into it and really start having fun, get off of schedule. It’s been good to keep moving. And what an incredible country. It's like Europe but cheaper, with a touch of California in the food and geography. The people have been really friendly. Buenos Aires is nice, with wide, cobblestone streets lined with lush trees. I rented a bike one day and it was the best.
It's hot, and my hair looks like a cue tip because I haven't cut it in a while. I was disoriented for a while, but finally got the hang of BA. The food has been succulent - the chorizo is the best I've ever had. Not spicy, a little sweet. The good food will turn out to be a pattern. I had heard the food was good, but it was so bad in Cuba, that my expectations not high. Every meal here has been excellent - every one! Big portions, healthy, straightforward tastes, and of course, great red wine called Malbec for like $5 a bottle. Dinner starts at 10pm and a tame night ends at 3am. 5 has been the norm. I never did get a chance to eat the free breakfast at the hostel because it ended before 11am.
Spanishism: “Hungover.” In Ecuador I was told me the word for “hungover” is “crudo.” Here it's different and “Estoy crudo” just means “I’m crude.” One morning I said it to some Argentinians working at the hostel and they just kind of looked at each other. A few moments of silence went by and I was going to drop it. But then I asked, and they told me the word is ‘resaca’.”
Un abrazo!
Feel free to make comments at bottom and you can sign up to follow this blog - which I think means get email when I post - by clicking "Follow this blog." I've been hearing this song a lot down here and loving it – a Cuban version of Coldplay’s “Clocks.” Feel free to use it as the soundtrack while you read this post. Pictures really tell a better story - I’ve posted tons of pix – everywhere is a photo op here - on my smugmug and Facebook page. Check ‘em out!
I arrived in BA on Saturday, Jan 24 in the hot morning. The flight was really long, and I just felt like sleeping when I got to the hostel. Been feeling pretty reflective – thinking about family, friends, the Bay Area, Stanford, Google, and how lucky I am to have this time off. Disoriented, nostalgic and heavy hearted too at times in the beginning for some reason, which is fading. There’s going to be a lot of alone time I think during the trip and it takes a few days or even weeks to get into it and really start having fun, get off of schedule. It’s been good to keep moving. And what an incredible country. It's like Europe but cheaper, with a touch of California in the food and geography. The people have been really friendly. Buenos Aires is nice, with wide, cobblestone streets lined with lush trees. I rented a bike one day and it was the best.
It's hot, and my hair looks like a cue tip because I haven't cut it in a while. I was disoriented for a while, but finally got the hang of BA. The food has been succulent - the chorizo is the best I've ever had. Not spicy, a little sweet. The good food will turn out to be a pattern. I had heard the food was good, but it was so bad in Cuba, that my expectations not high. Every meal here has been excellent - every one! Big portions, healthy, straightforward tastes, and of course, great red wine called Malbec for like $5 a bottle. Dinner starts at 10pm and a tame night ends at 3am. 5 has been the norm. I never did get a chance to eat the free breakfast at the hostel because it ended before 11am.
Spanishism: “Hungover.” In Ecuador I was told me the word for “hungover” is “crudo.” Here it's different and “Estoy crudo” just means “I’m crude.” One morning I said it to some Argentinians working at the hostel and they just kind of looked at each other. A few moments of silence went by and I was going to drop it. But then I asked, and they told me the word is ‘resaca’.”
Un abrazo!
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