chau bolivia, hola peruuuu

I know i have been awful at updating this thingy
i was sort of waiting to have photos to post, but internet is slow down here and also, im too busy having fun to spend my days waiting for photos to upload
so i will give a written summary of the past two weeks
today marks exactly two weeks from leaving buenos aires
it feels strange but also really cool to be in this weird in between stage, ive left buenos aires, which was my home for 5 months but i am not yet home
travelling is fun because everyday is different and there is no routine, which is something ive been craving for a while, of course it is tiring and strange to change beds and cities almost everynight but we have seen such incredible stuff
potosi: amazing, we really really loved potosi. it might have been because potosi was where we arrived after 2.5 days of being on a bus but id like to think i would have liked it anyway. it was freezing and rained while we were there....it is the highest city in the world so its allowed to be cold. there were two main things that were interesting about potosi. first is the cerro rico, this is the biggest mine in bolivia and the reason for bolivians wealth early on in its history. we took a tour inside the mines, which are extremely small and claustrophobic. they are still in operation and are the biggest job opportunity in potosi. walking around the mines you see so many young boys. they tell you on the tour that the average lifespan of the mine workers is about 40 years. pretty devastating. the other cool thing about potosi is all of the amazing colonial architecture. at every turn where beautiful colonial churches and buildings. rosa and i feel in love with the small cobble stoned roads and colorful chruces.
uyuni and the salt flats: this was one of the most beautiful natural places i have ever been. it is indescrible the feeling of being alone in these salt flats. the salt flats are something like 12,000 squared km. we took a two day tour and slept in a hostal made out of salt on a volcano mountain island in the middle of the flats. there was no electricity or running water but we loved it. we walked out to the flats alone and just listened to the silence. it was as if the silence echoed off of the flats. in the morning we hiked up the moutain volcano although we did not reach the top, its very difficult hiking at 4000 meters. we did get to see some pretty creepy skeletons that live in a cave that you have to open with a key...it was strange. we also got to visit the isla del pescado which is a beautiful island covered in cacti.
la paz: our next stop was la paz, also our first big city. it was really nice to arrive in la paz because we knew we were going to be spending a few days there so we really got to look around. the city is beautiful, set in a huge valley with housing going up on all sides. the city is so vibrant with such a large indigenous population, everywhere you walk you see the bright skirts of the indigenous women. la paz has a wonderful museum area set in old small cobble stoned streets along with a massive market. the market has a small section geared towards tourists that sells all sorts of llama gear and then the majority of the market selling everyday stuff for the average population. we decided to take a look at the real market of la paz but we ended up getting severing lost and caught in a downpour. eventually we made it out but it was quite the experience. we spent christmas eve in la paz, probably the most ive ever celebrated christmas because i was surrounded by people celebrating christmas. it was a fun night with lots of gringos.
copacabana, isla del sol and lago titicaca on the bolivia side: on christmas day we ventured over to lake titicaca on the bolivian side. this bus ride is beautiful, winding roads through beautiful mountains, crossing a section of the river on a boat while watching the bus crossing on a separate boat and then winding along the coast of the lake until arriving at copacabana. it was interesting travelling on christmas day, the entire 4 hour journey had families lined along the highway begging for money. i dont think that this is an everyday event, i think it was particular to being christmas but it was striking seeing how many families were begging. copacabana is a city created for lake titicaca with very little to see except a beautiful church that i felt pretty uncomfortable in because it was christmas. the next day we woke up early and took the boat to the north side of the isla del sol. we then hiked the length of the island, also challenging due to the altitude and ended up on the south side, where we were greeted at the end with a stunning view of moutain illimani, a rare sight due to the regular cloud coverage.
lima, peru: leav ing bolivia we took 3 buses lasting 24 hours to arrive in lima yesterday to meet becca!! it was soooo nice seeing her, she felt like a ghost because ive felt so separated from reality for so long but of course it was like no time has passed. today we explored the center of lima and then layed on the beach. lima has felt like california, everyone with surf boards and bathing suits relaxing at the beach. its been nice for me and rosa after spending two weeks straight in rain and cold.
tomorrow we head off to cusco in a 24 hour bus, welcome becca! where we will spend new years and then head up to macchu picchu. i CANT wait! everyday feels amazing, this trip has felt so surreal but wonderful.

ill try to post some photos soon or on facebook might be easier
i hope everyone had a lovely holiday and happy new year! email me and update me on your lives
miss you all
besos

update

hola amigos
sorry for the lack of updates, internet is not as easy in bolivia as it is in Argentina.
I am now in la paz, with better internet but still slow.
we have been to potosi, the highest city in the world, saw beautiful colonial architecture and went inside the famous cerro rico mines.
we then went to uyuni to see the famous bolivian salt falts, they were amazing
we stayed on an island that had a volcano on it, hiked up it one day, saw some skeletons, and went to the isla del pescado, an amazing island full of cactus. when you are on these land masses the white of the salt flats looks like an ocean
it was truely incredible.
i will try to upload photos soon, but its very challenging with the slow internet
besos

chau argentina, sos divina

i am leaving buenos aires in the morning
i am filled with saddness and i dont feel quite ready to leave
but i am also so excited about my travelling adventure
i know its better to be sad to leave than excited to get out of here and i just feel so lucky that i had such a good time.
here are some last photos

i went to montevideo with ben for a day, although we did not love the city, it was nice to look at





the rose garden in los bosques de palermo



another beautiful sunset

rosa, enjoying the terrace

besos and check back often!

9 days left....

my time in buenos aires is quickly winding down
on dec 15th i get on a bus with my friend rosa that will take us to BOLIVIA!!!
i will be travelling for almost 5 weeks through bolivia and peru, so be sure to check here often for updates!!

A list of things i will miss about buenos aires:
1. my argentine family, mati and juan pablo, they have been really incredible and i will miss them a lot
2. the food mainly:
-tartas (quiche like veggie deliciousness)
-milenesa de soja (breaded soy - actually amazing)
-empanadas (so cheap and delicious)
-fernte and coca (my favorite alcoholic drink that is made from fermented herbs and gives you zero hang-over)
-meat (the meat here is in fact as good as they all say, coming from being a vegetarian, eating meat here was truely a treat)
-mate (the most delicious beverage ever, although im sure i will be able to find it in san francisco)
-frutigrans (this delicious cookie)
-paso de los toros (a sparkling grapefruit drink, probably the most refreshing beverage i have ever tried)
-and dulce de leche (the most satisfying thing possible for a sweet tooth)
3. yoga - my yoga class here and yoga teacher (i love you thuy!!) have been a huge part of my life here, an amazing ritual to keep me centered in this crazy busy city
4. my friends! really a lot
5. living in a city, i love wasting my days walking endlessly, always discovering new streets, new cafes, new plazas and parks, its been so refreshing to live here after being in ohio, however, this city is pretty gigantic and im ready to go back to my manageable san francisco
6. my tango class and tango girls! i took tango here and it was so fun, im still very bad but i met a lot of amazing people and it was really fun learning a completely new kind of dance
7. rustico- my favorite cafe, the cheapest food with the best quality, and the nicest guys ever who work there, i went there about twice a week the entire semester and those guys became a very big part of my weekly routine
8. the weather, spring here has been beautiful, even with the huge thunderstorms, i am pretty terrified about going back to 4 feet of snow in oberlin
9. how every block will have at least one: cafe, bakery, fruit/vegetible stand, butcher, grocery store, paper store and kiosk - you never have to walk far for anything that you may need
10. a stress-free life, i have been able to establish a life here that is void of stress, which for me, if you know me at all, is an incredible feat, it was helpful that my academics were not very rigorous, but it was also the pace of life here (very slow) that helped me slow down as well
11. my terrace, every night i sit on my terrace and watch the sun set, sometimes i drink mate, sometimes i read my book, it is the most peaceful place
12. speaking spanish, it has been a really incredible experience watching my spanish improve, i feel like i have gotten to a point where i am a fully functional person in spanish, i can be myself, and even make jokes sometimes, and i am worried about losing this

A list of things i wont miss:
1. dog poop everywhere, literally everywhere you walk there is dog poop
2. waiting for the bus for at least an hour at night to get home from bars
3. the money stress - coins are very hard to come by and extremely essencial for transporting oneself because the buses only accept coins, and breaking 100 bills is sooo hard, sometimes when all i have on my is 100 pesos (which can buy you a lot) i feel like i have no money because they are so hard to break
4. it is impossible to get tap water in restaurants, they will give you unlimited free bread, but tap water - no way, out of the question
5. living far away from all my friends. i never realized how convinient social life is at college, i mean i always knew, but i never truely apprciated it. one of the consecuences of living in homestays is it is very hard to find places to hang out, this usually means getting coffee or getting a beer. im not going to miss having to take 30 minute bus rides to meet up with friends

overall, this has been a truely incredible experience, 5 months of amazing adventures and a lot of personal changes, its been a transformative semester. thank you to everyone who was part of it!
ben master is coming tomorrow to visit me for 6 days, its going to be amazing
besos.
sar

pole dancing

tonight i went to a pole dancing show. my yoga teacher here (who is amazing) also does pole dancing. first i must say that her solo was classy, sophisticated, and sensual in a very appropriate way. many of the other acts were quite interesting to watch. although all these girls were super muscular and strong and could do amazing tricks on the pole, as soon as they got down there was some serious booty shaking. the nice thing about the show was that there were girls of lots of shapes and sizes, all wearing very little clothing but they all looked so proud of and comfortable in their bodies. ive also never seen some many perfectly toned bottoms.
here are some photos of my yoga teacher doing some amazing stuff on the pole
go thuy!!!

less than two weeks left in buenos aires

every day is a bit sadder than the last

i do love you buenos aires

something cute and something funny

i imagine most of you are at home enjoying a lovely thanksgiving weekend with the fam, or like me are in a country that does not really have a translation for the word thanksgiving
i am attempting to write a last big paper but it is proving difficult
a. because it might just be the most beautiful day since i arrived here, 80 and sunny - not a cloud in the sky
b. (this is the something funny) I am writing this essay on a computer lent to me by program because my mother took my laptop home. This laptop i am using has an american keyboard but it is programed as a Argentine keyboard. So whatever the keyboard says is NOT what it will type. For example where the key says ";" it really does "ñ". the most frustrating of these is that the key that says "(" acutally does ")", this is very frustrating when you are writing a paper with many cited quotes. oh argentina...
c. because my mother took my laptop i have no music to listen to as i write, but after tearing apart my apartment i found a delicious bob dylan cd thats really bringing me back to urban school essay writing moods.

the something cute is my new favorite form of procrastination:
www.cutethingsfallingasleep.blogspot.com
i recommend sleepy kitty 30

besos. sar

Thanksgiving in Argentina and time winding down

This has been quite the busy week, in the most wonderful way! My wonderful, amazing, beautiful mother came to visit me, which was the best thing ever. Although the weather was only so-so and many things did not work out as planned (because argentina is confusing and says things will be open when they are not) we still had an amazing time. I now finally have photos of the city, using her swanky and sleek camera, however, they are with her back in san francisco so that will have to wait until later.
Also my favorite holiday happened. Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for a while, although it is infused with imperialism and colonialization, for me it has always been an amazing day. I like that it is not associated with religion or presents. The only thing you have to do is hang out with your family and eat really good food. Also, in the bluestone tradition we attempt to play soccer against many 6 foot something men who always knock us over. So due to my love for this holiday i attempted to recreate it here in buenos aires. This was difficult for a few reasons, primarily because turkey is nearly impossible to find and if you do its ridiculously expensive. So we ate chicken instead (i must add that it was some of the best chicken i have ever eaten in my life, thank you dani). Second, the sweet potatoes here are white not orange and have a very different flavor and marshmellows, another bluestone tradition, were not even worth attempting to find. So we had a make-shift thanksgiving with chicken and mashed potatoes, my moms stuffing that she brought me all the way from san francisco (she really is the best), ratatouille, mac and cheese, salad, brownies and apple crumble with home-made custard. eclectic.
the other fun thing was that my friend anna has never really celebrated thanksgiving, because she lives in singapore
a funny thing about doing thanksgiving in argentina is that dinner is usually eaten around 10pm here, thanksgiving is usually eaten around 4pm to give the body time to digest. we ate thanksgiving dinner at 10pm, i woke up with lots of food in my belly
anyway, it was a lovely night but it certainly made me miss home and family and all of our traditions
i am currently sipping on some mate getting ready for a long night of essay writing about sexual education in argentina. this is my second to last final. my time is certainly dwindling, i am within the three week marker of leaving buenos aires and i feel like i still have so much to see.
also im very excited to welcome ben master on dec. 7th, so maybe he can help me finish up all my exploring
thats all for now
missing all my people all around the world
beso grandote
sar