Las Cataratas

I went to Puerto Iguazú over the weekend to see the falls. They are larger than Niagara Falls, which I have never seen, so I was excited. I bought a round trip bus ticket and left on Thursday morning. Well, I was supposed to anyway. My bus was scheduled to leave Tucumán at 11:30am and arrive in Iguazú at 8:30 or 9am the next day. (I know, killer bus ride of 22 hours but I did the 28 hour bus ride from Chile to Tucumán a few weeks ago so I figured I could handle it.) Well the bus arrived about 30 minutes late and we could see why as soon as it got there. It had a broken window that was only staying in place with about half a roll of duct tape. That took two hours to fix before we were finally on our way. Then, as luck would have it we had some kind of problem with the brakes that we discovered as we were coming down in elevation from the mountains. This caused another four hour delay at one of the sketchiest looking bus stations I've ever seen. Not to mention that it was very hot and humid outside. So I chose to spend most of the time in the air conditioned bus. The good news is that I met some really cool people on the bus. One was from Brazil and the other from Croatia. They had been traveling for a month through Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. We had an interesting conversation about traveling and languages as well as the things we missed about being home. I love meeting people from all over the world because they are all interesting in their own way and yet we are all the same. We all have things that make us feel at home. I now have friends in each of these countries that I can visit and that I would love to have visit me in the States. 

After a 26 hour bus ride I finally arrived in Iguazú. The fun thing about this trip is that it was not really planned in advance. I didn't have a plan for where I was going to stay or what exactly I was going to do while I was there other than see the falls. So once in the bus station I got my sense of direction on a map and set off to find a hostel. About a block and a half away I found one that I thought looked okay (it had a pool, bonus!) The pricing was pretty standard at all the hostels in the area so the only thing I really cared about beyond that was reliable WiFi. Because I had spend most of the day on a bus I just wanted to be outside so I spent the rest of the evening on the patio enjoying a glass of wine, talking to a guy I met at the hostel that was from Italy. We decided to go to the falls together the next day so when I got up the next day and saw the dark rain clouds I was a little discouraged. We decided to go anyway which didn't turn out so well for us. I don't know that I've ever been that wet in my life. It was a lot of fun though to run through the warm rain back to the bus and then from the bus station to the hostel. I would have stayed and tried to see the falls through the rain if had been a little lighter rain but it got so strong that trees were falling over from the wind. The locals were saying that it was the biggest storm they had seen in years. 

I spent the rest of the day learning to make some amazing pasta from my Italian friend and having Maté with some of the others at the hostel. It was very relaxing to just enjoy a day listening to the rain and talking to people from all over the world. The next day we went to the falls and got to see La Garganta Del Diablo which is basically waterfall on three sides causing lots of mist and a permanent rainbow. It was incredible. I saw all kinds of animals there and there were butterflies everywhere. It seemed a lot like paradise to me (except the biting flies that I found out I'm allergic to.) Words can't really describe the sights as well as pictures so I'll link the album here, and you can check it out yourself. The third day I took a short boat ride to see the falls from the bottom perspective and got completely soaked. It was lots of fun. Then we did a 4k walk to a different waterfall with a natural pool at the bottom for some swimming. Again, paradise but with bugs. In fact we saw some ants that were bigger than an inch long. I can only imagine how much it would hurt to get bitten by that!

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. It was hard to get on a bus and drive away from this little city that seemed like paradise to me but I have more adventures planned in other parts of the country to get to. I might even go to Santiago, Chile for a night or two since I'm going to Mendoza next week. 

Communication

Writing for the sake of writing can be very therapeutic sometimes. I like the idea of keeping a journal but then I never do it. I'm not really sure why I don't, perhaps it's just that I am so easily entertained by the internet. In any event, I thought about how much I enjoy putting my thoughts on paper (metaphorically speaking) and I decided that I was going to continue writing my blog even if no one reads it. Just so I can write. I'm sure it will be a little disjointed at times but I'm okay with that. That being said, here is what's on my mind today:

I'm going to Iguazu Falls on Thursday and I'm really excited. I think I'm excited for more than one reason. 1) I'm excited to see the amazing sites. It is supposed to be bigger than Niagara Falls plus it's near the rain forest so there will be a lot of exotic flora and fauna. 2) I'm going by myself so it will be an adventure all my own. I will probably meet people there that are from the states so it will be cool to meet other people that are traveling and hear what they think of Argentina. 3) It will be a 5 day trip in addition to the planned month of travel starting on November 10th so it will get me even closer to going home without thinking about it too much. 

I'm really looking forward to going home because I'm excited to speak my language again and be able to get around well without worrying about doing things the wrong way. By that I just mean that if I were to try to buy something here other than food I would not know what the proper protocol is. They seem to complicate things here sometimes. I also have no clue where anything is here and, because of the language barrier, I would have a hard time asking how to get to the right place. It's hard to describe what homesickness really means to me because I wouldn't say that I'm homesick in the traditional sense. I don't miss my friends and family the way others might. (Don't get me wrong, I miss them but I wouldn't die if I didn't get to see them for a few more months.) 

I miss being able to communicate. That's what I miss the most. I know it sounds silly but it's what I really miss the most. I'm realizing now that it takes a long time to learn a language well. I would call myself intermediate in my Spanish skills but I think I still have A LOT of work to get to where I would like to be with the language. I also realized the other day that when people say they became fluent in 3 or 4 months, they lied. They may have been fluent in conversational Spanish but that is very different than being fluent. I can speak conversationally in Spanish and be understood very well but I know I still have a lot of studying to do. I think another disadvantage that I didn't know I had going into this experience is that I didn't really take many classes before coming. Most people that go to another country to study the language have taken more than one basic class before going. I'm sure that most of them feel like they can get along well enough in the new language before they even go. I didn't do this critical step. 

I think that for the amount I have learned while I've been here I should be proud of myself but I just don't feel that way. I am discouraged by the amount that I don't understand still. I am proud of the amount I have learned about learning though. There are so many things that I have learned about that could have been explained better in class or that I have learned that I know friends have had questions about. I think I would like to tutor Spanish in my spare time or perhaps tutor English as a second language. 

Peru and Back Part 2

Other than going to Vegas and back I've never traveled alone before. Needless to say, this was a big step for me to go to Puno alone. So standing in the bus station I fought the urge to run back to mom and the feeling of helplessness. I walked in and there was someone shouting "A Puno, a Puno, a Puno" on my left. So that's the company I went to. I paid 30 soles (about $11) for my ticket on the night bus that was leaving an hour later. As I was loading my bag onto the bus I heard a few other people speaking English so I knew I wasn't going to be the only tourist. Luckily, my seat on the bus was next to two people from the states. Tommy and Julia were from NY and Miami respectively and Julia spoke Spanish. I talked to them for about a half hour about the lake and their plans in Puno and they offered to let me tag along with them.

My original plan was to go to Puno for the day and see the lake before taking another night bus to Arica, Chile. That way I wouldn't have to pay for a hostel for the night and I figured that the city was small enough that I could see it in one day. The only flaw in my plan was that I desperately needed a shower and I would need a place to leave my suitcase for the day. By tagging along with the other Americans I solved the problem of a place to leave my bag but I would still have to pay if I wanted to use their shower. I decided that $3 was worth it so while they took a nap before our excursion to the lake I took a shower and caught up on my email and most importantly I requested a couch in Arica on couchsurfing.org so that I wouldn't have to stay at a hostel.

We got on the boat to see the floating islands, which is really interesting btw, and as we sat down another passenger sat down and offered Doritos. I can't say no to Doritos. We started talking (in English! Woot!) about where we were from and what we were doing in South America. Turns out he (Ron) had just finished his degree and this was his vacation trip. He doesn't speak any Spanish at all and had been traveling for about a month already which helped me realize that it's possible to survive without knowing the language. (Big sigh of relief there.) After the half day tour of the floating islands we went to lunch and then decided to wander around the city and see the other sights which included one cathedral and an historic arch. And not much else. It was still a lot of fun to have a relaxing day to just talk and do nothing. In our conversation Ron convinced me to stay one night and go to see one of the other islands the next day.

The next day we met at the dock and talked for the entire three hours of the boat ride. We talked about everything including traveling to other places. Ron is originally from Jersey but his parents are from Israel so he had spent the last 7 years in Israel serving in their army. Now I want to plan a trip there to see the middle east, but that's another random adventure all together. After our day trip I went back to my hostel to get my things together and we went to the bus station. I was headed to Tacna, Peru which is right on the border between Peru and Chile, where I would then take another short bus ride to Arica, Chile. Ron was headed back to Cusco for a few days before heading to Lima for his flight to Colombia. He tried very hard to convince me to go to Colombia rather than back to Argentina. It didn't work.

So I took another night bus to Tacna with the intention of getting on a bus immediately for Arica. The major flaw of my plan? I arrived in Tacna at around 5am and the bus station doesn't open till about 7:30am. So.... two hour nap at the bus station! I know, not very glamorous, but what else was I going to do? Then I wandered around the station till I found a good price on a bus to Arica. I got on the bus and the first thing I noticed was that I was the only white girl there. I sat next to a kid that looked to be about 16 or 17 years old. He helped me fill out my paperwork for entering Chile like my declarations and such. We talked a little bit about where he was from and why he was living in Chile now. When we got to Arica I just stood in the bus station trying to figure out what I was going to do for the day with my bag until that evening when my couch surfing host would be able to pick me up. The boy I sat next to saw that I was just standing there and offered to let me keep my things at his house which he assured me was very close to the bus station. I wasn't too keen on this idea until he mentioned that his mom was studying English by talking to the Mormon missionaries a few times a week and would love to talk to someone that wasn't going to try to sell her religion. So I went with John to meet his mother and brother. His mother was so sweet. She offered me breakfast and we talked for a bit about my trip and why I was in Arica. Then John and I went to the downtown area and saw some of the sights before going back and waiting for Ariel, my couch surfing host, to pick me up.

Ariel picked me up shortly after and I was so relieved to be able to communicate well again. He had lived in DC for about a year and a half so he spoke fluent English and wanted someone to practice with so he could brush up on it. When we got to his house I met his other couch surfer named Svetlana, from Russia. She is honestly the coolest person I've ever met. She had been traveling for a year already and didn't really have plans to go back to Russia any time soon. We talked all night about our travels and the more I heard about her trip the more amazed I was with her. She had walked 8 days to see Machu Picchu without a guide. When she arrived in South America she didn't speak any Spanish and all she had was a pocket dictionary. She had learned pretty quick by hitch hiking across the continent and picking up random jobs here and there.

I spent two relaxing days in Arica by going to the beach and treating myself to fresh seafood. Ariel told me that I needed to either push back my departure or come back so we could do something over the weekend but I decided that I had neglected my studies for too long already. So I got on a bus headed for Salta, Argentina. After about 9 hours on a bus over night we arrived in... another city in Chile. Wait what? I thought we were going to Argentina?! Well yes, but on another bus. So I took another bus that left at about 8am headed for Salta. Four movies, Argentine customs, lunch, pictures of the Andes and a lot of chatting with the other tourists over the course of about 12 hours and we finally arrived in Salta. I didn't waste any time before getting on another 4 hour bus ride to Tucumán. I got home at about 1:30am and banged on the door to wake someone up since not only did I not have a key, but I didn't have any Argentine pesos to pay for the taxi. Turns out that mom had only beaten me home by about an hour so they were still up. She tells me that she even saw me on the border when we were entering Argentina. Her bus was leaving as mine was arriving which I'm sure helped her feel much better about letting me travel alone.

This amazing adventure has helped me to realize that I really can survive and that everything will be okay. I am already planning my next trip in about three weeks to Colombia to chill on the warm beach with Ron for about two weeks. Then I want to tour the rest of Argentina before returning to the states.

To Peru and Back

So when I came to Argentina I knew that I was going to have to leave at least once during my stay because my visitor's visa is only good for 90 day and I had planned on being in Tucumán for 5 months. Now, my plan was to go to Bolivia for a few days and come back cause that is the closest country. Well as with anything plans change and I ended up planning a 9 day trip to Cusco, Peru instead. The woman I'm living with, who has become my adoptive mother, has friends that own a hostel in Cusco so the plan was to stay in their hostel for free for a few days, see the sights and then go home. That was the whole plan. So this is how it really happened.

I was at a friend's house for the weekend when Julie (mom) calls me to tell me that we are leaving for Peru in two days. Woot! I run home and pack that night then go to town and buy my plane ticket the next morning. It was a bit pricey but that is to be expected with international travel. We had a scheduled layover in Bolivia (another stamp in my passport) before going on to Cusco. Now keep in mind that my Spanish is still not the best at this point so I didn't catch all the details but I trusted that everything would be fine and that I didn't really need to ask questions.

Wenesday morning comes and we get on a bus and drive 4 hours to Salta where we were flying out of (First misunderstanding of the trip. I thought we were flying out of Tucumán.) Then we get on a plane and fly into Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We chill in the airport for a few hours before flying to La Paz, Bolivia where we were spending the night (Second misunderstanding, I didn't know we were going to have an over night layover.) The next morning we get up bright and early for our flight to Cusco and here is where the adventure begins. I am US citizen so I have to use a passport to travel to any other country while mom is from Argentina and can get away with using her ID card. Also, many of the governments of other countries don't like how hard the US government has made it to get into our country so they impose the same fees on us that we do on them. So when I tried to leave Bolivia I was told that I had to pay the $135 for a visa, even though I was only there overnight. Rather than missing my plane I paid the fee and left. (Good news though, I can go to Bolivia for the next 5 years.)

We land in Cusco and are picked up at the airport by mom's friends who take us straight to breakfast then to our hostel to get organized. The next day we went on a tour of the city. We got to see a lot of museums, cathedrals and a few of the Inca sights that are near the center of town. There are so many amazing things to see and there was so little time but I suppose that if I ever go again I will plan on being there longer. So another change of plans happened when we went on the city tour. I was in a Spanish speaking group because mom only speaks Spanish but about halfway through the explanation of the first amazing mural in the cathedral I realized that I was going to miss a lot of information because of how fast the guide was talking. So I requested to go with an English speaking group instead. Mom and I split up with the intention of meeting in the main square at the end of the day. After the tour I went to the place we started and waited. And waited. I didn't see mom anywhere so I asked around about the other tour groups and what time they were supposed to get done.

I figured I had time to kill so I wandered around the square and window shopped for a bit. While trying to tell someone that I wasn't going to buy their art work I ran into the son of mom's friends and we went to dinner. Afterwords we took a taxi back to the hostel where mom was waiting (she was very relieved to see that I was safe.)

The next day we had no plans so I decided to go wandering around the city by myself. Because Cusco is the city closest to Machu Picchu there are a lot of tourists so it's pretty safe to walk around during the day.  I wandered all day and saw a lot of the city. It was fun to go at my own pace and I now understand why some people enjoy traveling alone. I had an amazing dinner with a perfect glass of wine to finish the night. This day of wandering alone gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities with the language as well as my ability to look out for myself.

On Sunday we did the second half of the city tour which was mostly a tour of the Sacred Valley. It was amazing and beautiful to see what the Inca people were able to build. They created whole cities out of giant stones that were fitted together perfectly with no mortar between them.  I did the tour in Spanish that day and I understood most of what was being said which also boosted my confidence. I also met a few very nice people from different countries including Mariana from Rio de Janero, Brazil. Monday finally came and we went to Machu Picchu. Words cannot express the beauty of it or the awe I felt looking at the immensity of it. I guess that's why I took so many pictures.

That night I talked to mom about our plans for the return trip and she informed me that she was not going to be able to go to Puno to see Lake Titicaca. I'm not sure if you know that Animaniacs song about the lake but I was determined to see that lake since I first heard it. Now I'm not sure if it was my determination to see the lake, the boosted confidence over the previous few days, or just a wild hair but I decided to go to Puno to see the lake by myself. So that night they took me to the bus station and dropped me off. I can't really describe the feeling I had as I walked away from mom and the security blanket that she represented and into a dirty bus station in the heart of a foreign country. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time to realize that I was actually going to have an adventure of my own with no plan at all. I didn't know where I was going to stay in Puno, I didn't know when I was going to get home. All I knew was the names of the cities that I would go through to get back to Tucumán.

Some pictures from this adventure.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/101360724498372680593/albums/5661897235324595281?hl=en