Chakachaka

Okay, so it has become clear why everyone loves this place. BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME! It's beautiful. It's cheap as chips. The food is incredible. The people seem genuinely friendly (or at least know how to pretend to be genuinely friendly). We've lived like freakin' KINGS here for a fraction of what it would cost in the western world (and that's in Bali, one of the most expensive parts of Indonesia).

The view from our very cheap and very, very nice hotel room:



Yesterday we started the day by having breakfast delivered to our balcony in Ubud. Does it really get any better than that? Wait, IT DOES! Because then we went to a monkey forest sanctuary! I've never seen such absolute evil disguised in such absolute cuteness. The monkeys like to steal glasses, earrings, wallets, that sort of thing, so you have to be very careful. They are attuned to the sound of a purse opening and they target pockets with particular panache, those sneaky bastards. And when you try to give them a banana, they will JUMP ON YOU to get it because they're so impatient. And, you know, because they're monkeys. We saw all kinds of monkey shenanigans. There was a small monkey pool where all the monkeys were running around at warp speed, dive-bombing each other, and generally wreaking havoc. Other monkeys slept in the temples (a little TOO adorably - I'm on to you, monkeys). One monkey was playing with a bottle and some plastic wrapping in a way that suggested tool use (evil tool use). Babies stumbled around clumsily. Mommies were humped. Daddies fought. One monkey was violated pleasured tickled in his nether regions by a staff member. (You can see how conflicting and confusing that part was for me). Just your typical day in a monkey forest sanctuary.





Children, avert your eyes!



After lunch, we wandered around a museum of Balinese art. Then we were offered tickets to go see a traditional Balinese "fire dance", so we obviously had to see that. "Fire dance" conjures up images of people swallowing flaming knives, dancing with poi, general sexiness. Add to that the concept of "Balinese," and you've got an obvious winner, right?

Well, it turns out that what they meant by a Balinese fire dance was quite different. The show started out with about 150 half-naked guys sitting on the ground in a circle, around a tall candlestick holder lit with about 20 candles (this was the only fire in the entire show), chanting "Chakachakachakachakachakachakachakachakachakachaka" and swaying side to side while doing different hand movements (Jazz hands!). Then two very ornately dressed women stepped into the middle of the circle and moved their arms reeeeeally slowly while making very subtle and precise finger-movements, which you couldn't really see because it was so dark.



For the first 10 minutes, it was very entertaining. It was different, and kinda funky, and I was really enjoying it. Seeing something from Balinese culture! Yeah!

But another 10 minutes passed, and they kept doing the same thing. And I figured, maybe I'm just missing the historical context? Maybe I should go home and read up on the significance of this dance, and it will be a lot better. They're probably telling some sort of ancient spiritual tale!

But then another 10 minutes passed. And another. And another. And I STARTED GOING INSANE. They just kept chanting "chakachakachakachakachakachaka"! And the women kept moving their fingers imperceptibly! THEY WOULDN'T STOP! WHYYYYYY WOULDN'T THEY STOP, WHYYYYYYYYY?! Ahem. And we kept trying to be culturally open-minded, but it was all too mind-numbingly, painfully, un-fucking-believably boring. After 45 minutes we couldn't take it anymore. We left. We strolled past the door about half an hour later, and they were STILL CHANTING AND MOVING VERY SLOWLY. I wonder if they're still going now?

Perhaps Balinese fire dances are just really not our style. (I later found out that it's called Kecak dancing, but reading up on it unfortunately didn't make my memories of this experience any better.) Or perhaps we just happened to go to a really terrible example of this sort of dancing (which tends to happen when you accept the first offer you get without shopping around or doing any research), and we should try it again tomorrow in a more renowned venue. But we've been scarred once... I don't know if we can handle it again.

Today we're attempting to shop again. Hopefully this time we will have the patience to actually buy something, because seriously, this whole heat thing is no joke. We may actually come back with a slight tan.

More pictures here.

Too Humid To Think of a Better Title

So! We are now in Indonesia, bitches!

Our guidebook made a huge deal out of how absolutely batshit insane the Indonesian customs people are. If you bring drugs into the country, you get the DEATH PENALTY. You're not allowed to bring in pornography or videos that aren't censored. (No radio cassette players! WTF?) No alcohol or cigarettes. And look nice, our guidebook stressed, and you'll be more likely to get through without any trouble. "More likely."

All of this scared the crap out of me. It's not that we were planning on bringing in any heroin or midget porn or anything, but all of a sudden I was extremely paranoid. The labels of my prescription meds have rubbed off during our travels... Are they going to put us in jail for that? We still have some spices left over from New Zealand for cooking... Oh dear god, they're going to send us back to New Zealand! Noooo! And look NICE? I'm a backpacker, I don't have any nice clothes! And my hair's not done! And my arm is peeling!! That's it, we're done for. I actually had Ross scratch my arm to get off as much of the peeling off as possible, but to no avail. I was one burnt mofo.

Fortunately they let us in without arresting us or anything, and they even let us keep the spices! Not that we're planning on cooking anytime soon... Amazing dinner for $3? Yes please! Just 2 days ago we were paying $10 for one glass of wine in New Zealand. Ridiculous. And here they even manage to give us free, unlimited, reasonably fast internet, which was apparently too much for New Zealand to handle. (I'm ashamed to say that this actually ruined the country slightly for us.)

Anyway, now we're in Legian, one of the touristiest beach resorts on the whole island. About 20 seconds after getting here, we realized that we have no clothes that are appropriate for this intense humidity. So we attempted to go shopping. Turns out, the hawkers here are even more numerous and persistent than in South America. My brother warned me, but it's still overwhelming. I will never get used to the feeling of being a giant walking dollar sign. (In the end, we decided to hold off on buying anything until we get somewhere slightly less touristy. The first store we went into tried to sell us shorts for 30 dollars. HA! I can deal with sweat stains for a few more days.)

Despite all that, I absolutely love it so far. We're finally back in a strange, exotic land, and that makes me all happy inside. The architecture is designed in a very ornate and intricate style, with precise attention to detail. Once you get off the main streets, there are these tiny little alleyways with high walls that you walk through, which makes it feel like you're wandering around a maze. A maze lined with tiny shrines filled with flowers, and guys on motorbikes trying to squeeze through, and it's just fantastic. There is poverty, but you get the impression that the people here actually care deeply about how their city looks. Of course, we've been here about a day and a half, so it's obviously too early to tell, but so far I've found it delightful.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next few months. Tomorrow we're going to a city called Ubud, the "cultural capital" of Bali, and then perhaps to see the Komodo dragons! Or orang-utans? Or temples? OhmygodI'mexcited! Squee!

Beautiful crayfish

Not 24 hours after putting up that last post, we decided to switch our flight so that we'd only have another week in New Zealand instead of two. We decided... fuck it. New Zealand has not impressed us. We're impatient. And the best part is, we're saving more than $500 by doing this. Now it's really tempting to blow all that money in our last week here. Crayfish and skydiving for everyone! Weeeeeeee! (At first I went with 'caviar,' but for some reason crayfish is really popular where we are now, and it's like $60 for half a crayfish. I don't even know what a crayfish is, but that is a lot of money for HALF of something. They should just eat guinea pigs.)

Today I want to talk about bus drivers. We've had an inordinate number of crazy bus drivers in New Zealand. I don't want to say that the profession attracts lunatics or anything -- I'm just saying, the correlation is there.

The cheapest and most extensive bus network in New Zealand is called Intercity Buses. The only downside of Intercity buses is that the bus drivers are apparently contractually required to provide "commentary" during the ride. At first we were like.. sweet! Bus ride AND tour for the price of one! But then we realized that you pretty much get what you pay for. Typical commentary goes something like this (and I am not making this up):

"Now we're passing through a nice little community called Kaikoura. Kaikoura has a population of about 4,000 people. It's not a very big city... but by New Zealand standards, it is actually pretty big. We're passing a hill over on the right here, and we're about to go over a bump in the road. I'll just get into the right hand lane now... Okay. Now I'll tell you a little more about Kaikoura. Kaikoura is known for its beautiful crayfish. You can get some of these beautiful crayfish at Polly's Crayfish Palace, or from Crayfish 'R' Us on the corner over there. Most restaurants in Kaikoura sell them, actually. Kaikoura has a lot of nice shops and restaurants. Mmm... crayfish..."

It makes me wish that I were a bus driver with a microphone. I would also enjoy tormenting entertaining people on the bus with my inane funny and witty ramblings:

"Now if you look to the left, you'll see a blue car. I really like that color of blue. That's the color I was thinking of painting my bathroom. But then I ended up going with a nice bright yellow. I like yellow, it really perks up the room. It wakes me up in the morning when I'm getting ready for work. Sometimes I'll go to the other bathroom though, if my husband is in that bathroom, and it's just not the same..."

ANYway. So that is a typical bus ride for us down here. But TODAY! Today we got a driver who, I'm just guessing here, graduated top of the class in bus driving school. He first really pissed me off when, while boarding the bus, he told us we were not allowed to get on the bus with any food. Having just spent $50 on groceries, we really did not want to put the groceries with the luggage and have it get all squished. He nevertheless INSISTED, and did not believe me when I said I would not eat on the bus, because apparently I'm 2 years old and can't be trusted with food.

The bus ended up breaking down halfway through our ride. (At this point he further sealed himself onto my shit list by pulling out a sandwich from his GIANT lunchbox while waiting for the new bus to arrive. So much for "no food on the bus.") We milled about for a while, switched to the new bus, and finally continued on our way. When we arrived at our destination, he shouted something to us about our bus connections, but half of us couldn't make out what he said because he didn't turn off the bus before shouting at us. So, after getting off the bus, a bunch of us crowded around him to ask questions. Apparently this was too much for him to handle. He freaks out and screams: "Can everyone PLEASE just give me FIVE MINUTES!!! I've been under a LOT OF PRESSURE!!!!!!!!!" and walks away.

And everyone just stares silently before breaking out into giggles. Wow. I think "I'm under a lot of pressure" is going to be my new response to everything for a while.

Looking forward to being in a place where I have no fucking clue what the driver is saying.

New Zealand as!

Helloooo from the land of the Hobbits! I apologize for not posting sooner. Not to point fingers or anything, but this time I have a legitimate excuse. Technology has completely failed us on this trip - after having to replace 2 credit cards, the Kindle, and Ross's phone, now the hard drive of our laptop decided to just die for no reason. ACK. Once we got that fixed, we discovered that the internet here is SO EXPENSIVE that it feels like we're spending half our budget just to stalk people on Facebook ($2 for 20 minutes? Are you joking me?). All of that is to say that I haven't spent a lot of time on the computer since we've come here, and it feels very wrong. I'm not sure how people here cope. Don't they long to waste their lives away watching videos of cats playing the piano?

Okay, enough with the excuses. I'm finding New Zealand a bit difficult to write about because (not to mince words) I've found it a bit boring here. That is the last thing I expected to write about a country that several people have called the most beautiful place on Earth. The problem is, I think during this trip I've become addicted to traveling to places that are culturally very different. In South America, just the act of getting somewhere was fun and interesting because it was all so new, which made the actual destination almost not matter. On the bus, you'd see a guy with a guinea pig on his lap, or a grandma with a very tall bowler hat pinned to the top of her head, and you'd already be happy. Every interaction was fun, albeit frustrating at times. But here, that part of it is gone, so the destination is all you have. And destinations, no matter how good they are, are often a bit disappointing. (Wow, I'm so optimistic.) Of course, New Zealand has been pretty, even stunning at times, but that pales in comparison to the excitement of trying to travel and live in an entirely different world. In light of that, for the rest of this trip we've decided to extend our stay in Asia and shorten the amount of time spent in Europe. I think our wallets will also approve of this decision.

There have also been a lot of little annoyances here and there that aren't a big deal on their own, but have started to add up. For example, there are lots of pointless signs everywhere. While standing next to a tractor, we saw a giant, official-looking sign saying "MULTIPLE HAZARD AREA." No shit? It's a tractor. First of all, if you can't figure out that a tractor is a multiple hazard area, then you deserve whatever's coming to you. We should just let nature take its course on that one. And second, everywhere is a multiple hazard area. A plane could crash into our dorm RIGHT NOW. EVERYBODY PANIC! What a waste of time and money. I feel that no one in South America would have deemed it necessary to put up such a sign. (Also seen anywhere where there are forklifts: "Warning: Forklifts in Use!" What am I supposed to do with this information? "Oh, a forklift is in use... RUN!!")

Other annoyances deserving mention: mosquitoes and sandflies are everywhere. Fortunately they go for Ross first, so I've been spared. It's also EXTREMELY touristy. If I see one more hippie with dreads and flowy pants playing guitar while waiting for a bus, I'm going to go all multiple hazard on his ass. There also seems to be an almost blind veneration of all things Maori. Learning about their history is fine and everything, but putting a sign up in a museum saying "This rock is imbued with a spiritual essence" without qualifying it with the phrase "According to Maori beliefs" is a bit much. And I really don't need to know the Maori names for everything. "This cereal is known as Te Koutou Pehea Haere Ra in the Maori language!" No. Let it go, man. Just let it go.

Anyway, now that I've bitched my little heart out, I feel better. All of that negative stuff aside, we've seen some cool stuff here. My favorite so far has been "blackwater rafting" in an innertube through the Waitomo Caves, a series of underground caves that have glowworms in them.

Once we were in the caves, our guides confessed that they're actually not glowworms, they're the larvae of flies... which make them maggots. It is their intestines that glow in the dark when they're hungry ("Shiny maggot shit!" our guides delightfully informed us). They extend little strings underneath them ("maggot snot!") with which they catch insects. They live in this stage for about 60 days, and then they hatch into flies that don't have mouths or stomachs. But they don't mind that too much because, as flies, they live 3 days, just long enough to have a lot of sex and lay a lot of eggs, and then they starve to death. Basically, they are one of the most badass animals of all time. Getting into the caves required a bit of agility - at one point we had to jump backwards, in our tubes, off of a small waterfall - but it paid off. Once we got inside, we turned off our headlamps and silently floated in the pitch black darkness, illuminated only by the galaxy of glowing maggots above us. Magical.

We also did our first winery tour here. We rented bikes and rode around from vinyard to vinyard and they just gave us free wine for some reason! Oh wait, it's because we ended up buying 2 bottles and giving them $40 anyway. Damn sneaky wineries. Either way, it was fun, even though my butt is still hurting 2 days later because of the awful saddles on our rental bikes. I'm pretty sure we've sustained some permanent butt damage and I would definitely sue if it weren't for all this wine dulling the pain. Damn sneaky bike rentals.

Maybe things will get better as we explore the interior of the south island, as that is supposed to be much more beautiful than the north island. We'll see. We have another 2 weeks here, then Bali!

Pictures coming soon.

The end of South America

We've spent the last 4 days at El Calafate, visiting Glacier Perito Moreno. Our guidebook described this glacier as "suspenseful," "exceptional," "neck hairs rise a-tingling," "spectacular," "existential experience," and "orgasmic." (Okay, maybe I made one of those up.) As a result of all the high praise, we went 500km and 4 days out of our way to see this glacier. And yeah, it was a pretty sweet glacier, but at the end of the day it was still just a glacier. From now on I'm never trusting anyone who calls a glacier an existential experience.

Now we're at the EEEND OF THE WOOOOOORLD!! (Please insert a grandiose hand gesture worthy of the end of the world every time this phrase is read.)

The EEEND OF THE WOOOOORLD happens to be Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. We are here after one horrible 12-hour bus ride on which we endured 4 immigration stops, 2 police checks, a ferry ride, and one bathroom disaster. I won't go into details, but said disaster involved me innocently sitting down on the toilet to pee, just as the toilet inexplicably decided that it would be fun to gush water up at that exact moment, spraying pee and water and god knows what else all over me and the rest of the bathroom in quite an enthusiastic manner. I then had to explain to the bus attendant in Spanish that the toilet was "malfunctioning" (a drastic understatement, in my opinion), which caused him to walk to the bathroom, open the door, and just stand there, staring in horror. Understandable, really. And that is how I arrived at the EEEND OF THE WOOOOORLD smelling like urine and sadness.

The EEEND OF THE WOOOOORLD is also the end of our time in South America. It's been a fun ride, but I'm looking forward to getting to New Zealand. One can only spend so much time in a place where American 80's music is still so ubiquitous. If I hear "Lady in Red" one more time this week, I'm going to lose it.

So, since we're saying goodbye to our South American lives and heading into a whole different world, I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of North and South America. I've tried to stick to cultural aspects only, leaving out parts of life here that are a result of differences in wealth.

Things South America Has That I Wish North America Had:

1. Snack and Fruit Stands. Because walking all the way to a store just for some gum is annoying when you're as lazy as I am.

2. Stray dogs. They've been a common theme all throughout South America, and it's made me realize that we have no stray dogs in North America because they're put down. We like to think we're so humane in North America, but I think it's more cruel to kill them than to let them live their lives, however those lives may turn out. They have a good system down here: catch them and neuter them, then let them go on their merry doggy way. And it seems that, for the most part, the strays seem quite happy to run around, play with other strays, and hang out with people. We've had so many fun and touching experiences bonding with friendly mutts that it's a shame there aren't any back home. Life is just more interesting with random Dogosaurus encounters.

3. Pastry shops. In the U.S. we're basically limited to donut shops and, in Canada, the slightly more varied Tim Horton's. I think if a native Argentine were to visit Tim Horton's, they'd be appalled. Down here, on every corner there are pastry shops with real, homemade, absolutely scrumptious sweets. I don't understand why this sort of thing isn't more widespread in our society, the most obese in the world. I'm going to miss everything about them.

4. Llamas. No explanation necessary.

5. Passionfruit juice. Probably the most delicious juice I've ever tried.

6. Coca tea. I didn't believe in it at first, but I came to really love it, especially when we were at high altitudes. It's tasty, it decreases hunger and fatigue, it's good for altitude sickness, and it has no side effects. Why can't we get any in North America? Oh right, because drugs are bad, mmkay, and the only way to stop people doing them is to make them illegal. Right. Nailed it. And on that note...

7. Prescription medicines. Many medicines that are only available by visiting a doctor in North America are over-the-counter down here. This includes things like coldsore medicine. Who in their right mind would abuse coldsore medicine, or use it for anything other than its intended purpose? Why is it necessary to make it prescription? We have less freedom than Peruvians do, where medicines are concerned. This strikes me as really sad.

8. Dancing zebras. Hilarious government mandates are tragically under-utilized in North America.

Things North America Has That I Wish South America Had:

1. Vegetables. People down here don't seem to view them as a necessary part of meals. They are rarely on any menu, even though they're obviously available in grocery stores. I am not usually a health nut, but down here I've been craving them constantly. I particularly miss sweetcorn. And, similarly...

2. A variety of foods in general. I never realized that variety of food was so important to me until we had to eat Peruvian food for 7 weeks and I nearly killed myself. It's been driving me insane that I can't have curry, or sushi, or pad thai, or burritos, or won ton soup any time I want. I think that people here are satisfied with the food of their own culture because they're used to it. It reminds me of my grandparents, who moved from Russia to the states when they were in their 50s. Even though they can have any type of food any time they want, they only eat Russian food that they cook at home because they simply don't want any other type of food. I can't relate to this at all.

3. Sane traffic. I like that people follow traffic rules back home. It allows me to not die much more easily.

4. Line chefs. The service was extremely slow everywhere we've been except Argentina because in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, there were no line chefs or pre-preparation. This was great because every meal was freshly made, but incredibly frustrating for someone as impatient as me. Every meal took at least half an hour to be made. "AGGGGH, WHY CAN'T THEY GO FASTER!!!" was probably the most common thing I said in those countries.

5. Set prices. I'm really, really bad at bargaining. I find it incredibly draining. I appreciate just being told a price and paying it. Done. No arguing, no conflict, no feeling ripped off. I'm not entirely sure why this practice is prevalent in any culture.

6. Street signs. I'm especially frustrated at Argentina for not having many street signs, even though it's such a modern country in so many ways. Even in Peru they managed to paint the names of the streets on the walls of buildings occasionally, even if it was just an afterthought. It's as if the names of the streets are purposely kept secret and passed down from generation to generation just to fuck with tourists.

I'm not sure what it says about me that most of these were about food, but there you go.

We're flying out to New Zealand on Friday. I'm excited!

Penguins!

Yesterday we went to see penguins.



We knew that these penguins lived on the beach, but we were shocked to see that they actually make their homes in the surrounding desert! They dig little nests in the ground with their feet. After waddling to the ocean and hunting for fish, they waddle back to their nests to feed their chicks. There is nothing more surreal than walking through a desert and seeing hundreds of penguins sticking out of holes in the dirt, or hiding under spiky bushes. Or, even better, standing right next to a guanaco (same family as llamas):





Nothing in the world is cuter than penguins. NOTHING. The comedian Jim Gaffigan once raved that bacon is so good, that when they want to make other foods better, they wrap it in bacon. Likewise, I think penguins are the bacon of the animal world. If you want to make anything better, get a penguin. Weddings, birthday parties, funerals - all could be made exponentially more fun by adding just a single penguin.  Even the way they poop is cute. They lean over a bit, pause, and suddenly a little green blob flies out and lands about 6 inches behind them. Pbbt! Done. Penguins don't fuck around.



We were also surprised to find out that penguins make braying sounds, just like donkeys. I had no idea - but then, penguins like to keep people guessing like that. You can never predict penguins. They are like ninjas.



I think it's pretty obvious that this has been the best part of our trip so far. Even the jungle doesn't compare, because there were no penguins. Get on that, JUNGLE.

You better look at these pictures, unless you want to be totally lame and not see any more penguins.

Argentina, Redeemed

Just when I was prepared to hate Argentina and everything it stands for, it turns around and becomes AWESOME. It's beautiful, there's tons to see, and the taxis actually have meters! It's such a relief to not have to engage in a battle of wits with the driver every time you have to take a cab somewhere. (I inevitably lose.) As great as it's been, though, we've been trying to get through it quite quickly because we're a bit tired of South America. I'm ready for some Kiwis. So the last 3 weeks have been a blur of activity - we've been to Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, and the delightfully palindromic Neuquen, home to the fossils of the world's largest dinosaurs (bigger than the T. rex!) and 100-million-year-old dinosaur footprints. As evolution nerds, there's no way we could pass that up.

(Note: if 3 cities in 3 weeks doesn't exactly sound like a "blur of activity," please remember that getting anywhere in Argentina usually requires a 20-hour overnight bus ride, effectively ensuring that every move takes us 2 days. Looking forward to New Zealand, which is 10 times smaller.)

There's not much to say about Iguazu Falls except that they were stunningly beautiful.



(Pictures couldn't possibly do them any justice, but to see our attempts, click here.)

Buenos Aires was a ridiculously fun city. Everything people do there, they do to the absolute extreme, with a lust for life that is contagious and exciting. It's beautiful, sophisticated, and vibrant in a way that I haven't experienced before. People routinely eat dinner at 10pm, get drinks at 12, and party til 7am. I'm not entirely sure how these people hold down jobs. Then there are the endless amazing restaurants, pubs, and free music shows, as well as beautiful architecture, tons of museums, and chic cafes. The people are gorgeous and almost too well-dressed. Add to that an almost obsessive penchant for drinking yerba mate out of little gourds and dancing tango at every possible opportunity, and it adds up to a place that sucks you in and doesn't easily let go.

We spent the first 4 days in a cute, upscale suburb called Palermo Viejo, not doing much except shopping, strolling around and EATING. Being a vegetarian here simply doesn't work (unless you're okay with getting scurvy), so we temporarily abandoned that plan and ended up switching to the other extreme, as you do. We ate steak almost every night we were in the city, and can I just say, HOLY FUCK, steak here is good. If there was ever a place to fall off the veggie wagon, this was the place to do it. I like to think that all of our steaks came from the same cow, so not much harm done, right...? =/



The next 4 days we were in San Telmo, just outside the city center. This neighborhood was a lot grungier. Dumpster diving takes on a whole new meaning here -- we saw several homeless guys with trash-filled sacks literally the size of cars, precariously balanced on carts. On every block, we had to dodge several piles of dog poop, as well as dripping air conditioners. Graffiti and trash decorated the streets instead of trees. The seedy underbelly of the city could definitely be felt here.



However, San Telmo is home to the San Telmo Sunday Market, one of my favorite parts of the whole city. The market is devoted to local artists' crafts, so everything was wonderfully creative, handmade, and cheap. The atmosphere was dizzyingly energetic - it felt like half the city was milling about here. Amidst all this, we stumbled upon an unbearably cute elderly couple dancing tango, surrounded by crowds of people. The man donned an old suit and a sideways hat, and shuffled around so smoothly that he could've probably done it in his sleep. SO ADORABLE. A few minutes later I came upon a drumming band, rocking out in the middle of the market so hard that it made my heart explode a bit. I gave them 10 pesos for exploding my heart and rocked out with them for 4 or 5 songs, reluctant to leave. LOVED being here. So much life.

The other experience I will never forget was seeing a tango show at a small restaurant downtown. We chose to go to a casual, cheap show because we didn't want to have to make reservations (I'm lazy), and I'm so glad we did. We turned out to be the only tourists there, so it was a brief glimpse into true Argentine culture. Everyone sang along with the classic Argentine songs the singer performed (perhaps almost too passionately at times), and in the end, many people got up to dance amidst the dinner tables. You see so many things when you travel that are simply for the benefit of tourists, an exaggerated caricature of their culture, that when you see something real like this, it's beautiful and very touching.

(We didn't take nearly enough photos of Buenos Aires, but to see a few more pictures, click here.)

Neuquen seemed like a tiny, quaint little city after Buenos Aires. We did a day-trip from there to Villa El Chocon to see a museum housing the bones of the gigantic dinosaur (literally, it's called Gigantosaurus carolinii) and some dinosaur footprints by the nearby lake. Due to a scheduling mishap, we ended up with about 8 hours in which to see the museum and the footprints, so for a while there, it seemed like it was going to be a day filled with lots of thumb-twiddling. We took as long as we possibly could in the museum, reading every sign, in Spanish and in English, and then drank coffee as slowly as we could to stretch the time before starting our walk to the lake.



(Dinosaur footprints are quite hard to photograph because they blend in so well. They were about 2 feet across, astonishingly big.)



As we walked, a dog suddenly appeared, sprinting towards us, happy as a clam and jumping all over us with uncontrollable glee. He was so immediately and unnervingly friendly, that at first we got a bit scared because we thought maybe he had rabies. We pushed him off of us and kept walking as fast as possible, hoping he wouldn't bite our faces off. But as we walked, it became obvious that he wasn't rabid, he was just an unnaturally social and happy dog. He ran in front of us, and then behind us, and then around us, and then into the surrounding fields and back, his energy and curiosity entirely inexhaustible. We couldn't figure out if he was stray or not - his coat was clean and his teeth looked healthy. We ended up naming him Dogosaurus.

Dogosaurus walked with us all the way to the lake, came with us to see the dinosaur footprints, hung out on the beach with us, and then walked back with us. As the day drew nearer to its end, we desperately hoped he would find his way home so we wouldn't have to abandon him as our bus drove away. But he didn't -- he waited for us for an hour outside of a restaurant, and then followed us back into town and waited at the bus stop with us. Just as we were preparing to say our tearful goodbyes and feel like monsters for abandoning the cutest dog of all time, Dogosaurus disappeared! I guess he knew that tearful goodbyes were coming and wanted to avoid the awkwardness. That's how I usually avoid those types of situations too.

So it turned out to be a marvelous day -- not boring for a single second of those 8 hours -- thanks to Dogosaurus, our little gift from the universe.



(More dinosaur pictures are here.)

Today we spent the day in Trelew and Gaiman, two small Welsh (?!) towns on the coast of Argentina. I think this is maybe the only area in the world where you can see signs both in Welsh and in Spanish. We had tea and all-you-can-eat pastries at a Welsh teahouse, which was, and I'm not overstating here, the BEST THING EVER. I don't understand how America has adopted so many traditions and foods from so many cultures, and yet this one has gone unnoticed. Bubble tea - yes. All-you-can-eat pastries and tea - no. What a sad world we live in.

A Welsh and Spanish Jehovah's Witness Church:



All-you-can-eat pastries and tea. LOVE.



(Trelew pictures here and Gaiman pictures here.)

Tomorrow we're seeing PENGUINS, and, if I haven't died of cuteness overload by that point, then after that we're going to see one of the world's only expanding glaciers outside of Antarctica. As it expands, the pressure in the ice builds to such extremes that icebergs the size of houses fall off its edges. Fuck yeah. I'm really glad we gave this place a chance.

The one thing that has continued to be a huge challenge is the way Argentines talk. When I took Spanish in school, I learned the Spanish they speak in northern South America. So until now, I was getting pretty cocky, thinking I was about halfway to being fluent. Then along comes Argentina and I'm back to feeling like a complete beginner. There are several changes that, when combined, makes it sound like they're not even speaking Spanish.

- "Y" sounds have changed to "zh" and "s" sounds have changed to "th."
- Their word order is usually all flipped around.
- They use entirely different words for many things, including the words for "you are," which is a pretty important phrase. It's as if someone took the phrase "you are" in English and changed it to "fleb gleb."
- They speak extremely fast, and slur their words together.

Putting all of these changes together, it's the equivalent of going to California and someone asking "Where are you from?" and then going to New York, where they instead slur to you: "From zhere fleb gleb pathing?" Perhaps you will understand when I say, with all due respect, that to me they sound like my friend Kelly after she just had her wisdom teeth pulled, which makes every interaction extremely difficult, albeit somewhat amusing, even after being here 3 weeks.

However, they have waterfalls, Buenos Aires, dinosaurs, Welsh tea houses, penguins, glaciers, and Tierra del Fuego, and that's not even a tiny fraction of what there is to see here. So I guess I don't mind it here too much. :)