Traveling!

Hello everyone!

I have finally made it Peru, which is the final country I will be visiting before I return home on the 23rd!

After leaving Rosario, we traveled to Mendoza, Argentina, home of the famous Malbec. The first day we explored the city and relaxed in a gigantic park which is about half the size of the city itself. The second day we took a buc to Maipu, which is the wine country where the best Argentine wines are produced. We rented bicycles from a guy named Hugo and rode through the country to the different wineries, called Bodegas. We got to try some of the best wines in Argentina while riding bikes in beautiful weather. There was also a Museum of Wine which showed us the entire process of fermenting and bottling the wine. It was a really long and fun day, and the ride back to Hugo´s was quite interesting…

On a side note, while the road´s between the bodega´s seemed safe and were patrolled, some friends of mine were robbed at gun point a block off one of the streets. Fortunately they only lost a small bit of cash and a camera and both were safe, but it goes to show that wine tasting in Argentina is not like Nappa Valley.

The next day we made the decision to go paragliding off the foothills of the Andes! To get on top of the hill we had to take this thin winding road of gravel in an old Land Rover. It was pretty intense because any slip of the road would have been a long fall down and looking off the cliff in a back seat of a car is never a good feeling. It was my first time paragliding and was an awesome experience! We got to see the mountains and the city of Mendoza from incredidbly high view. We spent another day horseback riding in the hills and hiking through the paths. Mendoza was incredibly beautiful and it was a good way to end our last days in Argentina.

Afterwards, we took a 8 hour bus ride to Valporaiso, Chile. This was one of my favorite cities along with Buenos Aires. The coloful city rests on  steep sloping hills leading into the Pacific Ocean. All of the houses are painted in different colors and the streets are lined with really cool street art. It has a really bohemian vibe that reminds of something like San Fransico and Eugene. We spent the first day just exploring the city and trying out the acsesors, which are large elevator type boxes that shuffle people up and down the hills and providing great views of the city at the top. We also toured the old house of famed poet, Pablo Neruda, who´s house looking over the city and ocean is now a museum with all of his furniture and stories.  The next day we took a 15 minute bus ride to Vina del Mar and spent the entire day on the beach playing paddle and swimming in the ocean. We had some amazing seafood empanadas and relaxed. Our hostel was also very cool and reminded me a lot of a large Eugene house. Everyone was really friendly and laid back and it gave me a feeling of being back at home which was nice. We also were able to watch the Blazers-Celtics game which was televised on one of the channels. Unfortunately it was a disaster and it was hard to get over the terrible loss for the one game we could see. The next 2 days we went to the beach again and hung out in Valpo.

Leaving Valpo, we had to take a 30 hour bus ride north to head to Peru. Luckily I was exhausted and slept a large portion so it was not a very bad trip. The busses are also pretty comfortable for the most part and allow for some sleep and relaxation. We stopped for the day in a desert beach town called Iquiqui. It was in the middle of the desert with huge dunes dipping down into the ocean with the city snuggled in between. We hung out on the bach all day and went to bed early to get headed to Peru in the morning.

The trip to Peru was really interesting. We had to take a bus to a small border town of Arica and from their we took a driver with a ´88 Oldsmobile classic across the border to Tacna, Peru and then another bus to Arequipa. The 3 of us spent the day exploring the cool city of Arequipa which we found to be very friendly and also very cheap, which is nice to have at the end of the trip. I am still here this morning awaiting to catch a bus to Cusco where we will hang out for a few days before hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu! Afterwards I will spend a few more days in Cusco until my flight to Lima on the 19th. From there I will return home on the 22nd to be back in the U.S. before Christmas!

This will probably be my last post for my trip since I will be very busy the next week and a half. Thank you all for being patient with me as I know I have not been very dedicated to this blog! I will be back with many more stories and pictures for you all to see!

Hasta Pronto!