Decided to go to the Andes

Well three days ago I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Peru, I'm writting this from Lima, Peru I got here last night.

Haven't explored at all yet, but going in a minute. I'll be traveling by Peruvian Airlines in two days to Cusco and Machu Picchu, then off to Puno and lake Titicaca before heading to La Paz, Bolivia and ending in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

A 3 week trip through these 2 Andean countries before classes start, should be a great experience!

Rain Storm and Power outtage

So the other day I thought I'd take my computer and get some skyping in at a cafe in San Telmo, a cool "bohemian" like neighborhood about 30 minute busride south of Belgrano where I live.

When I arrived at the cafe, it started to rain, and when it rains in Buenos Aires, it poors.

I waited about 4 hours in the cafe and I decided right before close I should try and venture back to my apartment. I set out with my umbrella and backpack to the bus stop. I got on the bus and as the bus started to head back north, it began to fill up with tons of people escaping the rain. I later found out because of the downpoor the Subways and Trains weren't running. At one bus stop, a line of people waiting for the bus I was one, were denied to get on because the bus was already too full, the bus driver tried to explain to the people that more back up busses were on their way but they didn't care, they wanted out of the rain.. many start banging on the windows of the bus yelling obscenities at the driver, and one man got so angry he kicked the front door of the bus, breaking the glass window...

We set off again in the bus and every bus stop we passed and didn't pick up the long lines of people, the bus driver got an ear full of bad names.

The rain was so bad that some streets had flooded and there were power outtages.

When I arrived finally after 50 minutes to my apartment building, I found a dark, lightless street. The power was out in my building.

I decided to go to the starbucks around the corner on one of the main avenues and wait it out until 1am when the starbucks closed to use their internet.

I was there a little while when suddenly, the whole place went black.

I was in the back and around the corner of the entrance, it was dark, but luckily one of the starbucks employees came and got all the customers out with flashlights.

Then I went to an icecream shop to wait since I obviously couldn't stay any longer at the starbucks. The icecream shop closed at 1am as well, and I came to my darkened apartment,

however for the complete darkness, I couldn't sleep also because of the heat and my fan not working properly, so I left and found an open cafe and drank tea and ate a grilled cheese sandwhich and hungout there until 5am when I came home, the power finally came on at some point in the morning while I was sleeping because I woke up to a working fan.

Quite an interesting experience.

The Coast!!

I recently returned from Villa Gesell (featured in the last X-men movie by the way, very poorly shown as a mountainous German-like village when in reality there are no mountains in sight, very flat coast line).

It was beautiful, however windy and cooler than the city. It was great to get out of the city's hot summer heat and cool down.

We spent a lot of time in a calmer resort neighborhood just south of Villa Gesell called Mar de las Pampas, full of cool modern shops and cafes, streets of Beach sand, and resorts and private huge vacation homes.

It was a beautiful 8 days with my friend and his family!

Ironically, I'm writting this at a Starbucks

So my first day, I met up with some old friends, one was actually leaving 3 hours after I got there for the airport to leave the country for a month, but we got to catch up and have lunch...

Later I met up with Jonatan, and walked around a good part of the city and had a coffee at one of Buenos Aires' many emblematic cafes.....

One thing I noticed was an increase in American chains, one being starbucks, the last time I was here, (only six months ago) I could count the amount of Starbucks in Argentina (all of them being located in Buenos Aires) on two hands and have fingers to spare. Today, Buenos Aires is looking more and more Seattle-ish, with more than 44 Starbucks locations in the entire country, in various cities, and quite a few being here in Buenos Aires.

Another surprise, two blocks from my apartment, was that a Wendy's opened up, a company that left the country in 2001 with the Argentine economic crisis and just now returned opening their first location near my house.

Another thing I noticed was the Christmas decorations around the city. A giant Christmas tree in the Plaza infront of the Government's "Pink House." Here Christmas decorations aren't traditionally taken down until the 6th of February.

MY BIRTHDAY:
So December 29th was my Birthday and I spent it with Jonatan in a city just 20 minutes away called Quilmes, its practically a suburb of the capital, but it was a nice change, a little bit quiter with a cute pedestrian only street. It was a nice outing to a place I hadn't visited yet. The city is known for a Brewery, and the beer they produce by the same name, the most popular beer in all of Argentina.

NEW YEARS:
I spent New Years at Jonatan's house with his family also in part of Quilmes, called Berazategui. It was great, we had a typical Asado (BBQ) with all types of meet and food and drink with Jonatan's big family... all interested in asking me questions about things, I had a blast and at midnight, fireworks went off all around us.

Today is the day! I'm headed back to Argentina!

This morning I left Spokane at 6:10am in route to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I'm on my second layover here in Atlanta waiting to board my last flight, 10 hours straight to Buenos Aires.

I'm getting excited as I start to hear Argentines in the waiting area here by the gate!!

Check back in soon Blog

Goodbye for a while USA, I'll miss you!