Vamos a Bolivia!

In a few hours we are going to get onto an 8 hour bus to the northernmost city in Argentina, called La Quiaca. Once we get there, hopefully on time at 8:30am, we will get our things and grab a taxi for a one kilometer ride to the Bolivian border. We must then walk to the gates and cross into the new country with our bags on our backs.

We think it's pretty cool.

Once we get into Bolivia, we need to find the train station immediately. If we can manage to get there with enough time to buy a ticket to Uyuni, we will get there on Monday night around midnight or so. If not, we have to wait in what may be South America's smallest town on the Bolivian border for two nights. UGH!

If we get to Uyuni as we hope on Monday night, the train ride is supposed to be kinda crapy after it gets dark, so for about half the 9 hour ride. All though, I would prefer a crappy train ride over losing two days in a city where there is nothing to do. Hopefully we will get to Uyuni, get to a hostel and get some sleep. Then we have to find a tour company to take us on the four day tour of the salt flats.

Cross your fingers and pray we wont get stuck for two days before getting to Uyuni!

Finally the Pictures...

Ok, sorry some of these aren't rotated. It seems to be virtually impossible on this computer/internet. If you click on the photos a full size photo should appear. I hope you enjoy them all (including the one with Amber's excitement for the waterfalls :P).

Grrr....

I have been trying to put the pictures up for the last two and a half hours now. They are on Katie's photobucket but we must sleep (its after midnight and we are getting sick). We will get them posted tomorrow sometime. Sorry for the delay...

Upon Request, multiple requests: Photos Round Two

Here are just a few of the hundreds of photos we took at Iguazu Falls. It is hard to look back and pick just a few to show you all the wonderous place that it is. We hope these photos give you a slight insight on the beauty and intensity of the falls and surrounding jungle. We had a blast as you can see.

The first photo is of the windy/terrible road in the Andes to Mendoza that we were telling you about. There are two butterfly pictures here which we were excited to take. Katie especially had a blast as she has always wanted, and never been able to, photograph them before given their sensitivity. The picture of the two of us drenched is after the boat ride, the falls with the rainbow behind us is where the boat went (yes, pretty much inside that waterfall). The picture you can see part of the boat in was taken on the boat itself right before they drove straight into the falls, and soaked us head to toe! Other than that, they are rather self explanatory. (Sue, there is a flower photo from Katie for you too!)

Questions, please comment and we will respond!!!!

The Falls

Amber and I have spent the last two days touring the amazing place known as Iguazú Falls. It was such a sight to see, smell, hear, and feel. Yesterday we walked to the top of the falls, known as La Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat). I cannot seem to put into words what we saw. The waterfalls were so massive and breathtaking at the same time. We stood there staring, and taking hundreds of photos, trying to capture and remember every detail of what we were seeing. I stood there, tried to close my eyes and focus on the sound and sheer energy emitting from the falls. It was so powerful that it practically forced my eyes open again.

We walked along the Upper Circut which took around an hour. We walked on cold, wet, slippery grates (on which I slipped) over the tops and sides of some of the waterfalls. We were speechless to how to describe what we were feeling and seeing. We would see one waterfall and turn a corner and see ten more. Then we'd walk another twenty feet and see a panoramic view of over 50 waterfalls. The sheer mass of the water was uncomprehensible. How can it be that not every single person in the world knows about this amazing place. We were in love and knew we must go back for another day.

Today when we arrived at the park, we walked to the Lower Circuit which took about 2 hours, walking from falls to falls. We basically walked along the bottom of the falls that we had walked over the day before. Both of us took a lot of photos and we will post them soon once we get to Salta in a few days.

Today we also took a boat tour of the falls. The boats stopped for us to be able to take photos but then we were told to put away our cameras. The engine reved. Amber screamed and held my hand very tightly. The boat surged forward straight towards the waterfalls. It drove so closely that the water was POURING into our boat, drenching us from head to toe. At that point we had to gasp for our breath as there was so much mist and water hitting our faces that we could barely breathe. The boat pulled out and we thought it was over. Then it surged forward again and drove towards the Devil's Throat. We were so freaked out!! My heart lept and before we knew it we were right next to it, getting drenched from the falls. I told Amber to look up as we were at the bottom of the cascading water, but all she could see (out of fear) was a giant rapid in the water. The boat smashed into the deep rapids, no matter the size, soaking us over and over again. It was as if we were on a physchotic rollercoaster in the water. In the middle of the Amazon. Somewhere between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. (Amber wants you all to know her pants are still drying off their Brazilian water.)

Moms, sorry we didn't tell you. We didn't realize how crazy it was until we were on the boat! It wasn't the most dangerous road in the world, this was WAYYYY more fun!!

By far, Iguazú Falls has been the best part of our trip. We are still so amazed by everything we saw over the last two days. I whole-heartedly hope that all of you would be lucky enough to experience the pure joy and beauty we have experienced over the last two days in the jungle here. This is an amazing place that more people should have the opportunity to see. I'm still in awe of the environment and its perfection of paradise. It will be very hard to experience something that will top our adventure over the last two days.

We are incredibly happy to have spent two days at such a great place. We had to eventually pry ourselves from the park and head back to, what I hope, is the worst hostel of our trip. The walls in the bathroom and near our beds are covered in mold from all the moisture in this city. I cannot wait until we leave tomorrow. This is such a crappy, crappy hostel. BLECH!! A 23-hour-long bus ride seems like a great time in comparison to staying here another hour! (Its a good thing the falls were so great or the crappy hostel would put anyone in a bad mood!)

Well we're our way to Salta before you all wake up tomorrow. We are off to find food and then to get some sleep (as it wont be happening too much on tomorrow's bus ride).

Much love,
Katie and Amber

Puerto Iguazu

Well we are finally here, safe and sound, in Puerto Iguazu. Its a very small town but its gorgeous. For the first time we have almost summer like weather. This computer seems fast enough that we should be able to post some pictures within the next few days. The backyard, where I'm writing this from in the cabana, is very tropical and gorgeous considering its still "winter".

Amber and I decided that we would spend two full days here or more at the park. We will be headed to Parque Iguazu which is a national park in Argentina and Brazil, where the rivers meet and large waterfalls are created.

More tomorrow...

Frustrating again, but this time I kicked ass.

So like I said, I wanted that sweater badly. It zipped after all and that's important to me as my belly does get cold. Therefore, Katie and I decided that we could easly take the metro and then get back to the metro to go to Evita's grave. After our great breakfast and even better idea of washing our clothes (rather dropping them off to be washed, dried, folded all for only 7 dollars), we head to Falabella again.

We find the jacket and go to pay for it. I decided to try and use the debit card again with the copy of my passport and driver's license. Well, it was a different lady and she too said it wasn't sufficient, store policy. So I asked her why she didn't believe me that it was mine. And she said it may be a real copy but it isn't the original so it doesn't work. It made me frustrated; sure I can understand just a horrible copy of a passport can seem sketchy. However, this was a GOOD copy and it looks like me, BOTH pictures.

Instead of walking away this time, I spoke my mine. I asked her in spanish if she understood that it was really dangerous in her country for foreigners to carry their passports with them since stealing them is so common. To which she said she understood but it was still store policy. So I said something to the effect that the policy was stupid not to adhrere more to the foreigners needs. And she didn't really reply.

Then a lovely woman behind me from Italian told me she was given the same treatment to buy herself a coat as well. Which seemed even more crazy because she seemed about my mom's aged and very well spoken!!

I however still bought the jacket because I loved it so much. I feel confident that I left actually saying something about their policy though because when in an incredibly touristy city they should consider being a bit more open.

Today was incredible!!! As you read in Katie's blog post. I am excited for tomorrow's Artisan market and then the bus ride to Iguazu Falls!!! =)

Well, I guess this is enough reading for everything....

Goodnight from Argentina!

Am

And Then There Were Two...

Amber and I do everything together, mainly out of convenience. We brush our teeth together. We shower together (well you know, each in our own shower, sharing shower stuff over the shower walls). We even, apperantly, get sick together.

Last night we decided to pre-emptively take our Malaria pills before we went to dinner. We took a little time to get ready and by the time we found a resturant it had been well over and hour since we had taken our pills. The problem is we are supposed to eat when we take our pills. By the time we sat down at the table we both had such bad stomach aches that I had to excuse myself to the bathroom because I thought I might throw up. We were both so sick that we left the resturaunt to go back to our hostel, feeling like crap. Luckily after a little bit of time we started feeling better after some water and bread. (Yes, that is all we had for dinner last night because we felt so crappy!)

Today we woke up and had a big breakfast (well "big" I suppose, as they eat really small breakfasts that usually include just juice and tea/coffee and toast). Then we went to the graveyard here and saw Evita's grave. It was quite fun and something that Amber was really looking forward to! I was very very surprised to see that we have some long lost Argentinian relatives as one of the first graves (more like New Orleans style than typical graves in the states) I saw today was of a very large one with our last name etched into the hard, cold marble. Inside was a stairway into the ground and urns on a shelf under a stained glass window of christ. Perhaps we should check our lineage?

Amber and I are still having a great time walking all over each of these cities, kicking our own asses. Tomorrow we are off to Puerto Iguazu and the falls on Tuesday!! Wahoo.

Looking forward to better weather,
K

When it's frustrating

Today was a good day a bit rainy but Katie and I found the street to go shopping. We were being good and staying in our limit and just strolling along streets. Eventually we would come across a cheap stores and have to just go look at scarves or some jewelry, it was great!! Then we had some lunch, steak again, which wasn't quite as good as last night but it was really quite cheaper.

So the first day in S. America the zipper to my jacket broke and I really need a jacket with a zipper. We have been looking in multiple stores and they have been super expensive. Then we finally find Falabella that had one for about 20 dollars and I really liked it, so I decided to buy it.

I waited in a line behind about 5 people and there was this woman waiting off to the side of the cash register. Once I got to the front, I set the jacket up there for the employee. Then I noticed that she was letting the woman who was next to the cash register buy something before me!!! I was frustrated but I waited patiently for her to finish. She wrapped the woman's gift and thanked her and finally took the jacket for me to purchase. I was going to use my debit card and Katie was waiting off to the side having bought something elsewhere in the store. So I hand the lady my debit card and she asked for ID.

Logically when travelling in a city as GIGANTIC as Buenos Aires, I wouldn't trust people to just carry my passport on my body or in a bag. But I did have a copy of my passport in my bag and I handed it to her. She looked at me and said, this doesn't work. She asked for the real thing and I said it was in my hostel. She said that she could only take cash from me since I didn't have the real thing. Well I didn't want to pay cash because it costs MORE money to keep getting cash out of the ATMs.

I had been to other stores in this countr and used just a COPY! It was at that moment I wished I could just yell in Spanish. I mean honestly, who would think it's logical for a US foreigner to carry her passport with her. The copy has my name on it and it matches my name on the card. Not to mention the picture of the copy looks like me... Minus the hair being a bit shorter.

I felt like she embarrassed me in front of a lot of people. Then made me feel like a stupid tourist. It would be rather difficult for me to fabricate TWO pieces of identification my debit card and passport copy. In the end, I just left. She first lets someone who hasn't waited in line for 10 minutes and THEN she treats me like I am going to cheat her store with a fake copy of a passport. UFF...

Other than that though, today has been great! We walked around a LOT and found really pretty scarves and cheap pretty watches. It's been good. Tomorrow I think we may go visit Evita's grave and other highlights in that area of town... weather permitting of course.

-- Wanting a coat that zips.

Amber

Our New Found Love...

We have agreed, for the longest time, that neither of us enjoys steak very much. In fact, we hardly enjoyed it at all.

Apparantly the missing link was Argentina, and especially Bueños Aires.

Tonight Amber and I had an amazing steak dinner at a local resturant called El Desnivel. It is because of a lack of resturants like this in the states, that I have never had the ability to fall in love with steak. Sorry Dan, but you aint got nothing on this place. In fact, you would have been in heaven!!

The meat seemed to melt in our mouths with each bite. We are still in heaven. Our meal, which would have undoubtedly cost well over $100.00 in the states, cost us less than $40.00 here with two large steak dinners, a bottle of AMAZING wine, and dessert for both of us.

We have found the missing link: Bueños Aires has the most amazing food. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! So good in fact that we decided to mentally replace my cheap birthday dinner with a memory of this place instead!

For those Argentinians who know how to cook steak, we bow down to you! Big Bird salutes you as well. Para ahora y siempre.

The Day the Rains Came...

We're here in beautiful Buenos Aires, a city I have wanted to visit for so long. It is one of the top five highlights that I look forward to on this trip. So far it has been raining all day! I really hope it stops soon!

Our bus ride wasn't too terrible but Amber and I have come to the realization that we need to have some rest time after those long rides. We have another 17-hour trip on Sunday/Monday to Puerto Iguazu and then we get to go to the falls on Tuesday! (Too bad it wasn't today as it was 75 degrees, but Tuesday it'll be 65!)

Looking forward to better weather,
Katie

Wine and Olive Oil Gallore!

Today Amber and I took a tour though our hostel to tour two wineries and an olive oil factory. It was really amazing. We had some good wine, and some better wine! We bought a bottle of wine that was especially made for the wedding of the owner's daughter, which is now rare and they are having to reproduce. It cost $30 but the maturation is for ten years in the bottle, so in 2013 Amber and I have a date with a bottle of wine to remember our amazing South American Adventure! The woman at the winery told us the similar bottle of wine in the states sells for over $200.00.

We also watched to see how olive oil is made. It smells so damn good when its made freshly in front of you! We bought a small bottle that we will probably use along the way in our trip but it is delicious all the same. We have to get some bread because it is so damn tasty!

All in all the two wineries and the factory tour cost us each $15.00. I am happy to say that Argentina is MUCH cheaper than Chile (the one wine tour in Chile cost $14.00 plus the cost of taxi and metro to get there!).

Lately Amber and I have been discussing our route through Peru and Ecuador. We are trying to decide if we want to spend more time in Bolivia where it is really inexpensive and avoid the long trip up the coast of Peru to get to Quito for the end of our trip. In the long run it may be more expensive to take our time and travel up than to buy a ticket from Cusco to Quito. We are looking into it, but any of you American friends who have traveled along the coast of Peru please give us your opinions. We have a lot to consider still!

Now that we are a week into our trip, Amber and I are traveling so smoothly. Its really great as we walk our butts off all over the city and explore. We are happy to see all that we are seeing and cannot wait for more! We will have a 14-hour bus ride to Bueños Aires tomorrow night, but it should be a good time for rest --- we hope!!

Love,
Katie

P.S. Last night a lot of protesting began in the city when we tried to go out to dinner. Everyone was honking their horns and banging on pots and pans. When we turned on the news we saw that Córdoba, a city north of here, is really in protest. The conflict is the city people against the government and their rights. We still are safe and are happy we planned to skip Córdoba before we knew about the protests that are going on there. We'll keep you updated if anything else comes of it.

Just a Normal Birthday Abroad

This morning I woke up and slowly sang:

Cumpleaños a mi
Cumpleaños a mi
Me deseos a todo
Cumpleaños a mi

Which is a version of Spain's birthday song, but altered because I was singing it to myself.

Once we finally got our butts out of the hostel today, I had such an amazing day. Amber and I walked all over the city. We walked from one side to the other, and across again. We have been out for the last seven hours and it feels great! We went to lunch and had an amazing lomo sandwich. Mmmmm. Then we went and sat in Plaza Independencia and I wrote in my journal while Amber read. We must have sat there for an hour and a half in the sunshine! It was a gorgeous day; the weather was sunny and not a cloud in the sky! I wrote in my journal today about how if this is winter, I best move out of North Idaho!

Amber and I bought cotton candy in the park and it was so delicious. Who needs birthday cake when you can have cotton candy for a dollar?? We also went to the italian gelato shop as Amber wanted some after recently reading Eat, Pray, Love (well I did too since its the book I'm currently reading, but I can't have it!). It was fun. Again, the sun shining the whole time.

We tried to wait out the siesta but found out that its a national holiday in Argentina today so a lot of the shops were closed. It didn't stop me from having a good day though. It was a pretty great day in fact.

Amber and I are trying to go to a tapas bar for dinner tonight, but I guess we will see if its open in an hour or so. If not, we'll have to find something near buy because the supermarkets are all closed!

So I guess you could say I've had another normal birthday abroad. When I was in the park today I thought, well maybe I should go abroad for my birthday every few years...I could get into that tradition...maybe not my wallet, but the rest of me could!

P.S. Yes, I had to call my mom today from the southern hemisphere just to here all three of the birthday songs!!

Dinner and Death

Oh Dios Mio...we have officially found heaven. We had the most amazing food for dinner. My mouth is still watering just thinking about it and it cost $13 for both of us! Wahooooooo!

Then we took a crazy ass cab ride home where we almost died. Damn drivers. They don't stop for red lights here, they just pause. AHHHHHHHH! But the faster they drive the less the cab costs...only $2 for our ride home across town!

So far, Argentina is so amazing!

¡Buenas noche!

Los Andes y Argentinos...dios mio!

Today we had our oh so lovely eight hour bus ride to Medoza today. Have I mentioned, estamos en Argentina!!! We began the bus ride and the first three hours were unmentionable. And then we got to the part where we hit the actual Andes. Then we went up pretty much the scariest road that we have ever been on. It reminded me of the curvy road in San Francisco that is super windy...except it was at a much more severe slopes...with piles of alvalanched snow cleared off the road. The road reminded Amber of multiple Lewiston grades combined into one, over and over and over and over again. At one point I looked at Amber and said " how is it F$&#@ing possible that THIS isn't the most dangerous road in the world?!?!" It was so freaking crazy! I had to close my eyes and do some budhist meditation of sorts to calm my nerves of going up the road. It seriously went 100 feet and then turned 180 degrees and then went 100 feet and then turned 180 degrees....over and over again...probably at least 30 times. Ufffffffff....

I never want to drive on that road ever again. There were parts of the road that were cement barriers were made to block the roads from avalanche. At a few of these barriers, there was so much snow that there were skiiers skiing on top of us! It was que loco! We were very glad once it was over and we didn't have to take that road any more. The Argentinian side of the pass was rather flat (especially in comparison) and quite enjoyable.

While on our bus, Amber and I met a rather friendly, and cute, Argentino named Luis. He was very friendly. He was our exact definition of what "tall, dark and handsome" is. When we were headed up the death-road, I said to Amber "ahhh, que miedo!" (How scary!). He looked over and said in Spanish about how we shouldn't be scared and he started distracting us from the view out our window. He was a very nice guy and by the end of the bus ride we exchanged emails so we can possibly meet up with him while we are in Mendoza. (Don't worry Mom(s), he was a police officer! --and a very hot one!)

Amber and I have learned from our mistakes and were smart enough to buy our bus ticket to Buenos Aires for Wednesday while we were still at the bus station (we didn't do this the first time in Valpo and we ended up having to stay another night). Amber walked around asking for prices and seeing what the best deals were. We found one that cost us less than $50 per person for our 14 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires. We leave on Wednesday at 6pm and we are sitting in the equivalent of business class which has chairs that recline into a bed. We are happy with it and have a only a few days here in Mendoza so we will have to plan well.

Our hostel here is, in a word, FABULOUS! We have our own suite (as my birthday is tomorrow) and it still cost the same as just a bed in Chile! We have our private bathroom and shower and a large room with black out blinds which was really exciting. We also have a personal safe to put our belongings in (passports, cameras, etc.) for safe keeping. We are basically in a hotel here and its fantastic. We can't get used to this place as its above our budget if we were to stay like this every night but its nice once and a while to have a really great place (this place is like $30 per night for both of us). We're very excited for a few nights of fantastic sleep!

Upon arrival, Amber needed a shower. I begged her to as she really was quite stinky! She took a shower and came back with a very sad look on her face. She then proceeded to show me the rash/breakout of her skin on her chest and upper back. Its not pretty folks. She says it doesn't itch so hopefully it was just the detergent the last hostel used on our sheets. Also, she hadn't showered in three days so hopefully she'll learn to keep a little cleaner. I guess two days is our norm now!! We will keep you updated of when it goes away...hopefully soon!!!

Well we are off in search of some really great Middle Eastern food that our travel book told us about. Hopefully it'll be fantastic as we're both really hungry.

Amor y abrazos!
Katie & Amber

P.S. We are now an additional hour ahead of eastern standard time as we crossed another time zone on our trip here.

P.P.S. On our way here we had the best lomo sandwich! Apperantly Argentina is famous for its lomo (steak) sandwiches. We hope to have many more as it was fabulous. As our last hostel owner told us in spanish "the steak is so good in argentina that it melts like butter in your mouth!"

Is anyone reading this???

Ok so other than our moms, is anyone really reading this blog?? If so you should comment on the posts that we write because it gives us something to look forward to when we check our blog.

Don't get me wrong, Amber and I are really close, but if you post on our blogs then we have THAT much MORE to talk about during the day.

That's all. So in the future, please post comments to our blog!

Ugh

I hate bug bites. We are only a week into this trip and they are everywhere! In this hostel apperantly...

They are on my hands and fingers and wrist and forearms.

Oh yeah, and on my face.

I hate the idea of bugs crawling on my face and biting me...

The bites look like B.B. gun pellet size lumps of joy.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I love South America. And I know it will only get better!!!

Nothing really exciting happened today. We went to the beach in Viña del Mar and had weird sushi for lunch. Also we saw a clock made out of flowers!! Then we took the wrong metro back to Valpo, which doesnt actually go to Valpo. However on the positive side, that train had a really cute boy on it who was playing peek-a-boo with me, he was worth the extra 20 minutes in the wrong direction.
Once back we decided to be smart and buy our tickets for Mendoza. It was very annoyingly chaotic in the bus terminal and we got slightly frustrated with the first lady we talked to and ventured to find a different company. Alas, we are traveling to Argentina on Sunday; we will depart at 8:30 and arrive in Mendoza 8 hours later. We will let you know how much we just looooove taking long bus rides through the Andes.

The biggest, well one of the biggest, highlights of today happened this morning. Katie woke up with a very swollen face and couldnt figure out why. She tried to wake me up, but I was unfortunately dead to the world. She ventured into the bathroom to discover her face on one side was incredibly swollen near her lip. When I saw her 1.5 hours later it was "much better", yet still quite large. After I asked her about it, she said she woke up in the middle of the night realizing she was biting her cheek in her sleep. This caused her face to swell and it took until after breakfast to go away.

Thank goodness to big bird it wasnt a real infection or a bug bite that caused her temporary enlargement. (her bottom lip was almost twice the size and its already twice the size of mine).

The other highlight is the fact that we like to order meat here from the grocery stores. Sadly, we need to learn how to do it properly. We only know how to ask for half a kilo which is a bit much for our needs. This time i just said... a little bit and had him just ask when to stop and using a lot of hand signals. We will see how I can improve on ordering turkey in South America.

We are offically tired now and needing a lot of rest! So we are headed to bed soon, within an hour for sure! (yes we know it is only 7:45 here).

Buenas Noches

The Road to Valparaiso

Amber and I stayed up a few hours last night packing for our trip to Valparaiso (Valpo) for today. This morning we awoke, cooked breakfast, and stored our bags at our hostel for a few hours (and for free mind you! Usually they charge for those extra fees to make money off of the tourists/travelers).

We went had to hop onto the metro, as we were running late, and we decided to head straight to the winery. Apperantly it was metro-rush-hour because there were thousands of people on the metro. As I elluded to the other day, these Chileans are vicious in thier process to get where they are going and to get there fast. Its fairly frustrating, because it mainly comes across as rude, completely different from the Spanish way which is less pushy.

Once we arrived at the winery, after an hour and half on the metro and a short cab ride, we took our tour of the winery. We had a really great time as it was just Amber, myself, and some French guy who spoke English but not Spanish. We were given wine glasses and sampled multiple types of wine, which was fantastic. We decided not to take the wine glasses with us, so we left them at our hostel in Santiago. They were beautiful and had "Concha y Toro" etched into them. It´s sad, but its some of the sacrifices that you have to make at the beginning of the journey.

We then grabbed a quick lunch, empanadas, and then grabbed our backpacking bags from the hostel and took yet another crowded metro ride to the bus station. We bought our ticket and the bus took off literally the second we stepped onto the bus. It was great. We both slept the majority of the way, as it was only a 90 minute drive. It was a good sleep too on a great bus. If they are all like that, I shouldn´t have too much trouble sleeping on the over-night ones.

Katie Scott --- You are officially our hero for telling us about Airporter bags. They have already paid for themselves and are such a huge help in this trip. Quite frankly, you´re amazing and we´re both missing you a lot! We hope your trip is going fabulously! We can´t wait to meet up and share all of our summer stories together!!!

Our Last Night in Santiago

Sorry for our rant a little earlier...we were really quite frustrated with the ATMs, only to realize we were doing it all wrong. It took us a while to figure out how to change the ATM over to the extranjero mode, but se la vie.

After our crazy ATM adventure, the outdoor market was closed. Amber was really sad about this but I know there will be MANY more markets to come. We decided to venture to the mall in order to cheer ourselves up. We had walked by this mall yesterday and I saw a great scarf for $5,990 pesos, or about $12 USD. Amber suggested I´d find something better at the market and I didn´t buy it. However, when the market was closed today, I knew I wanted to go back and get that scarf! But when the sales person rang me up, she made a typo on the machine and entered $990 pesos, or about $2 USD. It was fabulous, and after our crappy morning, meant to be!

We walked home (about 30-35 minutes) and took a much needed nap. We awoke rested and decided to venture out to find a place for dinner. We went to the near by Plaza Brasil and had an amazing meal at Atodo Vaca. We both had a big bowl of yummy pasta, a pisco sour, and shared three bottles of water. The bill came to a mere $25 bucks. It was so great for our last night in Santiago.

Tomorrow we will venture to the winery and then on to Valparaiso. I´m not sure what time we´ll arrive (as we haven´t bought our bus tickets yet) but we will try to write if we have internet access.

!Hasta Pronto!

Oh Redbanc, Oh How I Loathe Thee...Oh Let Me Count Thy Ways...

I hate Redbanc´s. Offically.

Amber and I tried to get money out of ATM´s today and they kept telling us that we were extrajeros and thats so frustrating!! I want to not be a foreigner and have everything work. We had to come all the way back to the hostel and get our other debit card to get it to work. Such frustrations.

We are headed to another giant park with gondolas that cascade over the city! Sounds fun, eh? Hopefully it will cheer us up.

Tomorrow we´ll be going on a tour of Concha y Toro winery. It should be a lot of fun...check it out at www.conchaytoro.com/

A Tearful Beginning...

For the first time on our trip, I may cry. My iPod is corrupted. That means 8 1/2 more weeks of musicless and audiobookless traveling.

Those 18 hour bus rides are gonna SUCK since I can´t read and I wasn´t worried about it because I have my iPod and bought new music and audiobooks for the trip...

Mierda...

Somehow It Seems So Ironic...

Today was an interesting day to say the least. It began around 9 am when Amber and I managed to crawl out of bed and into a hot shower (we are sure to not take that for granted as we wont have them everywhere along our trip). Then Amber checked her email/facebook/myspace/crack-dealer to see that apperantly it snowed in Moscow this morning. Now how, I wonder, does it snow in the summer in Idaho but here in the winter it was 65-70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky?!?!? I guess Big Bird has blessed us...

Amber and I missed breakfast at our hostel so we hopped on the metro and headed to el Mercado Central or so we thought. We stepped into a quasi-grocery store and bought sliced turkey and bread for something in our stomach. We then bought some delicious bananas and some clemintines (you know this girl loves her clemintines). We sat in front of the Mercado Central, which we finally found, and ate the turkey and bread. Surprisingly, it was so freaking delicious!

Then we took an altered version of Lonely Planet´s walking tour of Santiago. We walked from the market to Plaza to Plaza, taking various pictures. We walked by the river, which turned out to be a little dirty. Actually it was quite gross! Then, we stopped in a small park to read our books and write in our journal for a little while. While there policemen on horseback rode by. There is definitely a sense of security around this city.

Our favorite area today was Santa Lucia Park, of which there are a ton of pictures attached. Amber looked at me and said "we´re going to the top, right?"...and so we did. There were lots of stairs but as you can see from the photos, it was an amazing view! We climbed a lot of steep stairs and it was way harder coming back down but it was worth it. We saw a rock that Charles Darwin had signed which was kind of cool.

During our day trip today, we came upon a few realizations about Chile.

1. Their accents suck. They speak such fast spanish, with lots of slang, and combined words that its almost impossible for either of us to understand them. When getting on the metro today, I asked a woman how to get to the yellow line and she told us. After she was done speaking for about 2-3 minutes, I looked at Amber and said "did you get any of that?" "No." I managed to get "go down the stairs and take the stairs at the end of the row up to the train". I know our spanish may be rusty, mine more than Ambers, but it still is really difficult to understand the Spanish here. We are both looking forward to our further travels and hoping to understand more!

2. Santiago is a very horny city. There are so many couples making out its disgusting. Every where we looked, there was some French kissing. Maybe they ought to rename it Chilean kissing. Uffff.

3. This is definitely a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggg city. The people on the street act as I would assume New Yorkers do; they are on a mission. There is no "bubble" of personal space to speak of and everyone seemed to be fast paced. Amber and I are more used to a tranquilo pace of life.

Amber and I can´t wait for another day to be this perfect! We hope you enjoy the photos!

Love and miss you all!

K&A

P.S. Click on the photos to see the whole picture!

Sleeping through the jet lag...

Well we are finally settled in our posh little hostel in Santiago, what Amber tells me is the most expensive city on our trip. I suppose it is best that we start out expensive and get cheaper! Our three night stay here cost both of us about $80 USD for both of us. It may not sound like that much in comparison to hotels in the states, even Holiday Inns, but for a traveler´s budget it comes out to be quite a lot.

Yesterday we flew out of Spokane at 9:10am to Seattle. As we flew, the most beautiful view of Mount Rainer was out our window. We practically flew over the top of it, as if on a sight-seeing tour. As the captain announced it´s height at 14,400-somethign feet, we both looked at eachother knowing we would be traveling through cities at similar elevations (like Lake Titicaca at 12,500+).

In Seattle, we had to get our bags and re-check in. Without a hiccup we were through security for the second time and very relieved to be officially on our adventure. (Our South American Adventure as Mijoe so kindly refers to it!) After another 3 1/2 hour flight to Dallas and a 9 1/2 hour flight to Santiago, plus a $131.00 travelers visa, we are here, safe and sound! As we walked out of the customs area, we were bombarded by nicely dressed men who offered Taxis and travel buses to the city center. As we both had traveled before it took us a while to get to where we were going (the $3 blue bus), but those men were so persistant that I felt like almost giving in...

Alas, we are here at our hostel and after a nice 5 1/2 hour nap, the beds are comfy and our sleeping bags warm (which is good because there is no heat in our hostel -- a comon thing that I fear I may have to get used to, however in the grand scheme of things, is totally freakin´worth it!). The hostess was so releaved that we both speak Spanish (in hindsight I shouldn´t have told her as Chilean spanish is so rápido and so different from the Spanish we are used to).

Tonight our Hostel is making a very tipical Chilean meal of savillicha (sp?) and pisco sour. It should be interesting to see how it is. Amber had both of these things (perhaps they are just typical of south america?) and she said they were great. The cook said he could make it nice and spicy for me (I remember thinking how bland I thought Spain was once I first got there, so this should be exciting!).

Tomorrow Amber and I plan on taking a walking tour around Santiago which should last four to six hours and shows off parts of the city. I hope it won´t be too cold! We will have to get up early as even though we are on East Coast time, it is 6pm and nearly dark out. I have my suspicions that it is because of the Andes blocking the sun. But who cares...its amazing down here. I can´t wait to explore more and more. Two more days here and then off to Valpo for a day or two and then a bus ride over the Andes (Big Bird help us all!).

Estamos en CHILE!

Just a short note to say that we are here! It took a little finess but we are excited for a soft bed and a long siesta...more to come...more to come....

Oh, It's an Adventure for SURE!!!

This morning's travel began as any normal travel day would; Amber and I stayed up half the night packing and finishing last minute errands (we were at Walmart at 1:30 am! And you know how much we HATE Walmart...). When we awoke this morning we showered and became exceedingly excited about our trip and ready to get the show on the road. Amber's mom made us pancakes (heart shaped ones!) and I decided to check my email as we were running a few minutes ahead of schedule.

As I am often noted as anal retentive on checking details and following my usual habits, I decided to log into see our confirmation code/info for our flight. It wasn't until my eyes began to water that I realized that our flight was to arrive in LA at 9:35am not depart. It wasn't until we both realized we were thirty minutes past our flight departure at 7:00 am.

After many tears and fears of having to cancel the trip all together (we were orginally quoted $1350 per person to change the tickets), we have a new flight scheduled for Sunday. Thanks to our lovely mothers, who are scared S$&*less that we aren't going to make it home from South America, we are now fly out of Seattle on Sunday morning and after changing planes, going in and out of security, customs, and hopefully loads of sleep, we will arrive in Santiago on Monday morning at 8:00am. (Please don't feel too badly for us as we have to pay them back for booking the tickets in the first place! But it was definitely not an expense in our budget!!).

Amber's mom tells us that God had a plan for us not to fly out this morning and that He wanted us to wait a few more days before taking this trip. Whether it be God, Alah, Buddha, or Big Bird, there is a definite calm that we both have knowing we are still going to be able to take this amazing adventure together.

I was saddened for a few hours this morning, knowning that I wouldn't be able to attend Ashley's wedding on August 9th (the main reason we set our return date as the 7th!). Now that our schedule is finally set, I will be able to go and I am incredibly excited for it!

Another positive to this unfortunately expensive derailment is that we will be flying out of Quito, Ecuador, versus having to travel the extra 800 miles from Quito back to Lima, Peru, to fly home. We hope that traveling this distance will make up for some of the hundreds of dollars we had to spend today to change our flights/reservations.

We look forward to arriving in Santiago on Monday, and hope the city and country is as friendly as the guy at the Hostel we're staying at (they changed our reservations at the last minute with no extra charges!).

Hasta Pronto!