Machu Picchu: Final Frontier

Without saying, this trip has been filled with wonders. For example, its a wonder I went to South America at all. I had a great job, I had a near perfect life in San Diego, I got accepted to an amazing school, and I was working to support myself in a pretty cool life in Southern California. Its a wonder I made it the whole four months, with little cash, health problems, a blonde United States citizen traveling alone, and constant misinterpretations of the bus system and my lack of knowledge of traveling by bus beforehand. I just realized how wonderous it is that I have survived so many bus rides, probably over 100 hours, with my last 22 hour bus ride from Cuzco to Lima making me scared for any more in the future!

A real world wonder, Machu Picchu. I made it!

Hike through the Jungle to Machu Picchu

Aside from my own personal wonders, I actually got to visit some of the worlds greatest wonders. After visiting one of the World's Natural Wonders in September, Iguazu Falls, and seeing up close the Chirst the Redeemer Statue last month in Rio de Janeiro, one of the ''New 7 World Wonders'', I finally made it to another New World Wonder, and a personal site of curiosity for myself: Machu Picchu. After a rough start in Peru, with a crazy witch doctor visit and too many Pisco Sours, I was worried my trip would be cut short and I wouldn't make it to the real peruvian culture and beauty outside of the city of Lima. Yet, after about a week in Lima, I was on my way. Finally, I made it to Cusco where I started a 3 day trek to Machu Picchu- the perfect choice to conclude my four month trip abroad. Let me just say that its way better in person than in the post cards. I have seen so many pictures of the ruins and always admired its beauty and desires to walk amongst the leftover walls from the old lost Inca City. But never, ever, will I forget my first up close view of the ruins. As I turned a corner on the entrance path, all of a sudden I encountered it: the ancient old stones, bright green grass and a illuminous horizon of mountains glaring with light from behind. I just started smiling hard and gasping for air (after 2 hours of basically climing and walking straight up hill). Like finding a pearl in a shell, it shined. It could not have been more perfect: I was one of the first to enter at 6AM and got to view the park with no person in it. This is rare, as every day the limit of 400 people allowed to enter Machu Picchu is fulfilled. With luck, the day was one of clearest days in months, with not a cloud in the sky. I was hoping to experience clouds dipping into the city at 8,000 feet elevation. But better, we had a clear sunrise shine over Machu Picchu.



The whole week was filled with inspiration natural views and cultural connections with the humble Peruvian culture the glows with textiled color. I started in Arequipa, South of Cuzco and Lima. The town has a spectacular nature layout, as it is situated around 80 Volcanoes, most of the active, including one massive one that the city is located around. I spent a day exploring the small city (which is actually the second largest for Peru with a little over 1 million residents). I tried the famous shrimp of Peru, experienced amazing outdoor markets and art fairs and for the first time, I ate the delicous Alpaca steak of the district, experienced my first brush with altitude sickness (''soroche'' or ''malo de la altitud'' as it is called here) and was able to learn the history of Incan sacrificial rituals as I checked out a museum with a 600 year old well preserved 10 year old Incan child named Juanita. She was discovered about 10 years by an American Arqueologist with hair, nails, some skin and eye lashes still intact. The two days that followed I traveled to el Valle del Colca where I got up close with llamas in the desert, reach heights of almost 18,000 feets that brought me to the freezing cold of snow, and descended down to el Cañon del Colca, where I stayed in a small pueblo called Chivay and witnessed an all night dance celebration in the streets of the Inmaculada Concepcion. The people were blissful and warmhearted with celebration. Most of them only spoke Quechua, a native language leftover from the Inca Empire, and only spoke Spanish to outsiders. I was invited to share drinks and dances with them, and favoured as the only gringo blonde boy around. It was one of the most authentic cultural experiences I have had yet. The next day I viewed the Colca Canyon, a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in some parts. The scenery was mind blowing and peaceful at the same time, and we were able to view the famous condor up close and walk amongst untouched ruins and tombs built by the Incas.

Cuzco was my favorite area to explore of all the places I have been. A little town with a lot of bustle from tourists and the local Cusqueños, it was impossible to not love it. The Plaza de Armas was the most beatiful of all three Peruvian cities I have seen, and the nature and history surrounding this town was the most interesting yet. I walked the streets and spotted still standing Inca structures used as builidings, most of which were built over by the Spanish. It reminded me of Florence, Italy as the city is in a valley, encircled by mountains. I got a my own private room in a small hostel and chilled out to the Cuzco vibes. I was able to visit the Sacred Valley, one of heavenly design, including ruins and small towns such as Pisaq, Ollantaytambo, and Chinchero. Then I started the three day trek through the jungle to head to Machu Picchu with a mix of foriegners including two Australians, 3 Israel soldiers, an Italian, and Welsch girl, and two girls from Berkeley, California ironically! All of the mosquito bites on my body will prove that this trek was definitely a real trek in the wild. The first day we drove up to hieghts of 12,000 feet with snow and temperatures as low as 30F degrees, and descended down on bikes for 3 hours through the mountains. The first night we stayed on a Coca plantation in the middle of a Pueblo in the jungle. Coca is the plant that make cocaine by the way. Fabio, the owner of the small hostel, gave me a tour of all the Coca growing, along with Cocoa (coffee), mangos, bananas, avocados, tangerines, lemons and pineapples. The next day was a 22 kilometer walk through nothing but green dense jungle and mountains. It was a beautiful experience and our arrival at hot springs was well deserved. From here I had to take a cab that raced me around mountain cliffs and through dense jungle to arrive at a train that would take me to the small town of Aguas Calientes where I would stay the night until my 4AM start of hiking to Machu Picchu.

Now I sit here, back in Lima, enjoying my last few hours in South America with a curious feeling of wanting to stay. I just spent almost 2 weeks seeing another way of living, on farms, talking to people who live in a hut in the jungle surrounded by exotic animals and plants, experiencing preserved pride for tradition, the beautiful smiles and fascination from Andean children at a blonde American (and the women, too!), hand made clothing and food, and a completely different attitude towards life and our world. I am about to head back to life in a super power in the world, with rapid speed in the culture, without jungle, with proper trafic lights and painted lines on the road, with safe cab drivers and a privatized health care system, with quick lines for waiting and no people talking to each other about politics or their life, and with an easy and quick option for almost everything. I'm scared to see how I will fit back in, as I feel like most of who I am now revolves around life in Latin America. I will become an American again, but will not forget about the rest of ''America'' nor will I forget about places where homeless children are abundant and starving in the street. And hopefully, I will return to do what I really want to do here: live in a small pueblo and learn the real life of Peruvian working to lower class.

I am definitely not looking forward to the next couple of days:

A 10 hour flight to LAX via Lima tonight, December 21 at 1:40AM.
Arrive in LA at 7:40AM. Take a three hour train ride to San Diego at 9:45AM.
Arrive SD between noon and 1PM same day, on December 21.
Depart San Diego for Cleveland, Ohio the following day, December 22 and 9:30AM.

Not to mention the adjustment of going from the Peruvian culture around the jungle and Machu Picchu in the middle of summer, to the United States Midwest culture during the freezing temperatures and snow of winter in Cleveland, Ohio!

Now I am spending my last day with an old friend from the states as well, Nathaly. Shes from Mexico, so its cool to observe a Latina's perspective on things here in comparison to my own US perspective.

Nathaly e yo en Lima

Here's some other photo's of my Peruvian excursion:

A small pueblo just outside of Lima

Plaza de Armas and the full Moon
 - Arequipa, Peru

Heading up in elevation outside of Arequipa. First Desert with wild Vicuña, then. . .

Snow! I had to buy these clothes from this
child below. We climbed over 16,000 feet after this,
to almost 6.000 meters. I was feeling the soroche
 pretty intensely.

Peruvian businessman

Andean Family

Andean outhouse

Traffic of Chivay, Peru

Celebration of la concepcion inmaculada in Chivay

Keep on keeping on, right?

Plaza de Armas de Lima, Peru. The presidential building illuminating by the sunset.

So. . . . . . Entonces. . . . . Chévere. . . . . Mostro. . . . . .

By the looks of my last post, I am sure you all (as if the whole world is watching my journey on their televisions in a ¨Truman-like¨ manner) are wondering where I am at. Perhaps the Andes? A Peruvian hospital? On an early flight back to the States? Macchu Picchu? Dead?!

The first guess was right. I am in Arequipa, Peru in the South of Peru, about 9 hours south of Cuzco, the old Inca Capital. It is situated at the foot of a massive Volcano with an elevation of about 7,000 feet high, with about six other massive volcanos surrounding the outer border of the city. Since the beginning of my trip, I have promised myself to post as much of the truth as I can on this blog for myself, my friends, and fellow travelers (but since your reading this grandma, I will leave the Bolivian prostitutes out, and Mom, I won´t tell you about Brazilian Cocaine. . . . , but WOW! Its good.) (that´s just a joke!) Lesson number one: its not easy to backpack through South America, especially alone. Nor is it safe. I have encountered so much bad luck on this trip, but I have refused to post many negative posts. But last week was a great disaster. It sucks because Peru was the one place I wanted to go most and had the highest hopes for an positive experience. But not so far. . .

I got pretty sick last week. I have been knocking on wood for the past 3 months as I have been pretty lucky to avoid sickness. But last week, somehow an infection got into my throat. If you know me well (Ahem, Eddie and Renee), you know I usually have random bad luck with my health at very unconvenient times. My throat swelled up bad last week within two day of first having pain, and I knew right away it was the same thing that had happened 4 years ago when I first moved to California. An abscess had grown in my throat. I won´t share all the details, but I had a crazy experience of taking care of it in the living room of the house of some random Peruvian doctor. A few hints though-needles, blood, no english and only fifty dollars!
Mystic night illumination from church in Lima

Today I finally feel better. With luck I was staying in the house of a Peruvian restaurant owner and was taken care of all week. Unfortunately my time for travel has been cut short, and I am running through Southern Peru to get to Macchu Picchu, before returning to Lima to fly out. In the mean time, the culture I am experiencing is unlike all the rest I have seen. With an amazing mix of all South American climates in one country, the scenery is unlike any other. The people are the warmest and most personal people I have ever met in my life. Its actually pleasant to talk to people here while they are working and helping you. Even strangers are warm with life. The spanish is similar to Mexican Spanish, so its hard for me to adjust, but I like it more. Andean culture fascinates me, and the personality of the people is well represented in the bright colors of their textiles. I need more time here!

With bad luck comes a well balance of unbelievable ¨first times.¨ I have never seen some of the things that I have on this trip, ranging from scenic views, food, dancing, history or something so representative of a foriegn culture that my own lacks. I have refused a long time ago to let any bad experience define this exploration, and indeed they haven´t. I will keep on going until my last day here! I really think that I have fallen in love with Peru the most. I wish I had more time. ¡Que pena!

Hopefully photos will come soon. For now, I am soaking up all of my journey and enjoying my solo travels. This place is anthropologically perfect for understanding peoples foundations of life and to cross culturally understand my own foundations for my life.

Hasta Luego amigos- ¡Que les vaya bien todos!




Traffic in Peru! The drivers are crazy here! That little green van is a public transit bus!

Disastre en Peru

So, I arrived in Lima on Monday. Everything has been amazing as I have been staying with new friends and finally in the place I dreamt about most before arriving.

But, of course, as my trip is ending, with only a little over 2 more weeks, disaster is occuring! My computer spontaneously broke. As i simply tried to adjust the screen yesterday morning, it cracked down the middle, disabling me from seeing anything. While uploading pictures to my computer a few days ago, my camera randomly stopped uploading and will no longer upload to any computer. I can still take photos however! If things weren´t worse, due to a mistake of American Airlines, my checking account was frozen and negative over $2,000 for a week. Finally today its all good.

Of course thats not it. . . When I arrived, my throat hurt a little. Today I woke up and it was completely swollen, disabling my from swallowing and eating. I am headed to a Peruvian hospital after this post.

Wish me luck everybody! It will be a little while until I get more photos up! I will keep everyone posted.

Besos, Chau.

Going with the flow. . . .

A popular tag I have been seeing around South America.
This one is on a wall of a business in Montevideo

So, where am I? I haven't written since Mendoza, two weeks ago. I don't even think my mom knew where I was until I called her last week to say, "Happy Thanksgiving", when she advised me I was a week early. Horseback riding in the Andes has already become a distant memory, as has the old crumbling architecture of Montevideo and long-stretching miles of beaches of Rio de Janeiro have already replaced the "used-to-be-dream-turned-memory." After three months of transplanting myself in foreign cultures and absorbing enormous amounts of information on my own country and others, I am soaked with a new understanding of travel, the world and I am soaked in foreign culture. I am beginning to have a cultural identity crisis as I battle where I have come from with where the hell I am all the time.

With this crisis is also the excitement of building new understanding of places I only imagined before coming on this trip. Mendoza used to be the dirt in the bottom of my glass of Malbec that I would taste with Brian, my manager and friend from The Vine. Noting chocolate notes, creamy french oak and supple tannins, Mendoza was just a far away new world wine destination for old world wine growing. Now its a new sensation in my mind, joining with the sense of taste a new addition of familiar sights and emotions. When I taste Malbec now, I will feel the heat from the blazing sun over cacti; I will visualize the snow capped Andes behind sprawled out vines; and I will remember the poverty of the Argentine people that surround the million dollar vineyards owned by their rich Europeans neighbors.

Back to Buenos Aires
This has been the theme of the past few weeks: perception transformations. After Mendoza, my friends and I went separate way and I was now traveling on my own. My perceptions have been heightened as I changed environments alone. After Mendoza, my plans to head to southern Argentina fell through as the crunch of time was already closing in. I decided to head to the Brazilian portion of my trip and headed back east. I had to stop in Buenos Aires first to break the trip up a little bit. I stayed with a friend I had met earlier on from the Dominican Republic. His name is Leo, and I am very lucky to have kept in touch with him as allowed me to stay for free at his place for a couple days. Leo is one example of my joy for traveling: meeting good people far away and making a new friendship. I was happy to meet an interesting person and learned a few things about economics and Latin America politics. Buenos Aires was, of course, a completely different place to me now. I had already left and said goodbye, driving down Santa Fe Avenue with my friend Kari Keach, past the big signs and billboards, millions of cafes, racing with a cab through red lights, past the gleaming orange of the setting sun behind the Obelisque, through the thousands of people in the streets, the busy intersections that almost killed me and the hundreds of memories I had made; I was ready to leave. Now I was back, and enjoyed the time there as a foreigner again, not living there, no school, no 30 other American friends scattered around the city. My perception of Buenos Aires was so different as I just roamed the streets and discovered new places I hadn't seen before.

An Unexpected Stay in Montevideo

Las Acuñas, Ismael y su mama

I decided to go through Uruguay and stop in Montevideo for a day after I left Buenos Aires. Before arriving, I didn't know anything about Montevideo, only the name. This was also going to be my first couchsurfing experience. Couchsurfing is unbelievable. I signed up for it a few years ago and have been hesitant to use it until now.

Tango on the Streets

Sebastián Acuña

Once I met the person I was going to be staying with, I knew everything was alright. His name was Sebastián and he has lived in Montevideo all 33 years of his life. He brought me to his huge 83 year old house where he lived with his partner, their child and sister of his partner. The next few days were incredible, as they completely opened up their doors to me and showed me life in Uruguay. My impression of the culture and country was very positive. Seba took time out of his day between work and spending time with his son, Ismael, to show me around the entire city by foot. They cooked me dinner, breakfast and we communicated about our ideas on globalization, music, life philosophy, Barack Obama and our knowledge on each others countries. They only knew Spanish (so Seba told me, but I later found out he knew a good amount of English), so this was a good way to get back into just speaking Spanish. My idea of Uruguay now has changed. It is a very rich culture with very good people, and with so much old architecture drenched in history. Unfortunately it does not have a very strong place in the world economy. Its lack of industry makes it very dependent on neighboring and larger powers and is stunting the growth of the capital city. (Uruguay is already very small, but the future of the country may see its borders eaten away and taken over by larger neighboring powers.) All of this was an experience given by just the kindness of others, for free. Couchsurfing is a revolutionary mode of experiencing foreign places through the people. I can't thank Sebastián and his family enough (couchsurfin.com).

I finally caught a bus to Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil. I found out my friends Ryan and Jessie were traveling from Punta del Este in Uruguay on the same bus. So I surprised them! It was an awesome reunion. From here, we wanted to go to Sao Paulo, but instead somehow stayed on the bus to Campinas, 2 hours outside of Sao Paulo. I did not know this until they were already gone. I was alone, and back to not knowing any Portuguese. I kept trying to use my Spanish, but did not get any response. You just can't win: I learn one language and feel confident in speaking it, then your lost in another country without knowing the language. After a five hour delay, I was leaving Sao Paulo for Rio.

Discovering Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden

Sunrise on Praia do Botafogo after an
amazing all night Samba experience

View from atop the Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer Statue)

The masses atop the Corcovado

I've got friends in low places, really low places. Like 4,000 miles below the equator in Rio de Janeiro. A few years ago I worked at World Famous Dog Wash in Ocean Beach. Yep, a dog wash; at the same time while working at a wine bar, weird enough. It was here that I met Gustavo Vaz Mariano from Rio de Janeiro. I only knew him briefly until he suddenly had to return to Rio. Before he left he was looking for a cheap pair of Diesel Jeans, so I took him to a local thrift store in OB, where they sat, near brand new, for $13. They cost about US$500 in Brazil, and about US$100 in the States. He was so happy and told me whenever I wanted to come to Brazil I had a place to stay.

My first night as a Carioca with
my new family for the next 2 weeks

Now, fast-forward to this month. I arrived at Rio's bus station at 9pm last Sunday after 48 hours of traveling. I was dirty, I found some mold in my shoe, and I was starving. I called Gustavo in Porto Alegre and he was all ready for my arrival. He picked me up from the station, and right away we went to dinner with his family at a Brazilian restaurant. It was all you can eat and also all you can drink-including shots of Cashaça, a Brasilian liquor, straight from the barrel. I couldn't believe it: I was in Rio!! His house is located in Botafogo, right in the center. When we were pulling into his house, I looked to the left and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue ("Corcovado") at the end of his street and the bay with the famous panoramic stretch of Rio mountains on the water, including the most famous "Pao do Açucar."

My Brazilian Mae, making home made feijoada

Suco bar on the corner of my street,
Rua Visconde Ouro de Preto, and Praia do Botafogo

The next week was incredible. Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches, waterfalls and jungle trails in the city, Samba clubs and drinking Cashaça in the streets. I love this place. On every corner there is a "Suco" bar with fresh juices and smoothies from the most delicious fruits imaginable. My favorite has been maracujá (passion fruit). Brazil grows so much of its own produce that they have their own crazy unique names for fruit, including the famous Açai. The açai here is from a different planet compared to that in California. They serve thick açai sucos that taste like a chocolate fruit. And all the fruit here is grown organically. The idea of soaking produce in chemicals is absurd to Brazilians, one of many reason why they are probably so in shape here. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot in Rio, so the natural beauty has been disguised under clouds and water, but I got a couple of beautiful days in to experience the real reason Rio rocks.

It has been such an interesting trip all together, as I am not in another city, in another country, staying with another completely different family. Gustavo and his family have been amazing. They keep referring to me as the guest, and the guest is not allowed to do any work, must be fed and must enjoy himself in their eyes. I did not expect more than a friend in the city and maybe a place to sleep if they had it. But they keep giving and giving! This trip has been filled with unexpected delays, awful encounters with trouble, and plain bad luck, but I have also been fortunate enough to find such guardian angels to help me like his family. Staying with another family is also making me understand the family structure a lot, and I am beginning to understand my own more and more through these others.

Irmãos Brasileros, Gustavo and Andrea

Rio has an amazing night life. Samba on the streets, packed clubs with almost every beautiful person in Rio (which are ALOT!), guys walking around selling beers in coolers, and the non stop rhythm of the "Carioca" night that lasts until dawn. Last weekend we went to Lapa, a famous district with run down buildings and the famous colonial Lapa Arcs where people step to Samba underneath. This is the club and bar district for only traditional Brazilian music and dance, like Samba, Forro, Chorinho, and there is even a couple of Salsa bars. On Saturday we checked out a Samba show at "Manguera" a famous school of Samba in the North Zone of Rio. It was one of the best experiences I have had yet, with so much energy and smiles. The dance is the most different style I have learned yet, and its hard for a gringo to jump into. When they start moving fast though, its unreal. These schools practice and put on shows all year round, until the biggest show in February: Carnival. Rio is famous for it. All of the school take part in a huge parade that last three days and each put on hours long performances. There are cement stadium-style stands set up throughout the city that only get use during the week of carnival, and just sit there the other 51 weeks of the year. There is so much diversity in this city, with so many colors of people. It seems that mixed and black are the majority here, but when you are dancing Samba, there is no matter what color you are, all Brazilians get together and swing their hips and move their bodies with a rhythm that is woven through their culture.

Brazilians dancing to "Funky" downtown in Centro

Samba band at a bar in Lapa

I ended up staying here a lot longer than expected! I got stuck as I was denied a visa to enter Bolivia (like Brazil, Bolivia also requires only US citizens to have a visa to enter, "a matter of reciprocity" President Evo Morales said as the US makes Bolivian citizen go through the same process that is quite expensive for its citizens). I was mad the US, irritated at Bolivia and pissed off at the globalized world when I found out. So, with little time left, I will have to fly to Lima Peru. This weekend should be awesome in Rio, with my first Brazilian "futebol" game and possibly a capoeira lesson! Até logo amigos, biejos e abraços.

Drinking Brazilian beer Itaipavia on the
streets of Ipanema - its legal here!

Ipanema by day, the waves were between
10-15 feet high these days!

**I am having some difficulties with my camera unfortunately. When I work it out, there will be more photos up on my next blog of Rio. I have a lot of beautiful shots here from "A Cidade Maravilhosa" (The Marvelous City)

Mendoza

Last week I traveled west at the foot of the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is straight across Argentina from Buenos Aires, on the other side of the country about 1,000 km. (close to 667 miles). As all of my travels down here, it was done by bus since flights are ways out of my budget and there isn't any sort of train system between cities. I found out the good news of Obama at around 5AM on the bus via text message from my friend Nathaly Espinoza. Thanks Nathaly ;) Everyone here that I meet is happy for this. There is actually a surprisingly common racist attitude throughout Argentina towards people of darker skin, so I was surprised to hear so many Obama supporters. Most people only know he is democratic, unlike Bush. And according to almost the whole world, anyone not like Bush=perfect for the U.S.!
Mendoza has been one of the places I have been excited to see for a long time. Since my time at the Vine in Ocean Beach, a small privately owned wine bar and restaurant, I have learned a tremendous amount of information about wine and wine regions of the world. Mendoza, Argentina is one place in particular that has always fascinated me and aroused my interest. Since I knew I was coming to Argentina, it was one place I knew I had to visit! And here I finally was! It is an awesome little city, with beautiful parks, mountain scenery and hot climate. There were a bunch of cool restaurants, cafes, museums and shops. It was a lot more quaint and smaller then Buenos Aires, but still a pretty busy town with a cable-bus system and taxis, and the tourism was very high.
There are so many activities to do in Mendoza! I went with a few friends, and as soon as we checked into our hostel, we found out about bicycling, wine tasting, renting scooters and quads, rafting, paragliding, sky diving, horseback riding. . . So the first day we trekked the town and had lunch at this highly recommended place called "Tablao" that featured mouth watering 'parrilla' style meat sandwhiches. By night we had our first Mendoza wine! The next day we were driven up to the mountains: a drive I will never forget. It was like driving through Arizona, Colorado and Utah, all in about 70 km. There were huge Rocky-like mountains, with rusted-red colored dirt hills, layered colors of rock, along with gigantic snow capped mountains in the background! When I first caught glance of the Andes, I remembering noticing the size. "I've never seen mountains that tall before," was all I could think. Once we arrived to our destination, I stepped out into the heat and caught glance of all that I was surrounded by: silent open space of heat and rock. For 8 hours we soaked up the landscapes vibrant energy with fun activities! For the first time I went rafting through some pretty good rapids, and got soaked from head to toe while paddling hard down a fast moving current. I balanced out the extreme sport with a mellow horse-back ride, spending two hours riding through desert like climate and climbing up and down huge hills- all on a horse! Note: this was like my third time ever horse back riding-and here I am in the blazing heat of the mountains riding a horse up and down pretty steep and rocky valleys! The view was unforgettable and was permanently seared into my brain. I could only hear a sound of silence I thought didn't exist. Only the wind, my horse, the sun and the Andes.

Friday was what I had been waiting for since I got to Argentina. Wine tasting! We hopped on the bus and drove an hour out of the city to the region of Maipú. Maipú is one of three main regions in Mendoza for growing wine, the other two being Lujan and the Uco Valley. Lujan and Maipú are the two more popular and well-known areas that are right outside of the city central. Maipú was not exactly what I expected before hand, but once I arrived I understood why it looked the way it did. It is a very poverty-strickened area, and apparently a very dangerous one too. This was no Napa Valley. . . We were dropped off by the bus at our bike rental company in the towns central, and got our bikes, which was basically a little run down house with huge fancy looking signs. We jumped on and began to ride with a little map of 11 different places to check out, including 7 Bodegas (vineyards) and other cool stops. We rode all the way to last one, about 8 miles away, and got to know the little ran down town of Maipú; with old derelict buildings, houses falling apart, dirt rodes and rusty little bus stops, and all the while the breath taking view of the snow capped Andes. We kept passing bright green vineyards and huge yards with pretty landscapes. I stopped a few times to take pictures, and that's when police officers approached us and told us this town wasn't safe for tourists, especially with huge silver camera hanging from our necks. He advised to stay on the main road and keep riding our bikes for a few more kilometers where the area got safer. Who would think that in the same area where world famous vineyards produce wine was a rural ghetto?

We checked out a vineyard called Carniae. It was beautiful, small and the people were super nice. We got a tour of the vineyards, a property with only 10 hectares, the barn where the wine production takes place, and after we tasted their house wine of Cab and Malbes blend, a malbec rose, a Malbec reserva, then we tasted two of their finest wines: the prestige (a Malbec, Syrah and Cab blend that aged 15 months in French oak barrels) and the Gran Reserva Malbec that was also aged for 15 months in French oak. (Argentina is known for its Malbec, originally from France, it needs desert like climate-a lot of sun and heat by day and very cool temp's at night-like that found in Argentina to mature and thrive. In France its always been used as just a blending grape, especially in Bordeaux wines.) This place was rad: very personal and friendly! One interesting fact learned: roses are planted all over the vineyard as a French tradition (the owners are French). Farmers in France would plant roses in front of each row of vines so if there were any disease or harmful insects making their way towards the vines, the roses would catch whatever first, warning the farmers before something bad hit the grapes. The roses found on their vineyard were just for French traditonal decoration, as Mendoza is pretty much like a desert where roses can't really grow naturally.
The next stop was an olive grove called Paur, just across the street. They grow olives and produce oils, fine olives and also make bread and sun dried tomatoes. We got a little tour of the grove and trees, pressing machines for oil and the other machinery. Then we got to try them. The oil we sampled didn't impress me, but the olives were delicious. I also learned new facts: you have to use a special olive for oil, from different kinds of trees. The different colors of olives tell you what stage of readiness the olive was at when picked (black being completely ripe, purple being semi-ripe and green being the least ripe). You can only make oil from black or purple olives, not green. The darker olive tree on the right is grown for olive oil.

"Tempus Alba" was the next bodega. This was a more modern vineyard with lots of fancy looking tools and a very organized layout for their vines. There wine was okay, and their place was too modern looking for me. They didn't even give a tour, just pointed where the vines were outside (duh) and where the steel vats were. An Italian guy and I compared thoughts about the wine, and we both agreed the other place (Carniae) was better. This wine wasn't that complex, and we only saw steel vats and no barrels. These people were origianally from Italy. I learned a lot of the vineyards here are ran by Europeans. This is kind of sad to me, and maybe explains why the area is so poor as the land began to be exploited by outsiders and left the towns people in dust.

Our last stop (as we were drunk at this point and the raging temperature kept us from going much further) was a little place called "Historia y Sabores." Here, they hand made a ton of different liquors, chocolates and jams (including a Malbec grape jam!). Everything is made by hand, no machines and really good!! The chocolate was delicious, but the fun part was that we each got one free shot of one of their liquors. We sat with a couple of Brits and formed a big group to pass around our shots to try different ones. There was Absynthe, Chocolate liquors, Potato Vodkas, Mandarin creamy liquors, and I tried the Tia Maria, a strong and thick liquor made with mocha and coffee, with tastes of Grand Marnier.

After that we jumped on our bikes and dashed back to catch a cab. Kari had to catch a bus to Santiago, then a plane to Lima, Peru to meet her folks up. It was like a comedy, racing through Mendoza and running back to the hostel, all to catch a flight across South America. She ended up missing it! After saying goodbye to her, it was just Ryan, Jessie and I. We hung out the last day and got our trips in order. I was originally suppossed to catch a bus south to Patagonia, or east to Mar del Plata to see the International Film Festival. Both ended up not happening for various reasons and I wound up taking a bus back to Buenos Aires unexpectedly! It was sad leaving Ryan and Jessie, as I am now traveling alone. I learned alot from them, and they are both great friends. Its so wierd how we all converged the way that we did! I really like traveling with people now, but I am content with the rest of the solo journey ahead!

Now I am getting ready to head to Montevideo, Uruguay then on to Brazil where I will be staying with a friend in Rio! Saude!!

ps: Finally got a decent internet connection, so I added more photos to the last two posts: "Adios Buenos Aires" and "The Build Up to Departure"