AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

I sit here writing this, broke as a joke, because my Patagonia trip took all of my money.  I knew it was going to be expensive but I didn’t realize how much the south squeezes out every last moneda from your pocket.  They really have a hold on tourism and know what they are doing.  Regardless, I had a fabulous time and I don’t mind eating tuna from a can for the next few weeks until I go home.

The south of Argentina is like another world compared to the north.  The mountains are snow capped versus rainbow colored.  There is grass for miles versus dry, red dirt.  The people are whiter and taller and wear nicer clothes than I do.  Penguins seem to be the exploited animal of the south for tourists while the llama is the pick of the litter in the north (though the south has llamas too they call them guanacos).

Read the rest of this entry »

When I first came to Argentina I didn’t give two hoots about Iguazu Falls.  I thought to myself, “I’ve seen Niagara and if I don’t see Iguazu before I die I won’t regret it.”  I know in scale Iguazu trumps Niagara without fail but to me water is water is water.  Seeing the rest of the country first was more important to me that wasting time going way out of my way to an isolated part of Argentina that only had the falls and nothing else.

Even as I planned my last big trip in Argentina before heading back to the states I didn’t think about Iguazu.  I only ended up going because my friend asked me to go and the timing was perfect since she wanted to go just a few days before my trip and it was kind of on the way.

In the end I’m glad I went.  Argentina and it’s natural wonders don’t cease to amaze me.  I expected to arrive to the falls and have one lookout point and be done with it in less than an hour but I was surprised to find that Iguazu is literally a maze of waterfalls ranging in size and force.  I saw multiple rainbows and spent the whole day going from waterfall to waterfall — there seemed to be no end to them.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think I have a good balance when it comes to going with the flow of life but also being a planner.  I always have a plan, I never go with the flow aimlessly.  I think that a daily approach to going with the flow is healthy so long as you have a bigger goal in mind.  This past month I found myself goal-less as I reach the end of my first experience in Argentina.  The closer I get to being in the US, the less I see myself coming back to Argentina for more than a few months.  It is not that I want to stay in the US but if there is an opportunity for me there and I am happy there I would stay. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been restless lately ever since I finished up my seasonal work with IHS and had my birthday.  I don’t work very much but having no work really makes me think about what the hell I should do with myself.  I started thinking big, as usual. Read the rest of this entry »

Only 2 months left before I’m back in beautiful ol’ USA.  I really can’t wait.  I don’t think I’ve spent a year away from my family and good friends before and although I’m not crying myself to bed at night I am definitely reminding myself daily that big hugs from them are soon to come. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been going to yoga here in Jujuy for about 10 months.  The studio is in the center of the city and is run by an awesome gay couple that I love.  A few months after I joined their studio, they started displaying products with the brand “Herbalife” on it.  I was a little suspicious.  I liked these guys, but have they fallen into a pyramid scheme? These smart yogi bears, one who is a dentist and one a psychologist.  Were they tricked by an even more powerful psychologist themselves? The salesman?  I couldn’t believe it.  But maybe they weren’t into the pyramid scheme.  Maybe they were just buying the supplements from someone else who was tricked into the scheme.  I mean, fish oil and multivitamins are really great for you, any yogi should subscribe to great supplements. Read the rest of this entry »

I have NEVER been interested in cooking.  At least not for the past 23 years of my life.  But this year all I want to do is cook and bake and learn everything about food.  Is my domestic instinct kicking in or something?  I mean, I’m not complaining. I actually enjoy cooking now which is great because I enjoy what I am eating since it tastes delicious and I made it with my own two hands.  The downside to this is that I don’t have all of the resources and ingredients I need to do everything I want to do in the kitchen.  Argentina is very limited, compared to the US. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been living in my new place for about 2 weeks now and I really love it.  I have 7 housemates and we all live on the second floor of a 2 story building.  Below us lives the owner and her daughter as well as another family.  The only time I see the owner is when she comes upstairs to hang her laundry out on the roof or when something needs to be fixed.  There are the occasional karaoke sessions on the weekends down in her place and you all know how I feel about karaoke.  She also let me bake some cupcakes in her kitchen since we don’t have an oven upstairs.  Her sweet little 9 year old daughter helped me make the cupcakes. I love that girl. She looks so much like my little sister Ambie when she was that age so I can’t help but squeeze her to bits because she reminds me of my cute little sister who I miss so much. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m moving again.  WTF? I know.  I have only lived in this place for 2 months, how can I already be moving again???  Well, I currently live with my friend from England and her husband.  They are much older than me and could more or less be considered my parents (if they had me pretty young).  When I moved in with them I knew it would be temporary, I just didn’t know how temporary.  They were taking a risk by letting me in and changing up their stable, married and more or less unchanged lives.  They were doing me a big favor by saving me from living with Laila anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I returned from Peru I have been trying to find a time to sit down with all of my thoughts and write some thoughtful blog posts.  Here I am now, with a mountain of things to say trying to figure out how to organize and say them all in a coherent and interesting way.

So much has happened since I got back from Peru that my head is practically spinning itself off of my body.  My first important thoughts, or I should say doubts, were confirmed after having a good g-chat with my friend Ellie who is currently in New Zealand and can relate to me from a more relevant viewpoint than my family who misses me too much to be rational.  I decided that right now I cannot realistically buy a house or start a bar, no matter how much I want to try and mix the young traveling life with a stable, settled life.  I can’t remember if I blogged about this but I probably didn’t because I was waiting for a more formal decision before I told everyone I was doing these things (and for good reason too since I already changed my mind.) Read the rest of this entry »