Pic of the Day - Che Day

On this rainy day in Cordoba, Argentina, we set out with a few friends we'd been traveling with to find Che Guevara's childhood home, which is now open as a sort of public museum. We eventually did find the home, but unfortunately the gate was locked, with this sign posted to the outside - the sign is a bit soggy and hard to read, but not to worry My Lovelies, I can translate it for you here -

"Thank you for finding your way here, to Che Guevarra's childhood home in the beautiful town of Cordoba, Argentina. Unfortunately, although we would normally be open to visitors today, for some reason we're not. But hey, if you wave at that lady you can see through the window, she'll probably come out and give you a brochure or something."

And so I am now the proud owner of a brochure from Che Guevarra's childhood home! Having been turned away from Che's house, we continued wanderi

ng around Cordoba, searching for a little entertainment.

Did you know that Argeninians are really quite serious about their Siestas? I speak the truth. So it was Friday afternoon, and we soon discovered that Siesta started around 11:00 a.m....and because it was Friday, "Siesta" would last until Monday morning! So alas, all the shops in town were closed up tight. Luckily, we ran into a woman who invited us into her shop, where she sold mate tea, mate gourds, and other mate accessories...not to mention the wine, cheese, and meats! I couldn't understand her very well, and I'm damn sure she couldn't understand me, but for some reason she LOVED me. And now I have a mate gouurd with a silver straw to go with my brochure from Che Guevara's house.

:)

Pic of the Day - Cow in a Car

You just can't make this shit up. Oh yes, that's right my friends - you are currently viewing two whole sides of beef in a hatchback station wagon. For REAL. This pic was taken in La Paz, Bolivia, near the hostel where Jax and I stayed before leaving the city for our bike ride down the Road of Death, to Coroico. I included a smaller version of this pic in a recent post, but I I just had to give it a little undivided attention. I mean....DAMN. And maybe the craziest thing about this pic is that after I snapped the shot, I bought groceries in the local market, sat and visited with a few friends from the road, and spent about an hour at the post office before returning to our hostel...when I passed this car again, and the cow was STILL in the car. I then vowed to abstain from eating beef in Bolivia...until Jax and I found a hoagie stand later that night. :)

For the Love of Hitchhikers

I know I'm not supposed to pick up hitchhikers. Really, I do.

I also know that I'm not supposed to kiss on the first date, or think babies look like aliens, or wear colored bras under white shirts, or order pizza at midnight, or curse, or stay up late, or forget to brush my teeth, or lots of other stuff that somebody - at some point in history - decided are inappropriate things for a nice young lady to do.

But full-circle-style, I love me some hitchhikers. Luckily, for the sake of my "nice young lady" status, I have found a loophole in "the rules" regarding hitchhikers. It's dangerous to pick up hitchhikers, especially for a solo woman. Check. I totally get that. But...what if they're not holding a thumb out? Doesn't the thumb in the wind define the status of hitchhikerness...a la Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues? Bingo. It's all about the thumb. No thumb, no hitchhiker, no problem!

Tonight I was driving home from my nice stable job in my nice sporty car, looking forward to a glass of nice red wine on the patio of my nice little apartment that I share with my nice little cat...when I saw them. Their bulging backpacks, their determined strides, their messy hair...it all tugged at my heartstrings and made me yearn for a life that was once my own. Once before...and once again, most certainly. But for now, it's a life that I've put on hold, and one that I admire with Nostalgia of the First Degree.

Their thumbs weren't working the offshore breeze of the ocean-bound road where I first met them. So technically speaking, they weren't hitchhikers. They were simply travelers, out exploring the world. As for me - all I did was pull over and ask if they needed a ride.

I stopped in the middle of traffic, hollered my offer through the open window, and The Travelers were in my car within seconds. They smelled like sweat and they looked tired, but their faces glowed with happiness through their sunburns. I fell in love with The Travelers immediately.

The Travelers were looking for Hollywood Beach, which is less than a mile from where I picked them up. I asked where they were headed on Hollywood Beach, which stretches for about one mile along the coast, and they simply shrugged, at a loss. Remembering the days when I had destinations absent of specifics, I suddenly felt embarrassed for forgetting that traveling the way The Travelers are - the way I once did - is about arriving at a dot on the map; a general destination. Everything else is like an afterthought, because the most important part of the trip is getting to that dot...and the next dot...and the one after that.

In the few minutes that we shared together in the car, The Travelers told me an abbreviated version of their story. They're a young couple from Baltimore, who simply couldn't answer the question of what to do with the rest of their lives when it was posed to them after finishing school. So instead of answering the Unanswerable Question, they decided to travel together, with no expectations, no obligations, and no safety nets.

I've been there before, with Jax. The Unanswerable Question between me and Jax wasn't the same as what The Travelers are currently faced with, but the principle is the same. You're standing at a crossroads in life and you're not sure of which path to take, so you pull in a deep breath, hold tightly to the hand of the person standing next to you, and put one foot in front of the other. Eventually, regardless of the circumstances, the answers will be clear.

I don't know what The Travelers are in for or out for. All I know for sure is that I dropped them off at Hollywood Beach and told them how to get to the sand dunes where they should be able to sleep for the night without attracting attention...and now I'm having a REAL tough time focusing at The Office Job, thanks to my Nostalgia of the First Degree!

Pic of the Day - Valley of the Moon

This is a photo of me and beautiful Clare from South Africa, sitting atop a ridge in the Valley of the Moon, or Cordillera de la Sal, in the desert north of San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_de_la_Luna_(Chile). Needless to say, the wind was merciless this afternoon! It probably didn't help that we couldn't stop laughing. A truly unbelievable landscape, the valley looks like what you'd imagine the surface of the moon looks like - pocked with craters, peaks, valleys, and an array of sporadically impressive geologic formations (which I would definitely NOT recommend climbing on...Chileans are quite serious about protecting cultural landmarks...a cause which is apparently federally-enforced. Seriously - don't climb on unique-looking stuff.)

11/23/06 - Happy Thanksgiving from Argentina!!

Hello! Did you miss me? Believe me - I sure missed YOU!

The last travel email I posted here was originally sent out from Bolivia, after Jax and I visited Lake Titicaca. It was several weeks before I sent out another email, when we eventually made our way to Argentina. In the meantime, we had an UNBELIEVABLE time in Bolivia! We rode mountain bikes down “The Bolivian Road of Death”, also known as “The World’s Most Dangerous Road” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road - DAMN, what a ride!!

We also spent several days in the Solar de Uyuni – an amazing high-altitude desert full of natural wonders the likes of which I couldn’t even begin to imagine had I not actually seen them. One night on our desert trek, we stayed in an OLD building made of bricks and concrete, where backpackers from other treks were also staying. The building was in the middle of NOWHERE – literally no sign of civilization for miles and miles around. The rooms were very large with high ceilings, and they had plain concrete floors and walls, with tiny windows up near the ceiling. There were about a dozen skinny, metal beds lined up along one wall in each of the three or four rooms, and no sheets or blankets on the beds. I’ll never forget that night – it was SO cold that we wore practically everything we had, but our faces and fingers were still numb. There was no electricity in the building and no moon that night…it was the darkest of dark night skies. Jax and I huddled with the other travelers in our room and we all wore our headlamps so we could see around the room. The guys wouldn’t admit it, but I think everyone was a little freaked out…I sure was. We all shared Power Bars and Ramen Noodles for dinner, and rationed our water because the faucets were broken. For entertainment, an English guy delivered an extremely detailed lesson on the sport of cricket, using charcoal to draw diagrams on the concrete floor…I was grateful to at least have something to focus on besides creepy sounds in the dark!

Jax and I wanted to continue traveling south to Argentina from Bolivia, but after the Solar de Uyuni trek, we decided to enter Argentina through Chile because we heard the border crossings were easier in that direction. So from the trek, we took a bus down to the Bolivia/Chile border where we walked through customs (after having our bags thoroughly searched), and took a bus to San Pedro de Atacama, the nearest town. We quickly learned that busses between San Pedro and Argentina only run every few days…so we settled in to a super cool hostel with a few friends we met on the road, and enjoyed northern Chile for a few days. We had bonfires in the desert, joined drum circles in town, and visited the Valley of the Moon (Cordillera de la Sal), where I was nearly arrested for climbing atop what I thought was an interesting rock formation...failing to realize that it was actually a protected cultural treasure! Woops.

By the time we made it to Salta, in northern Argentina, it was almost Thanksgiving – which is when I sent out the email posted below. I hope you enjoy the story, and safe travels!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from Argentina!!
Date Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 2:39 PM

¡Buenos tardes!

I love making that little upside-down exclamation point. :) Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I just got off the phone with my parents and sisters and cousins and brother-in-law and even my new little nephew (or one of the puppies - I'm not really sure - ha ha). It feels so good to talk to family! Jax and I are in Salta, Argentina now. What a beautiful city!! I haven't been to Europe yet, but everyone says this place is "very European". We arrived yesterday - no the day before - from a long bus trip, getting in to town around 11PM. After arrival we headed to the main square and sat down to a proper steak dinner - salads, wine, and the whole shebang - at midnight, served by a handsome waiter in a tuxedo! Then, at 1:30 in the morning, we walked across the plaza, which was still bustling, and sipped expresso with some friends in a little sidewalk cafe. I could get used to this!

We've been traveling quickly since the last email I sent out. After visiting Lake Titicaca from Puno, in Peru, and from Copacabana, in Bolivia, we headed to La Paz for more Bolivian adventures. La Paz is a HUGE city - very diverse and very busy. Unfortunately we didn{t have enough time to really explore the city, although we had some very memorable experiences. For instance, I learned how to send a package full of souveniers to the US from Bolivia. I think. Ha ha!

For me, there were two main highlights in Bolivia - first, riding a mountain bike down "The World's Most Dangerous Road" and second, traveling via jeep all ujp, around, and through the Solar de Uni - the great Boliaivan salt plains. The bike ride was unbelievable! We started in the WEE morning hours (we have an Irish friend we like to tease for saying "wee bit" all the time) at the top of this ginormous mountain, where the mist was so thick, in some places I felt like I was just following the sound of the bike tire belonging to the person in front of me. As thew mist cleared, we had incredible views of this lush, green valley. Everyone was wearing protective gear, which got COMpletely covered in mud splatters. Something about being covered in mud makes a girl feel really bad-ass. The road is about as wide as one truck. When two vehicles meet each other going oposite directions, a very delicate dance ensues whereby one precariously backs up while the other slowly inches forward for the pass. Take it from me - it is far safer to be on a bike than in a vehicle on that road!

One of the guys in our group was an experienced mountain biker from Colorado - I gave him my camera and he snapped a bunch of photos for me on the way down (both of my hands were very busy with white-knuckle grips on the handle bars). He said he could hear me "howling like an Indian" all the way down. Geeze - you would think a guy from Colorado might have heard a proper YEE HAW once or twice before in his life! :D

After surviving the road of death and another day in La Paz, we headed to a little town called Uyuni, which is the launching point for explorations of the Bolivian salt plains. I really don't know how to sum up our tour, it was just so incredible. We literally drove around the middle of nowhere in the back of a jeep for three days, completely in awe of the landscapes.

We saw flocks and flocks of wile flamingoes, living in bright aqua-marine colored lagoons at the base of maroon- and sage- colored volcanoes, rising up from the pure, crystal white sands of barren salt plains. We drove through herds of wild vicuña and alpaca, grazing on little cacti and patches of shrubs on high desert plateaus. We got up at 4 in the morning and watched a pale orange sun rise over the dramatic Bolivian landscape, from within a garden of seething hot gurgling mud - geysers pouring steam out of the earth all around us - our boots sinking into warm mud and our faces numbing in the frigid early morning air felt only at an altitude of 4870 meters in the Bolivian desert. We stripped down to our skivvies and soaked in a steaming hot natural mineral bath in the middle of nowhere, staring out across the mind-blowingly expansive landscape - an experience which left my skin soft and my soul calm (and my hair a little crusty, although that's not very poetic!).

The tour ended with a hectic border crossing into Chile, at a charming little town called San Pedro. I have TONS of photos to share with everyone, which I will upload as soon as I can find an internet connection faster that the shoddy dial-up connections we{ve been finding everywhere! We stayed in San Pedro for a few days, waiting on a bus to Argentina. Luckily we had a great hostel - lots of cool folks living a laid-back hippie-type desert lifestyle. Chilean people are very good looking as well. ,) We coincidentally ran into a couple of friends in San Pedro, and we all traveled to Argentina together.

My Spanish is getting better. Although we meet tons of English speakers along the traveler's route, we've also been spending time in plenty of places where there are NO English speakers, which is good for learning. So, as I mentioned, we're in a city called Salta now. Tommorow or maybe the next day we'll start heading south, towards Buenos Aires and Bariloche. Tonight we will have a Thanksgiving feast of steak and red wine!! Ahhhhhh......

Take care everyone, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hug someone you love and call someone you haven't talked to in awhile. I will send more updates (and hopefully photos) soon!

Love,
Aubrey

RELIEF!

Holy frickin' hellfire, my computer is actually HERE and it actually WORKS and all of my files are actually perfectly wonderfully beautifully exactly as I left them! I had fully prepared myself for the worst...or, rather, I had braced for the worst. I've spent the past few weeks telling myself that if the manuscript is gone, I'll just start over...it'll be one of Life's Grand Lessons. A learning experience, if you will. And yeah, I know they're just words on a screen...but they're also words that I've poured my heart and soul into for nearly two years now. So...PHEW. I just backed up all of my files onto an external hard drive (yes I know I should have done this before, but obviously I did not and now I have learned my lesson, BIG time). Now I have a pizza in the oven, a bottle of wine with my name on it, and a lot of writing to be done! More to come soon...

:) :) :) :) :)

Pic of the Day - Bus on Water

Good news!!! Today I received a long-awaited (automated) call from Dell, and my computer is finally on its way back home (fingers crossed that it arrives safely and in one piece)!! Once that's up and running again, it'll be MUCH easier to post my SAmerica travel stories here once again. So until then - here's today's travel pic - "Bus on Water" - this is a huge, plush tourist bus, slowly making its way across Lake Titicaca on an old, wood "barge" of sorts. The barge was seriously half full of water by the time it reached the docks!