Climbing in the Andes

Not showering for over 24 days, ice climbing, passing pro on ice patches, eating mentos for lunch, rock climbing, getting teeth bashed out by ice axes, frost bite, summiting mountains, crossing glaciers, thinking your friends are dead in a crevasse, and self arresting to save your life.

Ray, being rad on a rock

Doing some rock climbing right before a nice powder storm

Taking a rest just before summit. Alpine start!

Base camp: our home.

Dream team summits Alma Blanca in 14 hours!

Caléb

Hero shot 

Another summit

Ice climbing onto the glacier

Even dino arms exist with an axe in each hand.

Crevasses, check.
 sketch scree field, check
 huge ice patches, check.
close fall to death, check
Summit? check

Dreams do come true.

Hitchhiking the Uruguayan Coast.

Here's the lastest in photos of adventuring in Uruguay. These are from La Quebrada en Treinta y Tres where my best uruguayan friend works as a guide. Hitchhiked with the Uruguayan army, locals, and Romainian tourists. This is about as good as it gets. 

A relaxing dip in one of the falls 

 Look close! Its an Armadillo!!!

Just one of the falls. 

Iván teaching me how to be the ultimate 'survivorman'. Pretty neat fork...

Another day at work.

A delightful camp spot.

The best internship. Karumbé.

I had, hands down, the greatest internship. Tons of great memories: german games, miscommunication in spanish, 'cultural exchanges', latin dancing, cinchando, días libres, carpentry, and of course catching and studying turtles. 

VAMOS ARRIBA EQUIPO!

Setting up the net in Cerro Verde.

Turtle Racing

Our home!

Tagged! 

Our team complete with Calsita.

Avisamiento. Aka, turtle watching for 6 hours.

Our worksite

Chuchos

After a successful day of Captura!

Fin.

Somos Vagos

I'm in Uruguay and to be honest, loving it. Its been filled with spanish, fires, friends, puppies, beach, music, sunsets, meat, mate, turtles, dead whales, and crappy bagged cookies. 

Traveling is the best form of education. That being said, photos can say the rest. 

Meat. Its whats for dinner. Every night. 

 

Iván cooking asado in Punta Rubia.

This here is my job in Montevideo. I clean turtles, shove tubes down their throats to force feed em, study them, and hang out. I can't believe I'm getting six credits for this. In 3 days I head off to La Coronilla to tag and capture wild sea turtles.

 Tristian Narjava Feria. You name it, they have it. 

 Hands down the best weekend yet. 

BA says it all.

Quote of the night (Francisco just got a new workshop for his company)-
   My fantasy for my warehouse is to have a garden with a little old gardener man working in it.

So my daily routine here is becoming... pretty enjoyable. Too bad it ends tomorrow. I wake up around 11 am or noon and get ready, then head out on the days adventure (which I have yet to get really lost!). I usually get really tired and overwhelmed around 5 and so I find a new café and order café con leche y tres medialunas. All for about $4 US dollars. Pretty nifty. I also do this so I can whip out my tourist map without being in the rush of the pedestrian sidewalks. Lastly I come back to the apartment, plan out my next days events, and eat dinner with Francisco around 11 pm while watching a couple episodes of Two and a Half Men. Its almost more enjoyable to hear his cackle then to watch the show. Anyway, then I head to bed around 3 am. So I never even really had to deal with jetlag!

But tomorrow it all ends and I leave to Uruguay to get settled there. Tonight I think I may have been convinced into doing a pubcrawl...  And I still have full intentions of getting on my ferry to Montevideo.

This is a view of about 1/200 th of Buenos Aires from the Reserva Ecológica. This was literally the only place I've felt okay to smile at anyone who passed by. Granted, no one smiled back...

My first time seeing the sea while down here

Close to Calle Florida. An experience all in itself. Pretty much a ton of shops with "hippy vendors" scattered in the middle selling there handmade goods. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't really look too hard at it all, but Im headed back that way today.

If only the Subte was this deserted all the time.  

Imma Yanki.

I've learned more from Francisco than I have ever learned from any liberal studies class. And through trial and error of course. Here are some examples:
1. I am a Yanki (the Argentina way of saying gringa).
2. I stand out because I wear bright colors, and have white teeth.
3. Chicken is NOT meat.
4. If I take the subte (the subway here) between 7pm and 1 am, I WILL get kidnapped.
5. Buying alfajors (oreos on steroids) is a science and a skill.
6. My usual cat calling noise is quite offensive here.
7. I should have gone to school here, because its free. Even for Yankis like us.
8. Fernet is definitely an acquired taste.
9. Never smile and nod when an argentine man is speaking to you and you have no idea what he's saying.
10. You need to press the stop button if you ever want to get off the bus. Otherwise you keep going...
11. Cojer is NOT what they taught you in spanish class.
12. If you say "Matías" with confidence at the boliche Asia de Cuba, you can get in.
13. Exact change.
14. Freddo helado is the place to go.
15. Waking up at 4 pm doesn't mean you've slept the day away.
16. Don't touch the cats.

One of the several near dead cats in the cemetery. 

Eating a HUGE cup of ice cream at Sarkis. Of course, they snuck straight up liquor in that thing. Sneaky agentinians. 

The cemetery in Recoleta. This place was incredible. It was like a giant maze filled with dead important people in their kingdoms. Anya and I agreed it would make the perfect hide and seek location. 

Everyone here seems to be obsessed with their own brand and flavor of packaged cookie. The only way to find out is to try them all.

Vida en la Ciudad

Here I am in Buenos Aires! Arrived about 45 minutes late and when I finally got out of customs and to the gate, Francisco was there waiting. I did have a hostel booked on Avda Mayo, but he offered to let me stay at his apartment, and so I accepted. He seems like a really great guy. The very first thing he said when he saw me was " You look terrified!". Which, in all honesty I was. But he is only 26 and owns his own company. Besides offering a ride, his home, and his advice, he even went as far as to make me a set of keys to his place.

Anyway, he went off to work, and I fought my urge to sleep and explored the city a bit. I swear, if I had brown eyes and never had to open my mouth, I would fit right in. Just like in España though, I keep catching myself smiling at people on the street (which is a no no). That is going to be my hardest habit to break. I'm still on the hunt to figure out how the ATMs here work. Its pretty intimidating because there is a police officer outside each bank door. And I'm the idiot that doesn't know how to extract pesos from her card. Its rejected me in my every attempt. I guess I can't spend money if I don't have it!