andy stranded by andes...

hi guys...

hope this post finds you well, i have quite a lot to catch up on, but not a lot of time. We left Buenos Aires a few weeks back. We were just going to jump on the bus like normal and head west towards the Chilean border - but i heard from a guy that you could catch a train to cordoba - roughly in the same direction - and it was really cheap. sweet as. Down at the train station, we found that it would cost us only 25 pesos (8 bucks) for the journey, instead of 90 on the bus..cool...but that was for the cheapest seats. we had to walk down to our carriage at the front of the train, at first the seats looked really good through the window...awesome...until we got down to our cheap carriage...and it was a bench seat, like those ones in old school buses...a wooden seat with about 5mm of padding, surrounded by a metal rail, unable to recline- always at 90 degree angle. Those buses that are uncomfortable to ride on for 15 minutes...it took us 17 hours to get to cordoba... apparently 7 hours longer then the bus... i didnt tell camilla that...

Had a quick look around cordoba for a day, then another overnight bus for mendoza...were going to stay in Mendoza for a day or two, but i heard about a cool little ski resort right on the slopes and thought we should have a look, so jumped straight on a bus for Los Penitentes. Fortunately, we were able to find some accommodation, despite everyone saying we wouldnt...it was in this little wood hut about 50 square metres, and had 26 peple crammed in...everywhere, sofas, floor, under the stairs...but was quite good fun...went out and mucked around in the snow till the end of the day. it was cold...about -10. Was dissapointed to find that it cost about the same as europe to snowboard there...dang. The plan was to continue over the andes the next day to Santiago, and ski some of the slopes close to there...(they have 4 awesome resorts less than an hour from the city) but the weather had other ideas...that night there was a huge blizzard for about 15 hours and we woke to the news that the pass would be closed for at least 4 days(it can be closed for up to a month in extreme conditions) we were told we would be lucky if we could get anywhere at all...for 4 days... wasnt overly keen to be stuck in the little hut for another 4 days... luckily in the arvo someone came in yelling that there was a bus back to mendoza outside...yeeew...we ran for that bus and are glad we did...as that road as well got blocked by an avalanche the next day...so we were back in mendoza to wait for a while. Found a cool hostel, with cool people, I was cooking on the stove next to a chef from new york, who was giving me some quality tips on my spaghetti and veggie recipe i am trying to perfect. He said it looked good, but didnt taste it... spent the next few days cruising around and doing some day trips to the surrounding mountains and lakes...the scenery in so beautiful...hopefully ill have some photos soon...

mmm... so, disappointed that we didnt get to board in Argentina, we got on the net and searched for accom to book in advance for chile. all the resort places were full, and expensive anyway. the hostel website, reccommended a place called Coquimbo, on the outskirts of Santiago 21km away from the slopes...ripper. lock it in... We eventually got out of Mendoza on the bus to santiago, spent 5 hours at the border trying to get thru...along with the rest of the backlogged traffic...the line of trucks was, no joke, about 10km long...pulled into santi about 11pm and just crashed in the city with a few aussie dudes we met on the bus... next day jumped up to head out to the place we booked...at the bus station they guy said it leaves in 1 minute... so we just ran and jumped on the bus, no ticket, nothing. After about 30mins, we thought we should be almost there now...its only 20km away...then we bought tickets and they were very expensive for that trip...then looking out the window saw the beach...the mountains arnt on the beach...we thought we might as well see where we are going...the end result was, we ended up 470km north of Santiago in a smallish port town of Coquimbo. Random, but i really liked it and had a great time there, stayed in a massive french mansion, almost 200 years old, which had been converted into a hostel. There werent many people, there but they were all cool as...

Didnt end up going snowboarding after all, after all our efforts...i even bought snowboard pants...looks like ill have to sort out a trip to japan... Camilla flew out 2 days ago, so andy is back to being a lone ranger...both hostels i have stayed at since, i have been the only person staying...usually they are a good place to meet people..haha...so im in San Juan, Argentina at the moment, and heading north towards Bolivia. Having heaps of fun, Argentina is a great country, really cool landscapes...really varied, Like Australia. Have been meeting some really cool people(apart from last 2 hostels...haha), my spanish is still very average, i can get where i want to go quite well (except booking hostels on the net, which i have never been a fan of...) but my conversational skills are still quite poor. Hoping to get away from english speakers in Bolivia and do some volunteer work. well see how that works out. Ill keep you posted...ok thats enought computer, im going to explore San Juan...woohoo! andy

beaches, brothels & boca...

ps. i love travelling... i have just spent 20 minutes speaking with an argentinian guy...he spoke about 7 words or english (not including his 1-10 numbers) i speak a few more in spanish...but with a combination of charades, pictures, maps and the 20 words or so we both understand we managed to understand each other...love it. he will also be in bolivia in a few weeks, so i told him i will practice my spanish on the bus, and we'll meet up for a good chat...he was stoked...

Don't worry mum, i didnt actually go to a brothel. We got into sao paulo, brazil at about midnight, and walked around trying to find a reccommended hostel for half an hour. we decided to just jump in a taxi...but he took us back about 100m away from where we had started walking to some random dodge looking hotel. couldn't be bothered getting to the other place so just booked in for the night. few minutes later (and repeatedly through the night) our neighbours made some interesting and quite disturbing noises...yeah...luckily we had pay tv and were able to drown it out by cranking mtv...

i seem to be writing in reverse chronological ( not sure if thats spelt right...i had to write a word out for a spanish speaker last night, and realised how rubbish at spelling i have become...or always was) order we spent 10 days in brazil. flew into rio - pretty much just chilled on the beach and relaxed a bit, went to a futbol game. fluminese vs vasco. man it was sweet as, you cannot believe the passion these guys have for the sport - it is pretty much life or death, the game ended 3-3 heaps of action, fans going ape...seriously reminded me of a zoo, an out of control zoo. The fans, sing, yell and scream. Slap, punch and break chairs. slap, punch and break billboards and signs. Light flares, fires and seats...man its is awesome, the best atmosphere. Definitely the highlight of rio for me.

Then we moved onto saquarema for the weekend, a quiet sleepy surf town 2 hours north east of rio. pretty chilled out, not alot to do rather then hit the beach and cruise around.

An overnight bus trip took us to sao paulo, home to 12 million people, went up a skyscraper and all you can see is buildings and house disappearing into the smog, absolutely massive...stayed for 3 days and just cruised around, wasnt really to interested in the city, but found some things to do. most notable being the portugese museum, the only one in the world...must see in SP...(i didnt understand a word, but the pictures were ace.) Heaps of homeless people. ate cereal from the box, just tip the milk in. no bowl, no worries....

From SP another overnight bus took us to the iguazu falls on the border between paraguay, argentina and brazil. Small problem at the border, the girl stamped me into brazil again, instead of out. she copped a bit from her supervisor as well, poor kid. got that sorted and jumped on a local bus to the argentine side and started chatting to some british boys...started talking about england, and as things were revealed one guy worked at the same gym i did 2 years before and the other guys played in the band at newbold college church ( i remembered his face from somewhere...and they knew a few aussies i know as well) random, on a tiny local bus on the border of argentina... couldnt believe it... both sevvies as well...so cool....

did i mention i love travelling...thats another one of the reasons( and the main one) the people you meet...

iguazu falls are mad...in total 3km long an dup to 80m high...awesome. look it up on google images, that will explain everything...i cant put my pics on here yet...

5 hours down the road we stopped at san ignacio mini, home of some jesuit ruins...awesome... actually while youve got google open, just look that up as well- itll save me from explaining a lot. and if you see the paddock behind the ruins... we jumped the fence and camped there for the night, just for something to do...it was freezing and the ground was hard as...so kind of like sleeping in a fridge, a fridge with a concrete floor...

We are now in buenos aires, Argentina. its an awesome city(and i dont even like cities) , so much to do, but i am running out of time - today went to these massive street markets, about 1km long heaps of antiques and artists who sell their work, so heaps of original and cool work for sale...if only i had heaps of money and didnt have to carry everything on my back for the next few months...also saw another futbol game this arvo. boca juniors vs. jujuy. it was the first game of the season so all the fans were keen as, and had a few months of pent up yelling and singing to get out. the atmosphere was awesome. we were in the locals stand, the cheapest ( and dangerous, we were told) and you stand up and sing, yell, chant for the full 90 minutes...sweet as...they even have a full band in there leading all the chants...had a great time boca won 4-0 and all was sweet despite all the warnings recieved...

anyways, thats about 1% of what ive done, and not even the best - just what came to my head now - having a ripper time, meeting awesome people, and seeing some really cool places and experiencing some sweet culture (how good is my adjective range...ha) jumping on an overnight bus tomorrow to not sure where, but were making our way west towards chile where will get in a week of snowboarding before camilla jets home. hope all is well where you are. take it easy. andy