raven reconnect

so 30 minutes after touch down in buenos aires i met up with miss jones at the obelisco. and her friend alex from missouri. after over 3 years.

yes. 3 years had past since our random yet surprisingly intellectual conversations in the dorm bathrooms. 3 years since my insistence on continuously writing inane comments on the whiteboard outside her room.

but it didn't take even 3 minutes to realize that nothing had changed. except raven's hair. which is actually curly. didn't know that.

so after our rendez vous on the main strip of 9 de julio we headed on to palermo. the location of our hostel and in my opinion the best suburb of buenos aires. that i have seen anyway.

we then left alex behind while we went shopping. every saturday there is a mini market thing at the plaza nearby. which i was to frequent several times in the short time i spent in BA. now that's saying something.

restaurants turn into clothing markets. people sell awesome clothes, headbands and bags. for cheap. and there are plenty of places around to find beer and snacks. which we did find. further down the street past the coolest sunglasses/seeing glasses store i have ever seen.

there we drank two bottles of isenbeck and caught up on the last three years. which took a while. but was extremely fun. for one i found out that raven had worked with another one of my favourite american friends, sibel, on the obama campaign in D.C.

interesting.

also learnt a lot about montevideo. where raven had been doing study abroad for the previous four months. which is just across the murky sea/river thing that separates argentina from uruguay. the proximity obviously being the key to our reconnection.

i heard all about the horse drawn garbage "trucks", the general expensiveness of the city, the nature of it's upper class, the fact that everyone owns a dog and several other random facts which escape me.

these were all to be confirmed the next day when we headed back to montevideo via the buquebus ferry. which i was to take again. and again. but more of that later.

but before the ferry there was a night out in palermo to be had. after a well loved argentinian asado. with chorizo. and random chilean guys who appreciated my take on santiago slang. or they were just laughing at me. either way.

the steak was a bit tough. but i reconfirmed my long lost relationship with quilmes so it didn't bother me too much. also met a saffa dude who had moved to brasil and grown up in salvador. and studied at ithaca. as with many previous encounters with the few relocated saffa's i have met, much time was spent justifying. which annoys me. so we went out to drink instead.

to an awesome outdoor club/restaurant (people are all about multifunctional locations in argentina) with wooden furniture and trees. the drinks were expensive. but i liked my mojito. and enjoyed the random encounters.

"where are you from?"

"something un-understandly spanish"

"generally surprise at being told that i'm south african"

the usual.

but soon i needed to go "home". and sleep off that lethal mojito. woke up to rain and the worst headache in the history of jenna hangovers. which means VERY BAD.

and then it was ferry time. fun. loved the baguettes in the food section. even though the lettuce could have been fresher.

eventually got to montevideo and spent the next four days doing absolutely nothing in raven's apartment. on the beachfront.

raven was busy with research on an essay so i was more than happy to take over her laptop and make up for lost time on facebook. repeatedly. and for hours on end.

occassionally we did step out for food, ice cream, beach time and non-committal sightseeing. most of them i had actually seen on my first night. which i almost forgot to tell you about.

all the doing nothing that week was actually the result of walking the ENTIRE city that sunday night. in a political "yay we won" celebration. uruguay has to be the most patriotic country in the world. even in the rain we were singing (well i was making noises) shouting and carrying flags to celebrate the election of their new president, pepe mujica.

or something like that. it was fun. and got to meet loads of raven's english speaking local friends. who had grown up in the states. and who were all very cool.

spent the last night in montevideo with two of them before i had to meet my sister back in BA later that week.

i didn't sleep much at all that night. too much freestyle rapping and getting involved in calling a guy up for a bottle of VAT 69 at three in the morning. which he promptly delivered on a pink bicycle.

i love south america.

the next day of ferry catching and buses was tough. so i consoled myself with another baguette. and the thought that i'd be catching up with my sister the next day.

more on that.

soon.

santiago slothlike

so after my nap in the back seat of franky´s ride we decided to have a beer in town. and walk around. we didn´t end up drinking any beer but i did see a lot of downtown santiago.

full of your quintessential monuments and statues commemorating revolutionary leaders. in fact there were quite a few. learnt a lot of chile´s attempt at communism and the resulting military take over by pinochet. and the subsequent controversial outcomes.

which differ according to your perspective. as i learnt after taking a look at a photographic exhibition in one of the city´s museum/gallery spaces. interesting.

we also met up with mareli, a fellow saffa traveller and friend of franky perro´s, in her downtown apartment. very cool. even got to throw out some afrikaans. the building she lived in was pretty insane, like an oversized boarding school building with decor finishes and massive corridors. with a somewhat faint whiff of urine smell.

i realized as i sat on her couch that it was the first time i had been in an acutal home in a long time. it was nice. after 2 months plus of being accustomed to absolutely no privacy in hostels i definitely appreciated the quiet personal space. and the guacamole that franky made too. so good.

and on that note the food in chile is awesome. maccers even puts guacamole on their mcchicken burgers. oh yes. in fact there is pretty much guacamole on most things. which i appreciate.

so we ended up drinking with mareli and her neighbour for a while before heading back to the burbs to meet franky´s family. which was an interesting experience. i finally realized the extent of my spanish. which FYI does not extend to chilean social gatherings. that being said however i have never been made to feel more welcome.

i was constantly being offered food. and drinks. and more food.

i miss it.

after meeting up with the family we then hit up franky´s local spot, teclados, to meet up with some of his friends. who were all good looking. so different looking from the inca inspired physique i´d become used to.

they were pretty funny too.

and then we drank beer and long island ice teas. but not in cocktail form. in chile they get the spirits in a separate glass and then combine it with another glass of coca cola.

lethal.

woke up on franky´s couch the next morning with a suitable headache. and then slept more.

and then we drove to the beach. 2 hours away in a town called maitencillo. were i tried unsuccessfully to stand up on a surfboard. but i enjoyed it. even though it was SO COLD. might have to learn to do it properly when i get home.

chilled out at the beach that sunday. which was beautiful. then at sunset we headed back home. to sleep.

which i did a lot of.

so yes. relaxation was to be the prime priority of the next week in santiago. absolute domestic bliss. i was so well taken care of it was insane. and so good to spend time in a home. with a comfortable couch, TV, and the company of the awesome cancino family.

franky had to work so his sister, fabiola, and i hung out all the time. went shopping. watched inane programs on MTV. went to a literature class on neruda at her university. understood some words.

generally had the best time.

drank loads of tea. ate quesillo (cream cheese but better) ham, and bread. and amazing homecooked cuisine which i have definitely not appreciated enough before.

too good.

but soon it was time to meet up with NC raven in BA before heading to uruguay. so i had to leave the comfortable confines of my happy chilean slothness and catch a flight.

somewhat reluctantly. i was sad to go. i must say.

definitely going to have to go back to chile.

soon.

quito quiet

so after our island excursion it was back to being a conspicuous tourist. more whistling and kissy noises.

to be fair we stayed in the most touristy area in town. the mariscal. which had some cool shops. so mom and i went shopping. again. and bought ilze earrings for her 30th birthday. and alpaca gloves. and more jewellery for meg. mom also bought some type of carved nut thing.

we ate out. all the time. once again satisfying our endless urge for potato soup at the nearby ecuadorian restaurant. where the waiter insisted on continuing a spanglish conversation.

i miss that soup.

we also celebrated mom's birthday with jay and bella at a restaurant called boco del lobo. wolf's mouth. not sure what that's about but the interior was colourful and the food good. jay and bella told us the story of how they met. a touching tale.

it was one of several restaurants that we were to frequent over the following four days. the losers that we were. spending most of our time sleeping or reading in our room. as we had managed to find two english bookstores on our street. it was fun though.

the other restaurant favourite was uncle ho's. an american run vietnamese getup with a graffiti portrait of ho chi min. they even lovingly printed flyers with the slogan "i <3 ho's". jamie, i've kept one for you. insane grapefruit salad. also had some warm cocktail that took a while to make. the name escapes me.

in between doing absolutely nothing we also went to the local botanical garden, which had a beautiful butterfly enclosure. nothing like butterfly world but definitely up on the insane colour stakes. ilze. you would have loved it.

we also did a city tour. quito was declared a UNESCO world heritage site some time ago. so we looked at, wait for it, more churches. one one them was a south american take on the notre dame. but instead of gargoyles there were turtles, iguanas and other animals. pretty cool.

another church had the addition of a saint's corpse. creepy.

after that we went to see the equator. although obviously there isn't much to see. besides a red line and the additional features they added to the museum to give it more credibility. at least to them. this included various amazon animals in formaldehyde. an amazon palm house. and a statue of a naked amazonian man with his winky tied back with string.

the museum also prides itself on its ability to demonstrate equator effects. still not entirely convinced but we now each have a certificate for being able to miraculously balance an egg on a nail on the equator line.

i think it has more to do with the shape of the egg. and the worn out nail top. but maybe that's just me.

we also walked n the equator line with our eyes closed. and watched the water spin around the plug on both sides. it seemed different. but i have been told before that this is a lie. i am now centrifugally confused.

either way they make money off it happily. and our guide was cool. we were also fortunate enough to admire some guinea pigs in some late 110 year old woman's hut. he called them lunch. they're still pets to me.

on our return we chatted to a lovely old lady who was distributing wheelchairs in ecuador in our hotel. she was from the saltspring islands off vancouver island in canada. never knew it existed. but it sounds lovely. full of exiled hippies and the like.

but eventually our time in quito reached its end and mom was due to head home. and me to santiago, chile, to visit franie and the cancino crew.

on the way over i was bumped up to business class for some reason. so i spent three hours in the vip lounge eating the free food and taking advantage of the high speed internet. oh yeah.

it made saying goodbye to mom easier. although it was still sad. but only a month until i was home.

after covert attempts to avoid taxi touts in upstairs airport bathrooms i met franky perro outside. and it was time to explore santiago city while he went to work.

i managed a few hours of hot dog eating, site seeing and watching pigeons getting outsmarted by little birds for crumbs before the travel tiredness hit me. and i had to go take a nap in his car.

eco living ecuador

in the galapagos. the most bizarre collection of islands. all unique. even though we only saw 4. and swarming with tourists. mostly 20 years older than me.

but it was still awesome. a 360 shift from my previous backpacker existence. before it was bars, no sleep, buses, stale bread rolls and beer. in the galapagos it was early mornings. yacht trips. and deluxe cuisine.

bliss.

something i could never have afforded to do on my own. thanks mom.

saw the most bizarre animals. up close. the insane iguana population did not even flinch if you stood right next to them. the islands are so isolated that predation was never an issue. and therefore they have no fear of humans.

also saw birds. sea lions. baby sea lions. more birds. and snorkeled with sharks. and turtles. and then got on the boat to eat a two course meal. daily.

for four days.

in between exploring various volcanic islands. some with only lava remnants, tunnels and sand. others with pristine beaches. learnt more about how darwin actually got the idea for his origin of species theory. it all started when he examined the different species of finches on the island. who differed by the size of their beaks.

other evolutionary examples include the black marine iguana. who has a long tail and dives underwater to eat algae. the other iguanas lie under cactus trees waiting for the fruit to fall down. we even saw evolution in action (oxymoron?). an iguana that had actually climbed into a tree and was trying to whack down a juicy piece. apparently a rare sight.

i love iguanas. i want one.

and yes yes. all very targeted at an older age range but hey. i can appreciate.

we also had great company in jay and bella. an awesome couple from london in their thirties who we got on super well with. much like a foreign version of our dear russ and ilze.

having them on the trip was good value. even though everyone else on the trip was sweet too. weird being surrounded by "adults" again. but i enjoyed it. and drank many strong cocktails over dinner.

which was nice.

our group was also split by the spanish versus english linguistic curtain. but they were all very pleasant. even if one lady was in serious competition with her husband for facial hair. and he had a full beard.

our tour guides were fabulous too. even though their attempts at claiming to be younger were pitiful. the one also looked like ecuadorian richard gere.

they also all laughed at us when we saw what we thought were turtles in the sea. it looked like two. they kept saying something about "combination" "combination".

i was confused.

turned out they meant "COPULATION". which i only realized after they repeatedly said "SEXO".

yes. turtles multitask sex and sea swimming.

embarrassed much?

one boat dude also tried to push me off the boat at some point. think i was awkwardly trying to remove my flippers. or some such bent over "oh i'm sticking my arse out" angle activity.

funny.

basically it was the ideal mom and daughter getaway. eco hotel and everything. hammocks included. absolutely loved our room. we even got goodnight cookies.

i also happened to pick up an armistead maupin book at the front desk, having nothing else to read. that was an experience.

we also found a book written by some lady whose dad and uncles escaped nazi germany to colonise the galapagos. an interesting read considering then the main island, santa cruz, was almost totally barren except for the highland interior. they had to build everything from scratch. and they ate turtle lard.

now the main part of santa cruz is a right gringo trap. with the associated expensive tacky souvenir stores.

unfortunately though it came to an end. and we had to travel back to the barren balsa island to fly to our next destination.

the UNESCO approved ecuadorian capital. quito.