how do you say "cliffs notes" in spanish?

yola.

many adventures since my last update so i will skim through it all and get ya up to speed. bear with, por favor.

mendoza turned out to be crazy cool and lots of fun (despite my turbulent digestive region). what this reinforced was that a huge factor in the enjoyment of any given location--especially when journeying solo--is the strangers you meet along the way. through my hostel i came to link up with a few young argentine girls, and a mixed clan of boys from just about every english-speaking nation. we picnicked in the park, went to the movies ("sherlock holmes" with subtitulos en español), attended an intra-hostel asado (heaps of meat on a grill and sketchy tequila), and so on. one of the days, two american guys and i rented bikes and went on a wine-tasting tour, evading death-by-truck on the open road and singing "my humps" and other classy pop songs aloud while coasting through tunnels of tall trees. the night i left for chile, we all cooked a family farewell dinner (asian stir fry followed by brownies & ice cream!) and i left loving mendoza.

after mendo i ventured back to chile (border crossing is not the pinnacle of excitement, i will say) since i had cut it short the first time and missed out on valparaiso. when i arrived, the weather was gloomy (reminiscent of the thing i miss least about SF) and the town, at first glance, looked like the slums out of some documentary about prostitutes who, say, learn how to knit and quit the biz. i had been forewarned multiple times about the incidence of crime in this town so i was sketched from the moment i got off the bus. i had planned to stay with a girl from couchsurfing (named clementine, likely a transplant from france, also incidentally a part-time clown who juggles at the traffic lights in nearby resort town viña del mar--enough red flags for you?), but she had become a bit flaky via email and i could not confirm a time to meet so, in my early morning fog, i sought out a hostel that luckily had room and hunkered down. i was in a bit of a funk and everyone at the hostel seemed to be checking out so i was wondering how i would spend my day and turn my salty mood around.

luckily, thanks to my wonderful friend amanda who loves to connect people, i had been in touch with a girl named sabrina, also from cali, who is in the midst of a year-long voyage with her boyfriend (both on hiatus from advertising as well). i met up with sabrina and reece and, just like some heavy-handed cinematic metaphor, the sun came out. literally. we ate lunch and took one of the town's famous funiculars up to the top of a hill to walk the streets and scope the views and walls painted with epic artistry. this is my kind of museum. word. sabrina and reece were so much fun--within an hour or so we were warmed up as if having known each other for far longer, making countless inappropriate jokes, curving around the alley streets, and finally ending up at a "disco" for dinner. (their hostel had organized this: tons of meat, potatoes, and veggies are thrown in a huge paella-like metal dish over fire and cooked in wine.) the next couple says were spent with them and also some fresh imports at my hostel (all guys, american, british, and german) venturing through the hills to see old condemned prisons, quaint arty streets, a nightclub, and a quick trip to viña del mar for a stroll at the beach before sunset. oh, and i escaped with all my belongings and didn't get assaulted so my record is looking good so far.

i left valpo on a bus with the american boys (from montana) and returned to santiago (where i started my trip) for one last day. i had wanted to connect some family friends of my mom who i had missed the first time through, and, as luck would have it, they were all convening for a birthday celebration my one night in town. but first, a guy from couchsurfing, boris, who i had met a couple weeks back and taken a walk with, offered to put me up at his family's house for the night and i gladly accepted. they lived a bit out of the city center but boris was happy to drive me anywhere i needed. such a score. i met his whole family and they were so kind and hospitable, offering tea, bread (god, please, no more bread), and wanted to see pictures of my family. i love these people. i then set out for the other family gathering where i would have otherwise felt rather out of place (mostly chilean women in their 60s) but they were so welcoming and happy to meet me. i admittedly missed the humor of some of their jokes as their spanish is rapid fire and laden with local vernacular, but all in all i had a wonderful evening and it was interesting to see how the chilean life is in the realest sense. when hostelling and hanging with fellow travellers, it is easy to miss out on that huge other aspect of the native culture so i was happy to have a peek.

earlier in the day i had opted to buy a bus from santiago back to mendoza for friday morning and would just wing it and hope to get right on another bus from mendoza to buenos aires. the buses in argentina seem to be much more plush and posh than in chile and i wanted to ensure i had "cama" (seats that are wide and recline pretty far) and food service for my overnight journey to BA (instead of just booking a direct bus from santiago to BA which was likely pretty shitty and nearly as expensive, and didn't leave until saturday). well, my plan went off without a hitch. i got to mendoza, went to book a ride to BA and found they only had "semi-cama" (a glamorous term for a seat which reclines slightly and doesn't remotely resemble a bed and is squished very closely to the stranger next to you who very well may smell or be unaware of how far their elbows extend) or first class, but no cama. it turned out that first class cost only about $12 US more than cama so i figured, "f*ck it, let's do this" (the only foreseeable downside being that i may never be able to ride anything lesser again).

wow, this bus was so legit. the seats fully recline and have a foot-rest that comes straight out to align with the seat. i mean, this guy can actually can pretend it's a bed! big fleece blanket, no one even remotely close to me, personal space curtains, wine, champagne, hot beef meal, adorable french canadian neighbor-boys (which are not part of the standard service, i'd imagine, but a lovely amenity nonetheless), decent movies, WIFI!!! so yeah, i'm kind of in love. but one of the things the wifi provided me was the onslaught of concerned emails from people who had just heard of the massive 8.8 earthquake near santiago (and tsunami warning) and were concerned i was still there, perhaps buried under rubble (though i imagine my gregory™ backpack would be just fine, as this thing can endure anything, or so claim the guys at REI). first of all, i was feeling extra grateful that i just happened to take that first santiago bus instead of waiting for the next day service to BA. a little too "sliding doors", really, but great luck nonetheless. i will say that, man, it feels nice to have so many people wanting to know i am safe and sound and that are even aware enough of where i am or may be. in a seemingly self-centered world, it's a beautiful sign that people are real and caring. so, big ups to all of you for that.

i am now sitting in a hostel lobby in BA, waiting for sarah (my friend from the states and bariloche cohort) to wake up so we can situate ourselves somewhere and i can begin my tenure here. i know a few friends who have recently moved here, as well as a few travellers who are passing through, so i should be able to keep busy for a while. it's such a big city with so many barrios and so much to see, and i need a break from switching proverbial area codes every 3 days, so i plan to nest in BA for a couple weeks and see what comes.

big love--AMOR--from the land of empanadas. keep rockin.

on the mend in mendo

so, onda azul (the storied israeli farm), amidst all of its charm and chill, managed to poison me with some kind of vicious stomach virus upon my departure yesterday which surely made for a lovely 16 hour bus journey north.

i arrived early this morning in mendoza and now seem to be able to consume bits of bread so i take that as a genius sign that i may be eating meats and cheeses in the foreseeable future. my hostel is small and pretty quiet but its charm is growing on me. that said, i have opted to move tomorrow to a more lively spot nearby which seems better suited for the solo traveller and has a nice outdoor patio, etc.

at first walk/glance, mendoza seems quite nice. reminds me a bit of spain, but maybe that is an ignorant (or obvious?) assessment. nevertheless, i strolled through a few nice plazas and snapped some photos. its sticky and hot here, but knowing that it's winter in the northern hemisphere makes me appreciate the warmth (tho via facebook i have come to learn that today feels like summer in cali anyway).

one thing i will say about this place is that the drivers WILL run you over if youre in their way. so, best of luck to me on that front. perhaps tomorrow my stomach will be ready for some wine-touring and adventuring. also considering some cabalgatas (horseback riding) but we'll see what opportunities present themselves. knowing me i might just end up walking in circles for hours and eating in between.

keep it real stateside, friends.

chao.

hola with a side of shalom

hey people,

just a quick hello to help you triangulate my position. i was just in bariloche (lake district of argentina) with my friend sarah from the states. beautiful natural surroundings, quaint alpine ski town. we enjoyed the sun, recruited a new yorker and did a short hike to a stellar viewpoint, then the next day rented a car and took a 360 km drive around the ¨7 lagos¨. yesterday the three of us arrived on an israeli farm outside el bolson (couple hours south of bariloche) and will need to write more later to effectively describe this place but for now i will just say that i forgot i was in SA within 10 minutes of being here. aside from a few austrians and one other american, everyone else is israeli. there is a lake nearby and we may bike over to check it out. otherwise, we are chillin, doin nothin, eating hummus. will be in touch but just wanted to pop my head up so my status of being alive is still intact.

shalom shalom.

chile relleno

yesterday, i left my hostel and continued on with my couchsurfing host, aldemar, and his lovely lady, lorena. they are both colombian but met here in chile. the took me on a walk around town in the blazing sun and then to a big enclosed fish market which has a sort of restaurant inside. i had requested some standard chilean food so we sat down and ordered three things: pastel de choclo (typical chilean dish--a bit like a sheppards pie i suppose but with a cornmeal pudding on top instead of potatoes), pastel de something (a stewy pudding type thing filled with crab and topped with parmesan and lemon juice; sounds heinous but tastes good), and chupe de loco (a thick stew as well but with chunks of funky-flavored loco fish which resembles snail or octopus and is no friend of mine). i have listed them in the order of preference so please take note.

after eating we were too full to do any more consumption, so we took a walk to see some funky hoods. if i used words like "charming" and "delightful", that's how i'd describe the area of lastarria. people selling their art and wares on the sidewalk, tables lining the street and filled with people enjoying the sun and tastes of the barrio, just f'ing precious. we decided to break for something refreshing, and their friends visiting from valparaiso met up with us. chile seems to have heaps of fresh juices going on. i like this. we all ordered a glass of maracuja juice (which i have just now concluded in passion fruit) and sat at tables along the sidewalk talking about how spanish words in different countries mean completely different things (e.g., coger which means "to take, grasp, catch" in one place, and to "f*ck" in another. dangerous territory, i say. i don't plan on trying to remember which is which and will omit this word from my vocab. (this happened in italy once when i was traveling around with my friend jess. i was trying to soak up some extremely random words to aid in conversation and came to absorb both pazzo and cazzo; one means "crazy" where the other means "d*ck", or something to that effect. needless to say, i definitely used the wrong one when attempting to casually address a silly man on the street, and we ended up running away before i got us into even more trouble.) after a heavily english-free day, my mind was beginning to turn on itself and get confused by even the simplest phrases. immersion is surely the way to go, though mentally exhausting. i give myself two weeks to start convincing people i am not a gringa, so stay tuned for findings on this.

after our juice date, we returned to the house to chill and do some internetting (i checked the score of the super bowl but it was just after kick-off and showed a lead for the colts which, i now know, was not indicative of the outcome--woot woot, lil weezy!) the sun is out til about 9:00 here which is a bit disorienting as i am used to the little bit of gloomy winter cali light disappearing somewhere around 4:30 pm. we ventured back out for a walk around 11:00--i wanted to check out the boho/sceney bellavista neighborhood so we head that way, discovering some stellar graffiti/wall art en route. (i have some pictures, but those will be going up on facebook instead since google's photo-blog-inclusion-system is truly lacking. yeah, you heard me.) many places in bellavista were closed because it was sunday, but we ended up in "the patio" which was a beautifully laid out courtyard of open-air bars and eateries. seemed to have a fair share of tourists which i typically am soured by (am i even allowed to say that? who do i think i am?) but in this instance it worked for me. we ended up at a table at a colombian bar, ordered some pisco sours and a plate of colombian snacks, and enjoyed the live music from the guitarra man inside. after that, we walked back and called it a night.

all in all, chile is off to a nice start. since i paid a mandatory entry fee of $130, i am factoring that into my daily costs and making an increased effort to budget, so there's no telling how long my funds will last me. but right now i'm just going with it and trying to balance the frugality with the festivities. today i am meeting another guy from couchsurfing who wants to show me some more santiago, and then later on convening with aldemar and lorena again for some evening camaraderie with the colombian imports.

oh and one last thing: this daily blogging is not gonna last. so don't you start expecting things and then give me mierda when i fall off. i'm telling it straight right now.

hasta luego.

santiago-go-go!

hola a thousand times over, dear friends.

now, in am attempt to at least start off with good intentions, i bring you sudamerica blog entry numero uno, which promises no grandeur, eloquence, or intense revelation, but more so just a chance for me to outstretch my hand and tell you how i'm gonna give this thing a shot, but a different kind of shot this time. im gonna strive to get less caught-up in feeling obligated to provide such even-spread detail and put forth a greater effort to slam my updates on the internet's face with a bit of regularity, even if they turn out to be lacking in wit, structure, even editing.
this tripped me up before, so much so that i more or less ceased to write entirely, which brought about great shame and guilt (and i know what you're thinking--being jewish, i must be quite used to that by now), but that's not how this is supposed to go down. things will happen or not happen, and i will tell you some and leave some holes so that our futures can consist of sidebar conversations and delayed revelations.

all that garbage being said, let's get you up to speed. by way of lima, i arrived in santiago this morning. hyperbole has never been so needed as now when i tell you that this day feels as though it consisted of 86 hours. arriving at the airport at 6:30 am with no more than 20 minutes sleep (and some weird "breakfast" in my tank), i then found my way to my hostel, showered, met some girls from santa cruz en route back to the states, bought some snacks at the market, coordinated dates and accommodations for the next week, wrote and allegedly posted a blog entry that seems not to exist, hung by the pool, teamed up with a german girl who works at the hostel and a set of aussie & english boys who just arrived from new zealand, walked about town seeing cathedrals, hilltop views, and eating ice cream, then hanging at the pool again, going to the market again, cooking dinner, and then having beers with a group in the hostel's backyard...and that is pretty much what gets us to the here and now. too much detail, right? well, it's day one; get off my back.

it's pretty stellar how i go from feeling kinda loopy and directionless to gallivanting with a multicultural clan citing quotes from "snatch" (a la the epic brad pitt). i suppose it's an ultra-cheesy but good reminder that nothing happens when you just sit around waiting for it and whining. you gotta start stirring things up yourself, and that i did. hopefully this bodes well for the days that follow, though i do feel an awkwardness after being removed from the vagabond scene for a few months. surely time will cure this and warm me up inside so i recognize the peter pan gypsy i was/am/will be. day one could've so easily been a wash, a waste, an insignificant and uncomfortable adjustment to the reality that i have actually flown one-way to another continent with no discernible long-term plans. but it was much better than that, and i feel my confidence boiling up inside like i'm the goddamn hulk of mysterious budget adventures.

i anticipate it being rocky, but i am gonna rock this.