back in the u.s. of a

Well, I decided it would probably be best for me to formally end this blog. After 22 straight hours airports and planes, I've made it back to Shorewood, Illinois. On my last two days, I did make it to Uruguay although my friends unfortunately did not. Rachel was sick, and Sara, Friday being my last day (and not knowing at the time that it was also hers), nobly offered to stay back and let me go.

The trip was relaxing and nice - making the decision to bail on Argentina for the day at the last minute, I raced to the ferry and thankfully it was running late. The trip was quick - just an hour's boat ride across the Rio de la Plata (really not a river at all) to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay to get myself another stamp to add to my passport's pages. Colonia turned out to be a smaller, sleepy (at least in the end of their fall) beach town that dated back to being the oldest city in Uruguay. Once on land, I spent the day walking around the old parts of the city, eating lunch at an amazing little Italian place that literally drained me of every peso I had on me (which wasn't much), walked along the coast for a while, and then read and relaxed at a cafe. Once nightfall came around, I headed back to the ferry to make my way back to Buenos Aires.

For my last official night, we all decided more or less to make it an easier night, all having long ways to travel the next day. Sara and I met up with our two Aussie/Kiwi surfer buddies we had made earlier in the trip and went out for some drinks and dinner. Getting a few pints and then some pizza, we were sitting at the restaurant finishing our drinks when our night came to an abrupt end - Rachel's fever ended up spiking again and not wanting to either have a horrible disease to bring back home or become so sick that she would not even be able to come home, we took Rachel to the ER at 2 am. No worries though, she ended up be plenty fine to get herself home to New York Saturday night, and Sunday morning tests show that it was just your average flu.

In between the ER and the flight home, Sara, the boys from Down Under, and I spent our last afternoon (the boys heading out that night as well) walking around San Telmo and going out for one last parilla hurrah. Salad, steak, wine, and Freddo (awesome gelato chain in Argentina) was our last meal in a foreign country (besides airplane food), and it was fantastic. Afterwords, we packed our bags, said goodbyes to friends and vacation, and made our ways to the our respective modes of transportation. At about 7 pm, I said goodbye to my NYC friends who hopefully I'll be able to see sooner than the year intervals we've been averaging.

After non-stop flights without major delays, my bags and I miraculously all made it to Chicago on time, and I was comfy at home by Sunday afternoon. Overall, my trip was an amazing time, though exactly what I expected happened in the end - three weeks seemed significantly insufficient. However, in three weeks I saw some amazing things and definitely met incredible people along the way. Thanks for following along with me, and I'll make sure to invite everyone to see our pics once we get them up and to follow along my next blog whereever I wander to.

Cheers,

Sarah

3rd leg of the trip: Buenos Aires

Alright, I've finally managed to set aside a little time to write about my travels to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. Although I've been here for a week now, I'm not going to go into too much detail, partly because I'm not sure if you'd be interested in such a lengthy blog but mostly because I need to get ready soon to possibly do a day trip across the Rio to Uruguay (keeping my fingers crossed that it goes through).

Well what can I say about Buenos Aires - it only took me about 2 hours in the city to realize it is one that I can fall for head over heels. I mean, just listen to the description: an old yet incredibly modern city with beautiful architecture bursting with home-grown world famous trends (tango, to name the largest), great red wine, Italian food everywhere (pasta to pizza to gelado) paired with incredible cuts of steak that although are crazy cheap would give something out of Morton's a huge run (and yes, I have been participating), and to top it all off, the boys all look Italian yet speak Spanish... perfect combo, right? This makes learning a crazy, "ch" sounding version of Spanish well worth getting used to.

But enough with drooling over the city and more about what I've been doing. We've been spending most of our time in our hostel's neighborhood, San Telmo. San Telmo is one of if not the oldest barrio of B.A. What used to once be the location of the city's upperclass (my hostel is in an old mansion), San Telmo is at the moment the cobblestoned boho section of the city, boasting to be home to classic cafes and tango music. We've spent plenty of time here, taking history tours of the neighborhood, wandering around for coffee, hitting up the Sunday market that overtakes the length of one of its most prominent streets, catching a tango show, going out to some pubs, and of course, eating some parrillla aka steak and other grilled goods. Our hostel isn't too bad itself either. Like I said, it's built right into an old, remodeled mansion which means that there are tons of private beds rather than dorm rooms, great for us. There's also a big terrace on the rooftop with a coal grill which we and some of our hostel friends have definitely taken advantage of. Garden House Art Factory hostel... I recommend it to any future travelers, young and old.

As nice as San Telmo is, we've stretched our legs and made it out to the other major neighborhoods of B.A. mostly everyday. We went to musuems and parks in Recoleta, one of the city's more high end neighborhoods, caught some of the nightlife in Palermo the most popular neighborhood especially for people our age, saw an amazing drum show called La Bomba de Tiempo, went to a pub to catch the Ecuador-Argentina soccer game, saw the brightly painted houses of the not so bright neighborhood La Boca, strolled along the boardwalkish Puerto Madera, and toured the Microcenter barrio which holds the center of the city and famous governmental sites such as the Plaza de Mayo and the building which everyone knows for Madonna standing atop the balcony and belting out "Don't cry for me Argentina...". Needless to say, Buenos Aires has had more than enough to offer to keep me busy.

As I said, I'm trying my best to make this short and sweet... I'm sure plenty of you will be asking mountains of questions about my trip regardless of what I write anyway. The pictures are limited for now... Rachel has been taking all the BA shots, and I'm still waiting on them. Now I've got to be off to check up on my roommates and hope that they've recovered from a little virus that seems to be going around the hostel and are up for our 11:30 ferry across the Rio de la Plata over to Uruguay. Hopefully in my next entry I'll be able to tell you about another stamp in my passport... until then, chau.

Don't worry, I'm alive..

Well I don't have much time to write, but hello! I am alive and well in Buenos Aires, where I've been for the past few days. I'll write later today I think, I just haven't had time yet really... way to much to do and see. Also, I just saw that I spelled "autumn" wrong... that's embarrassing. That's what happens when you're speaking another language for most of your days I guess.

What we all really come to Cusco for... Machu Picchu.

Like much of this trip has and will continue to consist of, Monday morning involved a pre-anybody's desired waking time, but as always, for a very good reason. A 7:30 am train was calling our names to take us to Aguas Calientes, the small, touristically consumed hence miserable city at the base of the mountain upon which Machu Picchu sits. The ride was decently enjoyable, taking us through little valleys and below mountains of the Andes for about three hours. PeruRail staff?? Incredibly helpful and entertaining. Having booked our train tickets at separate times, Sara and Rachel ended up with an earlier return than I, so we went a little earlier to investigate changing tickets. Turns out that their tickets were not only in need of a time change but a date change as well, them being booked for July 1 rather than June 1. Although this could have been disatrous in other places, one particular PeruRail employee named Jorge took our plight as his personal mission for the morning. After being escorted around the train station and into three seats next to each (which we clearly did not have), he and two other employees pleasantly stuck on us like glue, chatting us up, practicing their English now and then and even making sure that we were all together on the way back. We even got a free coffee or two out of what at first seemed to be a big mess. Ah, the glory of being three young girls in Latin America.

Traveling aside, I'll cut to the chase. Once in Aguas Calientes, we got our bus tickets, grabbed some food (including a Peruvian variety of Lays potato chips: Andina), and made our way up the mountiain. After a winding half an hour ride, we avoided the solicitations for tour guides and booked our way to the gate entrance. We made our way through an old path, went through a little passage way, came through an opening and then all at once it was there: Machu Picchu in all of its ridiculous, undescribable glory. Because I can't possibly do it justice, I won't go into much detail. It's an ancient Incan city that is on top of a mountain surrounded by breathtaking views of the Andes... Google Image and Flickr this place to get more of a taste, but nothing but being up top that mountain looking down on the place will be able to portray its crazy beauty and mad architectural skills. Whether we were wandering through the ruins of ancient buildings and plazas or sitting at the edge of a cliff staring into the fog capped Andes, it was always almost too much to take in. Amazing.

As a leaving note, seeing Machu Picchu makes me realize how many other incredible places are out there for me to see in Peru, that only visiting a couple of cities and sites just doesn't cut it. Trains through the tops of the Andes, Lake Titicaca, the Peruvian Amazon, the Nazca Lines, beatiful cities like Arequipa... a week and a half and two stops in Peru absolutely did not cut it. I'll need to come back, my calendar, budget, and walking shoes better prepared.