Sunday, May 30, 2010

A Tale of Two Robberies

1st Robbery:The whole time we have been in Argentina we have felt pretty safe, we never expected that the biggest danger would be from a three-foot animal. I thought the little South American Racoons (Coatis) were so cute until they ambushed me out of no-where and stole my whole lunch sack. I swear they had an attack plan. I was just getting my camera out to film how cute they were and out of nowhere a little black Coati (the leader of the pack) ran out of the bushes and clung upside-down to my lunch sack, (legs and arms wrapped around the whole bag). I tried to shake him off but he wouldn’t budge he sliced the bag open with is gnarly claws and all my food dropped to the floor and then that’s when the whole ambush ran out and snatched every last piece of my lunch food. I just stood there trying to get my food back from those little thieves while Jessica ran to save herlife. She kept yelling to me… Run!! Run!! And I kept yellingSomebody help me!! Help me..I want my food back! In the end, they totally worked me for everything I had. I guess I was just lucky I didn’t get bit by any of the little ravages and get rabies. Jessica was the only lucky person that got to witness this whole scenariowe laughed about it for the next hour or so and wished that we could have gotten more of it on flim...i just have the audio of us screaming (couldn’t focus on filming while I was being robbed).
Second Robbery:Was even crazier than the 1st. Jessica, Gorgie (our new friend from England) and I had been planning to go the supposidly the "best market in Bolivia" for about a week. Thursday (the only day of the market) finally comes around and we are super excited to be able to buy textiles, jewlrey and hand-woven sweaters for really cheap. About five minutes after we arrive at the market I go to pay for some freshly squeezed orange juice and that is when i notice that my bag/purse has been sliced open with a knife and my wallet is gone. It was so crazy. When i think back i can remember being squished in a crowd with two men on either side of me and thinking "this is weird" so i pushed back and grabbed my bag and picked up my walking pace. I have no clue how they managed to grab nothing but my wallet. I had so many other things in my purse that could have been easily mistaken for my wallet and somehow they mangaged to grab the exact one. Lucky my camera wasn't taken as well, i was robbed about the equivelance of $100 USD's, my Drivers Licence, and my Debit Card. I guess it could have been worse... but geeze they are so skillful. It happed so quickly... within seconds! Watch out travelers of Bolivia... the natives here really know their techniques.

Monday, May 17, 2010

My Paradise

When you think of paradise Iguazu Falls is it. So hermosa (beautiful)!! There are about 200 and something waterfalls in the middle of the jungle and everywhere you look there are rainbows, butterflies and birds. We were lucky to be there while there was a full moon because we went on this night tour that they only do three times a month when the full moon is out. It was really neat to see the waterfalls at night with only the reflection of the moonlight. Jessica and I were conversing as we walked but stopped mid-sentence when we reached the viewpoint because the waterfalls were so impressive that we were totally taken back with amazement. It was really cool to be able to see them at night first and then return the next day to see them with the daylight. Two totally different experiences, both very amazing.

Monday, May 10, 2010

"El Fin Del Mundo" Ushuaia

Our next stop was 'the end of the world’. We took a 16 hour bus ride to get there and made friends with three little kids on the bus but they nearly wore us out. They were very cute though. Their mom was moving them from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and wow, she is amazing cause I don’t know how she traveled all that way by herself with three kids ages 5, 3, and 2 and then she was pregnant on top of it! The kids were super cute and we tried to learn some Spanish from them. The five-year old girl loved Jessica and ran her ear off even though Jessica had no clue what she was saying. Ha ha it was funny. Awe cute little kiddies, but we were excited to finally arrive at the southern most city in the world! It was beautiful there.

We went on a boat ride to some islands and saw seals swimming right next to our boat, they were so cute… they just poke their little heads out of the water and look at us with curiosity. I love them. I was so sad we didn’t get to see penguins L they had migrated North to Brazil about two weeks before we got there. Who would have thought they migrate to where it is warmer, they are penguins! I thought they would have gone more south, but nope, they headed north, crazy. We did see some birds which look like penguins if you’re far enough away ;)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

El Calafate, Patagonia






After about 10 days in B.A. we were ready to leave the city for something new… something more adventurous, so we headed down south to Patagonia. Definitely more my style… Wow it is so amazing here. We went to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and saw the Perito Moreno Glacier (2 miles wide and 165 feet tall). There are no words or pictures that can truly portray how amazing it really is... You'll just have to come experience it for yourself ;) The glacier is soooo massive and full of different shades of blue and stripes of brown, it is incredible to see. We saw one huge ice shaft break off of the glacier and go crashing into the water… it made a huge thunderous sound, it was crazy! Wow I really love this place.