Mendoza, Vineyards, Horses, Lack of Sleep, and Skatespots

Mendoza is wine country essentially. I got in on the morning of the 24th, hoping I´d meet some people to pass Christmas time with. It looked doubtful when I arrived, but people filled into the hostel as the day passed. The night of Christmas Eve I was hoping to go out to dinner with some people, but we ended up having a big parrilla at the hostel.



For some reason I was really sick that day, so I was unable to eat, and went to sleep. I work up about 3:00 am and everybody was still out, so I joined them for a drink. We kept talking about how late Argentinans stay out at night, and when about 5:45 am rolled around, we decided to take a walk outside. All the bars were still open, and not just open, but completely packed! George(a British guy staying in the same dorm) went out and had an incredibly interesting time. Needless to say, I found the girl of my dreams, found out she was a lesbian, and we met a racist Argentinean trying to pass his cousin off to us because he wanted to go to a brothel.

I couldn´t fall back asleep that morning because of the heat, and a new German ended up in our hostel. We walked downtown to try to find something to do on Christmas day. Everything that I had wanted to do was closed, so we ended up doing horseback riding.







It was overpriced and super touristy, and only lasted for about 30 minutes. The good thing about it was there was a parilla after with wine, and I got to meet some interesting people from Copenhagen. They finished college and were taking a year off to travel before going back to school. I still haven´t met a single person from the states doing something like this on this trip.

That Christmas night George and I went out again with people from the hostel, and once again we didn´t return to the hostel until past 6 am.

The following day we took a bus out to Maipu, which is the place where most of the vineyards are. We rented bikes to ride around the town, and tour each bodega.



We got to one bodega, and did a tour before the rest closed. Lesson learned to leave early.





Later that night a girl I met the previous night before showed me around town, and once again we ended up staying up until about 7 am this morning. Now I have the predicament of going to Valparaiso, Chile, with some people I met, or stay in Mendoza to spend the new year.

I left quite a bit out of what happened these last few days, but they have been quite important to me, and some of the best times I´ve had on this trip so far. I really developed strong relationships with those people in my dorm, and today they all left, so a part of me is feeling a little empty at this moment. Needless to say I should be getting to sleep, since 4 days in a row without more than 4 hours is not healthy by any means. Here I´ll leave some skatespots in Mendoza!

Bariloche, Hippy Woman, and Me vs the Babies

Oh man, just arrived to my hostel in Mendoza from a 19 hour battle against rabid babies. It´s true. Well maybe not the rapid part, or the battle part, but I definitely considered summoning the might of the forces of old to defeat my enemies. I´ll get to that later.

When I got to Bariloche from El Chalten, I was pretty damn tired. Woke up the next day and sampled some öf the world renowned chocolates and ice cream that lied within the city limits. Bariloche is in Argentina´s lake district, on a lake, and is a very touristy place. Reminds me a little bit of Traverse City, Michigan, but with mountains. Very beautiful, and prices are hiked up due to, well, tourists. Apparently it´s a place for snowboarding in the winter as well, as I saw Milosport and Alta stickers on the window in my hostel.




After walking the town, I met up with an Italian friend of mine who I met in El Calafate. We walked around and grabbed a drink, and enjoyed a pleasant night. She spoke English, Italian, and Spanish all pretty well, and coming in contact with so many Europeans makes me infinitely jealous of their culture and language advantages.

The following day, I woke up and bought my bus ticket at the station. Headed for Mendoza the next day at 1:30. A 19 hour night bus? Not too bad, or so I thought.

After I bought the ticket, I started to get ancy, so decided to try to hike to Cerro Otto, which people normally take a bus to, and take the teleferico up to the top. I saw a dirt road and a worn down sign that said Cerro Otto, so I decided I´d take it. After walking about an hour and a half in the scorching sun on an endless path, I decided maybe it was time to stop.

This is when something super bizarre happened. A little grey car pulled up, and out of it a women shouted at me, asking if I needed a ride in Spanish. I saw two more women in the car, and figured this couldn´t be a bad idea, so I hopped on in. We drove what seemed like forever to the top of the hill. I´m glad I took the ride because I don´t think I would have made it without another water bottle. There were 3 girls, and although I can´t remember any of their names, this turned out to be my most interesting experience of the trip.




They invited me to hike with them, so we hopped a do not enter sign, and walked through some shaded paths. From here we walked maybe 30 minutes to a rock viewpoint covering many of the lakes and mountains in the surrounding area. The girls then showed me how to make mate, and shared some. If you haven´t had mate, I would recommend this argentinean tea.







Then we hiked down to some hidden shack the called the refuge, which happened to be a super upper class restaurant in which you have to take a 4 wheeler to get up there. One of the girls knew the chef, and he brought us all out fondue, which was the first time I tried it, for free. Needless to say, it was delicious. Then said chef, needed to drop off some 4 wheelers for some clients, so he let us drive them down the hill to the drop off point, and drove us back up.











After that, we hiked a little more, and the girls dropped me off back at the main road to go to my hostel. These were probably the 3 coolest girls that I´d met on this trip so far, reflecting on it, I should have got their contact information for future adventures. The girls were super friendly, and a normal hike turned into something completely different.






Hopped on the bus the following morning, and that´s when the battle with the babies occurred. A day I´d like to forget, but is forever ingrained into my memory, like a horrible event that happens on a bus and is forever ingrained into your memory, usually involving babies. I´ll have to save that for later. Too much typing and too much to do.

Sleepy...

So I stayed in El Calafate for a night, then promptly headed out to El Chalten. I´d been looking forward to seeing the Fitz Roy mountain range. El Chalten is a town of about 600 people, a real frontier town. There were more tourists than people there. That´s where I´m getting a little frustrated, is that everywhere you go, there are more tourists than Argentineans, and prices are hiked up, as well as it makes it difficult to get the actual feel for travel.

When I arrived in El Chalten, there were two busloads of people coming in. I figure the accomodations were going to be super tight, didn´t really want to fight for it, so I asked the people at the bus station if I could get a ticket to Bariloche. Ends up there was one that very same night, leaving at 10:00 pm, so I devised a horribly tiring plan. Here essentially is what i´ve been doing for the last few days.

8:00 am the 19th-4 hour bus ride to El Chalten from El Calafate

12:00-Arrived in El Chalten, decided to hike Laguna Torre, 4 hour trek there, and 4 hours back.






6:00-Did the hike in 6 hours(with my bags), incredibly beautiful, couldn´t find a quite spot though, too many people. Didn´t want to rent camping equipment since i was alone, so made it back to town. Met an 11 year old who skated, in EVERY city here, I´ve seen skateboarders, even Ushuaia. Crazy. I love it, he asked me all the 11 year old questions, and apparently Rodney Mullen is still around. I did a nosemanual for about 15 feet and a varial flip and they thought I was god. Maybe they´re on to something...








10:00 pm the 20th-28 hour bus ride to Bariloche. On the famous highway 40, I heard quite a bit of hype about this road, so I figured it might be worth it. According to the Lonely Planet guide, it is ¨The ultimate roadtrip.¨ It wasnt, at all. It was a dirt road for about 75% of the trip, and we had great views of amazing flat desert sand. Everyone on the bus was coughing up a storm. Ever sat through a cough storm on bus? Not fun. Not to mention I had the best seat in the house right by the wonderfully smelly bathrooms. Everytime the door opened the entire bus filled with the rotten stench of stewing insides...nice. Two highlights of the trip, the bus driver stopped in the middle of the desert to pick up a pooping armadillo, and I met two amazing New Zealanders, who invited me to spend Christmas with them in El Bolson.



1:30 am the 21st-27 1/2 hours later from El Chalten. Got in to Bariloche and shared a cab with a couple of Frenchies to a hostel. 45 pesos a night, slept very well. Ive essentially been going nonstop for far too long, yet I still feel that I need to keep running. Probably stay here a couple of nights, just need to figure out what I want to do for Christmas.

Much love, shout out to Kandice for a happy birthday, sorry I couldn´t call but I was on the stench mobile.

Tierra Del Fuego, Getting Lost, Stopped at Customs, Etc...

Well hey ya´llz, it´s bright and early Saturday morning and I´m sitting in the beautiful little town of El Calafate, Argentina.

I left off in Tierra Del Fuego, in the world´s southernmost city, Ushuaia. The town was absolutely gorgeous, sitting on the bay with jagged snow capped peaks hanging all around. The downsides were that A: it was freezing, and B: it was very very expensive.



I grabbed a bus first thing in the morning to go to the national park, and the driver left me off supposedly near a trail head. After about 40 minutes in, I realized I was actually on no trail head at all, but just casually walking through the woods, with no sense of direction. A turned around and started back in the direction I thought I came. Luckily I came across a big slop of mud I got stuck in earlier, and found my way out to the main road.

I headed back to the main road to find some trails, luckily I found a nice little 20 minute hike which led to the 8km, 3 hour, Senda Costera trail. What it lacked by the number of people on it, it made up for it by it´s scenic views. It was really incredible.








Upon finishing the day I was exhausted, but decided to check out the bus tickets to El Calafate. I was planning on staying another day in Ushuaia, hiking to the Martial Glaciar, then heading out. To my surprise all the bus tickets on Saturday were booked, so I had no other option but to leave the following morning at 4:40 am. Bummer.

Normally I dont have too much trouble with bus rides, it was hours in time, not too bad. Here the problem was customs. First we had to exit Argentina and go through their customs. Took an hour and a half of just sitting there. Then drove 5 minutes to enter the border of Chile. Another hour and a half of lines. Then we had to hop on a boat to cross the border to the mainland of South America.



Then back to exit through customs again, but got held up at Chile. Apparently the customs officers were looking for drugs, so they pulled a few fine young chaps aside, including me. Here we sat in a room, listening to their drug babble, and telling us how severe the penalties for bringing drugs through the country were. After a wait of over an hour in a small room stuck with young people who look like drug addicts, the guys told me to lift up my shirt and go. Didnt even check my bags. Not sure what their scheme was, but it was boring and a little frightening. Then another hour to enter Argentina again.

Arrived in El Calafate at around 12:30 am. Bus loads of proper Europeans got of their buses with their premade reservations from hostelworld, where as I, who still isnt quite smart enough to make a reservation in advance, got stuck in the black of night trying to find a place to stay. After the first 5 places were closed, I hiked a decent ways uphill to find a nice little place that only charged 30 pesos a night.

It is the evening of the 18th, and I did a day trek to the Glaciar Perito Moreno. I haven´t seen anything quite like the thunderous crash of the glaciar as it wedged and broke through the valley. The colors of the glaciar varied from solid white, to a deep glowing blue. I have finally found superman´s secret lair. It was quite incredible, going to go to El Chalten tomorrow, not sure why, then Bariloche after, here are some pics!

Buenos Aires and Ushaia

I left the middle of the day from Caracas on Saturday the 11th to Buenos Aires. I´d been once as a child, but really I had no recollection of the city. I arrived super early in the morning and hopped on a bus to downtown. Everything was shutdown but I was impressed by the massive size, and how modern the city was. Huge buildings, clean streets, and just threw out a great feel. I hailed a cab, and went straight to the first hostel on my list, Palermo House Hostel.




Here I met quite a few cool people, all interesting in their own ways, and all liked to drink...a lot. No problem there. The first day I just became accostumed to the city, and walked around the area of Palermo, in which I was staying. I oggled the great restaraunts and had my first microbrew since I´d left the states.

The following day was spent waiting for an old coworker of mine, who lives in Argentina. She was supposed to meet up with me, but got stuck in traffic, and somehow we missed each other. Pretty much that whole day was wasted sitting around, but I can´t complain about any day in Buenos Aires. Later I went to a overpriced steak house with the Australians, and had an enjoyable evening hearing their banter. One of the great things about travel is the people you meet. Sometimes you run into a bunch of people who are there only to party and spray cologne all over the place while stumbling in to the hostel room at every hour of the morning, but sometimes you make some good connections.





The following day I awoke bright and early, and was determined to see as much of the city as possible. I walked ALL over the city, at least a 5 or 6 mile hike, my end goal was to go to Heladeria Cadore, an ice cream shop that I ate at when I was 12 years old. To this day the chocolate amargo was the best ice cream I´ve eaten to date. It was quite splendid. I ended up getting lost in one of the sketchier areas of Buenos Aires, but it ended up to be alright since I was able to see the more rugged side of the city.

A couple of good people that I really liked were heading out, and I found a cheap one way flight to Ushaia that was only that good price for the next day. It was that or choose a 46 hour bus ride, for a pretty expensive price. Ushaia is in Tierra Del Fuego, further south than I´d ever expect to go. Essentially it´s the end of the world on the southern end, and man is it impressive. I´m further away from home than I´ve ever been, and I feel closer to home since I´ve left the states.




Although I´m absolutely freezing, and spending wayyyyyy to much money, really this place isn´t cheap, I´m super happy to be able to have this opportunity. Next stop will be an almost 24 hour bus ride to El Calafate, from where I´m going to see Parque Nacional Perito Moreno, and check out some glaciars. And my conclusion so far in my first few days is that I´m going to marry an Argentinean, and find a way to live here someday.

Right before the break

I've taken a large hiatus from this blog thing. I finally feel settled down enough to start working towards it again, if anything but to look back on in a few years from now. Life is good, I'm in a new city, and I don't need to explain that boring stuff. Pretty much the bottom line is that we've been having horrible floods here, school had to be shut down, houses dismantled, and my vacation ruined(to a degree). Here are some pics(my camera got stolen, so I had to borrow these).

On the first order of business, I went to a bullfight. It was one of those things that I knew I shouldn't have gone to, but thought maybe for the experience it would have been worth it...it wasn't. At least there were potentially beautiful women wearing red. And you know what my dad always says about potentially beautiful women, they are the next best thing to actual beautiful women.



Well a couple of people and I went to Puerto La Cruz for Thanksgiving break. Nice beaches was the main highlight. I lost all those pictures, and we had a really nice first day after taking the night bus down in the morning. The second day we took a boat out to an island called Isla de Plata, and it started to pour on us. 3 hours later a boat picked us up, and upon arrival to the dock, they wouldn't let us off. This was why.



We stayed on the boat for an hour or two, the locals promising us the rain would stop in a few hours, and that river didn't look too promising either.

Untitled from TTT on Vimeo.

A combination of boredom, the cold, and me wearing nothing but my boxers and Karen's cape led us to make the decision to try to hike up the river and try to catch a bus at the top of the hill.





The current was no joke, and I lost a sandal on the way. Nothing is better than walking kilometers of dirty water ridden Venezuelan streets barefoot. Except not being barefoot.

The road turned into a gushing river, with torrents that could take down a small giant anteater.

scribblin the joe from TTT on Vimeo.

Lost my shoe in this one.



Finally we made it back to Puerto La Cruz, only to find that the entire city was flooded. When I thought that walking up that hill barefoot was gross, try walking a mile through garbage infested stagnant city murk! I'm still trying to shake that one off. The road was closed to the girls' hotel, and they got stuck on our side of town for a few hours. Not exactly a relaxing vacation, but definitely what travel is all about.



Next stop, Buenos Aires!

Today is March 6, 2010

I haven't been able to keep up with my blog at all, and I think until I have a little more free time, working internet, and less stress I will have to put it on hold.

Lately I have been doing a decent amount of traveling, and in that time I've been doing alot of thinking. Thinking about what I'm going to do the next 3 years in Venezuela, my friends and family, and really trying to find my purpose in life. I'm not really accustomed to playing with such thoughts, and it's been quite scary, and somewhat revealing. One frequent cinematic theme is the idea of fate, some young poor boy somewhere in a distant land was destined to become a great king and reunite the then modern world into peace and order. 6 months ago if you asked me if I believed in fate, I'd probably ask you if you believed in Santa Claus. 6 years ago if you asked me the exact same question, I'd tell you clearly I did with the confidence of a telemarketer. Now I've been thinking about it more, and the idea that fate does not exist, truly scares me.

I always figured there would be a path for me to go down, that everything would eventually fall into place, and whichever way I turned, I would end up exactly where I was supposed to. It's quite a nice thought in some ways. Scary in others. But there was security in it. I felt that someone or something was gently pushing me along the path, throwing in the good people and the bad, to push me in the right direction. Right now I've never felt so alone. It's an interesting thing really, it's been making me sappy, I've been dwelling about past friends and relationships, things which I'd normally never do, and question decisions that I've made in the past. Did I really choose what is right for me? Is there a right for me? I've always felt invincible, but being sick with one thing after the other since I've been in Venezuela(and no access to medical care doesn't help in the least) has really made me question my immortality. Right now I'm covered in a rash from who knows what, couldn't even open my right eye this morning, and I itch all over. And in my special places too. In all reality it's possible I may just off and die any day now, and what is it that I'll leave behind? Will I leave anything behind? Is it important to leave anything behind? Have I done everything in my power to make this world a better place for me and those like me? Or should it even matter? All these are questions to which I have pondered, and some I feel I have answers.

Trying to look at my life from a logical standpoint, I will try to answer to myself a few things. Do I feel that I've lived a worthy life, if I were to die tomorrow, could I look back at all the things I've done and really feel confident that I have? The answer is undeniably yes. I feel that in my 24 years I've managed to do more things than most, and not that comparing myself to other people is a way to judge myself, but I do feel I can use it as a rough gauge of success. What do I mean by success? Having a trophy wife, and millions of dollars? Absolutely. Since I have both, I will finish this pointless bore here.

In my life I've been able to travel, make wonderful friends, and push myself further through hardships that I never would have been able to. Case in point, I'm still here at Escuela Anaco. This has easily been the most difficult time of my life, not because I'm living in a foreign country and I can't adapt, although that doesn't help, but a variety of factors are involved. Some of these factors include living on campus with the most evil man I've ever met in my life(that's not an exaggeration), first year of teaching, constant self-diagnosis and illness, robbed, loneliness, and horrible music. Would I do this again knowing what I was getting myself into? The answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT, there have been things here which I have not told anyone, and happen on such a frequent basis that there is no possible way to recollect them all. Would I retract this time in my life for a comfortable life in the states? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Nothing has made me more appreciative for my home country than being in the heart of Chavez's so called socialist revolution.

Since I've been here, I've learned so many things, about myself, this country, teaching, people, and enlightened myself to an entire new world. I have opened up the doors to my future, if I survive till June, and have locked in a 2 year contract to a great school in an actual city in Venezuela. By the end of my 3 year stay here, I should have fluent speaking Spanish under my belt, the world economy should have picked up, if I choose to move home, or Europe(cushy Europe sounds really nice to me right now), or wherever the wind blows me.

Perhaps fate isn't the path that is written out for you, and I feel really cheesy even writing my thoughts in a public place, but perhaps it's the notion that you need to draw your own path. Right now I'm digging my path into the woods, and we'll all see where I end up on the other side.



Next subject...the past. As I said earlier, I have been thinking about my past lately. I moved around quite a bit as a kid, and always envied those guys in high school who could share their middle school memories with each other, or even elementary school. Wow, that would be an experience to know someone for that long. I began the first inscriptions on my map when I was a teenager in California. Both of my parents lived in Rosamond, and I hated that place about as much as I hate an empty desert town with one grocery store and a few gas stations. Oh wait...Luckily my parents were open minded enough to let me move in with a friend, and they were sympathetic enough to take me. And again, wow what a life changing experience that was for me. Utah is now the only place I call home. There resides a few people that I truly call friends. I have about 3 of them. I even fell in love once. I know many more people that I truly love, and enjoy their company, but aren't what I consider my real friends. My real friends are the people that I am going to be in touch with until I'm an old man, the ones that I really grew with and developed with, and the ones I will continue to grow with. To have them is something so special that I really can't put it into my words. And I didn't even realize it until I up and left.

I may never have friends of this caliber again, and that is a concern for me, but I know who my friends are, and those few people should know who they are too.

I just made a playlist in itunes cataloging my high school and college experiences in no particular order. Songs from Murder City Devils, Pinback, New Order, The Arcade Fire, Steve Malkmus and the Jicks, and many more. Music has been taking me back to old times, happy times, and sad times. I try to save these memories as best as I can, as they are all I have left of being a child. Well I'll always be a child, but of that certain child. I went from skating in the cold winters, to driving to the sacramento hills with Troy Eddlemon, to walking to school in the chilly Utah autumn. I went through phases in skateboarding, Mutiny, Random Lurkers, even our own Non-Chalant Dinosaur. It was quite a ride. For each period of my life, there are songs that define it. Whether the songs are good are not, that is not the point. It's the nostalgia that they bring. I wonder what will be the defining songs of the Venezuela playlist? Hopefully not something by Pitbull...

I used to question if I played my cards right, if I did everything I was supposed to. I always questioned where I'd be right now if I never broke my foot, if I never tore the ligament in my ankle. Did I have a choice in those occurrences? I always lingered on the thought what would happen if my older brother never broke his ankle, my brother which I adored and loved and looked up to, who had his faults, who later fell into drugs in a sad dark realm. I questioned what would have happened if I would have been there for him when he came to live me, maybe if I just spent more time with him than following my own self interests, maybe he would have never overdosed. I took, and sometimes still do take alot of blame for things that I really have no control over. But then I think, if things were to have worked out "right" for me. I would have graduated college a year earlier, I would have had a job in just about any state I would have pleased, and I would not be here today. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, maybe my path would have turned somewhere else, but it didn't.

I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this, I'm just writing for the sake of writing. Maybe there is a theme hidden in here that one of the few people who read this can find. I don't know. All I do know is that I am shifting my focus on my thoughts. I wrote to someone recently that I wasn't afraid of death, I was afraid of not being able to live my life. I still stand by this. Instead of focusing on beliefs written by others, instead of dwelling on past experiences, or making sure others are content or happy, I need to focus on myself. I need to focus on my health, my progress, my relationships, and my overall happiness. I am no longer trying to figure out if fate has chosen a path for me, or if I've missed a great opportunity here or there with someone or something(I'm specifically referring to one), but instead I am focusing on figuring out this life. What is here, now, love, health, and future career/school opportunities.

I still want to have my house in Michigan on a lake with my pack of wild dogs, and I wish I could be there now. The only thing was if I did have it now, I wouldn't truly appreciate it.

Sorry for the ramble, I love you all. I'll be home soon and I can't wait.

-Timothy


p.s. And I even started writing a book. I hope to have 50 pages by Easter!