http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Crystal/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Crystal en-us Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:36:27 +0000 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:36:27 +0000 Honey I'm homeI safely arrived home Monday afternoon after a looooong night and day of plane rides. I've spent most of my time catching up with my mom dad and sister and getting ready for Christmas...which is very odd to me because I feel like winter barely just started.......CRAZY. So it was an amazing trip and I learned so much about life. I'm so excited to be back but i'm def. already p http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Michigan/blog-355421.html So words will not do any of this hike justice but i'll do my best to give you a summary of the trip....Day1...bright and early we met up and jumped on a bus for about 3 hours to the km82...where the trail starts. We had porters to carry our tents and food and supplies. I carried my back pack which weighed more or less 610lbs with my clothes and other personal items. This day we camped at about http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Inca-Trail/blog-354255.html SOOOO I went to Cusco. Like I said pretty chill other than getting sick the first day. I had 3 days to kill so I decided to be a tourist haha. My first day there I wandered the city...took pictures of the cathedral...I don't remember if I put those up or not Then in the evening I hung out at the bar in the hostel and just chilled and took it easy as I was still acclimating to the air. My s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/Cusco/blog-354249.html So.......I arrived in Peru and made it to my hostel in Lima. Everything was fine. I went out and grabbed some cheap dinner with this guy from my hostel and then a bunch of us went out to some bars after to just chill and hang out. The next Josh one of the guys and I went to the beach after some confusion over a tour. So....pretty relaxing. After we just chilled at the hostel and then I went http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/Lima/San-Isidro/blog-352580.html Soooo I guess it's time for an update.....I had my finals and finished my program on Nov. 28th. We had a going away party with the teachers and everything very fun. The night before we had a thanksgiving asado with the people from the program too....kind of a pre good bye party. And I finally took some pics of my family Monday the first I got on a bus to Iguazu falls....ABSOLUTLY AMAZING. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/Iguazu-National-Park/blog-352571.html So........everything here has been pretty chill over the last few weeks. School during the week and hanging out with friends on the weekend. I took my finals Monday and Tuesday so now I am free i'll be here in Rosario until Monday afternoon and then i'll be jumping onto a 17hr bus ride to the north to see Iguazu Falls.I'm trying to think of any really intreresting things that i've done but I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-348766.html SOOO....It's been awhile since I last updated because not too much has really been happening but i'll do my best to remember the goods stuff We went to Buenos Aires last weekend. We had a couple of boring tours where they take you to a plaza and point to the different buildings and tell you what they used to be. We did some shopping at a couple of ferrias. We went to the cemetary where Evita http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-345138.html So before coming back from our adventure to the end of the world we stopped in Calafate. It is a BEAUTIFUL city with of course more fresh air and wonderfulness. We stayed in an AMAZING hotel...easily the nicest i've ever been in. The beds were sooo comfortable and there was just amazing showers you'd be suprised how rare that is in a hotel and the view was just perfect because it is on a moun http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-339764.html Well where to begin...Friday at 1am we hopped on a 4 hour bus ride to Bs. As. from there we got a plane for about 3 hours to the island of Tierra del Fuego. Here we stayed in the city of Ushuaia known as the city at the end of the world because it is the furthest south. We stayed in a hotel that was pretty nice...nothing overly fancy but certainly comfortable Our first day there was very rela http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-339747.html Hey all I'm going on a trip with the group to Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego. I'll blog when I get back mid next week http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-337799.html SOOOOOO....this weekend was long and wonderful because of Columbus day there was no classes Monday yay The week days are pretty normal for me I just go to class during the day and then go to salsa classes or hang out with Maxi...oh yeah I do some studying every once in awhile too hahaSO my weekend...Friday as always Maxi and I went to lunch...pretty normal. We also went to Parque http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-334849.html haha ok so I haven't updated in awhile...but nothing TOO exciting has been going on. Just school stuff during the week mostly...you know classes and such. Then the weekends pretty much just getting sun burned while laying out on my roof and then going out at night with my men hahaToday though was our Gaucho Party. For those of you who don't know gauchos wereare the cowboys of Argentina. We http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-332054.html Well another week gone by....I can't believe itClasses are going well. Things are coming together nicely...it's getting to be not so tough to understand. There are still a lot of words that I don't know in my history class...and half the time I dont really know what they mean in English either Politics and I don't really seem to get along lol.Thursday night we had a Tango Party. It was fu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-325744.html So this weekend was another wonderful time of lack of sleep and lots of funSaturday I went and did some shopping with a couple of other girls from the states and bought some of the stuff i was wishing i had with me and now i have it Then I was supposed to meet my friend at an art show in the park but she ended up getting sick so I went solo which was quite the adventure...safe no worrie http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-324087.html I've survived my first full week of classes yay I'm taking conversation grammer and history. The first 2 aren't bad but I am finding it difficult to understand my history prof...but i'll get it soon i'm sure I did my laundry the other day and I hung it out to dry but there is this nasty stuff in the air that just started the night i did my laundry of course and so now some of it smell http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-322946.html So everything is continuing to go just amazingly here I really feel that coming on this trip was the best decision of my life. Everything has just been really amazing and fun and eye opening and just perfect This weekend my brother took me out with his friends so now I have locals lol Saturday night we went to this very nice club...we got VIP cause one of his friends knows the bouncer http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-321786.html Hey all...here are some pictures to kinda go with my last entry I just had some delightful hot chocolate.........oh my SOOO GOODYesterday we went on a boat on el Rio Parana and then had a walking tour through the city. There are also some pics of that on here...this entry has a lot sorry if it takes awhle to load http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-320558.html Im officially in Rosario now I arrived here after a 4hour bus ride from BA on Tuesday We spent the first night sociallizing and went out to a local hang out place. I got to chat up some locals and learn some new slang The next day we tested for our spanish levels and had orientation and then met our familySo my family is totally amazing. I live with my mom dad sister and brother. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-319914.html So yesterday we adventured to a market near by it was full of funinteresting things. It had some really beautiful artwork and jewlry and of course everything else under the sun too I bought a leather purse seeing as i didn't have space in my suit case to bring a purse so now I have one Last night was rather chill we just hung out at the hostel and stuff by we I mean the other girls in my http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-318659.html Hey all I'm in Buenos Aires Argentina. I just arrived a little while ago at the hostel i'm staying at. Everything went fine along the way which is very good It was a LLLLOOONNNGGG flight though...let me tell you my back hurts like a...well i can't say but it hurts from trying to sleep on the plane So i'm at the hostel and everything looks good and like its going according to my plans http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-317942.html