Ok so I am back in Cochabamba, I went to Villa Tunari and the animal place, but I left a day later. It was pouring rain when I got there, and to make a long story short, I wasnt feeling it. Got to see some monkeys up close though, that was kinda cool. I am now starting to volunteer through an organization called sustainable bolivia, and started working yesterday at an orphanage called La Colonia. It is an awesome place, ran by a bolivian couple, Kiko and Carmen. They started out watching a few kids from the neighborhood, and it has [View Full Entry]

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So, went on a 4 day 4X4 trip through southern Bolivia and up to the center. Rough road. 4 days in a jeep for 7-12 hours a day, getting out to stop for a few minutes at certain sights. Cold as hell. Hell of an experience, though. Most of that part of Bolivia is desert, so the landscapes were amazing to say the least. Certain points I could have sworn I was on another planet. Variations of red mountains all around, scattered with huge boulders that looked like someone placed them there for an art piece. No plants or signs of [View Full Entry]

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I am now in Cochabamba, a few hours bus ride from the animal reserve. I haven´t felt so out of place on this trip so far. Apparently not many tourists come here as there is not much to see, so for the locals to see a gringo is strange. Walking down the street people stare at me; they find me just as interesting as I find them! Mostly the older people, they stare at me and I stare right back, both of us analyzing the differences between us. So far I think I´ve seen 3 other people who are not bolivian. [View Full Entry]

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Took a 12 hour overnight bus ride from Samaipata to the capital city of Bolivia, Sucre. I was a bit nervous because I heard overnighters can be somewhat sketchy (people sleeping in the aisles, waiting til you fall asleep to steal from your bag). Then these 3 backpacker Israeli guys walked up to the area where you wait for the bus. At least I´m not the only one, I thought. Turns out we were all sitting next to eachother, so that was cool. We all got to talking and decided we would all get a hostel together. The bus came 45 [View Full Entry]

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Israeli´s. God they are funny. At least these 3 were. Really nice guys, but why is everything an argument? All 3 competing to be the big fish in the small pond. Too many chiefs, not enough indians. Rode the bus with them, got a hostel with them. When paying for the hostel up front, the manager/office guy told them he didnt have change for them, he was 5 bolivianos short, and that he would give it to them later. Its sunday, he said, a lot of places are closed and its hard to find change (this is in spanish, by the [View Full Entry]

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Im here, made it ok, long fuckin flight though. the next day i passed out til like 3 in the afternoon. I saw some guy puttin a jacket on (it was raining off and on) and i was hungry as shit, so I asked him if he was going to town and if I could tag along. He said sure. His name is Simon, a polish guy, my age, 28. We walked in to town, got some food ( a bombass steak, fries, salad, beer, and espresso, for like 8 bucks!). Then we walked around the town and checked out [View Full Entry]

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Tango. I know its been forever since my last entry, but I am having fun! Something about constantly typing away and being tied to computers when on vacation just doesn’t seem right. Plus, we haven’t been able to get the internet to work at our apartment, so its not that easy. Anyhow, last night was fun, we went to a Milonga, or tango club! We had been wanting to do this since we got here and finally got around to doing it. We had the address of the place, hopped into a taxi, and told him where to go. It was [View Full Entry]

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So here I am in Argentina! Crazy. Can’t really believe it, it hasn’t sank in that I am actually here. After 15 hours on the plane (which was actually not bad, considering the fact that I slept for most of the flight and was able to drink Johnnie Walker red label for free), Crystal and I hopped into a shady ass cab to take us in to Buenos Aires. The whole cab situation is worth mentioning. We walked out to the taxi stand (it was cold as hell, probably 40-45 degrees or so) and were greeted by a young argentine man [View Full Entry]

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