Met a girl randomly from Atlanta who went to UGA on the street in Mendoza and grabbed her email in case we were in the same town. Becca and I ended up traveling through Uruguay for 6 days, a 6-day moment. At the hostel before we left, they tried to make her pay to store her bag there for 30 minutes while we went for lunch and I would have none of that! I argued with the staff about how absolutely ridiculous that is after I spent over $100 in their hostel, including tipping the staff, but they ended up pissing me off to the point I just yelled at them and left. Then, after a bloody mary on the waterfront, me and Becca hopped on the ferry to Colonia, Uruguay. We met a guy from England on the ferry named Joey and we ended up staying at his hotel called Leoncia.

His hotel was 5-star luxury, which was nice because I needed a vacation badly. It even included a pool and hot-tub. We stayed in Colonia for a few days relaxing and eating lots of food.

Then we took a bus to Montevideo where we attended a live Tango show of a young, up-and-coming Uruguayan tango singer. The place of the show was an amazing 100-year old building with stone walls and only 5 or 6 tables. We got the table in the front a few feet from the girl. It was an amazing show and really illustrated the difference between the Uruguayan culture and the Argentininan. During the show, a guy leaned over and asked me where I was from. He studied in a British school but was Uruguayan. He owned several businesses in Uruguay and wrote down the name of some places to visit in Punta Del Este and the names of his friends to contact. Then he asked me to visit him in Montevideo on Monday for a black-tie party he was hosting.

The next day we met up with some friends of mine from Buenos Aires and they bought us tickets to the local soccer game. As we walked up, I heard the roar of the stadium from 4 blocks away. The stadium was sold out capacity, with the most passionate and classy fans I've ever seen. We somehow ended up in the front row of the stadium on the field! Our team won, and we had a great time cheering for the Uruguayan National team against Boca, a local Argentinian team.

The following day we took a short bus (2 hours) to Punta and laid on the beach and ate amazing food. We didn't have time to visit the places the guy gave us, but overall it was an amazing day-trip experience. That night, we rushed back to Montevideo to catch a live comedy theatre show. Sinec Becca speaks fluent spanish and I speak 100 words, I did alot of infering, but they were great actors and I laughed the whole time.

When I returned to BA, I immediately met up with Joey in Palermo House and we took a quick taxi to Recoleta Cultural Centre for the One Dot Zero visual arts festival. That night was a french band called Colder, who were passion-less, too cool for school, and generally unenthusiastic. We left after 20 minutes, a huge dissapointment. BUT, afterwards we hit up 4 different bars and the last bar some locals who spoke english approached us because they recognized us from a previous bar and hung out with us. We decided to go dancing at 5:30AM and stayed till 8AM!!

I slept in today a few hours and am downloading cool songs off Joey's IPOD. Today we are going to go to the day part of the visual arts festival and tonight go back for another, hopefully more exciting, show.

Peru:
Lima
Stay at Loki Hostel. Other than that I didnt really do much.

Huacachina
Huacachina is a lagoon city in the desert near Ica, but Ica is boring so stay in Huacachina. Go sandboarding for $13 american and ride in a dune buggy...stay at Casa De Arena Uno or Casa De Arena Dos where they have a cool bar/restaurant and amazing desserts. Also try the hooka. The Lomo Saltado at the hostel is awesome and both have pools for swimming.

Arequipa
Go on the 3-day Colca Canyon tour to see Llamas, Alpacas, the worlds deepest canyon and take pictures of the largest condors in the world. Arequipa is pretty tame other than that.

Cusco & Macchu Picchu
Stay at Loki Hostel (almost 170 backpackers at a time) and party like youve never partied before. Lots and lots of wild all night parties, eat 1/4 chicken with fries and salad during the day and stop by the market for fresh juice from the ladies for $.50. Catch the train to Aquas Caliente and stay at the Eco-Hostel called ______ (something) Wasi. I cant remember the name of the hostel but it was cool. The next day the bus leaves for Macchu Picchu at 5:30AM...be there early or you wont make the 1st bus and you will miss the sunrise. Bring lunch and lots of money b/c Macchu Picchu is EXPENSIVE. Lunch there is like $20 American so bring a sack lunch. Also, hike up Hyanu Picchu early like 10AM because after that the lines get really long.

Puno
Go on a boat tour to the reed islands and Tequila Island.

Bolivia
La Paz
Stay at Adventure Brew hostel, book a trip with Gravity to mountain bike down the worlds most dangerous road. Bring like 10 layers for the morning and shorts for the afternoon. Temp changes from 35 degrees to 85 degrees while biking. Also go to the black market (Mercado Negro).

Cochabamba
Worlds largest market. Freakin sweet.

Potosi
Tour the mines. Very tight spaces but amazing experience.

Uyuni
Tour the Salt Flats on a 4 day tour in a Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4. Get them to drop you off in Chile after the trip instead of riding all the way back to Bolivia.

Chile

San Pedro de Atacama
Stay at Hostel Florida. Eat at the restaurant across the street from the hostel with a picture of lightning and a little girl in a door that has 666 written on it. I dont remember the name of that restaurant though, but best food so far on the trip. In the restaurant, there is a great selection of wine.

Santiago
Just went out. Stayed at Casa Roja and had an amazing time partying there.

Argentina

Mendoza
Bit boring for me, dont stay in hostel Itaka. Stay in Hostel Damajuana, and if its booked go to Campo Base 1 or 2. Lot of good wine though and wine tours.

Cordoba
Stay at hostel El Refugio and go skydiving. Its amazing and fairly cheap. Eat at Betos for amazing steak.

Buenos Aires
Stay at Hostel Milhouse (100 backpackers) and eat the best steak of your life at Desnivel. Go to a Boca Jrs soccer game or River Plata soccer game. Visit the cemetary and take pictures of the above-ground graves. Walk around the city and on thurs catch the mothers of the disappeared at 3:15PM in Plaza San Martin.

The last few days have been exciting. Alot of partying and staying up late, and last night was no exception. Hung out at the hostel playing horse race then hit up the late-night pizza parlor. Today I woke up early to do some shopping with Alex and then we walked to the cemetary again for some pics. A guided tour was standing in from of the coolest grave and I wanted to take a picture so I stood there waiting for them to move. The tour guide stops talking to look at me and says, "This is a private tour please move on," and I about lost it. He stood there yapping away for almost 30 minutes while I stood there with my camera out poised to take a snapshot. Eventually he shut his huge mouth and moved on so I could take one lousy photo.

Then Alex really wanted sushi and we decided it was 20 blocks and that we would walk. Almost an hour later we found the restaurant and had the most amazing sushi of my life. Brilliant. We taxied it back to the hostel and I napped for a few hours.

Tonight is Alexs last night so he wants to go out big. We ate steak again and are planning to club it. Tomorrow is another long day ending with a 6 hour adventure to a local soccer game with the boys in the largest stadium in Argentina. Fun fun fun.

I´m in Cordoba and yesterday I heard that Cordoba is the cheapest place to skydive in South America. So, of course, I jumped at the chance (get it, jumped). I heard it was $90 (that´s dirt cheap) with 30 seconds of freefall and so I went for it. Today, an hour before I´m supposed to leave they tell me it´s going to be $160. Ouch. Then I look up Skydive Atlanta and it´s $189 for over 1 minute of freefall. Double ouch.

This is becoming a regular pattern, the price is (blank..cheap) and when the bill comes it´s wayyyy more expensive. Ans since there is no price regulations in South America, I could have put the parachute on, been in the plane, and the guy could have told me it´s gonna cost $500 and I would have been stuck paying. The whole reason I came here was to skydive so now I´m stuck between paying or wasting 4 days in a city with nothing going on. And since the place doesn´t accept credit cards, I have to pay a $4 service fee at the ATM to get cash out. Then another $4 in Buenos Aires because I´ll be out of cash again!

On a positive note, I found a parilla (grill) that serves 20 oz steaks and a bottle of Argentinian wine for $7.50. I´ve eaten there 2 times in one day and I´m going back again today for another couple of rounds. On wednesday there is a Spring Welcome Party in Argentina because it´s the first day of spring. I helped the hostel decorate for the party by making a colorful poster last night and it was alot of fun.

This is gonna be a long one. I´ve gotten lazy with the blog, lazy with everything really. In Santiago, I stayed for about 7 days because I met some Brits who were absolutely crazy. We went out everynight, drank tea all day, and relaxed. But since we were going out so much, I actually got exhausted.

I left there tired and mentally dead and went to Mendoza. Argentina is very very different than the rest of S. America. Some general feelings I´ve gotten since arriving 3 days ago: They don´t really like Americans (or foreigners for that matter), or maybe they just are apathetic towards foreigners because I can´t get a smile or a bit of attention from anyone here. The town is very relaxed, but it comes across as cold because the people don´t try to speak to you like they did in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Of course my blonde hair and blue eyes scream AMERICAN! So that doesn´t help, it´s hard for me to blend in. Also, I´ve been so lazy lately because my unhealthy diet and lack of excersise is starting to take its toll. I think I´ve lost around 30lbs total and I´m getting pretty soft. But, today I was so lazy that I kicked myself in the butt and went to the market and bought health food. What a difference it made! I cooked chicken and rice with broccoli, and yogurt as desert. I´ve met back up with Vicki and Christy (the couple from England I traveled the Salt Flats with) and hopefully I can tag with them for the next few days.

I went to a place last night for dinner, and I heard a guy
singing Bob Dylan with an acoustic guitar ala Morgan unplugged. I asked him if he was from America and he said no, but he was playing a show tonight and singing american songs. We ended up hanging out for hours and I watched his show and met his best 10 buddies. Tonight his band (a rolling stones cover band) is playing and I´m gonna try to go.

He also has a friend I met who owns a ski store in Las Leñas which is
the Aspen of S. America and can hook me up with lessons, gear, and a
hotel for $200 dollars. The only problem is that a girl told me ski season is over in Las Leñas so I def don´t want to go there for nothing. I´ll check the weather report tonight after din-din.

If not there, I´ll leave for Cordoba with the Brits in 2 days to go white water rafting, horseback riding, etc.

Last night in Santiago, I met some folks from Australia and in general, they are a crazy bunch of party animals. These aussies were no different. We went to a local bar and I drank Budweiser (which was a little taste of home) then onto one of the biggest clubs in Chile. It was NUTS. The dance floor was packed and we really let loose. I danced like I've never danced before. I was doing all the old-school moves. The roger rabbit, the electric slide, the hammer, the guido arm pump. And since they were pumping the Mega-Mix I couldn't control myself. Got home around 5AM after a lonf cab ride because me and the aussie couldn't find the hostel. I woke up at 4PM today and had a burger at a local joint and hung out with another American I just met at the restaurant. It was one for the books.

Tonight I watched the UGA game on ESPN GamePlan, which means I watched it over the net for $22. It was pretty good quality and a handful of people in the hostel actually got into it. Met some auusies who are gonna watch some aussie-rules tomorrow on a projector. Should be fun. I really like Santiago.

So much to write and so little memory. I decided to tour the mines while in Potosi and boy am I glad I did. Imagine decending 100 meters underground in a space 2 feet high and 2 feet wide with so much dust in the air you literally choke the whole time and 110 degree heat. That is the mine in a nutshell. And the best part is that the people who work there do it 6 days a week for 12-14 hours! Of course they chew Coca leaves, which is what cocaine is derived from, but even with the aid of Coca leaves, it would be brutal. I was down there for 2 hours and felt like I was going to pass out and die. And not only do they work down there, they set off dynamite everyday in order to extract the mines. Unsafe you say? You have no idea. The mines collapse like monthly because they have asolutely no structure or organization and end up blasting into other people's mines causeing collapse and massive deaths. Such is life in Bolivia.

The next day I took a bus to Uyuni and on the bus a girl sitting behind me rather rudely asked me to move my seat forward because she didn't have enough room. I very bluntly told her that I was 6'3" and it's a tough world so deal with it.

When I arrived in Uyuni and booked a 3-day trip to the Salt Flats and Chile, I arrived to the agency the next morning and guess who was in my group of 6 people... the rude girl from the bus. We ended up laughing about it and making friends and the entire trip I hung out with her and her boyfriend who were from England. We saw the salt flats which were amazing, cactus island, red lagoons, pink flamingos, and steaming geysers. We ended the trip with a couple of days in San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is a little tourist town in the world's driest desert and it was so different from Bolivia it seemed like a trip to a luxurious resort. The food in San Pedro was amazing, the wine amazing, the service amazing, and the people incredible. Met up with a Swiss guy named Alex and a serbian buy and we spent the next couple of days together partying and hanging out.

Left the next day for Santiago on a 24 hour bus ride. Sat next to a woman who was returning to Santiago after her eldest daughter's wedding. It was a fun bus trip trying to communicate with her and her 2 daughters who were 14 and 15 in broken spanish. The hostel I'm staying at now is called Casa Roja and is in the center of Barrio Brasil which is the party/college part of town. Should be a good night. Tomorrow I'm scouring the city looking for a place to watch the UGA vs USC game, and if I can't find a place here, I'll buy it off ESPN.com and watch it on the laptop!

Left Cochabamba last night and when I went to the bus station and load up on the plush Full Camas bus, there´s a guy in my seat. That´s nothing new so I tell the guy he´s in my set and show him my ticket. Well he pulls out his ticket and it´s the same seat number as mine. Hmm. We go inside to sort it all out and the lady at the counter tells me I bought the Economico bus. Except that his ticket says $40 and mine says $50, which means that I paid MORE MONEY THAN HIM and was ressured at the time of purchase that I had the nice, posh, expensive bus. So I raise hell in the bus station but of course they don´t care, they have my money. Eventually the lady tells me that my bus has already left and if I want to leave Cochabamba, I need to hurry and catch it before it leaves town. I ended up sitting in a seat the size of a baby carseat even thought I paid $50. That´s been kinda the standard down here. Bolivia is undoubtedly the stanky crotch of South America. I honestly think Bolivia is Spanish for "ignorant" or at least slang for it.

This morning the hostel tells me that breakfast isn´t served till 7AM, it was 6:58AM. SO I go to sleep then wake up at 9AM and ask for breakfast. Sorry we stop serving at 8:58AM. Sheesh. The sooner I get out of this armpit called a country the happier I´ll be. I just keep telling myself 2 more days then I´m home free....Chile here I come!

Today I plan on reading, eating lots of food, randomly napping, and generally wasting time away from the animal-like people of Bolivia.´

I´m thinking about skipping the mines and getting the hell outta here tonight.