“Los Gordos” in Uruguay

After spending close to a month here in Uruguay, I have made my conclusion.  Although the cultures and roots of the people in Argentina and Uruguay are very similar, as expected, people here are bigger.  Do they eat more of the delicious meat that both countries boast of?  Is it the different strain in the mate?  I don’t know - but I have seen enough to come to arrive at this observation.

Gordo... [Read more]

A Montevideo Test Passed

I am learning the ways of being a local…sort of.  Sure, I walk down the street and people can tell (from my clothes perhaps?) that I don’t exactly fit the bill as a Montevidean.  But let’s not focus on this for now.

Just yesterday I received a fantastic compliment.  During a four hour session of mate drinking with some very sweet new friends, I was asked if I wouldn’t mind serving the... [Read more]

Uruguay - Tierra of Beef, Mate, and Water

What more could anyone ask for? You eat some of the best beef in the world for your main course every day.  During your time off work, or during a leisurely stroll along the “Rambla” in Montevideo, you drink the best mate in South America.  And when you are full of these two gems you drink some of the best water in the world (apparently this is one of Uruguay’s main resources - the natural... [Read more]

Dinner at Montevideo

It’s 12:43 in the morning here in the Ciudad Vieja (the touristy part of the center of the city).  I have just returned from eating dinner with a new Uruguayan friend.  This doesn’t sound strange, does it?  Dinners always can run late with a few drinks and good times had right?

Except by the time we finished walking around and decided on a place, it was already 11PM. 

“Do you usually... [Read more]

Montevideo’s Banking

I’ve become a bit tired of getting charged five dollars, at least, on every transaction I enter into on the ATMs out here.  Well, I haven’t used them that much yet, but I will get tired of them very soon.  So off to the Banco Republica de Uruguay I went today.  I went to open up a bank account.

I walked into the bank at 1:15 PM, fifteen minutes after it apparently opened for the day. Is that... [Read more]

Montevideo Times

I’ve been in Montevideo, Uruguay for a week now.  This is a smaller South American capital - some 1.7 million people.   I am here to live for awhile, to figure out the people, and most importantly to decide if I like what the city has to offer.   

A few years ago, for three months, I traveled around Argentina and felt as though... [Read more]

In the Eye of the Beholder, part 2

For part one of In the Eye of the Beholder

I woke up in our tent wearing nothing but my underwear. A villager told me that I got out of the tent at night and ran around the jungle in a stupor until other villagers caught up with me as I was standing on an edge of a cliff gazing into the muddy water below. When I spoke to Alex, he had terrifying news. He... [Read more]

In the Eye of the Beholder, part 1

It is two days later and I still don’t have all my memory back. I remember arriving at the village where the Shaman’s house was and being a bit nervous. I tried to do some research and asked people I had met and the guides how they felt about such an experience, and all I got was that it’s something I should do. I remembered Ramiro, our English speaking guide, who left me with a Spanish guide in Pantoja,... [Read more]

My Last Day in South America

On my last day in South America, I wake up to the calm sound of rain falling atop the metal roof.  Two days before I was tanning on a cushioned lounge chair along the water of Mancora Beach, Peru my mind dizzied, almost drunk, on sun and relaxation. But now I am in Quito, Ecuador on a rainy morning and my mind is dizzying from the prospect of leaving this great continent.

As the rain taps, I work to fall back asleep,... [Read more]

Trujillo, A Welcome Change of Plans

The plan was to leave Lima early and spend the better part of the week soaking up sun on the sandy beaches of Mancora. The rumor is Mancora is a warm surfer´s paradise, and after spending most of the past five weeks in freezing temperatures I felt that I deserved a little sun.

But as it goes with the best plans, when I got to the bus station I found that I had missed the 3PM bus to Mancora (18 hours) by fifteen... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.4

Thursday- I find myself in an honest to goodness desert oasis. Huacachina is a tiny village that surrounds an even tinier lagoon in the middle of grand desert dunes. I sit at the edge of the lagoon under a palm tree and watch Peruvian children sled down the sands and bounce around in the mud colored water. The travel books call this destination one of the gringo stops, but it seems Peruvians and foreigners alike come to... [Read more]

Strangers in the Night

On a lonely Bolivian intersection, the streets as wide and empty as an abandoned landing strip, we collided like two freight trains in the night. Midnight, and nobody here knew each other. Two dozen people in total, no one even thought of stopping when the groups combined and began mixing like magical ingredients in a witch’s cauldron. We kept walking, I hoped I was not the only one who didn’t know were we were... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.2

Tuesday - I eat my last Cuzco meal in the markets of San Pedro. The nourishing lentils and rice warms my belly and remind me of home, Peruvian comfort food. I stroll along cobble stone streets one last time to take it all in, stopping in the Plaza de Armas to watch a street mine take a break to sit close and chat with his girl. I make a lazy sketch of the Cathedral that is surrounded by blue sky and the brown hills. On... [Read more]

See Salt Sea

Imagine a flat solid sea that reflects the mountains that frame it. Islands in that sea stand small but tall, with thousand year-old cacti raising their bristly arms towards the sky. Waves would wash over the island banks if only the ripples were not already frozen in crystallized patterns of white and bronze.

Driving from... [Read more]

Week 5: The Best Week Ever pt.1

Monday - Sitting on top of a pile of carefully placed stones creating the edge of a terrace for ancient crops, my feet dangling over the edge of a gorge, my eyes keen on the sky that is continually brightening in a misty dawn. It´s about 6AM Monday morning in the ruins of Machu Picchu and the clouds are wrapping around the peaks of the Andes and creeping over Incan structures. I think I must be close to heaven because... [Read more]

A Ride at Cuzcoland

Upon arriving in Cuzco, Peru I was immediately astounded by the beautiful Colonial architecture (built on top of Incan structures), grand churches, quaint cobble stoned roads, and quiet plazas decorated with trees and fountains. I was quickly put at ease by the countless restaurants serving anything from Italian to Thai (and of course quintessential Peruvian cuisine) to the rows of the travel agents that can surely help... [Read more]

Down the Death Road

“Sarit!” my husband turned to me all excited, “Wanna go up to 4700m in a van and then ride a bicycle downhill 64km on the most dangerous road in the world?”

“Ahem… No! Do I look like I have a death wish?” It was an honest response. I haven’t been on a bike since the fifth grade! I thought this was the end of it, but when we got to La Paz in Bolivia there wasn’t... [Read more]

Argentina: More Than Meats the Eye

When she announced her plans to move to Argentina, vegetarian Sophie Weber’s friends told her she was crazy. You’ll starve, they told her. Haven’t you heard? Argentina is all beef, all the time.

Sophie, a 21-year-old student from Munich, Germany, wasn’t worried. Having been a vegetarian for all but brief period of carnivorous rebellion, her vegetarian survival skills were finely tuned.

As it turns... [Read more]

A Poem for the Sacred Lake

Lake Titicaca was known to the Incas as a sacred lake. Over the last few days, I have been able to visit islands on both the Bolivian and Peruvian sides, and walking the stoney paths, looking out to the ruins, marveling over the breathtaking views, it is easy to find the sanctity of the place. This lake inspires a holiness with the land, and even now at a computer in Puno, I continue to feel the affects of the ancient... [Read more]

Bolivia, Is It Worth It?

Friday afternoon in La Paz, I found the restaurant section of an open air market and took a seat at one of the 10 stands serving relatively the same food for about $3. I ordered a plate of chicken and rice from two women standing behind a counter no more than four feet long.

While I ate the delicious food they served me, I enjoyed a nice session of people watching, the women cleaning pots from the lunch rush, children... [Read more]

Quick Learners

Anywhere I went in Cuzco, Peru, I got hustled by little children who sell everything from finger puppets to clothing. It’s common, really, they and their families need the money, but here is the crazy thing - all these children speak better English then most grown-ups in travel agencies around town. I would think an office job would be much better for a ten year old than selling trinkets on the street, but maybe they... [Read more]

Sandboarding Epiphany in Chile

Sitting at the top of a sand dune, with board attached to my feet, wind and sand pelting my face, looking out at the alien terrain reminiscent of Star Wars, is when I finally realized how damn lucky I am.  Maybe it was the altitude or maybe it was the exhaustion from trudging up the steep sand, but something finally jostled me and opened my eyes. 

Here I am sand-boarding in the San Pedro de Atacama in the Northern... [Read more]

Down the Nuevo Rocafuerte, Ecuador

The jungle trip began the same way I planned to start my independent journey to Iquitos. Early Friday morning I, along with the guide and five other participants - Alex [the writer's husband], two British girls, a New-Zealander, and an Australian, piled up into a motorized canoe filled with locals and baggage of all kinds. The trip down to Nuevo Rocafuerte is about 12 hours long, so this was an excellent opportunity for... [Read more]

Chasing Galapagos

Luck is often an essential part of a successful trip. If you know were to get some, I’d suggest you pack it in your most accessible backpack pocket – it, plus a bit of experience, and you are guaranteed to have a good time.

Pierre Constant - the adventurer extraordinaire and author of “Marine Life of the Galapagos” wasn’t very lucky, though it worked out just great for me and my husband.... [Read more]

The Grandness of Valparaiso

I was once lured to read Isabel Allende’s novel Daughter of Fortune upon recommendation, but never got more than forty pages in. Though I stopped reading, I still remember the magical description of a bustling port city at the turn of the 20th century. Allende’s  heroine runs about a city built along hills and terraces that look out onto the sea, and from her description I knew Valparaiso was a city... [Read more]

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