| Finally, Pictures from South AmericaI can't believe it's already been 2 weeks since I've come back from South America. It was an incredible trip that words can do no justice. My brother & I took 1098 pictures, and I narrowed it down to 96 that I posted, but still it's hard to digest. So to sum it up:
South America is so beautiful! It was the end of their summer season and the area where I was staying (Mendoza Argentina, the wine capital of South America) was surrounded by rugged mountains, canyons, rivers, lakes and desert. My first week there was spent with my family and the extended family of my cousin who had the wedding. My siblings and I went white water rafting in el Rio de Mendoza (unfortunately we couldnt bring our cameras to that), horse back ridding in los Andes and parapente (parachuting/gliding) in Cerro de Arco which is near the boarder of Chile. Mendoza had their 70th Annual Wine Fesitval, Vendemia, the first weekend we arrived and the second weekend we spent celebrating my cousin's wedding. Afterwards my siblings and I hiked around Aconcagua, the tallest peak in South America in the Patagonias and then I spent the rest of my last week in Buenos Aires trying to soak up their city-life, despite the endless rain. We ate TONS of empanadas, asado, helado, dulche de leche that we had a tummy poking contest by the first week. I've been trying to reassimilate back to ny, but it's nearly impossible. Seistas are ingenius. I never thought it was possible, but it is feasible to go out at 1AM and party until 8. And although my tan faded, I'm still so dark that people keep asking me if I'm Malaysian/Polynesian, but until they see the almost stenciled in tan lines I got from running around outdoors, they knew I escaped somewhere this winter.
So here goes:
VENDEMIA, 70th Annual Wine Festival in Mendoza: Our first weekend there, they had a huge parade with elected teenage Queens from each province of Mendoza, representing a different kind of wine. They tossed the sweetest grapes I've ever had in my life off the floats and some floats had asados and tossed Sandwhiches. All over el Centro you'd see shops and bus Ads sponsoring one Queen with their beauty shot and flyers. Maipu won & my siblings & I thought it was awesome because the province sounds like "my poo". That night they had a 5+ hour loooong show with electing of the Queen, dancing, fireworks, translated into Spanish, Portugese, Italian, French & English... I fell asleep in my sister's lap. They had give aways as you walked in and apparently some safe sex awareness group gave out condoms and some people in the crowd blew them up and tossed them around.
HORSE BACK RIDDING IN LOS ANDES: So it's been one of my childhood dreams to ride a horse, so I was beyond thrilled. We took a 4 hour ride through, around, up and down los Andes and had a delicious asado at the mountain top when we returned. The ranch adopted some stray dogs (like everyone in Argentina) and had one that followed us all along the trip. I got perhaps the slowest most stubborn horse possible. Tres- named for his three white feet- wouldn't listen to me at all. You'll notice in all my pictures, my siblings & the guide are so far away because I couldn't get him to go. I kept kicking and talking to him, petting him, talking to him in spanish... I got nothing, but then at times when the guide would come over to me and slap Tres in the butt he would speed up so fast I thought I would fall off. Here's where I got the almost stenciled in tan lines from my tanktop. Abrahm's horse kept farting & pooing; it was unreal and disgusting and hillarious. We rode up some really steep hills in the Mountains and passed a beautiful lake.
 
 
The Wedding, Family stuff & Misc. in el Centro, Mendoza: We spent alot of time eating and eating and eating. Argentinean Asados (BBQ) are world reknown. I miss the food so much! My cousin had a few events while we were there including a ceremony by her husband's free mason's group- similar to a fraternity, family dinner parties, and Asados. The helado was to die for! We would have it sometimes twice a day. You could get a huge serving for close to 80 cents. I got acustomed to the lifestyle very fast. I took siestas on the roof patio of the apartment my cousin rented for us in el centro Mendoza, ate snacks all day, and stayed up late, watched the stars, and wake up early. Their constellation system is completely different than what we have and the moon fascinated me the most- they see a different face, completely unrecognizable. And they see el Cruz del Sur, Orion's Belt and Taurus. I wanted to take pictures of the stars & moon, but when I tried the contrast of the dark sky & bright lights made it impossible. We ran into 20-30 stray dogs each day, many were adorable but mangey looking. It was surprising that they had high breed dogs that people sell for hundreds here in the states just roaming the streets. The wedding was so sweet, part Filipino-Argentinean traditions, I had a small part in the wedding as the veil sponsor and the reception was tons of fun. It was held at a house they rented under a tent with good food, good music and of course good company.
 
 
 
PARAPENTE EN CERRO DE ARCO, (Parachutting/Gliding): This was surprisingly one of the most relaxing things I've ever done in my life! The scarriest part was the drive up to the top of Cerro de Arco in a beat-up 1990 Jeep on this make-shift path just inches off the edge of the mountain. I felt my stomach turning the moment the guide told me to start running off the mountain, but when the parachute picked up it was unreal! (Yeah I know I look like a tool with the gear on, but it was AWESOME)
HIKING ACONCAGUA, tallest peak in South America, Patagonias: We took a 4 hour bus ride from Mendoza to Puente de Linca, the tallest peak in South America Boarding Argentina & Chile. Here I met my favorite doggy- some rasta-like samoid with a rusty bark whose fur got nappy from all the dust. (we all found caked layers of desert dust on our ankles when we got back too). I also found St. Bernard puppies in a phone booth in the locotorio in the convenience store- one of 6 buildings in the area. We saw wild horses and ruins of natural hot springs. The park had a lagoon and there were many mountain streams on the mountains surronding Aconcagua. We hiked the entire day and had to take many water breaks. Actually climbing to the top of Aconcagua is advised to take 3 weeks, to adjust to the altitude. We merely hiked around the natural park but it was definitely a hike. The ironic thing is the most incredible pictures were taking from the drive there/back because we passed so many desert, canyons, rivers and redrock. The terrian is so pure & rugged, it makes our Southwest look like Disney World! There were times where I thought we were on Mars. I think the journey was much more fun than the destination. Aconcagua is so breathtaking it doesn't even look real. I'm in love with redrocks.
 <-- see the wild horses in the middle of the right edge?
probably not, so here's a zoom in: 
 
BUENOS AIRES: Unfortunately there wasn't too much to say about our time in BA. It rained most of the time and Abrahm doesn't speak any Spanish so was reliant on my poor skills. It was really sad that we were only there for 4 days! There's sooo many historical places to see and places to go out. Our hotel was awesome- hotel Maipu- who would've thought that name would carry over to us again?! It was incredibly old world, with high high ceilings, shared bathrooms where you shower in the same vacinity of the toliet & sink- the shower head is literally out of one wall & the water falls into a drain the floor and the toliet is old school where you flush it from a chain that hangs from the ceiling. It was only 50 pesos a night (like $16) and was in el Centro. The shopping was sooo good! Argentina has so great leather goods. We went out, great restaurants, crazy nightlife which I believe makes NY seem like it's sleeping! Unfortunarely I didn't take too many pictures because of the rain.
 
 
 
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..MMmmMm Pineapple cake from my snack buddie at work 
! i totally suck at it, but man it was fun to hear you guys rap & sing to slow jams <3
apparently macaroni penguins are just one of at least 3 different kinds of penguins in argentina 
they've got these guys too 
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