Photos photos!

I have finally posted photos on flickr. yaya, it only took me a month. Just type in mslyons1016 and they should come up. i´ve also posted a few on facebook for you people who do that. besitos!!!

hiking wonders

so i went on the most amazing hike yesterday. im in el bolson by the way, which is 2 hrs south of bariloche. very refreshing after bariloche, which was spectacular, but too resort like for me. el bolson is very much in the hippie style of northern california. so this hike started out common enough with some dusty trails and a walk through the woods. the farther up i got though the more astounded i became. the view of the surrounding snow capped mountains was unbelievable and we were soon following the rio azul, which has the brightest blue water i have ever seen. it´s pure melted snow and crystal clear. we hiked farther up along this river gorge until we got to a series of wooden ladders and makeshift bridges over the gorge. finally we arrived at a refugio where we were welcomed with a steaming cup of mate and a place to rest and eat our lunch high up in the mountains. the refugio consisted of a cozy wood cabin, an impressive garden, chickens, and horses...these people are living completely off the grid in one of the most tranquil place i have ever been. the hike impressed me and the people at the refugio who have choosen to live such a simple and rustic life impressed me even more. how they got their horses over those dodgy rocks where you are a foot away from death i´ll never know. i am staying at a great hostel where they make their own beer and cook the best asado i have had yet in argentina. dad, you would be in heaven...looks like i might get ¨stuck¨here for a while, but i better enjoy it as i think im going to head down to el calafayte next to see the mother of all glaciers and the bus ride is around 28 hours...loving the shaved head, you boys might be on to something!

Plans are for changing

hola hola,

well the farm thing opened up but it was too late as i had already left on a 20 hour bus ride south to the gorgeous town of bariloche. ah well it looks like there is another one in chile that might work out so i might head there after i'm done doing the southern route in argentina. bariloche is absolutely stunning and the view from my hostel is top notch. not too much to report yet as i just got here but will have more stories soon i'm sure. that's all for now! oh one more thing...i shaved my head, well actually two dutch guys, two guys from california, and one guy from australia shaved my head...pics coming i swear.

Wine and Bikes

So I went wine tasting yesterday while riding bikes, a great combination don´t you think? It´s nothing like wine tasting in Napa where everything is well marked and every winery is full of wine snobs. It was much more relaxed and quite the adventure as we were constantly getting ourselves lost. Every winery we went to we picked up another biker. It was amazing, one moment you would be riding on a main street where you´re dodging construction sights and then you turn onto a side road and all of the sudden you are riding under a canopy of gorgeous lush trees and you look to your right and there in the distance is a view of the breathtaking Andes.

A sigh of relief

I feel as if this huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I think I began to become interested in politics right when Bush was elected for the first time in 2000. So for the past eight years as my interest in politics has grown so has my cynicism. My hopes were hanging by a very thin thread before the election, a thread that would have been obliterated if McCain had won, but now I feel that at least we are maybe headed in the right direction again. A long road awaits us, but at this moment it seems doable. I´m in Cordoba now a lazy and slow paced city full of college students and Che memorabilia. I´m off to Mendoza soon to sample some of that fine Argentinian wine and then hopefully to a farm for a bit to take a break from the hosteling world and save some money. I was supposed to head to the farm this coming Thursday, but some volunteers there are now staying a bit longer, which interrupts my plans to head there. So I have to wait until next weekend to contact the farm again and see whats what. Kinks in the plan are part of the adventure in a unplanned trip such as this though right? I guess stalling in the Napa of Argentina is not all that bad though.

We did it!!!

WHAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The mother of all waterfalls

Wow. Wow. Wow. There is no words or photos that can do this waterfall justice. Seeing it in person was simply breathtaking. The waterfalls I am refering to is the Iguazu waterfalls that border Argentina and Brazil. Quoting a good friend of mine who said when asked why are waterfalls selfish, she replied, ¨They fall where they please¨ Thanks Q. Well this definitley applies to these roaring cascades of water. It literaly looks as if the earth opened up and water from all corners of the earth just came pouring into the gaping hole. About 10 years ago a group of very impressive people built a labrinyth of catwalks that take you right to the edge of the falls. So you can literaly stand on the edge of where la garganta del diablo rushes downwards in an impressive whirlpool of water to the rocks below. I read that something like 400,000 gallons of water falls every second from this natural wonder. Well today is the election day and I'm in a tiny little town on the border of Argentina and Brazil full of palm trees and red dirt roads, a funny place to be maybe on this important day, but it should be interesting all the same. People have been asking me about it all day. I think many people are just as curious as i am but i think i may be a bit more nervous then them. Well hopefully tomorrow we will all be celebrating.