PATAGONIA

Ladies and Gents, I have just came back from the. most. epic. trip. of my life. If you didn’t know, for the past 2 weeks, I decided to say F*CK school and bounce with my backpack to one of the southest regions in the world in Argentine and Chilean Patagonia to see the glaciers of El Calafate, hike through the trekking capital of the world “El Chaltén,” and backpack the w trek in Torres del Paine in Chile. Some of the best days of my life!

30 hours before leaving: sick, feverish

On Tuesday I woke up feeling off and I immediately started panicking. I hadn’t been sick at all ever since summer in Taiwan 2010 so this definitely was the worst timing possible. I felt feverish weak and couldn’t really keep down my food. Even 6 hours before my flight I just wanted to cancel my ticket and lay low in Buenos Aires—but, I trusted in God and something inside of me knew I wouldn’t regret my decision. So I leave my house with my backpack at 2 am to catch my 4 am flight at Jorge Newburry shaky, tenuous yet in a posture of prayer. The next few hours were a blur—I sleep in the café at the airport, on the floor in front of the security gate because it wasn’t open, at the airport terminal then on the actual plane before touching down in El Calafate. Stepping off the plane, I breathed in the chill and splendor of Patagonia and feel rejuvenated. We arrive at our hostel Che lagarto and I am pleasantly surprised by just how well kept the place was for a $9/night place. After a few hours of rest, I wake up and walk around a lake filled with flamingos and just think “God this place is too beautiful to be sick, this is going to be some epic epic trip.”

The next day we saw the Glacier Perito Moreno which makes the glaciers in Alaska look like small peas. I had no idea that there were glaciers that just extended on and on for miles and miles. Here is a picture:

On the trip I also met this cool South Korean student that was just traveling on his own, Jae Hyun. He was hilarious, spoke very little English and zero Spanish but was just going through South America on his own with shorts and sandals (which obviously didn’t work out too well in Patagonia). We chatted and then exchanged facebook and I became one of his 10 facebook friends. I just respected his courage to just travel alone and see the world with the ability to tolerate uncertainty and tolerate miscommunications.

The next day we leave El Calafate for el Chaltén, nicknamed the trekking capital of the world. The place is the quaintest little town with a population of around 400 people. Even though we get there at noon, we want to do a 7 hour hike right away. Still feeling sick and weak, I could not be less enthused but I used the same excuse “it’s too beautiful to be sick.” To my delight, instead of getting sicker, the physical exercise and fresh air rejuvenated me and after 2 hours of hiking I was feeling perfectly fine. The same phenomenon would continue to happen through the trip, every time I went hiking I would become perfectly fine—I’m not sure what it is, the endorphins, the sweat, God’s gift but it was awesome. The first hike brought us to Cerro Torre. Fucken’ breathtaking. I couldn’t believe the place was only 3.5 hours away and that I could still walk back for a hot shower and food.

Agape in the shower

Coming back I just felt an immense closeness to something. I had just been so blessed that I felt guilty for keeping it all in. Taking the hot shower, I realized that I was feeling closeness to God and that I couldn’t keep his blessings for myself. I didn’t want to live a life that just absorbed blessings, but that reflected/multiplied it. I want to build my life on a foundation that is beyond me and my reputation. I want to shift away from competition and towards compassion. The word that had been on my mind in the past few weeks, Agape, suddenly made sense. I remembered a quote I had written down from Coelho's "The Pilgrimage" a few days before-

"Agape is total love that consumes. The love that consumes makes everything else - absolutely everything - lose its importance. It is the love that consumes the person who experience it. Agape is much more than liking. It is a feeling that suffuses, that fills every spaces in us, and turns our aggression to dust."

The next day we went on a hike to Fitz Roy that some nice south Africans suggested to us. When we were about to turn back after 4 hours, Suze really wanted to go to the base of Fitz Roy which would be 1.5 hr scramble to the top. Even though it was cold and windy and at times we were walking in snow 4 feet deep, we eventually made it then saw this:

Torres del Paine

This trip was almost a disaster. We left El Chaltén 7 am to get a ride back to Calafate where we wanted to get a ride to Punta Natales to get to Torres del Paine. We arrive in Calafate at 11 am only to find that theres only one bus a day that goes to Puerto Natales at 8:30 am. Discouraged that we might have to waste two whole days just to get to Torres del paine and two whole days to come back to Calafate, we go to a hostel but eventually decide we would hop onto a guided tour bus that would leave Calafate at 5:30 am and then come back at midnight. But instead of coming back, we would get off the bus and start the W trek!! We quickly went to a grocery store and rental gear store and had one of the most stressful 6 hours of my entire life which led to fairly poor decision making as we later found out(lentils and rice for 4 days straight was a really bad idea).

The next few days were just filled with backpacking in awesome scenery with awesome people. I just want to give a shout out to my gurls—Farrah and B-shaq(Suze), my backpacking troopers and now some of my closest friends. We had plenty of quirky moments but also moments where we probably got to know each other a little too well (eating beans and rice every night while sharing a tent was not the best idea). And we always ended the day with some good beers and “tent talk.”

Every moment of the 40 miles we backpacked was filled with breathtaking lakes, mountain peaks, fields of flowers, etc. Here are some pictures.

the last stretch of the W, we were really giddy taking pointless breaks to roll around all over the place.

is there a better spot in the world to be cooking and eating rice and lentils? i think not.

i mean, what the hell is this....

tent time with delicious calafate ale.

The most epic day was Thursday when we woke up at 6 am and trekked until 6 pm. It was the first time any of us had done 12 hours with full loads on our back but the views were gorgeous and the Calafate ale at the end well worth it.

All in all, I had some of the best days of my life on this trip but I’m not sad that it’s over; I’m glad I was able to grow and learn more about myself and God. I just feel so lucky to be able have done something that such a small percentage of this world can do. There were definitely moments where I just said out loud, “what did I do to deserve this?” I’ll be sure to come back one day if I ever have a family and make them do some backpacking!

rosario, uruguay, and more

It’s been too long since I blogged but I really feel that this month flew by and I am now past the half way point of my study abroad! I have time today because it’s the elections so everything is closed because everyone is required to vote. Interestingly enough, they also prohibit any restaurants or stores from selling alcohol this entire weekend. In any case, I’m due for a post. So much has happened since Salta, I went to Rosario, Colonial—Uruguary, found a church in Martinez, parties, elections

Rosario—the river city with the most beautiful girls in Argentina.

As kind of a spur of the moment weekend trip, I went with Liz and Shannon to Rosario for two nights and three days. Rosario is a river city in the Santa Fe province of Argentina that is known for beautiful Rosarinas, a beautiful river and as the place where both Che Guevarra and Messi grew up.

Because we went on a long weekend, Rosario was COMPLETELY packed the whole weekend with porteños. When we went to the bus station to get our tickets, we totally lucked out and somehow found a way there and every hostel in Rosario was filled that weekend. The only reason we were able to get a spot was because the person handling the online transaction messed up so the hostel workers ended up sleeping on the couch while we slept on their beds. People were even paying to sleep on the floor and it was the most rundown hostel I’ve ever been in!

Anyway, it was a very chill weekend that we ended up spending with our Uruguayan friend, Jaimie. He moved to Buenos Aires 4 yrs ago to pursue film and has already come to Rosario around 14 times and was happy to tag along with us. Here are some pictures.

-monumento

-pictures on a boat tour by the river

-picture with our uruguayan friend, jaimie

Colonial Uruguay

For visa purposes, we also had to leave the country for a day so we went to Colonial Uruguay and spent a tranquilo afternoon walking around the town. It was just a cute city with not much to do honestly. I was bummed that we couldn’t go further in—I’d love to see more of the beaches and Montevideo. Here are some pictures:

-some uruguayans smoking weed(it's legal) and playing instruments by the calm colonia water

-chillin at a park

Church in Martinez

So I have finally settled into a church here in Buenos Aires. This all started when I felt that I needed some sort of community while I was here to process everything I’m experiencing as well as make some Spanish speaking Christian friends. I contacted Sarah who sent me the link of the UBUA website through which I came into contact with Pablo. Since ABUA doesn’t really have events, I checked out Pablo’s church and promptly met a guy named Lucas who was a guest guitarist that day.

Lucas speaks really good English and wanted to chat with me about California since he wants to pursue film in Los Angeles one day. We grabbed hot chocolate and churros covered in chocolate the next week and after 3 hours of chatting he invited me to his church in Martinez, a city right outside the Buenos Aires capital. It was awesome! Their bible study is totally different from what I’m used to. Over the period of an hour or so, they’ll go through over 50 different passages that they cover. Last week, they talked about the kingdom of God and if it was something that already exists or something to be strived for. It’s interesting that they view passages throughout the bible as a one part of the entire aggregate message and don’t really focus on dissecting particular words and sentences the way IV does. Another thing that is odd is that almost the entire fellowship is dating each other or is already married. When they found out I was a foreigner, they asked me if my wife came with me. Also, instead of going to a person’s house to watch a movie or play games, we all went to a German bar afterwards to drink and hang out.

Boliches

I’ve went to a few more boliches since but definitely feel that I’m starting to slow down on the night life. It just isn’t really for me. Last week I did have one of the craziest nights of my life at Club 69’s 30^th anniversary. It was a drag show with go go dancers on poles that moved around the entire club.

Anyway, I just came back from Iguazú but haven’t had a chance to digest everything. I’ll put a post up on Thursday before I leave for El Calafate, Patagonia. I’m going to be in one of the southest places in the world!

¡SALTA!

Hey yall,

I just came back from an EPIC trip to Salta, Argentina about 20 hours up north from Buenos Aires. Here is a little bit about my experience and some pictures I took (yes, I now actually own a camera).

A surprisingly pleasant 20 hour bus ride

My only previous experience taking the bus was taking the greyhound from Long Beach to Oakland on thanksgiving breaks, so I was expecting to rough it out in Buenos Aires. Boy was I wrong! The bus was super luxurious, Farrah and I got a seat on the upper deck of the Bus and the seats actually tilt back far enough and has a place to put your feet so that your body is making a 170 degree angle! Also, as always in Argentina you’re offered unlimited vino tinto (red wine) and vino blanco to make you sleepy enough. On the way there we sang Suze happy birthday celebrated with a good amount of wine. I woke up 11 hours later with only a few more hours left!

We arrive in Salta to a quaint city with beautiful colonial architecture, catholic churches, and a cozy plaza. The place felt so…unusually familiar. I was quickly flooded with memories of Xela, Guatemala where I had spent a week living in an apartment. It felt good to get out of the ‘Paris of South America’ and experience something smaller, more personal and calmer.

It’s-a-me-a-Mario!

The next day we woke up bright and early and went on a full day excursion up north. My group that I ended up traveling with the whole time was Liz, Susana, Suze, Jon, Farrah, Thy and me (yes, not many men study abroad). We all got in a truck with a guide named Mario who couldn’t speak a word in English. He was awesome. Not only did he know so much about geology, but he was hilarious and loved to talk about sexy women. I finally was able to practice my Spanish!

The day was a blur of unique natural formations. I don’t really even know how to describe the things we saw so I’ll just put some pictures up.

road on the way to purmamarca

salinas grandes, salt flats

7 colored mountain in purmamarca

Wine, canyons and delicious goats

By the end of the first day touring the north, Mario said he’d love to take us to Cafayate the next day and stay with us until we wanted to return to Salta to get back on the bus back to Buenos Aires. Apparently he had a date with some hot girls and his buddies. The 4 hour drive down was very pretty. We took a road called “Quebrada de las canchas” which looks very similar to the Grand canyon with unique formations and colors.

We stopped by a parrilla (bbq) restaurant and I ate a platter full of chivito (baby goat). It was finger lickin’ good.

In the afternoon, we went to some bodegas to do some wine tasting. While I’m the last person to be a wine connoisseur, it was cool getting free wine. I also bought two bottles of very solid Torrontes and Malbec for about $4 each. After we had enough wine in us, we rented some bikes and went on the most stunning bike ride I’ve ever been on through wineries, grape farms and mountains. Here is a picture:

The next morning I did some more biking with Jon, Suze and Susana and we wandered into this huge golf resort/grape farm that must have been 7 miles wide. It had its own restaurants, cafes, lagoon, etc. It was this strange paradise along the highway.

We met up with Mario around noon and he had told us that “Cuando estabas durmiendo, yo miraba tetas grandes.” Apparently, while we were sleeping last night, he went to see a wet t-shirt contest at a Boliche(one of many Mario moments). We finally headed down for some trekking in Quebrada de las canchas.

Dammnn that was beautiful. I forgot how much I missed hiking and trekking. It was surreal just walking down a dried up river and venturing up to the top of vividly colored mountains. I honestly could have done this all day but we didn’t have enough time. I guess that’s what my trip to Patagonia in November is for.

Sitting atop a mountain during the trek, I thought of two things. 1. How God is a more creative and significant being than we’ll ever be. 2. I can’t believe this is my life right now. It was one of those moments like I don’t care what happens tomorrow, I’m content. I’ve experienced enough life. And just when I’m having this epiphany that I don’t need more anymore in life, Mario asks us if we want to go bungee jumping for $20. Oh hell YEAH I’m down. We drove to a beautiful lake and 3 minutes after getting out of the car, I was strapped in standing on the edge of a platform about to jump 350 ft into the water. I was on such a high from the trip that I honestly wasn’t nervous and just jumped—and man words cannot describe how sick the experience was.

Other than all the beautiful nature I saw in Salta, I think the other cool thing about this trip was meeting really down to earth Argentines at hostels. Whether it was Sergio, some bros from Buenos Aires that we went with to the Boliches or chicks from Cordoba, I felt that I was finally able to get to know the people of this country. I realized that when you travel, it’s just a more liminal environment and everyone is down to hang out and get more personal. Ironically, I made more porteño friends (people from Buenos aires) while I was in Salta that I’m going to get lunch with in the weeks to come. It’s awesome to practice my Spanish and also probe on some of the different perspectives they have.

some of the people at the hostel playing some drunk ping pong

All in all, I’d rate this trip an A and while I’m definitely glad to be back in Buenos Aires can’t wait for the trips to come! (October-Iguazú Falls and Colonial Uruguay. November-hopefully Patagonia.) I’m thankful for having this amazing time to just chill and travel though I’m sure I’m becoming more and more of a lazy ass every day, thank you Jesus!

Buenos Aires, beginnings

Hey everyone, I’m finally here in Buenos Aires, Argentina! I’m going to try to blog once every two weeks to recap some of the experiences I’ve had and the things I’ve learned. I don’t expect it to be quite as adventurous as my stories in Guatemala, but I’m definitely hoping to grow and have some eye opening experiences.

El capitán

The plane ride to Argentina was fairly smooth. The only crazy thing that happened was 20 minutes before we were about to land in Buenos Aires, I can’t find my passport! I was so nervous and told the flight attendant that I might have left my passport in our layover in Lima, Peru. For some odd reason she calls the Captain of the plane to come to my seat and the minute he arrives, he shouts “What is that!?” and points at this thing sticking out of a book I was reading. It was amazing…I thought to myself I could have had to forget about this entire semester so whatever else I get to experience from this point on is a blessing..thank the Lord!

Homestay experience: Chacarita

If you read my blog when I was in Guatemala, you know that my homestay in Antigua was a tortillería (tortilla shop) for the town with an outhouse for the toilet and bucket baths. This house is completely different! I have an awesome room that has a balcony and shelves for me to put all my stuff and we even have our own little common space for the international students to hang out. The only drawback is that it isn't in the safest area, and it is far from other places (45 min to get to class).

First of all, the people in the house are much more talkative and down to earth. There is a pretty good mix of international students and porteños (Argentines). There are six students (2 from Michigan, one from Oklahoma, one from Washington and one from Wisconsin), three daughters (16, 19, 21), one brother, and a mom. So there’s basically always someone to talk to (either in Spanish or English) or someone to do something with. Dinner time is awesome because we all sit together and speak Spanish and talk about all kinds of stuff—good restaurants to try, politics, things to do in Argentina, etc. In my first week, we’ve already managed to get into some heated debates where we’ve said some intense/offensive things. I just try to drink it all in. I’m actually very surprised by how fast everything from Spanish 4 (a year ago) is coming back to me.

It’s also awesome because the girls are about our age and go to Universidad de Buenos Aires(UBA) so we get a small “in” into the local scene. The first week there was a midnight parrilla (BBQ) where a bunch of porteños from UBA came and grilled all this delicious meat. People didn’t start eating until 3 am and heading back home until 7 am, loco! We sat in a circle and chilled, but I definitely had a hard time keeping up with them, understanding what they were saying, etc. It’s tough because I want to make some Argentine friends here, but it’s still hard for me to express my personality with the language barrier. I hope that by December, I can be comfortable enough with my Spanish to make people laugh and form substantial relationships.

Boliches & the night life

I’ve never been in a city that has such an intense night culture. First of all, everything is pushed back about 3-4 hours around here, including meals. I still remember the first night where I just sat in my room miserably starving, waiting for food until 9:30 pm (which is early by their standards). Also, whereas in the US, the bars close around 2 am, here a lot of the clubs don’t open till 2 am and people dance until 7 am! Some people who are really into the party scene have decided to change their sleeping habits so that they sleep after school from 3-10 pm, eat dinner, then go out again. My first Boliche experience was last Saturday at this place called “Crobar” where we danced to some crazy argentine electronica band until I felt like I was going to pass out. I got back to my bed around 7 am, in time to see the sun and felt completely exhausted. Needless to say, I felt so crappy the next day and getting around the city at night is a headache. The subtes(subways) don’t work and it can take up to an 1 hr a half to catch a colectivo (bus) and go back home.

Las Villas

Buenos Aires is definitely an amazing city with beautiful colonial architecture, parks, and plazas created by centuries of national favoritism and international trade. It is called the ‘Paris of South America.’ In the first week of the program, I was experiencing the city, going to theaters, bars, cafes, etc but knew that in this place of intense wealth, there was intense poverty. One of my housemates, Cass introduced me to a volunteering program called “L.I.F.E” that goes out to Villas (slum towns) that surround the city of Buenos Aires. These communities are basically informal settlements formed by migrants from the interior provinces of Buenos Aires who came for jobs but found that the urban development authorities could not accommodate them in the city.

I signed up and now do school support twice a week, which means basically helping children with homework, playing games with them, teaching them math, etc. It’s basically just an excuse to spend time with them and offer attention. It takes a while to get out to the villas, and we have to hire a driver from the villa to pick us up from the city because Taxis won’t go to these 'extremely dangerous' areas. Luckily, we all wear shirts that signify we are with the organization and everybody in the slum knows about us. It’s been a great experience so far encountering the praxis (intersection of theory and practice) and seeing how social, political and economic forces have created these settlements. These villas come in all forms. This past Thursday, I went to one called Ejercito Celestial.

This villa is an abandoned hospital that the city stopped constructing halfway in the process. It’s made of brick and resembles a huge parking garage. As you can see, none of the windows were constructed and there are about 50 or more families up there in their own mini city. It was definitely the oddest sight I’ve seen here.

Up next:

-Cultural musings. Why it is okay to show up 40 minutes to late to class in Argentina, why everyone here spends hours keeping up with news about politics and the economy, why food here isn’t very innovative, and why the public transportation/city planning is in some aspects, a disaster.

-My trip to Salta! (this coming Tuesday to Monday)

-My strange but refreshing experience at the Barrio Chino(China town)—being trilingual has never been so useful!

-the type of people I’m meeting here (either militantly liberal or intense partiers)