Marilee’s Travels

i made it!! i arrived yesterday afternoon and took a cab to my amazing hotel. checked in and dumped off my stuff and headed out for a walk. it is in a fabulous location with tons of people and STUFF. found a great restaurant to have dinner at, at the usual 10pm hour and had a hard time sleeping with all the excitement. today i found myself at the botanical gardens by way of taxi (less than $5). i didn´t go because of the plants but for the cats. yes cats. this 3-4 block park is home to tons, possibly hundereds, of stray cats. it was so fun to just sit and have then come over to say hi. they are slightly cared for (food and water provided) by a group of volunteers. crazy. next i wondered to shopping district! wow. (denise where are you? we would have so much fun together here!) i found some great buys and really enjoyed just wandering around for 3 hours knowing that all i had to do was grab a cab, anywhere, and it would bring me back to the hotel. NO REAL NAVIGATION NEEDED!! i may go for another walk tonight to find food and tomorrow i think i will go to a very famous cemetery. (i just have to say… I AM NOT AT WORK TODAY!!!)

wow! that is alot of friggin water. today we took an all day tour. the ´devils throat´ again (the biggest part) and we also walked the lower and upper trails. it is 2700 meters wide. with about 1000 indivdual falls. the drop is 80 meters. (i guess niagra is 1 falls around 2000 meter with a drop of only 60 meters) we saw some great animals… iguanas, lizards, birds, butterflies (there are over a 1000 varities around here), little guinea pigs, a giant guinea pig thing that they make alot of leather products out of. (i have no clue what the f*ck it was) we saw also a relative of the raccoon. and i found out that i am in a sub tropical location. the falls are shared with brazil but with such a short amount of time here… i only stayed on this side and waved to brazil. the best part of the day, i almost missed out on was at the end of the tour,you could pay extra for a boat and safari ride. i thought what the hell. beats walking in this heat. (over 30 degrees C) i don´t know what that is, other than HOT!!! so anyway… i pay the $30 for the hour trip. holy shit. we get in the boat (about 20 people and 500 horse power motor) and in less than 2 minutes we are doing brodys and i am soaked from head to toe and screaming for more. we go right under two of the falls. incredible!!! note to all of you… if you do this tour, don´t wear jeans. it feels like you have wet your pants for the next hour. the other highlight of the day was going back to those main falls first thing this morning. there was so much spray from the falls that everyone was wet. i was walking to another part and turned to see an man about 70 years old with the most spectacular smile on his face. he was having a moment and i got to watch it. his expression was absolute pure bliss. as if he had worked his whole life and traveled across 3 continents for that moment… he just streched out his arms and soaked it all in.

ok… where do i start with this one. we took a bus from goya to corrients and after 3 hours arrived and had some dinner. at 1am we boarded the all night bus (because no one believes in planes or cars here). are arrival time was to be 9-930 am. not a problem… until our double decker bus hits-kills a full size bull and the driver has to go into town with the photos, the ears and brand! 4 hours later, we leave again and we didn´t get in until 130pm. we checked into our hotel. ($25… crazy cheap) we took the bus out to the falls and they are incredible!! i took a video and lots of photos that i can´t upload yet. perhaps at the hotel this weekend when i am loafing around. (Donna P thanks for the courage to leave early!) so now with it only being 830pm here i am waiting for coty to finish her nap and we will have the middle of the night dinner! let me tell you… eating this much meat does weird things to the body.

ok… in case you were wondering, i am alive and well despite the culture shock of day one and two in northern argentina. holy shit. it was a huge contrast to chile and my sister there. she and i have so much in common and really are sisters! here… it is like meeting someone new that looks really familiar. NO ONE speaks english except constanza´s mother and constanza sometimes. i don´t think she likes to and the first day… she lost her voice. anyway… it has gotten better. i went out to ´campo´ which is one of the 3 farms the family has. holy shit once again… their land has been in their family for more than 5 generations and i was standing near one of the houses and was told that in every direction and as far as i could see was… their property. it is like being on Dallas the argentinan version. with all the servants, food but alot less drama. i do have alot of photos. more than 500. (thanks for the extra cards mark) i hope that on sun-tuesday when i am at some posh hotel in buenos aires i will be able to finally have some time and patience to upload something. well.. tonight i take a 3 hour bus ride to corrientes and eat dinner there (at 10pm which is the usual time) and then at 1am take another bus north to the brazilian border to see some of the biggest falls in the world. we (constanza and i) will stay in a hotel on friday night and then take a night bus back to corrientes on saturday night (something like 6-8 hours) yipee! and on sunday… i fly to buenos aires for the start of my solo trip. 3 nights in a posh hotel before i go to the tango guest house. i cut my trip short in goya because it is a little remote for me… i suppose if i could have stayed out at campo and rode horses, played with cows and chickens that would have been great. well… sorry for the delay in writing. i hope you are all well. i am working on getting a sunburn… eating more than my own body weight in meat and loving every moment of it. thank god my cloths still fit. seriously… i wake up at 9 or 10 and eat some bread and have coffee then at 1230 we have a HUGE lunch. at 5 is tea with more sweets and bread and dinner at 9 or 10. not to mention if someone wants some icecream some where between tea and dinner. i can not belive they are all not 600 pounds. however, there are NO fast food resaurants and the resaurants they do have only have fresh local food. ok. i am rambling…. the freedom to write and write with no one waiting for me. aahhh. chau

lazy day… this is part of an email to victor. hope you are all well. denise… i miss you tons. benton, yes the traditional way to make pisco sour does have raw eggs whites. i have had a couple of those and they are damn good. i am going to try to find an authintic receipe. i have also drank the water. here is to a digestive system of steal. (i have more trouble with north american airline foods… ) ha ha ha.

so this is my last night in chile. today went to another pablo naruasa house(cant spell worth shit. he is the chiliean writer who won the the noble piece prize) i have now seen 2 of his 3 houses. it was cloudy and chilly today. lots of smog. but we walked around a posh neighborhood had lunch at 2 (i was up at 9. a miracle) bought a ring, a pair of earrings and perhaps a necklace for denise. cool stuff. tonight i am treating some of the family to dinner at a nice resaurant. a peruvian resaurant. should be fun. then tomorrow ill have time for breakfast and then time to go. oh. we also walked through a mueso and saw the works of claudio bravo and matta. (i am telling you this because i thought you might want to look them up and also because i wanted you to remind me that i wanted to looke them up also) i have been eating so good… i will definatly have to do some walking in argentina so i dont get any fatter. shit.

today was a drive through santiago to a 68 acre vineyard south of town. the most popular chilean wine. we had a tour, two tastings and got to go to the famous CELLAR OF THE DEVIL. (insert scary voice here) it was kindo of funny with it being halloween and all. had lunch out side. empanadas, shrimp, wine y papas fritas (french fries sounds better in spanish) it was a mellow day and tonight is a get together with a few friends of carolinas. have a happy halloween.

on sunday carolina drove me straight west to a town called Valparaiso. it is about 1-2 hours away through the coastal mountains. it was a perfect day to see the ocean. it is a port town so we did not go to the beach. the town is built on a very steep hill so we rode one of the many elevators that is on a pulley system that you pay a small fee to ride. i took some photos and hope to find a cafe today to upload them. (we will see) we met up with a friend of carolinas from university and had an amazing lunch. everything takes forever here. lunch was atleast 2 hours. i had my new favorite drink… pisco sour. at first it has a margarita flavor but more sour. i am hoping to bring some home. we got home around 9 and had dinner waiting for us. salmon and potatoes at 10pm. they eat all the time and seem to enjoy every moment of it. i did not sleep to well last night as the piece of shit neighbor dog was barking for an hour just across the street. chucha!!! (i guess that is soft cuss word for what i wanted call that crap dog) anyway… how can i stay mad. i do not have to work today. (thanks nike!)

well i woke up and i thought i was in portland in the winter. cloudy and cold. which is a bummer. the mountains are so close! i have a week for them to go… i am on a dial up system and feeling a little impatient with it so it looks like i will not be uploading photos for a while, instead i write here. last nights party(asado) was really fun. carolina invited her friends that know english but 4 never spoke it. mean while her actor sister inlaw who knows as much english as i do spanish was more than willing to show off her skills for a good laugh. at one point everyone was eating the mass amounts of meat that jose louis prepared on the bbq(also called the asado) and everyone was laughing and talking and i had this moment of thinking that if i consintrate enough i would undersand them and then at the same time just listening to the beautiful sounds and basking in the fact that i did not understand a word. chileans are very gentle, polite and very easy to laugh. while walking downtown with carolina i noticed that there is not a look that they have. people mostly have brown hair and eyes but there features are all so different. well… i have no idea what we are doing today. carolina is a little slower since she has a cold. oh… i woke up from my nap last night before the party and when i came out carolinas mothere was in the living room. when she saw me she began to cry and said, i am mom. then she hug me about five times saying how happy she was. she has the most beautiful light green eyes. ok. it is early and still sleep from the constint meat fest that ran into breakfast.

24 hours of traveling and i arrived in one piece. it is so beautiful to fly in over the andes. they are as big as alaska mountains. carolina was so happy when i arrived and we went directly to her house and met nelly (the nanny) and little esparanza. such a beautiful baby. it is chilly here and i hear that people are coming over for dinner tonight. i hope my sleepiness does not kick in too soon. one week will not be enough… we are already making plans to meet next time (in less than 15 years) some place in the middle

hello everyone. as you can see i have just been counting down and now i have started packing. really nothing big to report other than my suit case was stolen out of my entry way 2 nights ago. (not the bag you gave me, mom) it was one i scored from work. looks like i’ll have to beg for another. not too worry. garbage bags work, right? (it’s sad, i have done that before…) it is great knowing that i don’t have to be at work after tomorrow. i see people having a hard time detaching from work and moving into vacation-brain… i don’t think i’ll be one of those. as soon as the drool begins to flow on the 17 hour plane trip south… all the bags will be washed from my brain and body. if not, try alcohol!!