May 28th 2011
O May, O May! Where have you gone thou May? I don’ know! It has been so busy with crazy stories, either good or bad that I do not even know where to start this month’s update! So asides from the normal monthly fun times which include food and drinking, or the more serious lets go to class stuff, I also had friends visiting and crashing at my place which was nice. However, that eventually led to the fabulous events of me fighting with my landlord for a week right before my brother arrived. I basically left home to have a landlord worst than my own parents (actually my parents rock so I can’t even say that). He is a control freak. He does not live with me and I have to let him know if I want to cook with friends, I cannot have people over (to sleep) and if I do they have to pay (the same price as a hostel? Wtf? I had to fight for my brother to stay and not pay!) and ya no sleepovers even if its in my room. He even said that applied to boyfriends. OH BOY. Ahahaha. I just laughed and told him that whatever happened in my room was none of his business…but he tells me a bunch of bullshit because I am foreign and he tells me I don’t understand etc etc. But I informed myself and he does A LOT of illegal stuff….INCLUDING having a key to my room and he used it to go in while I wasn’t there which just did it. He says I provoked him to do it…then I wanted to leave but he wouldn’t let me, and he manipulated the situation with money by not giving back my half of the month. So I gave him my one month’s notice I also knew I would not be around much so it was easier to give us both time.
It is now the 28th and I am in a bus back to Cordoba. I have been gone for over a week and probably have to move out the day my brother leaves, oh and go to school that day too ahahaha…move out where? Not too sure yet! I am pretty sure he will reduce my rent and ask me to stay because he won’t have anyone else to rent the room to. As I gave my month’s notice, his only employee (real estate business) quit and his wife gave him divorce papers. Hmmmm…wonder who the problem is here? So that was that. My brother finallyyyyy arrived to Argentina on May 18th. It was SOOOOOO awesome and great to see him again. I think that for the next few days I repeated at least 10 times that I couldn’t believe he was here, that it was so crazy he was in Argentina with me etc etc.
So he got here the Wednesday, we had a great time and dinner and the next day, Thursday, I skipped part of my last class and we hoped onto a bus to Puerto Madryn. Wonderful 22h bus to Patagonia. But soooooooooo worth it. We were staying at a friend’s friend’s house and they were so nice and welcoming. We cooked them dinner on the first night. They did not speak English, one of them a little, and so there was a mixture of Spanish, English and sign language happening as well as a lot of translating on my part. I was impressed on how my brother was able to communicate with people fairly quickly. He took a Spanish class so that for sure was a lot of help.
We chose Puerto Madryn for the diving. On the Saturday we did three dives, one being with sealions. I do not even know how to describe the experience…we were 45 minutes under water, we were in a natural reserve and no one else was there so there were about 40 sealions, mainly younger ones, all around us. At first they would come and go, but then after a while they would stay with us and swim around, play with us and even bite our fists when we would put them out. (bite like little puppies, it doesn’t hurt!). Mich even hugged one! Time under water flew by! It was definitely an amazing experience! The rest of the weekend was an Argentinean introduction for the little brother: folklore music, mate, asado and fernet were all in the program. We had mate and breakfast on the port on the Sunday and soon enough we had to sadly head back to Cordoba. Upon return, I had a three day unlucky strike. We got back the Tuesday morning, and a few hours later I completely burn my hand wrist and part of my arm with boiling water. Second degree burn which is still not completely healed, I think its going to scar pretty bad too. Then at night I ate bad seafood and all day Wednesday I had an indigestion. No details needed here I felt like crap and didn’t go to class. Then on the Thursday, the day before we left for Chile, I forget my leather jacket in drawing class and then realize that my house keys are in it. Still have not found it but I think I know who has it, although I do not know her name (great).
So we leave for Chile. Our first destination was to be Valparaiso on the coast. Upon arrival to Santiago, all over the news is the horror of the manifestations and people recommended we do not go. So we head to a place about 20 minutes away called Vina del Mar. It was also on the coast and we walked around that night. The next day we took a bus to Valparaiso and explored the city all day long. It is amazing, we both loved it. The streets of the city are a museum, the walls are filled with beautiful graffitis and street art. We also visited one of Pablo Neruda’s houses which is on one of the main hills. That night we wanted to take an overnight bus to La Serena, but when we got to the station, the buses were full. It was Sunday and because of the protests, everyone from other cities were going back home…soo we had to leave the next day. Our next destination was our next diving destination called: Punta de Choros. From la Serena, it was a little hard to get there. We were able to get a ride in a van with locals and the landscape was just breath taking. We drove along the Pacific coast and saw the sunset through the mountains. Finally I think about 3hs later we get to our little apartment on the beach. It was night time so it was only the next morning we saw where we were. WOW. WOW. WOW. We did 3 dives there. The water was pretty cold but soooo clear and we saw some nice underwater wonders. The third dive on the second day wasn’t as pleasant for Mich because he had eaten empanadas the night before and now it was his turn to get an indigestion! After the dive, we went back to la Serena and had to decide where to go. He was feeling like crap, there were no buses to San Juan in Argentina and we needed to decide. Finally we took a bus to Santiago and then another to Mendoza and another to San Juan. Very long but we paid a little more for the overnight bus to be able to sleep. We got to the hostel in San Juan and met 3 frenchies who had rented a car to go to the Valle de la Luna and Talampaya parks. They had 2 seats left in the car and invited us to join, so we did. We had a blast in the car, we could stop whenever we wanted to take pictures, we had a picnic, and headed to Talampaya, which is a canyon. We got there and there were only 4 places left on the bus and they wouldn’t let us go 5 people so we were only able to do half of the circuit. However the guide was really nice and the place was still really impressive. The canyon is 4km long and 150m high. The earth is red and sometimes you see shades of green or yellow depending on the minerals. We watched the sun go down in the canyon as well and headed to a hostel for the night. We got up pretty early this morning to go see the other side of the park called Valle de la Luna. It was a little rainy but we decided to go check it out anyways. However, the road got worst on our way there and there was so much fog that we decided not to pay to go in and see nothing. We were all disappointed to not be able to see, especially that the previous day was so nice and the sky was clear at night, we could see soooo many stars. So we headed back to San Juan. We still had a great time, roadtrip, with great funny people and saw some beautiful landscapes.
So today, a few hours ago, my little bro left for Canada. I am sad but enjoyed every single moment with him during the last 3 weeks. I still have to decide if I am moving out or not (I was able to negotiate with the landlord and since I only have a month and a bit left I might stay..) and I am completely swamped with school work. It seems like I always try to keep my posts short, but this month so much was happening that it’s the longest so far. I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it all.
I hope the summer back home is nicer than it was a few weeks ago (I heard there was lots of rain)
La chola 