South American Reflections

Now that I have left South America it is time for a little recap. I started with Ben in Santiago Chile and we arrived and got to our awesome host, Jordan's house. He was an English teacher from New York and he was really cool he helped us with Spanish (because at the time we knew zero Spanish) and he took us on a food tour of Santiago which was great. We really had a good time there the only hiccup I had was thinking that everyone would speak English in South America because boy was I wrong! I had some issues the very first day with the language barrier but, once I started learning Spanish I got it all sorted thank God.

From there we went to the coast of Chile to a city called Valparaiso and had some great seafood and a great time. Not much to tell there we just had a great host Peter and met some great people and really enjoyed it. We left for the Chilean/Bolivian border from Valpo. Once we got there we left from San Pedro Chile (a city I really liked but took us 26 hours on the bus to get there!) into Bolivia for our salt flat tour.

After I paid my 140 USD for my friggin entry visa fee i got to go into Bolivia and take our salt desert tour with Ben (he was 140 USD richer than me at that point) :(  I had a really good time with our guide and our group on the tour even though I actually enjoyed the lead up to the actual salt desert more than the salt desert itself. Although we did get some pretty amazing pictures there. We also stayed in La Paz the highest capital city on the planet and I had a lot of trouble breathing there! it was like being on the top of a mountain all the time!!

Next we went from Bolivia into Peru and spent some time in Lima and Cusco with some great couch surfers. In Lima we saw a laser light/water park show that would blow anything Vegas has out of the water (no pun intended) they had big water fountains on timers set to shoot up to music and not only that but they had laser lights timed to go with this as well it was totally amazing! It only cost us 1.50 USD to get in and we loved it. There was even a water "maze" we got to play in and all the locals were laughing at us white guys getting wet haha.

Cusco was my favourite city in all of Peru, the history and architecture all the Spanish influence and it was just a really awesome place! We stayed there before we decided to go to  Machu Picchu. That in and of itself really is a world wonder! It is so hard to get up there and expensive and our tour was not amazing due to some of the shitty things that happened but after all the walking and hiking and effort it was totally worth the money to go up there and see that amazing city on top of a mountain and I have the passport stamp to prove it :) The only other place we went in Peru was Lake Titicaca. It was beautiful and amazing and huge there. Sure the town we stayed in was a total tourist trap but just being there was great. I saw one of my top ten best sunsets ever there I wish all of you could have seen it overlooking everything wow!

Ben and I flew from Lima to Buenos Aires Argentina where I again had to pay 140 USD just like in Bolivia and Chile only because I am American. As a German Ben doesn't get charged a penny but, our country does it to them so they charge us right back. I hate our travel policies! Anyway B.A. was a lot of fun and we had great times with couch surfers (they have one of the most active couch surfing groups in the world) and we met some amazing people there. We took a tango lesson and had a great time that is until I got my wallet stolen :( it was also kind of expensive in Buenos Aires by South American standards but other than that bump in the road everything else was great there and we did manage to see an amazing drumming performance there!Also, in Argentina they had very very strange door keys. Big golden keys like they were from the 1800's or something and they were square!

Ben and I split up after Argentina and I decided to go to Bogotá Colombia since I didn't get the visa to go to Brazil (only to the airport there where I met Jessica in the terminal) so it was a lucky stopover for me hehe. Once I landed in Bogotá I went straight to my CS hosts house and he ended up being a really nice guy but at first I bought into all the media reports and I was really scared of Colombia which is ironic because it ended up being my favourite country in all of South America and not a single bad thing happened to me at all! If anything, people were extra nice to me and I would totally recommend that Americans (or anyone) travel there!

I traveled in and around Bogotá I saw a church in an underground mine made out of salt. I saw an amazing view of the whole city of 8 million people and I saw a bunch of cool cities around Bogotá.  I met some amazing couch surfers who helped me with tons and tons of stuff and were some of the nicest people I have ever met including my second host Marcela who was amazing to me! I had great food for super cheap and got to see this beautiful country and for sure I will be coming back to see more of that amazing country since I only saw just a bit of what it has to offer and not to mention that is where I want to learn proper Spanish in Colombia. I loved it there!!

My only regret is that I ran out of money so I had to come home earlier than I planned (even though I made it a surprise and my family didn't know) I wish I had more time for South/Central America (like Ben does) and while I did learn A LOT of Spanish (considering I started with basically zero Spanish) I still want to go back to Colombia and learn proper Spanish and take some classes and maybe even teach English there.

Until next time yall,Tyler

As time winds down....

 Last Sunday I  found out the hard way that in this pretty religious country most everything is closed on Sunday. I went to get something to eat at 8pm (not THAT late right?) and EVERYTHING was closed! The only thing I could eat was at that horrid global corporation we like to call McDonald's the only good thing about this is that Maccas has a standard of crappiness no matter where in the world you are haha. It is frustrating when that is your only choice though! I have noticed that Colombia actually has very high food standards. When they are cooking your food they are required to wear masks as to not get you sick. They have great food here and I have had some great meals for less than 3 dollars.

I also managed to see an amazing underground salt mine that they actively mine salt out of but for some reason they decided to build an entire church under the ground! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen you should check out my pictures on facebook. In addition to this I got to go to a place above Bogotá via cable car called Monserrate and it was a (rare) beautiful day and I had an amazing overview of the entire city (again check my pictures on facebook)


Bogotá actually has a really modern really great city bus system called Transmelinio they are large double busses like two busses connected together that can seat 45 people sitting and 150 standing (according to the card on the door) but there is always like 487 people in there haha. That I would change, and I would also change the fact that everyone enters and exits from the same points so there is a lot of crowding. But it is 75 cents USD for a ticket to anywhere and the busses have their own lanes so no traffic! It's great :)  Taxis are also a great cheap option. The most expensive fare I paid was 11 USD and that was for an hour in a taxi! You can get anywhere cheaply and quickly and the drivers were for the most part very nice to me and honest I know I never got ripped off because their meter has a number that they read from a card to see how much to charge you and they have to show you the card. i.e. 148 is 8000 pesos (4 USD).  I also got to practice my spanish with them.


I really wanted to see a soccer game in Colombia but unfortunately for me it was the finals so tickets were sold out and the scalpers were charging me triple the price so I said no. I have come to find out there is a few "levels" of police here in Colombia. There is the private security guards who just have a baton and nothing else and basically stand around. Then, there is the policia who actually have guns and look fairly intimidating they are all very nice but I am sure you don't want to mess with them. The next level up is police who walk around with very big scary dogs that I am quite sure will rip your face off.

Luckily every one of these dogs I saw had a muzzle on. The final level is the "Policia Nationale" and the general army. These guys have automatic assault rifles and I got the impression they shoot first and ask questions later. These guys were dead serious.
The Policia Nationale were the ones at the soccer game, they were all armed to the teeth. So I got the feeling that those games get pretty routy. There was people (and police everywhere) maybe it was better I didn't go haha. But, I survived without a scratch and got the Transmelinio back home.


Many people in South America and Asia have very common birth defects that would be fixed at birth in westernized countries or even detected prenatally. But, in those countries they just don't know about it or they can't do anything about it so people live with these common problems and struggle through life and have to beg because these countries also don't have any social security programs so it is every man for himself. It is quite sad actually because there is nothing I can really do for these people as a traveler besides give them the change I have in my pocket. Some of the beggars are really creative though I have mentioned many street performers/beggars I saw in Australia/New Zealand but in Colombia I saw a full on total cheerleading perforance in the middle of traffic! Two guys and a girl were doing flips and stuff in the middle of the intersection! One of the craziest things I have ever seen!

I had an amazing three course dinner with some great great helado (icecream) a bottle of wine and the whole romantic deal for me and my date for 60 bucks USD. It was quite the deal and I knocked her socks off for cheap. We had a live band there and then a movie for 6 dollars for dos boletos (2 tickets). Que Paso Ayer Parte Dos (The hangover 2) was super funny! I loved my time in Colombia it was one of my favourite countries so far and I had an amazing time! Thanks so much to both my hosts and all the people I met and too all the people who helped me out! :)

Until next time,Tyler

Reverse Culture Shock

I know there is culture shock when you go to a new culture (I have even experienced it myself) what I didn't realise until recently is that there is reverse culture shock when you go home! In a short time I will be going home for the first time since 2009. I figured I would write this now while I have a good Internet connection. I wanted to try and explain myself via my blog so please bear with me. I want to be clear right from the very start that I have amazing friends and family who I love very much and who love me. I could have never done this without their support and none of that has ever changed for me nor will it ever.

That being said, I want to talk about what I am feeling. I am slightly scared to come home. Nervous that things won't be the same, people won't be the same (I am not the same person as when I left because I have grown, learning from so many experiences I have had in 2 years) or on the flip side of the coin maybe I am scared everyone at home hasn't changed much and I have.

I am scared I won't be able to relate to people at home, we won't be on the same "level", conversation will be hard because I have been all over the world on this adventure and they haven't. I really have fallen in love with this life style. My life is on my back and I am not tied to anything. When I don't like somewhere or something I get up and go. Sure I have worked and had jobs (and worked hard) but my life has been anything but "routine" for the past two years.

I have fallen in love with the feeling that this world is a big place to explore and that I can do it. I have been to many countries in this time away and I have seen and done many many amazing things and I have been so so lucky to do so. These travels have forever changed my perspective on life and I am so grateful I made the choice to do this because my life is better for it.

When I do get home you might notice some differences, My core personality is the same. My accent is the same but things like my vocabulary and spelling have changed. I am still "American" and certainly a Texan but you are going to have to bear with me. If I say something you don't understand ask me to translate haha. I just worry that being home is going to make me so restless I will start going crazy! I worry that I won't be able to go back to my "old" life and be happy.

For those of you who have seen the movie The Hurt Locker and remember the scene near the end of the movie where the soldier gets home and he is grocery shopping and just walking up and down the aisles staring at nothing. He can't adjust to "normal" life. Life as a soldier is all he knows. Of course I haven't been to war but I feel that I can parallel this feeling.

It is strange to even be writing this. I never expected not to be 1000% ready to come home and be totally happy. I am as surprised as you that I have so fallen in love with my current life style but at this moment in time I can honestly say that I am 100% happy right here right now sitting here in Bogotá Colombia. Basically what I am saying is I need you to bear with me while I adjust back to life of a normal person. I need you to realise that I may have the overwhelming desire to leave again and I need you to realise that I DO care about each and every person in my life back home and abroad this is just a new experience for me. I am trying to deal with this.

If you ask me "What is the best thing you did in your trip" that is going to be very hard for me to answer because I have been lucky enough to see and do MULTIPLE amazing things. If you ask me "how was your trip" you need to be prepared for a long answer! It was two years of my life remember! I don't want to feel like a stranger in my own home and country but right now I do so I am asking for your help to help me adjust.

One last thing, I don't write this to be all "high and mighty" and tell you how amazing my life is and what I have seen and done. I have had shitty days too, normal days, gone to work 9-5. I am still a normal person I just travel. I know your lives haven't been on hold waiting for me to come home. I am quite sure your lives have been great too I just need to get these emotions out the best way I know how. My one year adventure in Australia has turned into a two year multi country adventure so my life is different than I ever expected but I don't regret a thing and I hope you don't either.

This blog may sound very negative to you. It may sound like me whining about coming home but I felt that I needed to write this. I really am looking forward to eating a meal hand cooked by my mother and seeing my family and sharing a Shiner Bock with all my awesome friends back home. I am just not looking forward to everything else that goes along with "normal"" life. I hope yall can understand where I am coming from and I hope I expressed myself correctly. I do feel bad that I don't feel "ready" to come home and I wish I could continue traveling even now but, it is how I feel.

Thanks for listening and I hope you understand. -Tyler

Random Colombia Observations

I thought while I had the time I would mention a few random observations I have made about South America in general. South American drivers in general are VERY VERY impatient. I mean seriously impatient! They will honk at you even BEFORE the light turns green! If you are getting out of a taxi and trying to pay the driver they will honk. They honk at anything! Back home if someone honks it is a warning and you usually pay attention. They honk so much here for everything you just tend to tune it all out. That is why you have to be really careful crossing the street haha.

South America and Asia,third world countries in general would just be hell for a person in a wheel chair or a person with disabilities. To be fair to these countries they are just too poor to afford proper infrastructure so it isn't totally theit faults but the sidewalks are all cracked and uneven (if there is any sidewalk) the roads rarely have proper crosswalks the doorways and entryways are small and there is rarely elevator/escalators. I am really thankful that I can walk properly and don't have any major disabilities and I sure hope it stays that way and I really feel sorry for people who live in these countries who do have them.

These countries are too poor to afford proper social service programs (social security etc) so the poor are left to fend for themselves. I usually will give whatever change I have to a poor person because they need it more than me. It doesn't cost me much and it makes me feel good. There is a few kinds of poor people though. The ones who just sit there with a sign or in silence and expect you to just give them money. Then there is the ones that pull at your clothes and beg you and ask you for money (its annoying). Then there are others who are offering some kind of talent for your money and that is sometimes interesting and entertaining. There are still others who are generally hard up and need your help or people who pretend to be and aren't really but they are just lazy and want your money. It happens all over the world I have found in every country I have been too. 

Another thing I noticed is the massive quantity of late night street food. It is usually pretty good and if you make sure they heat/cook everything properly you are generally ok. I have had some really amazing street food and some really bad street food but only once have I got sick. In Asia/South America after a night out at the bar or the club they don't have a Walmart or gas station you can run into and grab something cheap so they have cheap street food. For less than a dollar you can usually get semi full and they cater to alcohol induced people lol. They are open all hours of the night and I have eaten some really strange but good things. Nothing has killed me so far and I love eating local food and cheap food and trying new things and not eating touristy expensive crap I can get at home.

The last thing I wanted to mention was third world showers and toilets and general bathroom facilities. You probably don't think about this at home ( I know I didn't when I was home) but I certainly do now. I have had many many showers with no hot water, many showers with trickling water,many showers with water that stops flowing RIGHT as the shampoo is in my eyes lol. I have used toilets with no running water and only a bucket or no bucket at all and only a hole in the ground. I have used toilets with no toilet paper or you can only throw the toilet paper in a trashcan or there is a hose to squirt yourself with instead of any toilet paper. I have used many toilets with no toilet seat and you just have to squat. Many many gross bathrooms (even when you have to pay for them they are gross lol)

Basically what I am saying is don't take the little conveniences of life you have at home for granted. Think about people in third world countries who don't even have the option. Oh ya! I almost forgot! I had the most amazing lunch today for just over 4 USD and it was huge! I had basically what was ground beef,with a fried egg,rice,fried banana,another form of some kinda of meat product lol, Then I had some sausage and some more brisket kind of thing PLUS baked beans/ranch style bean soup. The soup was by far my favourite and it tastes JUST like something my dear mother makes :) I am so full right now I couldn't eat another bite lol. Next week I will visit all the places I have been meaning to visit so far and pick up my laundry haha.

Tyler over and out from Bogotá.

Colombia Adventures Continue

I know its been a while since I have written so I thought I would give yall an update. Colombia is still super awesome for me and by far my favourite country in South America (even if it is the rainy season right now :(   ) it rains all the time! An umbrella is a must! I have been here in the capital city of Bogotá and made some great friends thru CS (couch surfing). Everyone has been SUPER nice! Colombia has a really bad reputation on an international level and there isn't that many tourists here and that is really sad. People judge this country before they come here for themselves and see it! I know that the people who live here know that so they try extra hard to disprove the notion that every person in Colombia is a criminal.

I have had nothing but good experiences here thus far, it doesn't mean that I still don't act smart and stay on my toes I just know that not everyone is out to get me. I can walk at night in (most) parts of the city and feel totally fine. I know the parts to avoid so I do. They use pesos here and there is 2000 pesos in 1 USD. So obviously when you buy certain things the amounts can get pretty large. Not only that but the numbers are obviously in Spanish and not English so I tend to struggle with the larger numbers even though I am fine with knowing how much money to give for smaller amounts.

The other day I went to pay for something I thought was roughly 30 USD so I gave the guy that much money in pesos. I didn't see a problem with it because I thought that was the price but, the price was actually around 13 USD. So this guy could have totally robbed me and taken more money than was required but he pointed out my mistake to me and gave me my correct change. I am sure most people would do this around the world but I just wanted to make it clear that in Colombia they do the same.

I have been taking day trips in and out of Bogotá and around (I usually don't go further than 4-5 hours away with friends and then come back) and so far I have seen some amazing places and beautiful landscapes. Much of Colombia is still very Catholic and religious and has a lot of Spanish Colonial influence. There is many plazas and old buildings and church's and almost every street is cobblestone and not concrete. Here in Bogotá though there is a big military/police presence and they are all armed to the teeth. It makes me feel safer for sure but on the flip side of the coin I have a feeling that I would NOT want to mess with any of these guys/girls because they all have automatic rifles. Thus far I have had zero problems with the military/police. As a tourist they just leave me be and they are even really helpful if you need directions or something.

Most of these soldiers look quite young but I am sure they are competent and trained well. There is a bigger presence of armed guards etc near the president's house obviously but it is quite a large neat building I am hoping to tour it in the near future! Also, I want to go to a look out point that overlooks all of Bogotá and a church made totally out of salt! Another thing I have noticed is that there is a ton of motorbikes here and every rider is required to wear a helmet and hi-vis vest. In addition to this they must have their license plate number painted onto their helmets. I am assuming its so if they get knocked off their bike for some reason the police can identify them or so they can see it easier at night. Either way I think its a smart idea. I wish America would implement a helmet law. Its proven to save lives and it makes me mad that people are stupid enough not to wear them then they get hurt and my tax dollars have to help pay for an unnecessary hospital visit.

I got bit by a dog recently. First time in 2 years traveling I have ever been bit by a dog. This dog was growling as I was walking (it was someone's pet tied up) but I have walked by probably 1000 dogs in multiple countries in these 2 years who have growled at me and done nothing so I didn't think anything of it. I was with my friend and she was walking out of reach of the dog. But, this dog was just not happy. Before I knew it he bit my leg!

Luckily I was wearing jeans and he didn't get thru them much. I checked and there was a tooth mark but it wasn't deep at all. Much as if you bumped your leg against the table and scraped it or something. Just to be on the safe side I washed it out with alcohol/soap and water and then went to get checked out to see if I needed the Rabies shots. ( I was NOT looking forward to that as they are expensive and painful I have heard) but Rabies can kill you untreated so it was worth it to go get checked out.
I went with my friend so she could translate and the doctor's said I didn't need the shots. They said even if the dog had rabies (which I doubt) the cut was so small and not deep enough to infect me so I should be fine. But if I start foaming at the mouth I will let you know :P

I have tried a lot of amazing food and drinks here. I have had meat/potatoes/other stuff wrapped up in a huge banana leaf that was so yummy! I have had traditional Colombian soup that had avocados and other stuff in it. it was called Ajiaco. I have had Colombia's version of a hot dog (that is interesting hehe) amazing Chocolate milk-ish kinda stuff,some great coffee and I have had some great national beers plus a fermented corn alcohol drink. It was called Chicha Everything is cheap here and I can eat a full meal for less than 3 USD!

I recently moved hosts and she is a really cool girl :) I like her a lot. Her English isn't 100% but nor is my Spanish. We communicate in 50% Spanish and 50% English. It is working so far. Actually I prefer it, staying at her place I am forced to speak more Spanish and improve my Spanish and she is here to correct me. I also help her with her English. I have always heard the best way to learn a language is to get a boyfriend/girlfriend who speaks that language and live with them. I can totally believe that because my Spanish has much improved since staying here! There is many museums in this historic district where she lives. I have been to the Fernado Botero  Museum. It was free which was great. There was security guards in every room! They were nice and helpful though.

He is a really famous Colombian painter but he has the weird obsession of painting everything fat. I mean huge. He mostly paints fruit and people but he ALWAYS makes them very large like overly obese people. It is strange but fascinating at the same time. His other quirky thing is that when he paints a woman nude he paints her always with armpit hair. But, he also has painted some serious stuff too. Ten years ago the violence was much worse here in Colombia (Now it is isolated to other parts of the country most bordering Venezuela in the jungles) anyway he painted a picture of a car bombing but he painted in such a way that the whole thing looks like a cartoon. I am sure it was based on real events but I think he wanted to "soften" the image. He is an interesting fellow. I also saw my first real Picasso picture up close and personal in real life. He was also an interesting fellow.

One last thing, a few cities here in South America don't have any street names only numbers. Bogotá is one of them.  At first it was confusing to me but now it is easy and I wish every city was like this. You don't need a map ever you just need to understand how the number system works. There is one set of numbers called Carrea and a second set of numbers called Calle. So say I need to be at Carrea 11 and Calle 2. All I have to do is find my way to there (the numbers go up numerically and Carreas are from North to South and Calle's from East to West) and then there is a 3rd number of the actual person's house/business whatever. Its easy peasy.

Also today I managed to eat lunch and buy a shirt and 2 pairs of socks all for 8 USD :) I tried one of the weirdest things I have ever eaten as well. It was a waffle ish kinda thing called oblea (it was harder than a waffle and almost like a communion cracker. In the middle it had arequipe and chocolate sauce and cream and cheese (not cream cheese and cherry sauce) it was weird and wonderful. I also had an enormous portion of helado (ice cream) that was basically like a bowl of ice cream but instead of a bowl it was a huge waffle cone. It was amazing and so so good! It cost me less than 5000 pesos, that is just over 2 USD!  I love the ice cream here and the fresh fruit juice. I have never been so healthy in my life haha. Almost everyday I have jugos naturales or some fresh fruit and it is so so cheap and good! I will really miss it when I have to leave South America.

Well that's all I got for now. As soon as I can get my hands on some sort of a camera I will take some pictures of this beautiful country for yall :) Until next time,Tyler

How I survived Colombia with 2 dollars

I have heard great things about Colombia from multiple people while traveling and I was really excited to come here but I must admit once I got here I let all the negative stuff get to me. I was VERY anxious (more than I have have been in any country) and the first day I didn't barely leave my couch surfing hosts house at all. It is true that Colombia in the past has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world and due to the Cocaine industry here and other things there was lots of drugs wars and kidnappings/killings. But, in the past ten years a lot of things have improved! The second day I realised that I could stay shut in and live in fear of Colombia the whole time and not enjoy anything here (Thanks CNN) or I could go outside and enjoy myself and stay positive and realise that not everyone in Colombia is wanting to kill me and/or rob me.

So on my second day I ventured out. You know what? I didn't get robbed or murdered! This isn't to say that you shouldn't be careful because you should but just know that you shouldn't always believe everything you hear on the news. Thus far in Colombia I have had nothing but good experiences! Everyone has been so so nice to me. This is one of the friendliest countries I have ever visited. My couch surfing host has been awesome to me and totally taken care of me and I have had multiple couch surfers show me around the city!

Everything was going swimmingly until I realised NONE of my bank cards/credit cards are working here in Colombia! Not my credit card or my Aussie/American ATM cards. I called my bank and they can't figure it out all they can do is send me a new card that will take more than a week. Well obviously I have money in my accounts but I cant access any of it! At this point I had left Bogotá with some couch surfing friends I met so I wasn't even in Bogotá (the capital city of Colombia) when I found out my cards didn't work! They covered my expenses for the first day but after that they didn't have anymore money to do so. I don't blame them and really thank them for doing that I know its hard when you don't have a lot of money. 

They gave me enough money to get bus fare back to Bogotá but after I paid the bus fare I was left with 4000 pesos (2 USD!) so by the time I got to the terminal I was alone and only had 2 dollars. Thank God I speak at least basic Spanish. My Spanish is not great by any means but it was good enough for me to let a guy understand that none of my bank cards worked and I only had 2 dollars. This guy was the shop keeper at a phone/internet store.

You know what he did? He gave me a free drink and took my bags and told me to come sit down. Then he let me use his phone and internet all for free. Ask yourself how many people you know who would do all that for a stranger?! Well he did and I am forever grateful. I used the time to call my couch surfer here in Bogotá and he was with his family hanging out but he came with his mother and her husband in rush hour traffic to come get me and take me back to his place to stay, again out of the pure kindness of his heart! There is good people all over the world and my bad experiences I can count on one hand even after two years traveling but I would need 1000 hands to count all my good ones! So it could have ended up really really badly for me but hopefully soon I will get money via Western Union from home and all will be well. I have been in a few hairy situations over the past two years but this has by far been the worst. Luckily it should all be ok and if I can survive this I can survive anything!

I wanted to mention something else important. Sometimes in life you meet people who pass thru your life that you really connect with but due to whatever circumstances you just don't get the time with that person you would like to get to know them. As a traveler this tends to happen a lot more than if you were just at home doing your thing. It has happened to me before and I am sure it will happen again. I just wanted to tell you about my most recent experience. I met a girl at the airport in Brazil and she was from NJ. She spoke English and so did haha so we had that connection right away.

I talked to her in the terminal and we had a really good time. But, sadly she didn't get to sit next to me for our six hour flight. I saw her as we exited the plane and we started up again right where we left off. I planned to see her once I cleared customs etc. But, I got held up as usual lol. By the time I got out she was gone. She was just in Bogotá for three days on business. I was honestly really quite sad that I didn't get to see her again to say bye/exchange contact details. I really felt that we had a good time together and I was sad it had to end like that.

But there is a semi happy ending to this story. Through some seriously impressive detective work she managed to find me on facebook! (I had jokingly showed her my messed up passport lol) and she remembered my name! So we connected again online and got to talk more. She has left Bogotá now and is back home, its a shame I didn't get to see her again but I have a good feeling our paths will cross again one day in the future!

So always treasure the experiences you have with people in life and don't take any for granted and realise that just because someone passes thru your life doesn't mean that it is a meaningless thing or it doesn't mean you wont see them ever again!

Tyler over and out from Bogotá, Colombia.

Buenos Aires Post Robbery/Bogota

So post robbery I had basically no money because the thief got away with my ATM card. LUCKILY I had my "main wallet" at home so basically all he got was a little cash, my drivers license and that ATM card. I called and canceled the card but that still left me stranded with basically no money until I could transfer my funds to my other bank account. I thought that would go fairly smoothly but there was a mess up so I am STILL without much cash at all but, on the bright side I called today and finally got it all sorted and soon I will be good as gold again as long as I don't get robbed again.

I should also mention a special shout out to my semi saviour in human form. Sean-Ryan Mccray. One of the coolest dude's I have met! I met him randomly at a couch surfing event in Buenos Aires and we hit it off pretty well so we started hanging out. He is from California and moved to B.A. to work for a year. Once he found out I got robbed he took me into his house and let me crash there for free and not only that but he shouted me everything and paid for all my stuff, food,drinks,everything (just a loan because I paid him back) but regardless I think that is totally awesome and not many people would do that but he did it without blinking an eye after knowing me less than a week! I really owe him big time and there still is really good people in this world.

Not only that but once I got robbed I pleaded my case to the taxi driver to take me to the airport and he took me there for half off the normal fare. I have had many many random acts of kindness in South America and around the world and I appreciate every one of them. I have had random tour guides and people just genuinely being nice. It really restores your faith in humanity.

SR and I and his cool roommate Justin went to see a live drum performance (South American/African) style and it was amazing! There was a huge crowd and everyone was going wild and it was so much fun, one of the coolest things I have seen in South America so far! Well that pretty much closed out my time in Buenos Aires on a good note.

After flying from Buenos Aires to Brazil (but I couldn't leave the airport) I really really needed to use the Internet to sort my bank stuff and such but I didn't have money to pay for it. But, I randomly started chatting up two guys, one from Iraq and the other from Ghana and they let me use their computers and Internet time all for free. Again just out of the kindness of their hearts. They were good dudes and I wish them the best. I didn't even get their names. After that, I met a girl on the plane who is American and here for work in Bogotá and we really hit it  off so I am sure I will see her again before she leaves. Soon some of my friends from Buenos Aires arrive here too! Now I am safe and sound at my new host's house and all is well as can be. He is a doctor so I am hoping he can sort me out for meds and help me kick this cold!

Bogotá seems like a beautiful friendly place and thus far I have no reason to believe otherwise. Tomorrow I am meeting a whole group of new couch surfers who just offered to show me around the city for free! So don't believe everything you see on CNN.

That's all I got for now. Til next time,Tyler

Robbed in B.A.

Had a good night last night almost all night. I went out with some friends I met here in Buenos Aires and we had fun at the club. It was all fun until we were walking home and some dude bumped into me.

I had my wallet lifted out of my front right pants pocket and stolen from me in less than 5 seconds. Luckily he only got 100 bucks USD,my drivers license and my eftpos/atm/bank card. Everything else is safe in my other wallet at home. I canceled the card and I am transferring whats left of my money to another bank account anyway. The police didn't do anything for me but its ok. There isn't much they could do anyway.

I do respect that guy's talent though. I had no idea he reached into my pocket until he was long gone. If there was a pickpocket Olympics I bet he would win. This is the first time I have ever been stolen from like this but I am alive and he really didn't do that much damage to me.

Shit happens huh? such is life but I am glad I am with friends here who will help me out and the next crap wallet I buy will have a chain on it! I am actually surprised with the amount I travel and the places I have been it has taken me this long to get robbed like this. My luck just ran out but you live and learn and move on. -Ty

La Plata

I think when I last left you Ben and I were settling into B.A. City life since then we have had a lot happen! Somehow I let Ben convince me to take Tango lessons haha. I am a horrible dancer and to be honest he really had to pull my leg to get me to go. I showed up without a partner and everyone was all coupled up and no one really looked like they spoke English (the instructors certainly didn't) and we had to pay to get in. All of that just really had me in a defeatist mood and I wanted to leave right away.

But, I stayed. Boy am I glad I stayed! I couldn't understand a word of what the instructor guy was saying (he spoke really fast) but I watched his feet. After a bit I learned the basic moves. (Left,Forward,Forward,Stop,Forward once more then Right) Pretty simple huh? I managed to get myself a really pretty girl as a partner and I was off to the races. About half way thru the lesson I was really honestly enjoying myself and not doing to horrible at this tango!

The girl tried to talk basic conversation with me and usually I can handle basic stuff pretty well in Spanish but something happened to me and all of my Spanish failed me! I felt like I had honey in my mouth and I could not put two words together for the life of me. I felt so stupid and it was frustrating.... You really should never take basic simple communication for granted because when you can't do it, it is super hard and frustrating. I think it had something to do with how pretty she was :P

Long story short, I am really glad Ben forced me to go and glad I stayed because while I hated it at first by the end of the night I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new in the Tango Capital of the World :)

Earlier in that day I went into a pharmacy to buy some contact solution and I had no idea where to find it or how to ask for it in Spanish. No one there seemed to speak English and I just could not find it at all! But then I heard someone speak English (when you are in a country where they don't speak your language it is amazing how quickly you can pick it up when someone speaks English) So this lady was there from New Jersey with her family and she helped me find contact solution. She was very nice and helpful and I really appreciated it and not only that but, we randomly saw her again as we were getting off the subway a whole 24 hours later. In a city of 8 million people that is pretty amazing!

Speaking of the Subway, the Subway system in B.A. Is quite good and really cheap but man is it ever crowded! There is always tons and tons of people on there and there is constantly people trying to beg for money and/or sell you something that gets a little annoying. On the “Line B” of the subway (Subte is Subway in Argentina) there is one train car that we rode on that is so so old! The oldest one I have ever seen. The doors are not automatic you have to open and close them yourself and it is semi open air and made out of wood! Pretty wild huh? But it gets you where you need to go.

We have been involved in Couch Surfing here in Buenos Aires and last night Ben and I wanted a proper Argentian steak dinner (supposed to be some of the best in the world) for our last night together in B.A. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by a friend with some other couch surfers and for 25 USD I got one of the best steaks I have ever had in my life plus a side dish and some beer and I was a happy man. There is no way you could have had that meal back in the US for the price we paid and we really had a great time with great friends. Everyone in Argentina has been nothing but nice to us! I have met a really cool guy from America and a really cool girl from California here and we have also had some great CS hosts here in Argentina.

Today Ben and I split up. I wont see him again now until he comes to Texas in July. We have had a good run together, always good times him and I. He really is one of my best friends. He left for some amazing waterfalls on the border of Argentina/Brazil and I am now in La Plata couch surfing here about an hour outside of Bs As (Buenos Aires city centre. My bus was late leaving for La Plata but I had a really nice lady help me out who didn't speak a lick of English but we managed to work it out together (the bus left from a different terminal than they originally assigned) Then once I actually got to La Plata I had a few issues finding my new hosts house but I had another really nice girl help me out on the street and even though we don’t really speak the same language she actually escorted me all the way to the doorstep of where I needed to go. I love the random acts of kindness you find around the world in every culture.

In less than a week I fly to Bogotá Colombia and I am excited to continue my adventure there. I had talked to multiple people here personally who say it is one of the most beautiful friendly countries in the world and people go out of their way to be nice to you there and show you a good time to prove that the media reports don't have to be right. I will be couch surfing there as well. To jump back to B.A. For a bit I have a few last things to add. Just as in the rest of South America they have amazing Helado here (icecream) most of you know how much of an ice cream fan I am and I love trying it around the world. Buenos Aires has a chain here called Freddo and they have great ice cream! Some of the best I have ever had. Buenos Aires is also the first city I have ever been too in the world that has sponsored street signs. It will say (insert street name and number here) and then above all the street information it will say Nokia or Claro or some other company that paid for the sign and every sign has it! Weird huh?

In every country we have visited so far there has been political unrest. There was picketing signs in Chile and Peru with people marching and in Bolivia there was flat out riots. Here in Argentina there is strikes and picketing as well. South America as a continent just doesn't seem very happy right now. It is really interesting because in my experience with Thailand and other countries how this seems to go is the people as a whole get really angry over something like bad pay or something and they mobilize and stand up to the government and the government tolerates it for a while then steps in and usually crushes it all violently with people ending up dead. It is quite sad actually.

In America we have our fair share of problems and people do get angry with the government but I never really hear of riots or huge protests like they have here and certainly the government doesn't step in and start killing people. I guess generally speaking back home people as a whole don't care enough to protest in large numbers and our government never feels the need to step in or change anything so everything just stays as is. Well hopefully South and North America can work their respective issues out and everything will be peachy because there is much more to life than having to argue with your own elected government.

My new host here in La Plata actually had a party in my honour I was totally blown away! She made a cake and everything! All of her friends are really cool here and everyone was nice. There was a lot of Spanish being spoken that I didn't catch but they did manage to translate most of it for me. The Spanish here in Argentina is a lot different from anywhere else we have been and it is much harder for me to understand. They love to had a “Sch” sound to lots of words. Here in B.A. Americans are called “Schyankees” a play off of Yankees I am assuming. My new host Sole was nice enough to personally show me around town and take me on a tour.

We went to a huge cathedral here in La Plata. Also, in La Plata they have an all numerical system for the streets. No names only numbers. It is really quite easy to figure out once you get used to it and the whole city is laid out in a big grid. I have never come across this before and it was odd at first but actually quite handy! The only one bigger than this that I have seen in my life was the one in Cologne Germany. They both are massive! We took the lift to the top and the views were really impressive! She has given me a lot of history of the area and helped me a lot. It was really nice of her to do all this for me. Since being in Argentina I have had to get used to kissing men on the cheek. When I moved to New Zealand and got active in Couch Surfing there I got used to kissing girls on the cheek because there was a lot of foreign girls there from Europe who did it as a hello/goodbye greeting.

It was weird for me at first as we don't do that in America but I eventually got used to it. Argentina is the first country in the world that I have visited where men kiss men on the cheek as a greeting too. Women do it, men do it, everyone does it. It is just normal for them and and it means nothing really just a hello but I am still getting used to kissing all these men on the cheek and receiving kisses lol. I think this weekend I may leave La Plata and go to an island close to here that is supposed to be great called Tigre. If everything works out I will stay there for a few days and tour around with a friend I met back in B.A. But for now I am having fun in L.P.! :) I will be going out with Sole later for drinks with her friends and we may even see a movie.

I am still adjusting to the Argentian way of night life. They routinely as a culture just don't eat cena (dinner) until 10,11 or even midnight! Then they just party all night long until the sun comes up. You wont see anyone out on weekends until 3am at the very earliest and the clubs here don't close until the start breaks thru at 6:30 or 7:30am. Even on week days the people of Argentina stay up all hours of the night and seem to be able to function on just a few hours of sleep and still be able to go to work the next day! The only way I can deal with this as an American is to take a long power nap during the day so I can stay up late and I nibble on food all day so that even though I am eating at 11pm or later I am not starving by that time. It is interesting how different culture do things. You just have to know how to go with the flow.

That's all I have for now. Until next time,Ty

Buenos Aires City Life

We went out for our first proper night out here in Buenos Aires last night. It was an event organised by some Couch Surfers at a pretty flash club here and we had VIP access! The night life is different here, NO ONE goes out before 2am (closing times for most clubs back home) and they party til like 7:30am in the morning (at least we did) but luckily I knew this before hand so I took a good long nap during the day and I was good to go. It was really fun and the language barrier was not as much of a problem as I had thought. It was a really fun night.

Other than that we have seen a really cool weapons museum here that I really enjoyed and been to some markets here. We have also been to Recoleta Cemetery a very famous very old graveyard where a lot of famous ex presidents and important people of Argentina are buried. Most of them were really rich so they have huge sarcophagus that their entire families are buried in with giant life size statues of themselves or their pets or family or whatever. There is a surface level that you can see with basically a shrine to these different people with lots and lots of religious stuff (Argentina is very Catholic) then a staircase that leads down under the ground and underneath the surface level there can be like 10 or 15 family members all buried in the same crypt.

On most graves in America they list the name and birth and death date. Here it is totally different. It only lists their death date and their grave markers are by in large "sponsored" by the deceased person's friends. They are placed there anywhere from 1 year to 100 years AFTER the person has died. So it will say ________ (insert name here) we your friends dedicate this to your honor X number of years after you have died. It is very strange how they do it. It was super neat to see those even though it was a little morbid. But, it was a shame to see how bad the condition was on some of the graves it was terrible. Some were very well preserved and others were not.

We are still going to see a live tango show and maybe take some lessons here and have a proper steak dinner. Buenos Aires is extremely expensive compared to other places we have visited so far so that is kinda sucky. Especially considering my money situation haha. It is impossible to eat here for under 10 USD and that is the cheapest of the cheap. In Peru and Bolivia you could get an entire meal for 1-3 USD! There was street stalls everywhere and here there is none. It is really frustrating! But, I am willing to pay extra for that good steak here. There is absolutely no middle class eateries here. Either you pay like 10 USD for crap food or you pay like 40,50 USD for a really good meal. It is extremely hard and frustrating to find somewhere good and cheap to eat! Also, they charge you "Cubierto". Basically almost every restaurant charges you 1 USD (or more) for the privilege of sitting down to eat and using their silverware. PLUS you have to tip. It is really shit but it is what they do here and there is nothing you can do about it.

The food culture here is different. They salt EVERYTHING excessively (really bad for your health) and I ALWAYS have to request ketchup,butter and black pepper those are just not normal for them but they do have them if you ask. They usually give you huge portions of rice but unlike Asia where soy sauce flows freely (I love it) here they give you plain dry rice and they give you oil and vinegar to spice it up. Pretty odd for me but normal for them.

Buenos Aires is a neat city and we have enjoyed walking around and meeting people and going to cool places I just wish it was less expensive. The weather has been good but now it is kinda crap with rain etc. Can't have it perfect all the time huh? I have gotten (re)sick again! That airplane ride from Peru just re infected me and I cannot seem to kick this freaking head cold it is horrible and I hate it but I am still alive. We are still having fun and enjoying ourselves. We saw another movie the other day (in English) we saw Thor like the comic book Thor and it was actually pretty good I liked it quite a bit.

Well I guess that's all I have for now. Yall take care,Tyler

Oh ya just a little side note. Unfortunately I am running out of money. Due to this fact I booked my flight back home to Texas for 4 June. See yall soon-ish huh? Its been a good run for me.... I have been super lucky and had lots and lots of fun.

Argentina

We made it in one piece to Argentina (Buenos Aires to be exact) our flight went off without a hitch and in fact the travel God´s have finally smiled on me. That was one of my best flights ever! We were sat in the first row of coach directly behind first class which meant we had a ton of leg room and we weren't sat next to any screaming babies at all and our flight was only four hours! All in all a great flight. But, when we landed was when the fun started.

Of course I had to pay the Argentian Government 140 USD as a visa fee ( I am just used to paying visa fees now because that is what America does to the foreigners who come in, sometimes I hate my government´s policies) but for some reason none of my cards would work and I had no cash! So there was no way I could pay their damn visa fees! I asked them what was going to happen and they told me they couldn't let me into the country. I was going to have to stay in the airport like Tom Hanks from that movie The Terminal. It was insane! Finally I asked them to try all of my cards again and they got it to work thank God.

So we got into the city safe and sound and are at our new CS host house. I really miss our last host though him and his family were so awesome. His mother loved cooking for us and she fed us great food! She also makes amazing handicrafts all by hand and she has to make 6000 per month of these things for only 212 USD per month! It is quite sad she has to slave away so hard just that little amount of money but by Peruvian standards they are semi wealthy and that money can go a long way.

We have walked around BA and had a good lunch and seen a movie that was pretty funny ( it was actually in English with Spanish subtitles) it was a new one with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston about a guy who has to pretend to be married then get a fake divorce so he can get with another girl. Everything is good here so far and I really like this city. We have a lot planned for the next two weeks.

Oh ya one other thing about the buses in South America I know I go on about this a lot but I am constantly amazed by them. They are something else! In Australia/New Zealand they have tons of seats and only X amount of standing room with a specific number they will carry. In South America it is the exact opposite haha. They have very few seats and they will pack the bus until absolutely full (you can even stand by the driver) which is illegal in Australia/New Zealand. They don´t stop for you all the way you just hop on and off whenever you want once they yell out where they are going and it is so dirt cheap to ride them less than 20 US Cents will get you all the way across town! They also love selling anything and everything on the bus from food to trinkets and other junk and they even have guys who will play live music for money. It really is an experience! I quite like it although the road laws are very flexible here lol

Until next time,Tyler

Lima

Well Lima has been great so far! We have a great CS host here and he has showed us around the city and helped us out a lot. His mom doesn't speak a word of English but she is super sweet to us and she has fed us constantly! Ben and I are fat and happy haha. We have had some amazing food and the food in general here in Peru has been better than in Bolivia. Thus far, Cusco has been my favourite city but I really like Lima too.

Today we walked around the city and enjoyed our day with some other couch surfers it was really good. Tonight we had Cheviche. It is a Peruvian dish (raw fish cooked in lemon juice) it was pretty good and kinda similar to sushi. I wasn't extremely impressed but it wasn't terrible either.

Last night our host took us to one of the most amazing light/water shows I have ever seen in my life! It seriously puts any show in Vegas or anywhere else to shame. It cost us $1.50 for entry fee and that is a fair bit for the average Peruvian so most people were tourists there but some locals were there too. They had huge water fountains/jets of water that would show up and it was synchronized to music and lights. They projected images thru the water to make it look almost 3D!  It was one of the most amazing things I have seen in South America so far and it was only $1.50 USD! Not only that but, they also had a "water maze".

It was water jets that were timed to go off at certain times and you had to make it thru the maze without getting wet. I got shot by the water jets so many times haha I was soaking wet! All the locals were watching us and laughing at us haha. It was the most fun I have had in quite a while and I was so amazed that all of that was in Lima Peru. There is 8 million people in this city and over half of them don't have access to clean water,sewage etc but they have enough money to put on this amazing light/water show for the tourists. It is actually kinda sad to think about but also enjoyable to watch the show. The difference between rich and poor here in really large and unfortunate. But so it goes in 3rd world countries. It is humorous in a way that no matter how rich someone is in Peru no matter how much money they have they still can't throw toilet paper in the toilet even if they have a golden toilet because the sewer system can't handle it.

I also has my first experience in "Alternative Medicine"  we met a guy from Mexico studying to be a doctor in Alternative Medicine and I have never bought into any of that stuff but I let him convince me to shove some sticks with this gooey stuff all over them up my nose. It was weird and crazy but I think it actually did help even though they tasted and smelled horrible haha. It was an interesting experience and never say never I guess they aren't all full of BS because I do feel a little better! Also, our host Dante (he is awesome) his mom is a great cook and she doesn't speak a word of English but she keeps feeding and feeding us and it is so so good haha I am going to be so fat! But I am happy and she reminds me very much of my own mother in the fact that she loves to cook and cook well.

Tomorrow we fly off to Buenos Aires Argentina and leave Peru behind sadly. Machu Picchu was great and I had a really good time here. But I am really excited for BA! Next time I write I will be in a new country with a new currency :) talk at ya later,Tyler

Cusco/on the way to Lima

Our time in Cusco has been both good and bad for me. The good: I got to see my second world wonder and I actually hiked up to Machu Picchu . The hike nearly killed me or so it felt like anyway. It was the second most difficult if not the most difficult hike I have ever done. My jungle hike in Chang Mai Thailand last year was extremely brutal too. It sure did feel good to make it up to Machu Picchu alive and in one piece (just barely). It is an extremely difficult climb up a steep steep mountain and it never seems to stop going up. The climb took me an hour and ten minutes. Funnily enough my mate Ben who smokes more than a pack a week of cigarettes made it up in just over 30 minutes. I guess I should pick up smoking huh? :P. I am not overweight or extremely unhealthy but I will be the first to admit that I am out of shape and this hike really showed me that. It is one of my goals to get back into decent shape again though.

The Bad: Our “Host” I put host in quotes because he wasn't really one at all and definitely didn’t show us the couch surfing spirit. When we got there at first everything seemed cool and he seemed nice but then when we found out he was a travel agent and he assured us he could us a good deal we stupidly decided to book with his company. We thought he might be nice and show us around Cusco or have a drink with us (we offered to hang out with him more than once) but after we paid our money for the tour we only saw him briefly for two other times. He basically said “here is your room” and that was that.

We have come to find out that he just uses CS as a business and that is totally wrong. The tour we booked with his company was both good and bad. It was cheap but, they assured us they would pick us up and they didn't so two and a half hours later we had to pay our own way in a taxi to meet the rest of the tour and that was just the beginning of it all... We had to walk over two hours to the city at the base of Machu Picchu . Which really wasn't all their fault as their was a rock slide in the road. (The Peruvian Govt makes over 15 million USD a year on Machu Picchu and they still only have one lane half paved death road).

Our driver on the way there was nice and pretty good although he loved to speed and pass everyone in sight on that crazy mountain death road with zero guard rails, we did get there in once piece to where we had to start hiking. So after two plus hours of hiking we made it to Aguascalientes (the tourist town at the base of Machu Picchu  and with the tour we booked they assured us dinner and a hostel for the night. Dinner was ok but the hostel we stayed at promised us hot water in the shower and there was none. That sucked but it wasn't life threatening or anything.

After dinner and a cold shower we went out on the town for a bit. I was super tired from our hike just to get there so I wasn't up for much and I was not impressed with Aguascalientes at all because the only reason it exist is for the tourist. It had no character or anything of value in my opinion but for some strange reason Ben seemed to love it there haha. The next day we were told to get up and start walking at 4am by our guide if we didn't want to take the bus to  Machu Picchu ( it cost 8 USD) and they said you had to start hiking early if you wanted to be one of the special 400 people only to get a stamp to go to this special view point on top of Machu Picchu I won't even begin to try and spell it. It was another hour and a half hike to the view point on top of what you already had to hike just to get to Machu Picchu.

So we get up at 3:45am to get ready to go and we hike for a good 15 minutes to the very base of Machu Picchu only to find out they don't open the gates until 5:00am so rather than getting more rest we woke up for nothing thanks to what our guide said. Not only that but the first bus left at 5:30am and was supposed to take about 30 minutes to get up there. So we had to beat all the bus people for this stamp to the lookout place. After all the delays the hike started out well enough for me. I kept up a good pace for about half an hour or so but then I started to get really tired really fast. I soon realised there was no way I was going to make it up there to be in the first 400. So rather than kill my body totally physically I decided just to go at my own pace. I slowed down and started to walk with some other people while Ben the Superman plowed ahead. It was a steep vertical ascent straight up there and after an hour and a bit just as I was seriously about to give up I made it up there!

I have no idea what possessed anyone to build an entire city way up there nor do I have any idea what possesses millions of people to go see it every year haha. This year is actually the 100^th anniversary of its re-discovery so I am glad I did it this year and made it but I will never ever be doing it again lol. I had always thought that the Spanish came and killed all the Inca's and plundered all their treasure but that isn't actually the case. In 1532 the Inca ruler heard the Spanish were close so he ordered the entire city of 500+ people abandoned.

Back to me for a bit, I actually DID make it up there to be in line for the special stamp to go to the view point (I was number 123 actually) but by the time I got there I was so wrecked I realised I could never ever hike ANOTHER hour+ so I declined. At the time the weather was cloudy as it was early in the morning but our guided tour started and for two hours we had a good tour with our guide and Machu Picchu really is breath taking. The views and history are amazing. I will be putting pictures on Facebook soon. It is really hard to describe at all you just have to see it. It was once covered with gold but over the years all the gold has been taken.

Ben went up to that look out point and got some good pictures but I really don't regret not going. I am sure it was good but I saw everything I needed to see from right there in the city of Machu Picchu. The views to the surrounding mountains from the city are amazing just alone. We got some great pictures and I was happy. After I had seen all I wanted to see I decided to leave early while Ben was still up on the look out point.

There was no way in hell I was going to climb back down the mountain I had just recently climbed up so I ponied up the 8 bucks for the bus back to Aguascalientes. Once I got there I ate a good Desayuno (breakfast) and then paid 3 bucks for a nice relaxing time at the hot springs where I met some other cool Americans. I didn't know how to say hot springs in Spanish so I got creative again. I asked the guy at the restaurant I ate at, I said I wanted to find the house of hot water for tired people haha. After about an hour in the hot springs Ben had returned and everyone else up went up to the lookout point was filtering in. Our guide rounded us up and we got on the train (that was prepaid in our tour) back to the city where they would bus us back to Cusco. Our train ride was nice and uneventful. Everyone in our group was pretty cool.

Once we got to our van our driver proceeded to drive us back in the same crazy fashion that he drove us there in. I was just used to it at that point really. But at some point along the way he stopped to pick up two random guys we didn't know. We loudly protested in Spanish that this was our tour and not a taxi service (we were already nine people crammed into that little van with all our gear so it was tight) but, he was having none of it. He just had those guys pay him directly for a ride back to Cusco and lined his own pocket. So we were even more crammed into this van for 5+ hours with these randoms guys and all their stuff.

Eventually we finally made it back to Cusco in one piece and after dropping off those guys he was supposed to take us back to our accommodation well that is what was promised to us anyway. Well he didn't. He didn't take anyone where they were supposed to be. He just dropped us off in the main square and we had to walk from there. He was really a jerk. Well that is what you get for 130 USD in Peru I guess. I was seriously angry and even considered complaining but, this isn't America or Europe I knew there was no chance I would get any refund so I didn't even try. But you would think that the Peruvian Govt. would want to encourage tourism with good tour operators and not bad ones like we had. I would totally recommend to everyone NOT to book anything with Hiram Birmingham Travel in Cusco. Peru as a whole is much wealthier than Bolivia due solely to Machu Picchu but I really don't know where all that money goes because there is still a ton of poor people there.

The Ugly: The tour just really frustrated me a lot as did our CS host. I felt ripped off and used. I do want to mention a few good things though. Once we actually got to Machu Picchu the tour was good for that part. I also really enjoyed the city of Cusco a lot and wish I had more time there. In addition, the sister of our “host” didn't speak a word of English but she was super nice and helped us a lot since he was never there and avoiding us. I feel so sorry for her having to put up with all his crap. I talked with her some and I think she feels forced into all this and we will be reporting this guy to the couch surfing administrators.

I also want to back up and mention a few things I forget in my earlier blog. There is MASSIVE amounts of graffiti all over South America and it is quite interesting to look at because most of it is not gang related or anything. Most of the countries we have been to so far are having elections (new governments are really frequent here) so people actually use their own houses as billboards and spray paint stuff all over them. Our govt may not be the best in America but every nation has its problems and at least we have a govt decent enough that we dont have to have elections every year and nor do we have to riot in the streets for better pay. Don't take a stable govt for granted, it is a privilege not a right. Another thing I wish you could see is the power grids/power lines here. It is insane how many lines they have running all together! It would NEVER be allowed in America but it reminds me a lot of Asia and they just do what they have too just to get by. When you have power outage back home just don't be angry and don't take it for granted. Be happy you have consistent cheap power and hot showers because a lot of people don't. We can't even put toilet paper in the toilet here!

The last thing I wanted to mention was how horrible the movies were on the bus from Lake Titicaca to Cusco. Our first movie was one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life hands down. It was all in Spanish and it was one of those movies that looked like it was made by some random guy and he just had all his friends act in it lol. It had no plot line or point and it was just terrible! It was so bad you couldn't look away haha. Our next movie was one of the first ever Tarzan movies made in the 1940's (it was black and white and all in Spanish). Oh ya of course there was a crying baby close to us on the bus. It never stops does it? :P But now we are on our 20+ hour bus ride from Cusco to Lima and both of us are still a little sick but still hanging in there in one piece.

We made it to Lima after 20+ hours on a hot bus but it was cheap. I am seriously considering now adopting kids. When they are nine. Haha I really want to skip the whole I am a screaming baby stage because I just had to sit next to one yet again on a bus for 20 hours I just can't escape it! Lima has been great so far though. We have a (really) awesome CS host this time. More on that later. The last thing I wanted to mention was how terrible the movies were on our bus ride. We had (In Spanish with no subtitles) a movie that looked like it was shot by a guy in his garage with no plot line at all and all his friends acted in it. You know the ones, really one of the worst movies I have ever seen haha. Directly after that we had the first Tarzan movie made in the early 1940's in black and white and also totally in Spanish lol some great movies those were!

Until next time,Tyler

Lake Titicaca and more.....

Just letting yall know we made it out of La Paz alive (didn't get blown up by any dynamite) and we had a good time there. We went to Lake Titicaca for a day from there. It is one of the biggest and highest lakes in world. It was beautiful there and we had great weather. After 36 hours of agony I finally beat that stomach bug so I am back to eating and drinking like normal thank God. The altitude is still getting to me some and I still have that damn head cold but otherwise I am 100%. Ben and I and some people we met on the bus did a semi major hike up a big hill/mountain to watch the sunset over Lake Titicaca and it was a hard hike but so worth it because the sunset was one of the best I have seen in a long long time. I will put a picture of it on here soon and on Facebook too.

Now we have made it to Cusco Peru and we just got off the bus and changed our currencies (again!) but it looks like it will be a good city and our new CS host seems nice. Soon we will go to Machu Picchu and see a wonder of the world! It will be my second as I also saw the Golden Temples (Angor Wat) in Cambodia. Not doing too bad for 26 years old huh?

All of the cities we have seen so far have been pretty dirty and pretty poor very similar to Asia. I dont think that the people who live in these cities dont care about them or the environment I just think they are too poor for any kind of infrastructure to do anything about it. The divide between rich and poor is really sad and really makes you glad for what you have.

As I mentioned previously there is no subway,McDonald's,burger king or anything here. So if you want to eat (and everyone does) you have to eat like a local. I have eaten a lot of stuff I would never touch at home and eaten a lot of stuff by hand but so far (most) of it has been really good. Today on the bus I had chicken and potatoes out of a bag lol. Peruvian food is supposed to be amazing and this is one of the only countries in South America that doesn't charge me an entry visa fee so I have a little more money to spend! I guess that is it for now.

It rained here today in Cusco and even hailed for a bit! This was the first rain we have had really. It was super hard for just a bit and managed to flood the streets (the sewer system is not very good here, you cant even put toilet paper in the toilet or drink the tap water) but it dried fairly quickly. I am really enjoying this city and we have been having fun going out to eat and trying new foods and drink. I am LOVING the natural fruit juices they have here. Jugos de Darazno (Peach juice with milk and sugar) is my favourite! It is so so cheap (less than a dollar) and super fresh and super good. I haven´t been this healthy in quite a while haha. I got yet again some more meds today and I am hoping to finally kick all of my sickness before we make it Argentina next week. 

We booked our tour to Machu Picchu and have been enjoying Cusco so far. It has been one of my favourite cities thus far. I have noticed in South America there is a ton of stray dogs everywhere! They are loose all over the city and no one seems to mind. None of them have been aggressive thus far, they are just everywhere! I can see a big difference wealth wise between Peru and Bolivia. Cusco is a beautiful old city from the Spanish times with lots of great old buildings and it is real cheap here too.  We have a good host  and we have booked our 20 hour bus ride to Lima for 30 USD! But next time I blog it will be after we see a world wonder!

Yall don't work/play too hard. -Tyler

Hello La Paz

 I will have over 200 blog entries now so this is a big milestone for me! I will try and make this as interesting as I can haha.

We finally made it to La Paz in one piece and the first thing I did was try and sleep off this stomach bug. I slept for a good solid 8 hours and felt better when I woke up. Now I am able to take some liquids and even eat some food. I am still not 100% but much better than before so if I am lucky this will only be a 24 hour bug. Being in the highest capital city in the world is hard on your body though. In addition to being sick I have to deal with the altitude and I am constantly out of breath even from just walking down the street!

Bolivia is a nice country and the people are really friendly but it is also incredibly poor here. There is a huge divide between the rich and the poor and you see beggars everywhere. It very much parallels south east asia for me. But, things are super super cheap here! Today we went shopping at this MASSIVE outdoor market and we paid 2 B's (Bolivianos) for the half hour "taxi" ride. We were crammed into a van with 13 other people but 2 B's is about 20 Cents (American!) Once we got there we were hungry and we needed something to eat. My stomach was feeling slightly better and I knew I needed to eat so we went to a local food stall there. (Westernized food just doesn't exist here so you have to eat like a local)

We picked a food stall packed with people and for just under 2 USD we got a quarter chicken,potatoes,salad,cooked banana and a coke. All of it was prepared under very questionable food health standards and we had to eat with our hands (there was no silverware) but it was actually really good and so far I haven't been sick again.  Everyone has to eat and you just eat what you can get. It is all cheap as chips anyway.

At the market I managed to buy a few things that I needed (because they sold everything under the sun!) and I got them for more than 80% less than what I would pay back home. On a little side note, we have found out there is riots here in La Paz. This is the second country I have visited where there has been political unrest. Apparently teachers,miners,doctors and a hodge podge of other workers are striking (I am assuming for better pay) there is police in riot gear everywhere!

The protest have been fairly small and not super close to us so we have never been in danger but you can feel that the city is a little high strung. The police have tear gas and rubber bullets so we know that they aren't intending to kill anyone and so far we have just seen them standing around. I am not really worried at all but, the miners are quite angry for some reason and they continue to blow up dynamite! I have no idea where they are doing it and how they aren't killing people/destroying property but they have something worked out because I haven't even seen an explosion of any kind but we sure can hear it! It is so loud sometimes it rattles the windows! We will be fine though :)

The other thing I wanted to mention was the fashion style of the ladies here. I have no idea how this got started but most of the ladies here wear basically like shawls/blankets along with random footwear and bowler hats! all of them wear these hats that look like they are straight out of the 1930's! Also, the taxis here are quite wild! They don't really obey any driving laws very similar to Asia. They will stop ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME if you flag them down and they are usually packed with more than ten people (they are usually vans) and they cost about 20 cents USD to get you all the way across the city! They just open their doors and shout out where they are going and how many people they can fit. They also honk constantly! (to let you know they have free space)

You really have to get used to the noise here. There is constant noise of people shouting and trying to sell you stuff and its kinda crazy but you get used to it.  La Paz is a nice city but like most 3rd world countries I have visited it is just really dirty. There is no rubbish bins anywhere so people just throw their rubbish all over the ground. You can't drink the water here as it is too polluted. But even thru all that I still like this city and it has a lot of character. It is also very cheap here. I got 3 scoops of amazing ice cream with toppings for under 2 USD! Everyone has been really nice here to us and patient with my bad Spanish haha. We are staying in a really cool hostel here that is really modern with hot showers and free Internet and it only cost 7 USD per night :)

When I first landed in Santiago Chile I was sleeping terribly trying to adjust from the huge time difference between New Zealand and South America so for about a week I couldn't sleep at all but now thankfully I am pretty much back on schedule. So, when I finally do make it home I should be ok.  Tomorrow we will be leaving La Paz for Lake Titicaca and we paid only $3.50 USD to get there! I will update you more later. I am still having fun and this city does have a lot of character if you don't judge a book by its cover. The only thing that will make this any better is when I am back 100% health wise. -Tyler

The journey to La Paz

We had about 4 hours to kill before we left Uyunini to La Paz so Ben and I decided to get something to eat with a guy we met on the tour. Sadly for me we made an unfortunate choice. Now in addition to being sick with a head cold that I can't seem to kick I also have food poisoning/stomach bug. I spent 12 hours of our bus ride to La Paz in constant pain and on the toilet. Bolivia is a very poor country so outside of the major city centers paved roads just don't exist. Bolivia is now tied with Cambodia as having the worst roads I have ever traveled on. So as you can imagine that journey was not fun for me at all. Thank God I brought my own toilet paper and light because there was no light or toilet paper in the bathroom. 

We finally did make it (almost) to La Paz and our bus broke down. (not to surprising since we only paid 20 USD) for the whole journey. But we were technically in La Paz so I started talking with a lady who spoke only Spanish and we managed to piece together that she wanted to share a taxi was us so Ben and I along with her got a taxi into the city and even though she spoke no English and my Spanish is minimal we managed to make it to a good hostel where we are now thanks to her help. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me.

La Paz is a loud busy city with everyone shouting at you trying to sell you things (very similar to Asia) but its good here. Just a little culture shock coming from New Zealand. I adapt quickly though. The buses/taxi just shout out where they are going and you board anytime/anywhere if you want too. They are dirt cheap and always packed with people. I have managed to get some good sleep and a shower and tried to hydrate myself so I am feeling a little better now. Not as bad as before hopefully this is only a 24 hour stomach bug. La Paz is also the highest capital city in the world so altitude is also something of a factor. But I am alive so I will make it.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is about unauthorised peeing. Back on our salt flat tour I had to go pee really bad but they were charging 50 cents USD for the toilet so I thought I would be sneaky and go in the bushes. I am a guy right? no harm there. So I peed close to what looked like to me just a big pile of rubble. I was wrong. Apparently it was some lady's house or something. I kinda pieced that together from her angry Spanish. So she proceeded to take all the Bolivianos (the local currency here) that I had! It equaled out to $4.50 USD for a pee! That is the last time I do that... and it wasn't even on her house! But live and learn I guess.

Talk at yall later,Ty

The Salt Flats and more

Today we left Calama almost as soon as we arrived. We decided to go ahead and catch a bus to San Pedro (which is one step closer to Salar de Uyuni The salt desert in Bolivia which is supposed to be absolutely amazing and we are really exciting to go see some of largest salt flats in the world. Our bus journey from Calama was only 1.5 hours and only costs us five American Dollars. This bus actually had Air Conditioning so that was great. It was a really good ride and we got to see an amazing sunset as we drove thru the mountains that is one view I won't forget.

San Pedro is a really neat city with tons of shops and cool stuff and lots of neat old architecture. It even has a plaza dating back to the old days! We are staying at a really cool family owned hostel in the middle of nowhere (the view of the stars here is pretty awesome) they seem really nice and only charged us 10 USD per night for a really good clean room and we hot water in our shower! (a luxury here and toilet paper is included!) for 10 bucks back in New Zealand you couldn't get any accommodation!

Ben and I had a good beer and a relaxing time at a neat cafe that had an open fire pit and we just discussed life and our plans and just reflected on the past year and half (it has been a great ride!) both of us are really going to miss this traveling once we have to finally go home. Being travels we really have less strings than most people, you know we can go where we want,when we want, with who we want and if we don't like a place we just move.

That is something not to take for granted but even traveling sometimes you just need a little time to relax and take a break just exactly what we did tonight. When you travel the world as I have you tend to see lots and lots of amazing stuff all over so I have to remember to keep myself grounded and realise that what I am seeing is amazing (sometimes even once in a lifetime stuff) and I have to realise that I am super lucky to see it all and not grow dull to amazing stuff or take it for granted. Even sometimes you just zone out and totally live for that moment only and just forget everything in the world except what is happening at that exact moment. That is really one of the things I will miss most when I am back at home. Tomorrow we are going to explore the city and study more Spanish and book our tour to the salt desert.

We got our tour booked for the salt flats and it looks amazing! We also managed to meet up with some friends of ours that we randomly met on the plane ride over to Chile from New Zealand and now we have randomly met them again so it looks like all of us will be heading into Bolivia together which is good :) Bolivia is supposed to be a really cheap country (which is good for me as Chile is fairly expensive by South American standards) but, Bolivia just like Chile and Argentina charge me 140 American dollars just for entering only because America charges that fee to them to enter. Sometimes I hate our govt. and their fees! It sucks for me as a traveler! :( Ben has to pay nothing :( But it will be fun anyway. I have had some great meals so far of stuff I would normally never touch and my Spanish is improving slowly. I have also become a huge fan of the natural fruit juices they have here in Chile. They are freshly made and cheap and they taste amazing! Tomorrow at 8 am we leave for our tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats. It should be a great time and I can't wait for the amazing pictures!

Our tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats was amazing! It was extremely touristy (you know stop here for a few photos then move on) but I still really enjoyed myself and there was so many amazing things to see and do. Our guide didn't speak a lick of English but luckily for us we had a guy in our group who was totally fluent in Spanish. We got to see “The Rock Valley” which was thousands and thousands of rocks just seemingly dropped into the middle of desert but it was all natural! It was really fun scrambling all over them and I got some good pictures which I will upload to Facebook soon. We also saw some really amazing beautiful mountains and scenery and lots of lakes with many different colours but the salt content was so high in them that there was no animal life really so, if you were quiet it was just dead silence! The scenery changed quite frequently it would go from green to total desert to something In between. It was pretty warm during the day ( I did get a little sunburn) but at night it got freezing! Luckily on the tour they provided us with enough of everything. The food was basic but good. I just ate what I was given. On the last night we did have meat which I am quite sure is a big luxury for most Bolivians as it is a really poor country. One of the guys had a birthday while we were on the tour so we surprised him with a party and our guides even made him a cake! It was really a good night.

The last day was finally the day of our salt flat tour. These salt flats are some of the biggest salt flats on the planet. It is 12,000 K's big or 7500 miles big! It is just massive and a bunch of the world's salt is mined here. We got to watch guys scraping it by hand from the ground into big trucks. That would be a terrible job but better than no job I guess. They were just coming out of the rainy season on the salt flats so rather than being totally dry there was actually a lot of water everywhere. It is so flat there that when you take pictures it is like a total optical illusion. We had a lot of fun with that! You can make it look like your a giant and stepping on your friends who like like midgets. It is all natural too! You are only limited by your imagination.

After that, we drove back to town and waited to catch our bus from there to La Paz Bolivia where I am now.

Until next time,Tyler

The days roll on....

You will have to bear with me I am getting used to this Spanish keyboard (and Spanish in general) so if I make any mistakes that is why. I believe I last left you when we were on our way to Valpo from Santiago. We stayed with yet another great host, Peter y Seba and they were awesome! Ben and I had a great time there hanging out and meeting locals and eating amazing sea food. I got to challenge myself by talking to locals only in Spanish and for the most part generally I understood what they said and they understood what I said!

I can now buy bus tickets and order food and do basic stuff without too many problems but, here in South America they dont do menus all that often mostly the waitress just verbally tells you everything so I have had to just blindly pick most of my meals and I have eaten a lot of stuff I would never ever eat at home haha. So far there has only been one thing I absolutely didn't like though. It was a huge hot dog covered in mayo and avocado and tomatoes called a Itialiano Completo. But I learned quickly how to order a hot dog con ketchup solo (with ketchup only). Still,Entiendo más de lo que hablan. ( Still, I understand more than I speak) but I am learning more Spanish in less than a week than I ever learned in high school!

The bus rides are interesting here in South America. The local city buses cram as many people as possible onto them (literally like over 40) and they are cheap. Less than one dollar usually. They will stop ANYWHERE at ANYTIME which is nice sometimes haha. They always have people on them trying to sell you something which is annoying and there is usually someone playing live music for money which at first was cool but is now annoying a bit too haha. I just got off a 25 hour straight bus ride from Valpo to Calama so long bus rides are normal. Other than having a terrible toilet and no air conditioning on the bus I couldn't complain too much but 25 hours on a bus is a long time! We are headed to Bolivia in a few days though.

I am slightly sick at the moment but just a head cold nothing serious and I did manage to get some medicine here. Our 25 hour bus ride only cost us 44 USD! :) Oh ya one last thing to all my readers. Toilet paper is a privilege in life not a basic right. Here in South America it is pretty rare outside of the big cities so I have learned quickly you should always travel with your own and also dont expect everyone to know English all the time,everywhere because they dont!

So far so good here though, it will be a good adventure :) Til next time,Tyler

P.S. I watched a movie in Spanish on the bus and understood (most) of it and listened to some Spanish music and understood (most) of it. That is an exciting feeling! and one last thing interestingly enough there is a huge German influence in Santiago and some people even speak it (a good thing for Ben) in Chile they love hotdogs,sandwiches,loads of salt,usually they dont provide butter or black pepper and sometimes you have to ask for Servicio (silverware) just some general observations I thought I would throw in here :)

My first blog in South America!

Well let me start this first blog in South America out by saying I have paid my debts to the travel God's by surviving the worst flight ever! Some people believe that Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travel but he sure didn't save me from 13 hours of pure hell haha. I just got bad luck of the draw though, in the multiple thousands maybe even millions of miles this was bound to happen at least once and I guess I am lucky I have lasted this long without it happening. Want to know what it was?d

Ben and I were stuck in between not one baby but TWO babies! One directly in front of me and the other directly across from me. The one in front of me generally wasn't so bad and slept most of the time but the one directly across from me was the baby from hell. He would NOT stop crying almost the entire flight and he would sometimes set the baby off in front of me! So they would both be screaming and there I was stuck with nowhere to go.

I considered drinking myself to such a state of drunkeness that I would pass out but in the end figured it would make me need to pee too much. I was going to listen to my music but of course I had just recently lost the cable for my Ipod and no matter how loud I turned up the volume on their crappy plane radio thing I could still hear those kids. In the end I slept maybe an hour if that out of 13. Our flight was so delayed that we missed our connecting flight so they ended up having to rebook us on another flight to Santiago.

After getting ripped off on a taxi ride as per usual in a new country we finally got to our couch surfer's place and had to wake him up at 1am. He and his roommate have been awesome so far though and it has been great. I shouldn't complain too much now that we are here alive and in one piece and only the flights were rough. We did meet a couple of cool people on our last flight though which was nice and we will be hanging out with them and exploring the city with them soon. Our new host has taken us on a great city/food tour and we have really enjoyed the local knowledge. My budget will be tight for Chile though as I had to pay 140 American Dollars just to enter the country which sucks but nothing I can do about being American. They don't charge Ben since he is German.

I have had a lot of fun so far though and our first day sure has been interesting. Everyone including my host tells us that Spanish in Chile is the hardest Spanish dialect in all of South America due to their pronunciation and speed they talk along with the slang they use and unfortunately for us we don't speak Spanish. I speak a LITTLE from high school but not much Ben speaks none. A lot has flooded back to me but not close to enough. The percentage of people who speak passable English is just about 20%. I won't be able to take that immersion course for about a month until we get to Argentina. :(

Then after our hosts left for work we decided to check out the local equivalent of Walmart here (even though it isn't called that) and I wanted to break my large bills I got at the airport. A 20,000 peso note here is fairly rare and I wanted to break it. (it equals about 40 American dollars). So I went to the cashier and tried to pay for my stuff only she gave me the incorrect change (I was owed about 18,000 peso's or about 38 dollars) I tried to even begin to explain to her what happened but she just didn't understand and the line was huge. She thought I had given her a 2000 peso note and not a 20,000 peso not.

Since I wasn't getting anywhere with her I went to the customer service desk and said “habla inglas?” I wanted to know if anyone spoke English. I quickly came to realise how badly I need a functional conversational grasp on Spanish and how difficult it is when you want something and no one around you can understand you. One of the workers said poquito Ingles and I said poquito Espanol. So we both established that we both knew a little bit of each other's languages lol. I was trying to explain to them what had happened and they just weren't getting it. Luckily a customer was there who spoke English and he translated for me. (by this time a cashier,a security guard and some form of manager were involved) they told me to wait for my correct change. To their credit they were very nice and they even gave me cookies and something to drink while I waited. But I waited and waited.... it took them over 30 minutes for me to get my change! I finally did get it though. After that we went for some dinner and and I somehow managed to order some form of breakfast for dinner you know toast,eggs etc. But, the toast came out VERY dry and my eggs (which I would have asked to have scrambled if I knew how were over easy) so there was no butter for my toast or no salt and pepper for anything but I ate it.

For lunch we went out with our host and he ordered for us so we got some amazing sandwich's and empanada's too. Our sandwich's had mayo and avocado and other crazy stuff along with lettuce all of which what I hate but, the sandwich was actually really really good and I quite enjoyed it. Then we went out with Jordan later and we had yet another amazing dish it was French Fries with an egg on top and onions and cheese and it was pretty good after we washed it all down with some good beers and called it a night. Tomorrow is our big day of sightseeing around the city but so far so good here in Santiago other than the language barrier but we are learning functional Spanish quickly!

Our last night spent with our awesome host Jordan in Santiago involved us going a birthday party of his friend and her parents were quite wealthy so this party was catered and it was all you could drink and we had a beautiful view of Santiago. Pablo Neruda was a famous south American poet and he had three houses all in Chile. So far we have seen one of them and taken a really interesting tour of it. We are actually in the city (Valapariso) where he built his second house and we plan on taking the tour there. I have been eating all kinds of food I would never touch at home at all. Stuff with mayo and guacamole and onions and much more but only because I have no choice. I don't speak enough Spanish to tell them how to take it all off haha.

Spanish really is super needed in South America the English speaking percentage just isn't that high at all. But, I have been learning quickly as has Ben. I can ask for directions and buy bus tickets and just basic basic stuff. I probably speak like a child but I am learning! Oh ya I forgot to mention they pack the buses here like you wouldn't believe! literally like 100 people on a bus it sure seems like! Then they have people come on and try and sell stuff and even play live music on the bus. Riding public transport in 3rd world countries is always exciting haha

Today after we bought our bus tickets we arrived in Valaparaiso for the weekend and apparently they have great seafood here. It looks like a good city and our new host Peter is really cool. We look forward to hanging out and having a good time. We have had some amazing food thus far (even though it is a little salty, Chileans love salt!) and tomorrow we are going to try Ceviche (fish cooked in lemon juice) so I am looking forward to it. Thus far we have had an amazing time and I loving learning espanol and the South American culture in general. Until next time yall take care. Bolivia is our next stop after Chile. -Tyler

P.S. Besides all my amazing friends in New Zealand that I miss a ton I also miss the meat pie so so much! Chile is full of sandwiches so I have eaten a lot of those but also had some good Chilean food :)