Happy New Years

Happy New Years,

Plagued with an inability to plan ahead - xmas and new years vacation became a last minute adventure.

Always a popular destination, Buenos Aires was a mecca for summer vacations thanks to the currency devaluation. In typical dumb gringo fashion, Oliver approached travel agents for flights just a week prior to our anticipated departure. We quickly learned that all the tickets were bought up months in advance.

Saved by our Christmas angel, Ingrid, we got a plane on the 24th, only 4 days after we hoped to leave. (just as we learned our alternative was a 70 hour bus ride)

Celebrating Christmas in B.A., we did the lonely planet tour of the city. B.A. was a great change of pace. Surrounded by designer clothes, world class steaks, excellent wines, modern infrastructure and beautiful women, we got on "The Program."

"The Program" - breakfast at 1pm, lunch at 5pm, dinner at 11pm, drinks at 1am, club at 2am, home by ???, sleep til noon.

That is when Danny G. entered the fray. Danny is Oliver's german cousin who is doing a law degree in Florida and flew in from Venezuela... got it? Whatever. Danny G showed up at 2am with a lovely local tour guide. Our lonely planet was properly retired as Valeria showed us everything we needed to see in B.A.

Ready for New Years on the beach, Valeria told us to hit Pinamar. She also suggested that there would probably not be any hotel rooms available. So off we went. 5 hours south by bus, we found ourselves greeted by a heavy rain storm and a tall dutch kid. Laurens, our kid brother, was the next addition.

Lucky to get a friendly cab driver, he found us rooms at a hotel owned by his brother. Exhausted from "the program," we crashed. The charming staff jarred us from our slumber early the next morning telling us to vacate the rooms. The four dumb gringos stumbled about 500 feet to our new home, the San Remo - a one star hotel in all its glory.

Armed with a place to stay, Danny G, OGG, Laurens and Nick headed to the beach. Pinamar is a popular destination for wealthy Argentinan families (who all seem to have daughters 16-22.) The dirty old gringos set up shop at UFO Point, the trendy beach hangout, listening to music, getting sun burned, watching the scenery and enjoying the ocean.

Our nights were filled with steak dinners, bottles of wine and champagne, feeble attempts at luring women and dancing our faces off at UFO Point and Ku til dawn. The first rays of light penetrating the booming dance floor at Ku each morning helped bury the feelings of regret at having stayed up another entire night. Morning swims on the way home, sleeping through the best part of the beach day, and very average food were the other half of the routine.

The fairy tale ended after a week as our kid brother departed our company to return to Chile and Danny G, OGG and Nick returned to Buenos Aires. Defeated by colds, Ogg and I were optimistic we could return to La Paz and lick our wounds after two weeks on "the program."

In typical fashion, OGG dialed the airline to confirm our flight on the 7th.... (we skipped our flight on the 4th in order to get 2 more days at the beach). The response went something like this.... um sir, the flights are very full, over 100 people on the waiting list and more than 20 people overbooked. Logical next question, when can we get out then? well, i can confirm you for the 23rd... is that too late? (it was the 6th).... OGG - um, yeah... i think thats too late.

pursuing some local advice we accepted our fate and we got the next flight to Jujuy in northern Argentina. Bussed across the border (5 hours) at Aguas Blancas, Argentina, we made it to Villazon, Bolivia (two cabs later) at 11pm and slept on the benches at the bus terminal til our departure to Tarija at 3am. Scheduled for 5 hours we would be in Tarija in plenty of time for our flight to la paz at 4pm.... however, we were now back in Bolivia. and no schedule can be relied on in Bolivia.

8am... bus breaks down. OGG and Nick hit the road with thumbs in the air and get a truck to take us to Tarija. About 15 minutes into our truck trip we notice traffic is stopped. An avalanche has closed the road. We find a seat and watch as rocks continue to fall. After waiting 3 hours, we are in the back of a pick up truck. Within 50 km of the city, we see traffic stopped again. Heads in hands, we wonder what next. Due to a change in government policy regarding car insurance there are national bloqueos (road blocks) in protest.

We set up shop in the plaza of a local town (Padcaya). Negotiating another ride we head toward Tarija at 6pm with the knowledge that the road blocks are over. At this point we are in a vanagon with an eccentric family of 8 (ages ranging from 10 - 70) and a random italian guy. They find our story highly entertaining. Needless to say, the road blocks were still up so we chilled on the side of the highway with our new friends. Finally entering the city around 9pm (31 hours after leaving B.A. and 5 hours after our flight left).

With no flights til Friday (it was Wednesday), we had the chance to tour around Tarija a town of 120,000 in southern/central Bolivia. As luck would have it, we ran into an older couple that lives in our apartment building who were eager to show us around their hometown.

Por fin, we are back in La Paz. Another tremendous adventure in the books. Attached are some pictures, FYI - the camera battery was dead for most of Pinamar.

Argentina Photos:

http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b333df3f05f2


Tarija Photos:

http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b333d86e4538


Books recommendations from the trip:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - David Eggers (a memoir)

The World According to Garp - John Irving

Im out... sorry for the long one.