the better BA

Last night we splurged a little and dove into Argentine life. We walked down the street and found a beautiful outdoor patio that had 4 restaurants on it. We were just planning on walking by, even though it was so beautiful, but one of the waiters suckered us in when he mentioned the free tango show that would be starting in twenty minutes. It was a little more pricy than normal (but i think pretty standard for around here.... i´ve got to get used to american prices again apparently) at around 12 usd for the meal that we split. But it came with Steak, salad, water and coffee. We also bought a 12usd bottle of AMAZING malbec wine from Mendosa. It was so good. Oh man I have missed good wine! Peru and Ecuador just dont have it. We ended up being seated right on the edge of their preformance area, which was amazing.

Two men came and sat down, picked up their acordian and guitar and started playing a beautiful spanish/argentine melody. Then the Tango guy leaped up from the sidewalk and did all this amazing fancy footwork to ¨lure¨ the woman out. She came out and they danced. Man how they danced. It was beautiful to watch. So complicated and precice and so much passion. I really loved it. envoronment, music, dancing, wine.... it was wonderful. Also, at the other 3 restaurants were other bands preforming either tango or flamanco music. All of them had dancers as well. It was so cool!

So that is a better start to our life in Argentina. I am going to forget about how expencive everything is going to be here and just enjoy it. Also going to forget about that airport fee that we were surprised with at the airport. Gotta love spending an extra 130 when you weren´t expecting to....
But life here is going to be good. I am excited for what is going to happen.

When I got off the airplane this afternoon in Buenos Aires, I felt a certain degree of apprehension. I couldn´t tell you why, because I don´t quite understand it myself, but it was there. It is still lingering there, to some degree. Stacie and I have started that enevtable ¨last leg¨ to our trip. It is a time that I have been looking forwards to and dredding at the same time. Looking forward to the new cultures, differenes in language, foods, peoples and landscapes. Dreading the fact that it means that our trip is almost over. Even though we have two and a half more months, I feel like it is going to fly by and before I know it I will be taxing down the runway out of Quito headed back to the good ol´ EE. UU. (Estatos Unidos, United States). We have so many things planned for these next 2 months and I am so excited about what we are going to do.

A quick update, we are planning on spending the next two weeks or so traveling down south. Exploring the upper regions of patagonia and the lake country up in the Andes here in Argentina. Then we head over to Mendosa, the wine country, to work as WWOOFers for a few weeks at a buddest comune/monestary. So crazy. Then it is the 6 hour bus ride to Santiago where we are going to be working for one of my dad´s friends for a while with whatever they need help with. Then it is on the road again, up north and allllllll the way back to Quito to fly home. With, of course a quick stop in Lima to say goodbye to Joe and another stop in Mancora for a last relaxing time at the beach.

So, it is going to fly by!

I do want to share more stories, but there is a line up of people to use the free internet and the girl next to me has no intention of getting off, even though I´m pretty sure she has been on here for the last hour or so.... I´m always the good person. haha. But I will soon.

still alive!

I realize that it has been a long time since I have last posted and so much has happened since then. Leaving Ayacucho took us up in a whirrlewind of adventure after adventure. Marcus comming down to visit, Machu Picchu beauty, Beaches and Sand Dunes, Christmas with Joe´s host family here in Peru, Petrogliphs in the dessert with Joe at the start of his vacation, Araquipa and Canyon country with his other YAV friends and then hiking down to the 2nd deepest canyon for New years. Then back to Lima for a day and off to the Jungle, where, unfortunatly, I got sick for most of the time. But none the less, beautiful. Then it was saying goodbye to Joe for 2 more months and now stacie and I are at a beach a few hours north of Lima (Barranco) where we are waiting to fly down to Buenos Aires for the next leg of our adventure.

I have so many stories that I would like to share, but know that it will just have to happen later in person. Tomorrow I will write one of them here for you all. I didn´t bring my journal in here today.

Anyways, I am alive and doing fantastically well.

Happy new year and Love to all!