Cordillera Blanca

Near Huaraz is the Cordillera Blanca Range of Mountains.  It is famous for being the range second in height to the Himalayas.  The mountains themselves are some of the tallest in the Americas and absolutely astounding to look at.  I loaded up my camping gear and caught a bus at 6am in the morning.

One of the astounding views on the bus ride there.  You don't even need to go hiking to have your breath taken away.

Me with mountains in the background.  Reminding me of the good old time working on the Finca in Ecuador.

Sheer faces of some of the walls still on the way up.

The crystal blue of the water reminds me of my time in the Caribbean.

Alright, time to start the hike.  In the first few steps I coud have sworn I was in a scene from Lord of the Rings.

My best impression of Big Yellow Riding Hood.  Even though its not the warmest the sun will still catch you with some good burns if you are not careful.

Further down the road a scene that reminds me of the movie Big Fish.

This is where it started to get difficult.  Lots of uphil climbing, plus I had a tent to carry in my backpack. The rest of my group stormed on as I was left behind.  They had no gear because they were taking the bus home that night.

Almost near the top, another beheamoth mountain in the background.

Finally I made it, to another crystalline blue Glacier Fed Lake.  This one called Laguna 69 is a popular one for tourists staying in Huaraz.

Time for a Polar bear swim seeing as its near New Years Eve.

The Water was cold but crisply refreshing.

Koreans and Peruvians wondering why the Canadian was crazy enough to go into the water.  These guys were the stragglers at the back of the pack going very slow that I joined up with.  At times we were very close to giving up, but in the end we made it.

This mountain clearly visible all day is apparently the symbol for Paramount Pictures.  Did they make Big Fish and Lord of the Rings near here?

My house for the night.  The only other people camping up here were one Italian and one German and a handful of cows.

Dancing the Tango and other adventures

Back in Buenos Aires now.  I can tell I am back by the beautiful sidewalk decorations. 

Went to a tango lesson.  Bellow is a picture of my Jedi master and Sensai Patricio.  He teaches me to dance the tango, I have taken three lessons from him.  I am his star beginner pupil. Usually he is very critical of all of his students but he absolutely loves me and the way I dance the tango.

 

Here I am dancing the tango in the above three pictures with the lovely and beautiful Nez.  This girl is truly badass, a true original gypsy in South America if I have ever met one.  Delicately dancing the tango in the boots she has been travelling the world with, you can tell by her style she is an expert at not just the tango, but the original gypsy traveller tango as well. She is from Australia.

The Tango is an amazing dance.  It is very serious and you have to be very focused and maybe even a little sad while dancing it.   My tango Jedi Master Patricio sometimes gets mad because when I make a mistake I will burst out laughing.  "No", He says angrily in Spanish.  "The tango is a very serious dance and you must respect the art, passion and history of this beautiful dance."  I am lucky to have such a good teacher to immerse myself deep in the true culture of this country.

 

If you are in Buenos Aires and you want to have good Italian food you need to go to Pippo.  Its owners have operated it through three generations in true Italian fashion.  It is located within half a block of Montevideo and Corrientes, On Montevideo. 

 

This was my freshly made spaghettie noodles with Bolognese Sauce plus a chorizo sausage on top, fresh parmesan to boot. 

 

I filled up on bread pretty hard before the meal.  _Unlimited bread and this pesto dip with garlic and butter.  Plus a decent sized double coffee.  All in all this meal came to 130 pesos, approximately 9 US dollars using the black market exchange rate. 

 

Buenos Aires is a city of many leaflets and pamphlets.  So far these are all the leaflets I have collected during my stay here. 

 

Apparently Larry David is the coach of the Boca Soccer Team down here in BsAs. 

First day of Spring (Primavera)

The widest street in the world just steps from my hostel.  Carlos Pelligrini Ave is at least 20 lanes wide with traffic going both ways.  Down the middle is lanes exclusively for busses.

Here a man on a unicycle juggles for traffic stopped at a light.

 Playstation 1 is going to be coming to Argentina this Christmas.

 This is a beautiful palace in Argentina.  It used to be owned by a very rich and powerful person.  It was likely built sometime in the 19th century.  Why can't architecture from the 21st century look this good?

 Bicyclists in a large bicycle brigade ride in the streets of downtown Buenos Aires on this first day of Spring.  Buenos Aires is a very friendly bicycling city.

 Congresso park with beautiful fountains.  In the background an incomplete new building that doesn't look like it will be finished any time soon.  A symbol of the unpredictable economy.

 These are across the city and allow citizens and tourists to rent bicycles for free.  On this Sunday they were closed though.  You only get the bicycle for one hour but it is still a great idea.  For a tourist all you need is a photocopy of your passport with the stamp that shows you entered the country legitimately.

 Kid playing soccer in the Congresso Park.  He wants to be the next Lionel Messi.  Apparently all the parents are naming their newborn babies Lionel right now.

 A shot of the Congress and the park full of people on this beautiful first day of Spring.

 Girls in the park with their thermos drinking mate.  Everyone in Buenos Aires owns a thermos.  Once they run out of hot water for their Mate Cup they just pour more in.  Mate is all about sharing.  It is not just a drink it is a way of life.  If you make jokes about adding alchohol to Mate, or suggesting that its only a drink, Argentinians get very offended.

 Building under construction in Argentina.

An advertisement for my favorite food in Argentina, Alfajores.  In the middle is a thin layer of Dulce de Leche which is a staple to Argentinian culture like Maple Syrup is to French Canadians.

Week 2 In BA

 When its raining and overcast you need some delicious chocolate treats.  These are alfajores and they are the most traditional food you can eat in buenos aires.  Had this one for 2 pesos and fifty cents, which is like 15 cents US.  They are really good.  Ordered some other proper ones from a real Argentinian bakery for a dinner party and they set me back a little more.  You can't say you have experienced Argentinian culture until you have eaten an alfajores.

 These guys are awesome.  The one on the left is Lucas from Brazil.  The one in the middle is Alejandro from Chile.  We hang out at the hostel a lot.  Alejandro only speaks Spanish and Lucas speaks Portuguese, and a little spanish and english.  Communication is hard but that doesn't stop us all from being good friends.

 This day was sunny so I got out and saw some of the city.  This is right beside the hostel I am staying at.  There is a house on top of this apartment if you look closely.  The architecure here is amazing.  That's what happens when you have a city that is 250 years old I guess.

 Had this hamburger before heading to Spanish Class.  I asked for it fully loaded.  They put a tonne of bacon and a fried egg on it including a fat patty.  It was really good.  With a coca cola cost me fifty pesos or about 4 bucks American.

On my way to Spanish class at 230 and some people taking a siesta in the park with these pigeons.  Living the lounge life original gypsy style.

 This is the view from my Spanish school balcony.  This week my class will have only me and a 29 year old girl from Britain who left her job (like me) as a doctor to come and see Buenos Aires.

 I am not sure what 'pimpenella' is.  its definitely a play. there is lots of theatre in argentina especially in the central location of my hostel.  My guess is its an Argentinian version of Cinderella for children, where the red headed woman on the left meets her fairy God Pimp (the man on the right) and through her fairy god pimp she meets the man of her dreams.  I wont be seeing any theatre in Buenos Aires but I do plan on catching Sin City 3d with subtitles very soon.

 So much amazing street art in Buenos Aires.  I had the pleasure of getting to see these guys decorate this sidewalk fixture.

 Headed to the Recoletta Cemetery where a lot of famous and wealthy Argentinians are burried.  Including Eva Perron who is a very famous leader of the country.  This is the fortress like wall that surrounds the cemetery.

 Beautiful tree in the Recoletta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, just outside the cemetery.  Studied Spanish under here for about an hour on a saturday afternoon.  It was perfect.

Entrance to the cemetery.  The guy standing in front of the door was a scam artist.  He gave me a bunch of information about the cemetery, and then he asked for a donation for the Childrens Aids foundation.  I am pretty sure if I gave him money he would not have given it to the kids with Aids.

 This particular grave was very old and there had definitely been some wear and tear over the years.

 Inside you can see the casket and the lack of maintenance.  I imagine that when someone dies you pay for a certain amount of years of maintenance here and this particular grave has no payment coming from it anymore.

 This guy died in 1925.  The cobwebs were a very fitting touch.

 This style of graves forever.  Very beautiful architecture.  I would love to see them building them.

 Turns out there was cats living in the cemetery.  I am not sure who feeds them but this one was drinking out of a water fountain that was left on.  My guess is the cats were left at the cemetery with their dead masters and they have continued to breed and live there.

 Beautiful statue to commemorate this dead man as well as an apartment in the background with the official argentinian colours.

 This man was a baller.  What an amazing grave stone.  Some of these men were burried with there women.  Meaning that they had multiple wives I guess.

More cats.  I imagine if my  brother had a travel blog it would all be pictures of cats.

 I imagine one day Pope Bennedict will die and he will be burried at the Recolleta Cemetery with the most grandoise sculptures and installations for his tomb.  Kinda like this tomb.

 Wow this ones amazing.  In all of these sculptures the coffin is just laying inside locked.

 Headed downtown and it turns out its Brazillian Day.  Even though the Brazillians and the Argentinians do not get along (mainly over soccer differences) there are still lots of Brazillian tourists and immigrants to Buenos Aires.  This was a very popular event.  These beautiful dancers were staying warm by keeping their bodies moving.

 This girl was getting a lot of attention from everybody.  All the drunk latino guys wanted to dance with her on the street, and she was happy to let them.

 Waited in line to get a traditional Brazillian alchoholic drink called a 'chacassas' (pronunciation only).  It was delicious but it took forty minutes to wait out the line.  It was so worth it though.  It was kinda like a mojito except with a stronger form of alchohol and way more limes and sugar.  It was so sour I loved it.

 Ran into a buddy named Omar from Canary Islands, Spain that I had hung out with on one of the first days I was here.  Here we are drinking the Cachassus together.

 The City of Buenos Aires had tonnes of outhouses at Brazil Day because they knew if they didnt bring outhouses that the Brazillians would just piss in the streets everywhere.

Went out for dinner in Palermo with this crew of people all staying at the hostel.  From left to right it goes Me (canada), Michelle (Germany), Julian (Columbia), Victor (Brazil), Alejandro (Chile), Claudia (Paraguay).  I forget the names of the two girls on the right but one was from Brazil and the other was from a Caribbean Island.  We had Brazillian Assado (bbq) to celebrate Brazil day.  It was a great meal.