Bolivia-La Paz and the Amazon

   After a day in Puno, I headed out by bus to La Paz. When we got to the border, i could have literally walked across and no one would have cared or known. In fact you actually do walk across and they just hope that you find your way to their little immigration office on the side of the road to get your stuff checked and stamped. Sketch. It took over a week's worth of daily adventures in BA to get that dang visa, and I could literally walked across the border...Anyways, we had a bit of a layover in Copacabana, a ferry ride across part of the lake, and 5 hours later I was in La Paz. Coming into La Paz at night was one of the grandest entrances into a city that I have ever seen. The bus began the decent from the mountainous switchbacks, and after a good while we finally came over a ridge and a glorious expanse of what appeared to be glittering gold fill the entire basin/valley/bowl-like geographical formation that La Paz was built in. I'm convinced that La Paz definitely has one of the coolest settings out of any big city in the word. I'll stop trying to describe it and let the pictures below do the talking.
   The next day I spent planning my excursions throughout Bolivia, exploring the city (crazy markets everywhere-hardly any normal stores, plazas, fairs, and stadium), resting up, eating well, and relaxing. I got up early the next day, took a minibus to the corner where my bus left from, and waited for my bus to depart (1.5 hours late). Man did I have NO CLUE what kind of bus ride I was getting myself into. The bus only cost 90 Bolivianos and the plane cost 490, so the obvious choice was to go with the bus. Crazy, uninformed choice (but still not regretted). I later found out that the route we were taking (by this double-decker passenger/cargo bus) was the "new death road." The "old death road" was deemed too dangerous so this one was built and quickly stole the title of the "World's Deadliest Road." Apparently it was safer, but due to the increased traffic, it was inevitable that people would still die. About 4 hours in we came to a stop and quickly found out that it was due to a major rock slide that had taken place not too far ahead of us. As I was sitting on a rock, pebbles started falling down the mountain from cliffs above me, so i figured it'd be best to move. An hour later we were moving again, and I quickly realized why this road held it's title. I'm not exaggerating- there were multiple times when i looked out the window (I had the window seat on the cliff side of the road) and could see that our tires were not completely on the road- half of the tread was HANGING over the end of the cliff that fell hundreds of feet straight down into the abysses of rain forests and rushing rivers. Many times, I could have dropped a rock outside my window and it would have fallen a hundred feet or so without hitting a single thing. The locals couldn't even look out the window. I have never sweated, cussed, or had a heart-beat as fast as I did on that bus. My head was out that window for hours on end in awe of how frikin NUTTY that ride was. The valleys we were driving through were spectacular! There were several huge waterfalls on the opposite side of the valley, falling from the tops of mountains into the thundering rivers below. Much like Machu Picchu, there were endless mountains of super-dense, green rain forests that covered every inch of every mountain the entire 20 hour drive. At dusk, rainbows arched over the valley as if God promising me that he would never put me through something so dangerous ever again in my life. (After I got back to La Paz a few days later, one of my tour friends posted a video of a bus, just like ours, on the exact same road we were on, falling off a ledge and killing everyone inside...frikin crazy, that could have been me.)
    Due to a late start, traffic, and the rockslide, we arrived to Rurrenbaque 2 hours late. NBD, i figured my tour group would wait for me. (Usually not a fan of tours but theres no other way to do the Amazon.) Not the case. After arriving to my tour groups front doorstep by taxi (really a dirt bike) I was happy to find out that my group had left 15 minutes ago and there was no way they could turn around or take me to catch up with them. After debating with them for a while, they obliged and paid a taxi driver to take me to the next city down the road to meet up with my tour group. The driver floored it and I caught back up with my group for lunch. After lunch we drove to our boat launch, loaded up, and vroomed off through the rivers of the Amazon Basin. We saw tons of monkeys, birds, and turtles during our ride to our "floating campground." There was a hangout area, tons of housing buildings, a dinning hall, a kitchen, several docks to watch the sunset from, and bathrooms/showers (all made of wood, nothing else). I expected much less so this was all a pleasant surprise. The sunsets were amazing. I couldn't believe that I was watching the burning sunset down over the treetops, seeing pink dolphins swim in the foreground, hear monkeys calling from the trees, and seeing birds glide over the canopies all in one moment. Pretty surreal. Later that night we went looking for cayman (alligators) with our flashlights and found a few.
    The next day we all woke up super early for a sunrise boat outing. One of the cooler, more unique sunrises i'll ever see. Later in the morning we went looking for anaconda's. We had to trudge close to a mile through mucky, tall weeds to get to this little island in the midst of this huge wetland. Our guide told us that we probably wouldn't find any because it was way too wet still. Low and behold we found a baby-ish one curled up in a tree. Super cool to see them in their natural habitat and not behind the window of some zoo. We also saw the most perfect, stereotypical owl that I have ever seen. It was making the perfect noises, moving its head in the perfect ways, and giving us the funniest look. On the way back for lunch we crossed paths with a pod of pink dolphins and we quickly jumped out to swim with them. (Yes, this is the same water that piranhas and cayman swam in.) The dolphins were super fun and playful. They came so close that I accidentally kicked two of them! We then had lunch and a nap and then headed back out to swim with more dolphins. They weren't easy to find, but when we did find them, they were a blast. In fact they were a little too much fun, and while trying to enter the boat to rest for a bit, I accidentally knocked my camera into the water :/....it was water-proof and super rugged but i simply couldn't find it amongst all the foliage and murky water. Bumcity. Only lost my pictures of MP, Lake Titicaca, and La Paz- I uploaded the Easter Island pics to Mark's computer thankfully. The night included another beautiful sunset, and card games with friends.
    The next morning we headed out to go fishing for piranhas, no luck :/. We could definitely see them surfacing and eating other things though. The ride back to camp was pretty epic- i was at the front of the boat as we were flying down the river in the POURING down rain. Could have been a scene in a movie. We eventually made it back to a launch zone, waited for a bit, and took our jeep back to Rurrenbaque (using all the water we had to clean the windshield along the way). On the way back we saw Tucan Sam. We also ran into another group along the road that was having car troubles. We offered to help bring that crew back, knowing that they might miss their flight otherwise, but their driver was arrogant and didn't allow us to take them. We barely made the flight, they missed it. Not sure what they did, because its no easy task getting back. The flight took 30 min. The bus took 20 hours. The plane was 40x faster....
   The next day was the Death Road (by bike).

Cayman!

Monkey!

Our plane, yes that's the cockpit

Sunrise

Lake Titicaca

    Once I reached the hydroelectric dam, I was lucky to find a taxi leaving back to Santa Teresa immediately. Never had sitting felt so good. After 9 hours of walking, hiking, and climbing I was completely shot. From Santa Teresa I caught another taxi back to Santa Maria. I forgot to describe this road in my last post- it was frikin nutty! It was a solid hour of hairpin turns, evidence of past rock slides, pits from rain washouts, and near accidents with other cars. The roads are so curvy, that there is no way to see what's on the other side of the hairpin turns and the only way of warning others of your presence is to honk loudly repetitively, hope the other person isn't going to fast, doesn't have their music too loud, and is carefully hugging their side of the road. The roads were pretty baren, but if you were to judge our location on the number of times the driver honked, you'd think we were in downtown NYC. It goes without saying, but that ride was not the most relaxing I've ever had. At one point I heard the sound of what sounded like a roaring waterfall only to look across the canyon and see a major rockslide tumbling down the mountainside directly opposite of where we were. That easily could have been us!
    We eventually made it to Santa Maria, and when I went to get my ticket for the bus ride to Cuzco, i got the disheartening news that the next two buses had been sold out and that i would have to wait another 2 hours for my bus. I was bummed, but I figured it'd be good just to chill for a while. So, I found a pretty ghetto restaurant to hold up in until my bus came, watched some soccer, read a bit, wrote a bit, and waited. I waited for 5 1/2 hours....I don't know what's up with their bussing system but it's pretty disorganized and disfunctional. Instead of having food served on the bus, they stopped on the roadsides and had vendors come on the bus selling "Choclo con queso!" and other items. Instead of having bathrooms on the bus, we had to stop ever so often at roadside bathrooms that we had to pay to use, and if you didn't bring your own TP, you'd be screwed because they only give you about 3 sheets to use.  It's a good thing that I'm a pretty chill traveler, otherwise those bus rides could have been miserable experiences. There are easier and faster ways to get to and from Machu Picchu but they're really expensive and I feel that you wouldn't get nearly the same experience as busing and hiking.
     That day was the longest of my life. After getting up at 3, spending 9 hours hiking, taking multiple taxis, waiting 5 1/2 hours for my bus to Cuzco, and spending 6 hours on the bus to Cuzco, I was ready to find a hostel and crash for the whole day in my bed. That didn't happen. Little did I know that Cuzco is THE place to be in South America for New Years. I spent an hour and a half walking around all of Cuzco looking for a single bed in ANY hostel- cheap or expensive, I didn't care, I just wanted a bed. I had never been so tired in my life, but I had no other option so I decided to keep on moving. Sadly, I never got to know Cuzco very well. My next destination was Puno- the Peruvian town situated right on the edge of Lake Titicaca. The bus ride from Cuzco to Peru through the sacred valley was unbelievable. The marshlands, and plains of the Peruvian farmers and gauchos stretched through the valley as far as the eye could see. The 2 ranges of rolling mountains covered in green grass, wild flowers, and flowing streams continued on perfectly parallel to one another for endless hours, forming this almost eerily, supernatural, Scared Valley. It felt a lot like what I imagine Big Sky Montana being like. For some strange reason, I was the only one on the bus and my only companions were the cows, sheep, horses, and alpacas that raced by my window.
    When I got to Puno, I got dropped off at some random bus stop on the side of the road without a clue as to where i was in relation to the rest of the city, or where my hostel was that I had researched before leaving. With my huge pack, chacos, hiking shorts, tank tee, and adventure hat, I cou;dn't ahve looked more like a gringo. I guess some cops noticed this and came over to help me out. They offered to give me a ride to my hostel and i happily took them up on it. I figured they were just bored and had nothing else to do so they were doing something nice for a tourist. You would think if anybody knew their way around town, it'd be the cops. That wasn't the case. What could have taken 3 minutes, took 25. Upon arriving, I thanked them greatly and began to walk in the door of my hostel, but then one of the cops called me aside. It took me a while to figure out what he wanted, but eventually I figured out that he and his friend wanted money for their help. After figuring this out, i played the role of the dumb gringo and kept him talking for a while. About a minute into this conversation the receptionist of the hostel came out and ushered me in, knowing what the cops were trying to do to me. That was the first time i had ever encountered corrupt cops firsthand. That night we had a mini-pizza party in our hostel- me, 3 canadian medical students, and the owners of the hostel. Later that night i went out to the happenin club in town with the Canadians and danced the night away with australians, new zealanders, irish, arentines, brazilians, peruvians, chileans, and who knows who else. T'was one of the more fun and memorable New Years I'll ever have.
    The next day I went on a tour of the Uros- the floating islands of Lake Tititcaca. They told us the history of the lake, showed us how the islands were formed, we were invited into the homes of the locals, shopped around looking at their trinkets, and then went for a (forced) ride on their boats made of reeds. Little girls danced and sang for us during our ride (and then asked for tips haha). After the Uros tour,  i walked around town a bit, shopped for some alpaca souvenirs, and walked through their crazy markets. That night I feasted on eggs, leftover Chinese food from my canadian friends, and pancakes while watched the Cowboys play the Giants in what was essentially a playoff game. The Cowboys got man-handled.
   The next day I continued my journey in the direction of La Paz, Bolivia.

typical Uros greeting party

reed gondola/boat thing

Sacred Valley

   

Machu Picchu

       So after clearing out of the plane in Santiago, Mark pretty much bolted to make his flight back to the US and I was left at the baggage claim with no concrete plans, reservations, or obligations for another 3 weeks. I eventually got my bags, asked around how to get to the bus station, walked outside, waited for 30 seconds, got on a bus that I hoped went to the bus station, asked a guy to tell me when to get off, and luckily everything worked out and I ended up on the steps of the bus terminal. I thought i might have to spend the night there but I figured I might as well try to get a bus (it was midnight by this point). From the blogs i had read and advice i had been given, I knew the next city i had to get to was Arica- the northernmost border town of Chile. I hesitantly approached the first counter I saw open, not expecting much success, only to be told to get my butt moving b/c they had a bus leaving for Arica in 10 minutes. Talk about relief. So I sprinted around the terminal (which a 60 pound pack on my back and a drawstring bag flying around on my chest), withdrew some cash, got some sketch pre-made sandwiches, and booked it to my bus. I knew i was in it for the long haul, so i got my kindle, ipod, and Bible and took my seat. Many movies, a book or two, several hours of music, a buncha Jesus time, and 32 hours later i arrived in Arica at 5am on December 27th.
       Luckily, I made a friend on the bus and he told me the best way to get across the border. We had to wait at the terminal for about an hour, then the taxi service next door opened up and we (along with a family of 3) piled into a private taxi-for-hire to take us across the border to Tacna, Peru. At this point I was still a novato traveler and didn't know or think to keep every piece of paper i got while crossing borders. Apparently, at some point while crossing into Chile to go to easter island, I was given some 2inch by 3inch piece of paper that i had to keep to get out of the country. I definitely didn't keep it, and it was definitely a big deal. if it weren't for my friend who talked the border agent into writing a new one for me, I would have had to go back to Arica, go to some government office, and spend only god knows how many hours and dollars to get things set straight. So by the grace of God and words of my friend, we eventually got across the border and into Peru. Once we arrived in Peru, my friend (a 30-something dentist) offered me to use his shower and made me allow him to buy my breakfast (I guess he could tell I was a cheap college kid). I'm convinced he was an angel.
      After breakfast, I went to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Arequipa. On that bus I made another friend who was giving me all sorts of advice on what cities were safe and what were dangerous (not that it changed my path at all, but it was still nice to know). After arriving in Arequipa, I bought a bus ticket to Cuzco that left an hour later. We bused through the night to Cuzco, and I quickly hopped on a minibus to another bus terminal to get to Santa Maria. I wish I had spent more time in Cuzco, but I had to make it to Machu Picchu before January 1- when all the tickets were sold out for the next month. The bus ride to Santa Maria was gorgeous- rushing rivers tore through the winding valleys that were enclosed by endless mountains completely plastered in green of forests and undergrowth. From there I was pretty much forced into a taxi (with 3 other locals- at this point i hadn't seen a white person in 3 days or so) that took me to Santa Teresa. From there, i was again hurried into another taxi/minibus thing that took a load of us down the bumpy, dirt path that led down through the valley to the hydroelectric plant. En route to the plant we stopped, the driver and the guide got out to assess the condition of a ford (water crossing). It had been raining pretty hard all day and  the ford looked impassible. They decided to go for it. With water up to our windows, we barely made it through.
        Eventually we all got out and started the 3 hour over rivers, through the woods, and along the train tracks. I was having a good conversation with an Argentine who was in the navy (he was telling me of all his travels around the world during his deployments) when i looked up and saw some strangly American looking kids coming our direction. Before i could even give a second take, Daniel Mattox, Daniel Lander, and Wil Fisher were all sprinting towards me with arms wide open. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. We talked, laughed, and told stories for about half an hour on those train tracks and then continued on our separate ways, they had a train to catch, and i wanted to reach Aguas Calientes before nightfall. Seeing them was such a boost to my moral, not that i was doing bad by any means, but still it made me so happy to see them. Eventually i got to AC and found a hostel, showered, and chilled for a bit. While walking around town a bit later, i ran into my Argentine friends and had dinner with them. They all had the full guinea pig platter- a peruvian delicacy.
     The next day was spent exploring the town, buying my MP ticket, buying souvenirs, hanging in the hot springs (met a pilot from Ft. Worth), chilling, reading, and having a nice dinner by myself at a restaurant right on the river (they even had a small trout-farm operation going on). I couldn't sleep that night with the anticipation of the next day. I couldn't believe i was about to surmount one of the wonders of the world. I was about to do something many only see in movies, read in books, or dream about in their sleep. Pretty surreal. After killing some time by walking around the city at 3am, i eventually made my way to the gate at the base of the mountain. I was the first to arrive but I had to wait 15 minutes for the gate to open. By that time a good group of people had gathered to do the same thing i set out to do- to be among the first in the park. The gate finally opened after what seemed like years and i started booking it up the mountain. Even with a few wrong turns here and there, I was the first one up- made it in about half an hour. Once i reached the top i had to wait another 40 min for the entrance to the park itself to open up. Talk about agony. I eventually got in, booked it to the Sun Gate for the sunrise, and came back and did Machu Picchu Mountain (different than Huaynapicchu). That hike was TOUGH. Literally 1.5 hours (for most people) straight of the steepest stairs you've ever seen in your life. No flat parts, hardly any break points. The prize at the top was well worth it. I was the first one up and I was lucky to have several solid minutes of alone time up there. The view was literally breathe-taking. That term gets thrown around a lot but it was very relevant and true for what i saw.  The ruins, thousands of feet below still appeared free of the congestion of people to come, the fog was still looming in the valleys surrounding MP, the sun was causing the fog and clouds to glow a brilliant orange- making the mountain appear to be engulfed by raging fires on all sides, the adjacent mountains grew so high that the dense rain-forests ceased to grow- leaving rocky, grey, sharp mountain tops piercing the brilliantly blue skyline, and the raging river of chocolate-y water rushed through the main valley in both directions for as far as the eye could see. If there ever were a place too beautiful to be done justice by words, poems, songs, or pictures, this was it. Never had I seen such a sight as magnificent as this.That view made all the thousands of miles, multiple buses, several taxis, meals of alfajores, and sleepless nights worth it. After descending the mountain, I dwaddled around all the ruins, eavesdropping on English-speaking guided tours at locations i deemed interesting enough. It was pretty surreal walking around a place that was so ancient, yet so perfectly preserved. Very cool experience all-around.
      I then hiked back down the rest of the mountain, went back into town, got my stuff, and headed back the way i came. Along the way back, i got poured down upon. Luckily i was prepared with a buncha rain gear and so I wasn't too bad off. it was quite enjoyable to be honest. Felt like it was some scene out of a movie- some homeless looking kid, walking stooped over with his backpack, head covered by his hood, walking down some train tracks, wading through mud, and eventually making it to the end of a rainbow. This was the beginning of my journey towards Lake Titicaca.

(the below pictures are not mine, I lost my camera later in my journey : / - details to come...)

View from the Guard House

View from the Sun Gate

View from Machu Picchu Mtn. (doesn't do it justice in the least bit)

The road up the mountain (the hiking trail cuts up perpendicular to the switchbacks)

Ambulances, BBQs, and Bandola

So we had a bit of an emergency after convo last Wednesday night. A couple guys were messing around, sprayed one of the fire extinguishers for fun, and ended up spraying it in the direction of one of our girls. She accidentally breathed and swallowed the chemicals in. At first she said she just wasn't feeling good but that she would be alright, she just needed a little time. We quickly found out that this was not the case as she started having difficulty with breathing. She was pretty incapacitated and unable to do much to help herself, and we all felt kind of helpless. We called an ambulance and waited for what seemed like over an hour for it to come, but it eventually did and it took her to the hospital. After a few hours she was discharged and was able to sleep in the home of a friend. All ended up fine, but it definitely was a scary situation.

On Friday night we had a BBQ/Pool Party/Movie Night. It was a BYOM (bring your own meat) night, so us dudes bought some phatty racks of pork ribs, and thanks to Ryan Swain's bomb BBQ sauce and master BBQing skills, the ribs turned out FANTASTIC. Literally, the meat fell off the bone as soon as i picked it up. We also got to play bball at the mormon church before dinner, and that was tons of fun- nicest outdoor court that I have ever played on. After a little swimming and chilling, we got the movie up and running. We watched "Drive". It was alright. Super gory and had many awkward silences (I figured they were intentional but could figure out why).

On Saturday night, I followed up on mi madre's advice and took Liz out to my brother's restaurant-Bandol. It's a Mediterranean restaurant and neither of us had ever had Mediterranean food so we weren't quite sure what to expect. It was a ways north of us, and after a bus and some walking, we found it without too much difficulty. As we were walking up, we couldn't believe what we were getting ourselves into. Words won't do it justice but I'll try. The entire restaurant was lit by candles, the tables were all set up in couples, we were the only people in the restaurant when we walked in (we were starving, but as usual, the rest of Argentina began to eat 2 hours after us), the glasses were clearly made of fine crystal, the plates and silverware were super fancy, light mediterranean-esque music was playing in the background, the walls were decorated like some front-page worthy San Torini restaurant. and as soon as we walked in we were hounded by multiple workers that made us feel like king and queen. The steak (Lomo de Bandol) I ordered was easily one of the best I've ever had and probably ever will have. Liz was in complete awe of the whole situation. it didn't quite feel like reality. Before we knew it, 3 hours had flown by and it was time to head to our next food exploration location. Over Christmas break, a new heladeria opened up pretty much next to the casa. The fact that it was new was alluring, but the fact that it was from El Bolson, Patagonia made it irresistible to me (even after dozens of ice cream adventures in which I was convinced all heladerias were all the same). Like usual, the ice cream was totally bomb. After ice cream we headed home (it was like 2am by this point).

Surgery

So I had surgery 5 days ago. It was the same nasal polyp (nondangerous tumor-like growth) removal surgery that i had last year in Malibu. It went well. Our assistant director- Susi -was my angel and made this whole thing happen. Without her i probably would have had to go another whole semester being miserably unable to breathe well at all. I woke up to some beautiful, welcoming faces as Susi, my homestay mom, and Liz were all at my bedside. After an hour or so I got to go back home to the casa and spend a couple days with the Daughrity's . Sunde- the momma - was nothing short of amazing as she waited on my every beckoning call and as she fed me like a king. Being around their kids was fun too.  I slept a lot, read a lot, watched some TV, and we had a movie night. I can already notice the drastic difference in my nose. I can finally sleep well, workout longer, breathe better, and taste more richly! There's still a handful of check-up doctor appointments coming up but for the most part its all taken care of.

Easter Island

So here's the beginning of my Christmas expedition recap.

Before we left for our flight to Easter Island, we had our last asado of the semester at the casa, and waived off the kids going back to the states. Shortly after, Mark and I headed out to the airport. We flew to Santiago and the descent down was amazing as the sun was setting on the western horizon and threw a rainbow of oranges, reds, and yellows upon the faces of the mountains that encircled the beautiful city of Santiago. We spent that night in the hotel in some random, obscure, abandoned corner of the airport.

The next morning we woke up for our flight to Easter Island. As i was waiting in the check-in line i got some tingles up my spine as the reality of it all sank in. I couldn't believe that i was about to be on THE Easter Island that i had read about in history books, seen on TV, and had dreamt of going to for so long.  The flight there was super comfortable, had good food, and had tons of good movies. I watched the Motorcycle Diaries- a documentaryish movie about the early years of Che Guevara. We landed to tropically dressed woman putting flower necklaces on us and a band playing some kind of hula music, pretty cool welcome party if you ask me. We found a campground to stay at, set up camp, and then set out to explore the city. On the way into town, we passed some Moai, nbd. We played some frisbee at the foot of the Moai, checked out the musuem, checked out the city streets, and got some food at a grocery store. That night we walked along the rocky coast, sat on a hill and watched the huge waves crash against the rocky shore. The resulting towers of splashing water were easily 4 stories tall, so so cool. When we went to bed there wasn't a cloud in the sky so we figured there was no chance for rain. Big mistake. We woke up to being poured on and had to get out and set our rain tarp up. Getting up outa bed is hard enough but when you're wet, cold and, dirty it sucks. All things considered (wet sleeping bag, wet pillow, dirty feet) i slept pretty well afterwards.

The next morning we got up, went into town and rented a scooter and some scuba gear and headed on over to the other side of the island. Zooming through the pastures, forests, and open areas of the inner island was pretty surreal. It looking like the rolling hills of green fell straight into the earth and were quickly engulfed by a never ending horizon of water on all sides. When we arrived to the other side we did a bit of exploring, found a campground, saw some moai, saw the main beach of the island, and then headed to where we were told the good snorkeling was. Neither of us had ever done snorkeling before which was made evident as we tried to walk on the beach with our flippers on- not the easiest thing to do. We eventually got the hang of it and began to see a few fish and cool coral formations here and there. Within 5 minutes or so everywhere we looked was covered with schools of fish and colorful coral formations. Blue fish, blue and orange fish, yellow fish, long and skinny fish, and all colors of coral. I had read that the waters of Easter Island were famously clear, but what we saw was amazing! I kid you not, we could see over 100 feet down, clear as day, no exageration. Because of its isolation and location in the ocean currents, Easter Island is one of the most coveted diving locations in the world. I remember coming over underwater mountain ridges/cliffs and feeling a sense of weightlessness like i never had before. In my head, i was flying. As the cliffs dove down to over 100 feet deep, i was still zooming along the cliff faces, chasing fish, and swimming between coral formations. Amazing experience. Good thing we weren't told this beforehand, but apparently where we were diving was the prime time area for sharks to hang out at.

We took the scooter back to the far side of the island the next day and just kicked it at the beach all day. We read, listened to our ipods, napped, swam, watched some locals play rugby, and threw the frisbee. The beach was pretty epic as the Moai sat at the edge of the bay, palm trees provided shade along the sand, and the pristine water quietly lapped up on shore.

For the next morning, we planned to get up for sunrise at the most famous Moai location- Auu Tangriki but we woke up to the sound of pouring rain and decided to go back to sleep. Later that morning we went to one of the two main attractions on the island- it was where the Moai were formed. The Moai were carved out of the side of a inactive volcano and transported to all corners of the island. We got to see the Moai in all stages of construction and got to see some active archaeological work going on. You can't see it on most Moai because of erosion, but initially they all have intricate carvings down all up and down their backs. We climbed along the inside of the crater for a bit and at one point climbed to the top and had a pretty cool view of Ahu Tangriki. Afterwards we took a little off-roading adventure and went to the isolated and kinda dead corner of the island. Years ago a volcano had erupted and killed all life on that part of the island. We parked the scooter at the edge of a fence and proceeded to walk along the cliff sides for what felt like over a mile. With every passing step the cliffs got higher and higher until we were hundreds of feet up, looking nearly straight down into the ocean. Definitely one of the cooler, more unique places I've ever been. (Reminded me of some shots from Sigur Ros' music video to Glossoli.) That night we had our first nice dinner of the trip at a coastal restaurant about a half mile away from the campground. Their was only one other group of people there besides us so it was super chill. We got to sit outside in the perfect weather and watch the sun fall beneath the horizon, pretty romantic. The fish i had was easily the best fish platter i had ever eaten. Our waitress was pretty cute, and due to the lack of people she wasn't too busy so we got to chat her up at bit. Her little cousing also tried to teach us some Rapa Nui (the island's official language).

We were able to get up for the sunrise the next day fortunately, and it was well worth it. Probably one of the more epic sunrises I'll ever see. We hung out and basked in the majestic-ness of it all for quite a while. Then we went back took naps, returned the scooter, got some souvenirs, and hung at the campsite. Mark continued to nap for the afternoon, i went out and boogey-boarded. They were literally the best waves of my life. i could ride them in for 150 yards easy. So much frikin fun. When i was getting out, I saw a HUGE sea turtle- the symbol for Easter Island. Super cool.  Later in the afternoon we went geocahing near the cemetery right along the coast. I know I'm using a lot of superlatives here, but it was truly one of the coolest locations for a cemetery that I have ever seen. After dinner we went to Kari Kari- a dance show, and during the show i got pulled up on stage to dance with the girls. We got back to the campground and hung out around the fire with our Australian friends- Bill and Jess.

The next morning we tried our luck with fishing. Bought some line, some hooks, and some raw chicken.  Let's just say we weren't as lucky as jesus' disciples. The lack of rods, crashing rocks, and poor eyesight didn't make it too easy for us. We had our chances, but couldn't capitalize. After fishing, i wrote all my postcards, had a great hangout sesh with God on the coast. We went on another walk up the coast to the big crashing waves for sunset. That night we played a game of Settlers with a German and Scottish dude. Wish were could have played Risk, then we could have reenacted WWII, jk. The stars were amazing that night- being so isolated and being without much electricity resulted in some of the clearest skies imaginable.

Our big adventure the next day was the other main attraction on the island- Orongo. It was their most sacred sight and the location of many important cultural ceremonies/competitions. Through preservation and restoration, there are still many earthen and rock huts left standing and many carvings on the rocks are still visible. The village is situated precariously on the edge of a crater that falls into a sunken volcano and the other side is cliffs that fall hundreds of feet into the ocean. Later we went down to the marina and tried to do flips and gainers with limited success.

One day we rented mountain bikes and took them to the more isolated and unreachable roads of the island. This part of the island had tons of really cool caves. Some of them i would even classify as caverns, as they stretched on for endless distances (which we were not prepared to explore without a headlamp). During the biking journey, it start raining pretty hard and we got pretty soaked and dirty on the dirt/gravel roads. After showering off, warming up, and Settling, we went to the same coastal restaurant we had visited before. Our creeper Chilean friend tagged along. He forcefully bought us drinks, let us try his lobster, and some of his dessert. He was definitely a friendly guy, just kinda weird...Mark thought he was gay.  We also got to talk to our waitress for quite a while again.

On our last full day, we started packing up a bit, checked in for our flight, and went to go rent a surfboard. Unfortunately the waves were wack and we couldn't surf, so we decided to go get some icecream. Our Chilean friend showed up again and got some ice cream with us. Later we got ready for the Church service and I skyped the family back in Illinois. We went to the Christmas Eve service with the Germans and Scottish dude and then headed back to the party/asado at the campground. There they had tons of meet, amazing sweet potatoes, tons of real tropical fruit juices, and tons of other drinks. We stayed up til 4am talking with all our friends- definitely one of the more unique and memorable Christmases I'll ever have.

The next day we closed camp and walked to the airport, took our flight, landed, Mark took his flight back home, and my solo adventure began.

Back in the B.A.

So i have a tooon to catch up on but i figured i'd better recap our first week back in BA so far. We got back alte on thursday and on friday we had an orientation/family outing day. Took it pretty easy on saturday with unpacking stuff and recovering from 6 straight weeks of travel. On sunday we went to the Belgrano Lakes, rented a little cart and went "offroading" around the lake and surrounding areas. Afterwards we headed to the recoleta fair and recoleta cemetary. That night alycia and i had an interview for a internship with crossfit  at our boss's apartment-bomb dinner. monday i had a physical to get cleared for surgery and we had our first day of intensive spanish. tuesday i met with the anesthesiologist and surgeon and had intensive spanish. we also went to Jobs that night and played giant foosball, card games, and the roadtrip game. wednesday had a lot of preparation for surgery. we also had our fist convo-got my job back, the casa was flooded, and we went to calcio. afterwards we had a great worship sesh. surgery tomorrow