¡Cochabamba!

Decided to give up on WWOOFing in Tarija and head on to Cochabamba. We were both excited about spending some time in Cochabamba, interested in this city's rich history of social movements (most famously, the Water Protests of 2000).
Well, we got a fitting welcome to this town, with transit worker strikes blockading the only street into town! Our bus from Tarija was stopped 20 km short of the city center, and we had to get out, walk through the street blockade, and find our way into the city. Luckily, another bus headed to La Paz was had to turn around on the other side of the blockade and head back to the Cochabamba bus terminal. They were kind enough to pick us up and bring us to the terminal with them! So we arrived at the bus terminal as planned... only on a different bus!

Next day we enrolled in Spanish classes and arranged a home-stay with a Bolivian family! We moved from our hostel to the homestay Friday morning, and started classes that afternoon. It feels great to be brushing up on spanish... reviewing some things, learning new things, and having very interesting conversations with our professors in 1 on 1 classes.
Our host family is really cute. Aurelia, the mother, tries her best to cook vegetarian meals for us - though she has no experience doing so! Her youngest son Guillermo is the only one still home. He is slightly younger than us and goes to college in the city. Also two cats and three fruit trees!

Another interesting development... KidWind (my job) has asked me to head back south to meet with some folks in Puerto Varas, Chile! Interestingly, Puerto Varas is only a 5 hour bus ride across the Andes from Bariloche, where we were a few weeks ago... But unfortunately we did not have our ducks in a row until now. So, we are flying from La Paz on March 8, spending about 5 days in southern Chile, then heading back to La Paz to continue north into Peru.

On our way to La Paz next week we are planning to stop in Oruro on March 5 for Bolivia's biggest party - Carnaval. Looks like a blast...

Tarija, Bolivia

We have made it to Bolivia!
Here in Tarija we were planning on wwoofing (work-trade on an organic farm)... but our farm has flaked out. We are looking for another farm, but may end up moving on if we don´t find anything.

After Salta we made our way north to the tiny town of Purmamarca, famous for the Cerro de 7 Colores. My pictures do not do any justice to this breathtaking landscape... but at least you can get an idea of what it was like. The town is surrounded by mountains stratified into brightly colored layers.
We also ate our best meal of the trip in this little town! Quinoa salad, eggplant, quinoa ravioli, and mate!

From Purmamarca we caught a bus north to the border town of La Quiaca, where we spent the night. We crossed into Bolivia yesterday morning. The border crossing was relatively simple except for the required $135 tourist visa reciprocity fee.. which must be paid in US cash for some reason!


We were stuck in Villazon (Bolivian border town) until we could catch a bus to Tarija at 7:30 pm. Not a huge distance but still a 7 hour bus ride... A crazy mountain bus ride with sheer cliffs dropping off into darkness. Parts were actually terrifying! Not to mention really uncomfortable seats on a really bumpy dirt road!

Happy to be in Tarija... wish us luck in finding a farm where we can volunteer!

Salta, Argentina

Northern Argentina... very different from Southern Argentina! We´ve been hanging out with my friend TJ, his wife Maria, and their 4 year old son Mathias! Highlights were riding horses at their ¨finca¨ and riding a gondola up a mountain overlooking the city of Salta. We took a road trip up into the mountains to a town called Cachi.. 2,280 meters above sea level! Lots of folks were chewing coca leaves to fight the effects of altitude..

We should be in Bolivia in 2 - 3 days..

Here are a few of the latest pictures!

TJ and Mathias on the Finca

Parque Nacional Los Cardones (Cactus National Park)

Netta with a kitten

Gondola over Salta

The road to Cachi

Mountains near Cachi

Cordoba

We only spent a couple days in Bariloche and decided to keep heading north... I was anxious to get here to Cordoba to hang out with my brother-from-another-mother Emanuel!
From Bariloche we spent about 4 hours trying to hitch-hike, but only made it 16 km out of town! We caught a public bus back to the bus terminal of Bariloche and bought tickets all the way up to Cordoba. It was hard to swallow the idea of getting on a 22 hour bus while we were still recovering from the 27 hour ride from Chalten, but we were happy to keep moving.
The bus from Bariloche to Cordoba was really nice... Anyone who has heard rumors about nice coach buses in south america, it is true! Felt like first class on a plane. we were able to sleep fairly well - at least the road was paved this time!
Now we are relaxing in Cordoba. Emanuel has been an amazing host, sharing his home with us and taking us around town! The night we arrived we were welcomed with a typical Argentinian asado with Emanuel´s family. His uncle was kind enough to throw some veggies on the parrilla (grill) for us in addition to the slabs of beef!
It has felt great to relax and feel at home here... We´re enjoying Emanuel´s great library (Netta has already read over 200 pages of The Hobbit), eating good food, and Netta gave me a haircut too!

a few more pictures from Patagonia...

we are in Cordoba now... hanging out with Emanuel at his office! The internet is speedy so here are a few more pictures from the south

Many more pictures on Flickr

Cerro Solo, Poincenot, Fitz Roy, and the town of El Chalten from the South

Our campsite in El Chalten. I was jealous of people bike touring!

Waterfall - one hour hike from Chalten

Rocks in Patagonia were amazing... also cool lichen

We rock-hopped along this river to get to the glacier

Drinking yerba mate!

Laguna de los Tres. The peaks are Poincenot and Fitz Roy

bariloche.. heading north

just got off a 27 hour bus from El Chalten to Bariloche! that was insane.. we are heading into a nearby national park to camp for a night or two, and then continuing north.
more pictures coming soon - I promise!