Que Vida!

What a whirlwind life has been lately! We made it back to Cordoba in time to pull ourselves together a little bit (but actually mostly just hung out with the Brazilians as it was their last few days in the city as well), before our friends Mick and Chris from NDSU flew in to spend a week with us, over their spring break. And from the second those two set foot in the country, I don't think we sat down for more than 5 minutes, and we DEFINITELY never slept more than 5 hours at a time. Lucky for us the guys were eager to join in on the Argentina lifestyle, as well as the backpacker one. So we spent the week cooking up chorris, drinking

mate, tasting the wines, and exploring the country. We overnight bused 3 times that week, and visited 6 different cities... can you say crazy?! The first day in Cordoba we walked the centro, ate in the park, showed the guys our house, and stayed in an awesome foreigner hostel- complete with beer pong. Can't say I'd played that down here yet! The next afternoon was spent in tranquila Santa Rosa, soaking up the sun by the big lake and grilling chorizos. Then we shopped and ate empanadas in Bahia Blanca, before taking a van to our mountain destination, Sierra de la Ventana. And wow, was it worth the trek. We did a mountain hike,

explored the friendly little town, and spent the rest of the time catching up, playing cards, and cooking up feasts for each other in the cozy, lime green cabana we rented out. From there we bused over to Mar del Plata (just in time to watch the sun come up over the ocean, I might add), for a day on the beach. It was a bit windy but sunny nonetheless, and we topped off the night by jumping in the ocean in all our clothes when it turned midnight.... I had made it to my birthday!!!!! We traveled one last time that next day, to Buenos Aires, where we ended up finding a random (but awesome) Israeli hostel to stay in, before heading out to eat and dance to celebrate my birthday. I don't think turning 23 gets much more epic than that.

A quick word on turning 23...

Gotta say I was a bit sad to see 22 go, just because it really has been my absolute favorite year yet. I graduated college, ran my first half marathon, and traveled Ecuador and Argentina. I swam in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, survived a jungle trek, and hiked in the Andes. Sure I also got stung by jellyfish, robbed in a bus station, and have been lost more times than I care to count, but it's all been part of the greatest adventure. Lucky for me I feel younger than ever; more than ready to tackle this 23^rd year. And believe me when I tell you I have not the slightest idea what it holds for me. And that is the best part! Bring it on.....

To get back on track, the guys sadly had to fly home to return to “normal life” on Saturday, and Renae and I have been hanging out in Buenos Aires ever since. The city is absolutely GORGEOUS so instead of getting caught up on sleep, we have been trying to do everything in the few days we have here. We shopped in the San Telmo market, saw La Boca, La Casa Rosada, and the port, and even walked through the streets during a political rally. Luckily for us, we bought bus tickets today, to travel all the way to Lima from here starting Thursday morning (70 HOUR BUS RIDE!), so I guess we will have lots of time to catch up on sleep soon. In case you are wondering, this specific bus ride puts us on the other side of the Argentina border at exactly day 90, out of the 90 we are allowed to spend in the country. So as usual we are cutting it pretty close, but assuming the bus doesn’t break down or something, it’s all good!

With all this craziness going on, it’s hard to explain my mindset. I miss Cordoba so, So, SO much- the roomies, the newfound Brazilian friends, and especially the KIDS- but at the same time am so very excited to get to Peru and start the last part of the journey. As my heart opens up more and more it gets harder and harder to say goodbye and leave people behind, but at the same time gets easier to connect with new ones, so I have to be thankful for the change. Also, I can’t even explain how wonderful it was to see friends from home, and how much we miss them already, yet at the same time how right it felt to send them on their way while staying down here to continue on ourselves. All I can say is the days are flying by, I cannot believe our time in our beloved Argentina is already up (I WILL be back!), and I’m left praying that the days ahead are as amazing as the days behind, because there is nothing else I could possibly hope for!

Hoping 3 days on a bus doesn’t make us crazier than we already are,

Jenna Flynn

1,200 blessings

For anyone holding their breath waiting to hear if we made it out of Mendoza, don´t worry; Everything is better than ever...

After blogging from the hostel last Friday, Jen and I waited around until finally the money came through, and we hopped on the next bus out into the Andes. We rolled into a town called Cacheuta and pitched our tent in a campground for the night and passed out. The next day, discovering the better views and hikes were in another town close by, we hopped on a

bus to Potrerillos. We spent the whole weekend there, in an ACA (Automovil Club Argentino) campsite right next to a beautiful mountain lake. The entire area was surrounded by hills and snow-capped peaks. The most amazing place I have ever camped, hands down. We enjoyed the naturaleza, swimming in the lake, hiking the mountains, and cooking chorizos and rice over a fire. 

The most amazing part about the weekend, though, is what happened on the inside. Right when we got there, we swam out into the lake, and staring at the epic views all around, reflecting on how we had made it this far into the trip, I knew I could not waste one more second being sad about our stolen things.  I realized God brought us to that bridge for a reason: To show us how to be strong in a tough situation, looking at the positive side, and to remind us that we are SO blessed. I could not ask for anything more. All the love and support and generosity we´ve been shown throughout this journey, from back home and down here, adds up to a BILLION times more than all that we lost. To feel better about losing those things, we compiled a list of all the acts of generosity we´ve received along the way, and it humbled us to the core. There is no way we could ever fully repay any of the people who have been in our lives or along this trip, but we´re going to try to pay it forward as much as we can. We want to show God that we trust Him; Losing so much, but continuing on and giving even more. 

Another amazing thing happened this weekend too. We went to mass at a church overlooking the lake on Sunday evening, and the message, straight from God, was written in the gospel: "No sólo de pan vivirá el hombre, sino toda la palabra que sale de la boca de Dios" or, in

English, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word thats comes forth from the mouth of God" Matthew 4:4. The Obispo (Bishop) went on the explain that it is not money that makes us rich, but our spiritual values and being blessed by God, family, and love. Jenna and I looked at each other like, whattt?!! Just in case we missed the message, He had to make it clear. During the offering then, we pulled out all the small bills we had. We missed the basket going around, so at the end of mass, I ran up to the man carrying them and dropped it in. We walked back to the campsite after church, wondering what we could make for dinner, when the offering collector guy walked up to our site."You two really made an impression on the Bishop and I, how about I buy you guys some empanadas for dinner?" We of course could not turn it down, so we went with him. He ordered the food, and started talking. He asked us about our journey, the things we´ve learned, etc. He went on the emphasize the lesson we had already started learning: You have to prepare yourself for the bad times in life. Know what is important, and keep God and all the people you love close to you, so that when bad things do happen, (like losing a backpack in South America) you will be able to pick yourself back up in no time. He eventually told us that he was suffering from a terminal illness, and though he was reciving a transplant in a few days, I don´t think he was convinced he had much time left. He sent us off with a bag of tomatoes and a number to call him if we ever needed anything. I don´t want to freak you guys out, but I think he might have literally been an angel. Another little message from God to make the lesson we learned this past week permanent. What an experience...

We had to say goodbye to Potrerillos, and then after one last day of hanging out in the city, to Mendoza as well. We hopped on a bus to Córdoba last night, and arrived back in our city $1,200 poorer, but richer in all the best ways. I think the travellers luck is back on track. 

Seeking a new backpack,

Nae

P.S. I forgot to add this in to the last blog, which would have been just way too sad at the time on top of everything else, but Mala Ala, our pet egret, died during our last week before Mendoza. She got sick and wouldn´t eat anything, and though I consulted everyone I knew in the bird-bio area, we couldn´t figure out what it was. The zoo guys assume it must have been internal damage from the fall. I buried her in the yard of the foreigner house. At least she got to live for a few more weeks with a bunch of awesome foreigners rather than get immediately eaten by a lizard on the zoo sidewalk...? RIP Baby Egret

How to be the worst traveler

Yesterday was the 150th day of the trip. Only 102 days left. I cannot tell you how fast time is flying. Already having survived 5 months down here, you would think things would become a little more relaxed, that we might get used to goodbyes, that we would be better travellers, and that maybe we would not be completely surprised around every corner we turn. The thing is, this is US I am talking about, so of course it is the exact opposite...

For starters, a week ago on Friday was our last day living in Cordoba and it was the most hectic day ever. We decided to invite some of the older kids from Los Sauces over to our house for lunch. Only Marco and Pancho could come, and the two Brazilian volunteers, Yuri and Roberto, cooked an amazing lunch and we all ate and hung out before rushing to the bus to head out to our last day in the community center. As we walked up the street for our last time, the kids ran towards us, a few of them carrying little presents for Jenna and I. I already had to choke down tears during the first 10 minutes while opening the gifts of earrings and bracelets and reading their cards thanking us for being there this summer. If only they knew exactly how much it meant to us. We are the ones who were so

blessed to spend 7 weeks with them. We spent our last day playing everyones favorite game: Quemado ("burned", a more brutal form of dodgeball) and then the dreaded goodbyes... Yuri and Roberto got us a bucket of Bon-o-Bons to hand out as we hugged the line of the best kids in the world. Jenna and I were both in tears. Those kids had become our best friends in Argentina, and I cannot explain how much we love them. Jen and I made a pact to each other, and for the kids, that we would try our very hardest to save enough money to come back soon, and I really hope we can. I would give those kids the world if I could, but instead, once again, its me who is getting an unexplainable amount of love, my heart being so humbled yet again. 

We finally had to tear ourselves away from the kids and hop on the bus back to Cordoba. Without a minute to spare, (we had a ticket to Mendoza that left in an hour!) we sprinted back to the house, shoved everything into our packs, and said a temporary goodbye to Joaquin and the foreigner house. We grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal and met Yuri and Roberto at the last second. Us four were about to have an amazing time at the Mendoza Wine Festival.

We pulled into the station the next morning after busing 8 hours east towards the Andes. We were talking about hostel options and looking into festival events in the station when disaster struck: My backpack was stolen. I had set it along the wall with all the rest of our packs and things and went to talk in the tourist office. Even though Jenna and Yuri were standing not even 3 feet away from it the whole time, someone snuck by and snatched it up without them noticing. I felt SO dumb. How could I have set it down?? Why did I not tell Jenna to keep her eye out for it??? To make things worse, it had EVERYTHING in it. We had transfered over a lot of pesos when the monetary crisis was going on in Cordoba, and so we had about $1,200 worth in it. Usually we split our money between bags, but because we were in such a rush the night before, we had it all in one. I also lost my ipod, Kindle, cell phone, passport, bank cards, and the other worst thing: my journal from the entire trip. Yep. Cannot get much worse than that... I filed a police report, called my parents to cancel all the cards, and then there was not much else we could do. Thank God we were travelling with the worlds nicest guys, and they lent us money to still be able to enjoy the weekend. We had only met them a couple weeks ago and without hesitation they calmed us down, "We are in this together, well figure it out". Their generosity, and the supportive emails from my family, reminded me: They were only things. A lot of things, but not even comparable to the amazing people God has put into our lives to help us through situations like that. As my time in Cordoba was coming to an end, I told God " I am ready for whatever else you need to show me along this journey". Apparently this time it was a petty theft lesson. Not exactly what I wished for, but I know the more important realizations that come with it mean more than a backpack of stuff.

Luckily, we were able to quickly put that behind us and enjoy an awesome weekend. A wine festival in southern Argentina with two super fun Brazilians celebrating their Carnaval. Despite having lost so much, we could not cut out the things we had budgeted for all of Cordoba. I mean, how many times do you get to experience things like this?! We went to a wine tasting and a winery tour ( I mean, this is wine country), a traditional music and dance concert in the park, an Italian food and culture event in the plaza, and night-rafting down a river in the Andes Mountains (which now tie the rain forest and the Pacific ocean as the most goregeous places I have ever seen). People from all over the world are down in Mendoza right now for this event. Hearing all the stories and sharing ours has been so fun. The main events of the festival are still to come this weekend, but the guys unfortunately had to head back to finish their time with the kids. Jenna and I are going to head out to camp in the mountains for a few days and then we are planning to head back for the final concert day on Monday before also heading back to Cordoba. One glitch in this situation is that, if you have forgotten, we are the worst travellers in the world, remember? Instead of checking up on our money transfer site before the guys left, we went there today and there is a delay on the transfer. We currently have about $80 (not even enough to get back to Cordoba) and are stalling for time in the hostel until the money comes through. If we cannot get it, our plan is to beg people for money until we have enough to get back to Cordoba where we can stay for free at our house again. A little stressed out, but I know we will figure something out. Also we are pretty crafty, so building artwork to sell out of rocks and sticks is not beyond our abilities. If you are scared for us, please dont be, well be totally fine. (A prayer would not hurt though.)

So yea, only about a 100 days left, and still being thrashed around by the universe. I would not have it any other way though. How else can you learn the hard lessons? I mean I guess some people learn from other peoples mistakes, but how boring does that sound. Just trying to keep a positive attitude here... :)

Hoping our travellers luck didnt completely run out,

Renae