The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For.....

THE REPORT CARD
Dave is taking too long to review it so I am just posting without him.

- Canadian friends (Mary & Peter) who watched our house while we were gone, THANKS so much. A+++++++++++++++++++
- Coming home to an immaculate house with little surprise gifts everywhere. A+++++++++++
(I love Sam's new dog bowls and mat) THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


CHILE
- Missing our connection in Santiago on the way down and being stuck there for a 6 hour tour with our cab driver. C+
- 3 hour boat ride to and from Punta Arenas to the penguin island where we couldn't actually dock because of heavy seas. D
- Finally figuring out the maze of busses to take to get to Torres Del Paine Park (TDP). B-
- TDP National Park. A++++
- Summer weather at TDP National Park. (Amie says C-, Dave says B+ because we never actually got rained on while hiking)
- Having Christmas dinner at the nice hotel in the park while it was raining outside where we were supposed to be camping but didn't because Amie was sick. A
- 16 mile hike the day after Christmas to catch up after sleeping in the hotel. B
- Taking the boat back to the bus station rather than hiking 4 hours in the rain to get there. B+
- Eating overpriced, food and beers with people from all over the world inside the lodge while watching poor campers outside cooking dehydrated noodles in the freezing cold rain. B
- Snooring Germans and French-Tahitias at the lodge. C-


ARGENTINA
- Bueos Aires food (meat, meat, and more meat for dessert) and shopping (gotta love a peso crisis). A+
- Fig season twice this year for Amie! B+
- Buquebus Boat to Colonia, Uruguay (Five different lines with long waits just to get on the damn boat over there, sooooo not worth it). F-
- Linda cutting in line with other Americans in the boat terminal to get us on the boat faster. A
- 5-meat-treat lunch in Colonia (including blood sausage and grilled tripe). B
- John and Linda taking one of our camping packs home for us so we could travel light for the rest of the trip. A
- Afternoon espresso in Buenos Aires everyday, just like Paris. B+
- New Years Dinner: Company = A, Food = C
- Iguassu Falls. A
- Linda laughing lounder than anyone on the entire boat when we passed under the falls and got soaked. B+
- Hotel in Sao Paulo. C-
- City of Sao Paulo. D (only because we ate well there)


BRAZIL
- Hotel in Ilhabela (http://www.pousadapereque.com.br/). B+
- Amie's first Caipirina! A
- Mosquitoes on Ilhabela, Amie looked like she had scabies. D-
- Hotel/Hostel in Paraty with the loud music, yelling family members, no AC, but hey it was cheap...... C-
- Double kiss goodbye from super hot Spanish volleyball player on the beach (I LOVE the double kiss)/ A+
- Amie remebering enough french to ask for bus directions from some Parisians while semi-lost on he way to Paraty. B+
- Hotel Marian in Rio. B (Amie is still bitter about the overall cost and the no free breakfast - there is free breakfast at every hotel on the entire continent)
- Amie and Dave having a mid-trip altercation at a cafe in Rio then using the cafe as a reference point for the rest of the trip, "you know, that store by the cafe where we had the fight". C
- The weak dollar & exchange rates. C
- Brazilians who ALL leave their trash on the beach or throw it overboard while on a boat (and I mean EVERYTHING: cigarette buts, coconuts, plastic, cans, diapers....) F
- Clean up crews from the favelas that are paid to come in and clean the beach at night. B+
- NO ONE speaking english outside of Rio. B/D, cool but sometimes not cool
- Cheap and convenient busses in Rio. A
- Getting off the bus in Downtown Rio (Lapa), taking a photo, stepping over a few people laying on the sidewalk, then realizing we should get right back on the next bus....... C-
- Watchinbg Samba practice with Maggie, Josh, and Dave (all from NYC). B+
- Hotel in Buzios, Luis and Debbie were the best. A+
- Hiking to a beach on our map and getting here only to realize it was a nude beach with a bunch of naked, overweight, really white guys there. C
- Cabo Frio beaches. A
- One of the owners of the hotel in Buzios getting "kidnapped", and then finding out after an hour that it was all a hoax. F

Buzios (OK we got behind a bit)

Buzios is beautiful. The city is crawling with Argentinians so the people are beautiful too. We pertty much did the same thing everyday so I'll summarize:
- wake up at 10:45
- fantastic breakfast at Villa Bambuti
- took our rental beach buggie to one of the 20 beautiful beaches in Buzios
- drank beer at the beach with Dave and Josh (dudes we met in Rio from NYC). I swear Brazil does not have a single beach without some little shack selling beer, corn on the cob, cashews, grilled shrimp, sunglasses, swim suits, sunscreen, etc. You can stay all day and get whatever you need right there.
- home for a quick nap and shower
- out to dinner and shopping, the stores all stayed open after midnight because all the Argentinians don't eat dinner till then anyway
- more beer
- bed

A note on our hotel..... We stayed here, http://www.bambuti.com/bambuti/english/place.htm
Villa Bambuti rocked the world. The owners Debbie and Luis are phenominal. We had fantastic views, a great room for a really reasonable rate, a giant German Shepard guard god named Zulu, we felt like we were at a friend's house. I got a 24 hour flu bug and was sooo sick for one of the days. Debbie had toast, bananas, and cold water sent to my room. It made me feel so happy to be taken care of. It was just the coolest ever.

Rio Rocks

We haven't blogged for a few days because the weather shaped up here. We spent the whole day at the beach yesterday and I have the sunburn to prove it. The water is warm and beautiful, as is the "local talent" as Dave puts it...... We have had some great meals here, lots of seafood and meat meat meat and more meat. Even better, I drank 3 beers on the beach yesterday. It is a new personal record.

We decided to extend our stay here in Rio for 2 days because it has been so beautiful. We also met some cool guys from NYC so we have been going out at night with them. I am practicing my portuguese so I can be wing-man, supposedly it is easier to pick up the ladies this way. It hasn't really worked yet but I will try my best to help in the valiant struggle to hit on Brazilian girls. I do have to be the voice of reason and let them know when the girls are just too young, as most of them are. I find myself saying, "Dude she is like 15" quite often.

Today we are taking a break from the beach and we are going to explore a few neighborhoods around the City. Tomorrow we are leaving for Buzios for the last few days of our trip. More beach!!!!!

Rain

Just a quick update today. We did Sugarloaf, it was nice but it has been colder and overcast with some showers for the last two days. This has put a bit of a damper on our trip and made some tempers fly. We are working through this with regular doses of beers and fruity drinks.

Since the weather outside is crappy we've turned our attention inside. The last two nights we have had incredible dinners. One was a French place, foi gras and lamb. Last night we went to the ultimate sea food place and had champaign, fish carpaccio, sea food bisque, fish, lobster, squid, shrimp etc all topped of with a fine white wine and of course port and coffee for dessert.

Still trying to plan our next stop since we have two un-planned days is you have any fantasic ideas....STEVE!

I still love Rio however. A few dips in the roof top pool and beach walks are keeping me happy.

Dave

At the Copa Copacabana

We are in Copacabana right now although from what we have heard it is a dump compared to Ipanema where we are staying. Our hotel is nice, roof top pool, private dvd theater and a staff that speak english and makes us dinner reservations...this hotel makes the rest of the places we stayed look like we were sleeping in bus stations.

Rio is a whole different animal. It is like Miami Beach, Santa Barbara and LA all slammed together. Yesterday we just walked down the beach and unlike everywhere else in the country everyone is slim, beautiful and having fun (at least until we go out to the "favelas" which are the slums). We walked for a while and had a beer on the beach watching these guys play volleyball except they don't use their hands at all. Only thier chest, head and feet, it is crazy, they play two on two and they make us fools using our hands look like loosers.

Today we headed out to Corcovado or that giant Jesus on the hill. We got up there and couldn't see a damn thing cause it was raining and cloudy. But Jesus was on hand and lifted the clouds and below we saw the whole city spread out in every direction. Rio does rock.

We are heading to a nice dinner tonight so we are off to find Amie a dress (she does't have a thing to wear!) She is also diligently working on her alcoholism while down here but I don't think she will ever be able to hang.

Tomorrow we are hopefully going to sugarloaf if the weather is nice. Until then we'll be at the beach at least a litte bit every day.

Jesse and Katy you would love it here.

Dave

Cocks, Corpses and Hari Christnas

Amie and I spent the day at a beach called Trindad. It is a natural preserve and has really nice beaches with waves and was not too crowded. It was a tad overcast which was good since I needed to come out of stage 3 sunburn so I took the day off from swimming. On that note I need to update the water temperature commentl from earlier. Obviously as we move North the water is getting warmer. The boat trip we took the first day we were in Paraty took us to beaches that were shallow with next to no currents so the water was like in the carribean (bathwater). It was also a little stagnent so you could see the film of sunblock floating on top like spilled gasoline. The beaches near Paraty are much nicer, warm (like Hawaii in the summer) and have waves. On a more sad note, when we were leavig the park today, on the way out on the main road some guy had been killed and was lying in the street with a make shift blanked on him. The "cops" were just kind of hanging out waiting for the coroner I guess. Amie's first public corps siteing.

Once back in town we went to make sure we could actually get to Rio in the morning so we bought our tickets tonight for the 11:20 AM tomorrow. That should put us in Rio by 3:00 just in time to check into our superfly hotel (by superfly we actually splurged and paid more than $50). We had to do it since the place we are staying in now has no AC, roosters crowing all night (the cocks from the title in case you perverts didn't catch it) and apparantly child beatings. The first night we think the hotel owner was yelling at his son for not doing something in the middle of the night that ended in some mild father on son violence. Any way Amie is so excited about the roof top swimming pool, tv and AC she can hardly contain her self. I am a bit excited myself but am really looking forward to Sugarloaf the giant Jesus and hopefully a futbol game. I am trying to look up the schedule now. Anyone want a soccer Jersey from Brazil?

As long as I am updating things, it has been three days and our bug bites are still itching like crazy. If they don't stop soon Amie and I both may go mad. At least my sunburn is getting better finally. This way I'll look like an American but at least I won't be super white. Speaking of which there are NO english speaking people down here at all. We have yet to run into an American in Brazil. A few Brits and some Aussies but that is it.

Ok I've got to go meet Amie for more cocktails, hopefully tonight there won't be another troup of Hari Christnas playing "Christna" rock in the plaza tonight. Although I do need a haircut, do you think they would shave my head without joining?

Until tomorrow in Rio...

Canucks - I feel so bad for you, I saw the weather in Palo Alto this week and with lows around 26 maybe you should have stayed in Canada, eh?

Melissa and Bince - Fire the flower and tell Ray to give Amie a raise, she needs to support me so I can retire.

Jim - No Gauchos so far.

John and Linda, you should have stayed for the beaches. Sao Paulo sucks.

Dave

Paraty

Well there is nothing better than the beach, that is all I have to say.

We left Ilhabella yesterday with no reservations and no bus tickets (soooooo not the way I like to travel). Thank god I speak some french beacuse we were able to get some directions/bus info from some french guys we ran into at the bus stop. We made it to Paraty with only a minor 3 hour delay in some random town. We got a cheap but adequate room at the tourist office, dear god no AC......and last night some rooster was crowing all night long. I am hoping to have him for dinner tonight.

Today we did a schooner trip to some amazing beaches (though I have been so spoiled bny Hawaii that if there is even a tiny scrap of plastic on the beach I immediately think it is polluted). I worked on my Brazilian butt tan, now my red butt matches my 200 red mosquito bites.

Tomorrow we are doing a jeep tour to a national park for some more hiking and beaching. Then on to RIO!!!!!!

Dave here:

So we spent last night in the square drinking and having dinner watching these dudes do "capioera" which was actually pretty cool. Doing flips and what not on concrete in your bare feet isn't exactly easy. Amie keeps drinking these jet fuel cocktails so I don't think she minds anything after a few. We actually have hotel reservations in our next stop (thanks Aunt Janice for trying to hook us up) but of course we don't have bus tickets yet but do know the line runs from here.

So far the talent has gone up slightly but still not to what I was hoping for. Since I don't speak any Potugese I'm going to have to get Amie to book me a hooker, well when in Rome....

Amie is hungry so we are out. Hope to find something really interesting for dinner.

Dave

Ilhabela

3 hour bus ride, 20 min ferry boat and onto the island of Ihabella. No reservations so we went to the tourist office to look for a place to stay, oh did I mention it was raining? Got lucky and got a really nice room with a view. The next day the rain stopped so we cruised the island on bikes looking for a Brazillian Bikini for Amie. Nice!

Today we took a jeep ride through the jungle to the other side of the island. It took two hours and the road was pretty burley in places (sorry Jeff your sled wouldn't have made it). The beach was beautiful but there were a ton of mosquitoes. They normally don't like me but I had to spray down every 20 min. Amie's ass looks like it has small pox. I took the dive and went into the ocean for the first time. Water is about the temperature of San Diego in early summer so it isn't exactly hawaii, mexico or the caribean, but anything to get away from the bugs.

The food here is great. Fried fish, shrimp and rice and beans come with everything. We finally saw how they are making the drink Amie has been sipping here. One full lime, like 8 sugar cubes and to the top with 151. No wonder she has been so plyable.

We are both sunburned but happy the rain stopped and happy to be at the beach. Amie is sitting next to me trying to book the next stop. Looks like every Brazillian in the country is out at the beach so we may have to pay through the nose to stay in Ipanema Beach, oh well there goes the Christmas bonus.

We are off to Paraty tomorrow. Amie's friend Jill at work says it is fantastic. More beach for us! Too bad we weren't born with beautiful brazilian skin, people were laughing at Amie's tan (burn) lines at the beach yesterday.

Off for a cocktail!

Bus Station Blues

We left John and Linda this morning after breakfast. We took the subway to the station where we THOUGHT we could catch a bus to the beach cities. Unfortunately my guidebook is 2 years old and the bus company had moved to another location. Luckily we ran into a really nice guy at the subway terminal who spoke english and he told us exactly where to go. We are waiting in the bus station right now. I think it is rainy at the coast right now but we had been warned of that. I don't care as long as it is warm and there is a beach!

Big thanks to John and Linda for being troopers and hanging out with us. Thanks again for taking our camping stuff home with you that helps a bunch. Amie loves her shirt and we will post pictures of her in it soon. Too bad we didn't find the cheap restaurant until our last night in Sao Paulo...... mmmm meats on a stick. BBQ chicken heart anyone?

Jeff, you'd love it down here. I've seen more Metallica and Iron Maiden shirts on kids down here than I can count. We've also heard them blasting it in clubs and diners. Metal is world wide. I'll try to find you a bunk shirt and a bootleg if I can.

On to the beach....

Drunken Retro-Blog

It is raining here in Sao Paulo so of course we headed to the nearest establishment and started drinking. As we sat watching the numerous meats flow by, anticipating dinner, we thought of all the things we forgot to blog about so here is our top 10 drunken retro-active blog entries in no paticular order of importance (we are still drinking so take with a grain of salt in your beer).

#1 Farley Dinner - Only because of the massive drinking that night, we failed to blog about this earlier. We met up with Kevin and LeeAnne (Friends from the Bay Area) for dinner on our last night in BA and while they were on their honeymoon. Met them in the bar of the Four Seasons and after a few drinks went out to dinner. 3 hours, 2 bottles of wine, and a few random cocktails later we went to a club called Aisia de Cuba. Needless to say I still smelled like a brewery when we got up to catch the plane to Sao Paulo the next day. Congratulations Kevin and LeeAnne we'll see you when we get back.

#2 Shopping in Buenos Aires - Amie got a kick ass dress from a designer boutique in BA. She is really hoping Meg won't make her wear a bridesmaid dress for her wedding..... Gotta love a peso crisis. I managed to get talked into buying a few shirts and some Miami Vice style shoes.

#3 Stalker Cabbie - Linda lost her glasses on the way back to the hotel last night. We searched the cab but nothing. When we came out for dinner later we found the cabbie waiting for us and he had found her glasses! We decided to let him take us to dinner but just around the corner his cab broke down so we had to jump into another. Our three hour dinner was great and when we came out to hail a cab he had gotten a new car and come to the restaurant and waited for us. We jumped in and we all hoped he wouldn't be waiting for us anywhere else....

#4 Dinner and the wine - I know we are wine snobs, so this one hurt a little bit. John and Linda insisted on ordering a Rheisling, at first we thought we were in the clear when the didn't have any but then they had us order a Gwerstamiener. Not a big deal, we recovered by ordering a nice Montepulciano for us.

#5 John and his spanish (need more Ice) - John (Dave's dad) needs Ice. So, he had to learn some spanish. At age 64 he learned a few phrases, hielo por favor. Only problem he put them to use for the first time in Brazil (of course they speak Portugese).

#6 Palta Hotdog and the grilled cheese - Going way back on this but I had to describe my hot dog my last day in Chile. Hot dog, loads of "Palta" (AKA Guacamole), then tomato, mustard and a super generous helping of mayonaise, sounds disgusting I know especially since I had to take it to go and eat in on the bus 35 minutes later. I'm totally rebuilding this monkey when I get home for you non-belivers. As far as the grilled cheese, that is exactly what they did. Put 2 thick slices directly on the grill. After it melts, they scrape if off and put it on to whatever you ordered. I am in heaven.

#7 Preservationed - A colorful term our tour guide used all morning. This building was "perservationed" in 1963..... Sort of like in Peru where our guide kept telling us about the ceremonial "grapeing" of the women.

#8 Non Alcoholic Beer - Sad but true, at a cafe Amie ordered a strange and exotic sounding beer. Little did I know it was non-alcoholic and it tasted totally disgusting. I had to pour it into the gutter when no one was looking. So embarrassing.

#9 Drugs - I don't know what it is about me but I get offered drugs every where I go. This might break the record, it was the first time it happened in the airport. (Santiago)

#10 Why we should blog seperatly - Amie and I fight so badly over the blog it isn't funny. Yes, I have diareah of the moth and can't spell or make coherant thoughts but at least it's interesting. Amie then edits it after the fact. If she just wrote it you would just have a list of cities with no colorful thoughts. You may have noticed that the first person randomly switches during the blog entry.

Sao Paulo

Well, what to say about Sao Paulo..... Let's just say that my Brazil guidebook is about 400 pages long and Sao Paulo (which happes to be the third largest city in the world) gets only about 30 pages of that - meaning there isn't a whole lot to see or do here. The City is absolutely huge. It is like 50 Manhattans placed next to each other. The the skyscrapers just sprawl out forever.

Last night we managed to have an excellent dinner at the best restaurant in the City called Figeuroa Rubiyat. The restaurant owners have a ranch in the country where they get their produce and meat - read it: grass fed beef! Unfortunately, due to the USA's current monetary policy and budgetary issues, the dollar is actually pretty weak here. We shelled out a fourtune for dinner, it sucks. We got so used to our super-cheap 4 course dinners and wine while in Argentina. Argentina may replace Paris as my favroite place to shop and eat (this is Amie speaking here - but even Dave got some new Argentinian clothes and shoes).

We did a bus tour this morning and seriously only saw about 2% of the City. The bus only took us to the nice, ritzy areas. You know that just beyond there are miles of poverty stricken neighborhoods, I'm sure we cannot even comprehend it. It seems you are either rich or poor here. That being said, there are some really nice churches, parks, neighborhoods and buildings that we go to see. The City is relatively new (1900's and later) so not much in the way of historical buildings and such.

We are going to the coast tomorrow morning to Ilhabela. I cannot wait for a cocktail on the beach!

Iguassu Falls - Nice!

We hiked all day today in the heat, man was it hot, at the Iguasu National Park. We got the park early so we could see everything. The little train out to the falls reminded me of the crappy train at disyneland. However, when we rounded the bend to the falls everything changed. The falls are awesome! I don´t know if you can really describe them so we´ll post pictures later but,.... There are countless falls spanning two conutries. They are literally split down the middle between Brazil and Argentina.

Last night we cruised down the river to where Brazil, Praguay and Agrentina meet. At the half way point of the cruise some local Guarani Indians did some dance for us but to be honest they looked pretty indignified doing it, I don´t blame them. Ah cultural exploitation, makes you feel good.

Anyway, today we hiked all parts of the park including the island in the middle of the falls so we could see everything. We were not smart enough to buy water when we could so we all were thisty and sunburned during our hiking adventures. I now have a white "wife beater" if I take my shirt off (red everywhere else).

Amie took a dip in the river after I took my boxers off so she could go swimming in them, otherwise she would have gotten naked for the swim - not that any of the Brazilians would have noticed or cared.

At 5:00pm we did our "Adventure package" boat tour. It was actually kind of cool though. The boat captain proceeded to "baptise" us in the falls. They drove the boat into the steam of the water falls in two locations and we aere SOAKED. After the total drenching we went down stram to a safari truck that took us out of the park.

Tonight we had a mellow dinner at the hotel and will be taking a taxi across the border from Argentina into Brazil to to catch our flight to Sao Paulo.

Meghan, totally elope, we´ll help you defect from the madness.

Jesse, thanks for the hook up we are totally going to try to meet your friends.

Justin, douche, comment.

Jill and Erin and Jess = go RBV.

Until Brazil, Caiprianas for everyone!

Dave and Amie

Uruguay - Jan 3rd

Yesterday we all decided to take the hour long ferry to a small town called Colonia just accross the river in Uruguay. This turned into the nightmare from hell. We arrrived to find the terminal jam packed with people trying to get out of town. We waited for 45 min to buy our tickets (missed the first ferry). Then we went through "security" (the metal detector went off, nobody cared and the guy watching the screen for the xray machine went at least three minutes without actually looking at the baggage screen). Then we found out that we had to check in even though we didn´t have bags. If Linda hadn´t asked some fellow Americans in front of the line to check us in it would have been another 30 min. Boat was still about 2 hours late anyway.

Colonia was actually a nice town, we walked around and had a interesting lunch. I had the BBQ mixed plate in my effort to expand my horizons once more. So I had (I think) ribs, tripe, chirizo, blood sausage and liver (animal origin unknown). Most of it was ok but I´m never eating Blood sausage ever again. That makes 2 things I´ll never put in my mouth ever again (sea urchin & blood sausage). A few beers later we wondered on to see the rest of the town. Not a lot to see except for some lame ruins from the Portugese settlement here in the 1600´s and blatent tourist trapy-shops, they did have a casino and a horse race track so they get some points. The river is really muddy and disgusing (mom and Meg - think Lake Springfield). I wouldn´t come here for beach action.

Heading back we ran into the same beuracracy, long lines, and multiple checkin points. While in line to get onto the return ferry, I ran into co-worker number 2 on the trip. (For any Googlers reading this I ran into Nat Cru in Patagonia and had dinner with her. In Uruguay I ran into Emma, she was in Uruguay at the beach for the holidays with a friend. So tell her hi to her for me and I hope she made the ferry).

We´ll it is our last day in Buenos Aires before heading to Iguazu falls tomorrow. We are dying for a swimming pool, here is our next hotel: www.hotelsaintgeorge.com Awwww yeah!

Thanks for everyone who is reading the blog and the comments you add, we love reading them on the road.

So Mary and Ed, I´m pretty sure what I ate was actually canal rat and not an actual beaver but we can research that when I get home.

Jesse, yes, I´m dying, Brazil will be even harder.

Jeff you are a douch bag and I have a picture for you when I get home.

Jim, I´m totally going for the random meat treat on this journey.

Dave and Amie

Buenos Aires - Its getting hot in here

After many nights of sleeping with snoring Germans and French speaking Tahitians we were excited to get out of the communal lodge rooms and cold of southern Chile. We arrived at the flat in Buenos Aires to find my Father and his wife Linda already there. The flat is really nice! Forget a hotel = 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, AC (thank god because it is about 100 degrees), TV and best of all a roof top deck = all for half of what a crummy hotel room costs. We are staying in the Palermo SOHO district. It is a younger part of town with lots of restaurants and shops. Amie thinks it looks like a cross between Paris, NY and Mexico City.

Buenos Aires is a walking city, while we did take a bus tour to get us started we have walked for miles. We found the city cemetary where Eva Peron is buried, had beers on busy street corners, and generally oogled at the very nice looking population here! Something for both Dave and I......

Dining here is fantastic, great steaks, wine, and pastas. We have been eating like kings and have struggled even with wine to spend more than $20 a person on dinner. I love this City!

New Years in town is much like it was in Paris, most people spend it with thier families. The difference is after about 1:00 AM people start to go nuts. Kids in the street with M-80s and bottle rockets, drinking and music. By 2:00 AM I was on the roof drinking wine and smoking my cigar only then to see the large city fireworks display. Why the fireworks at 2:00 Am? I do not know but the timing did correspond to New Years in NY? Sorry for those of you I drunk dialed and sorry for those of you who I didn-t get through to also.

Tomorrow we are taking the ferry over to Uruguay for the day to a UN World Herritage city called Colonia.

Miss you all!