Hey Mister. Take a Picture?

On Monday morning, we caught an early flight to Cusco, a mountain town at an elevation of like 18,000 meters and home to thousands of Peruvians trying to sell you something.

Oxygen…..scarce……typing…….taking…..too….much….energy…..must…...rest…..

We didn’t want to push it too hard on the first day as we seemed to get winded with every step we took, so we did a bus ride/‘city tour’ of ruins and churches in the area. Brianna and I would like to kindly request that 4 hours of our life back, please.

We quickly discovered how well this city is set up for tourists. Advantage: several people speak English. Disadvantage: you can not walk 5 feet without being pestered. If you want a poncho, you have no less than 400 options in a 3 block radius. Looking for a wool sweater or a scary mask with a moutstache (see above)? You’ve come to the right place.

That evening, we had pisco sours and lomito saltado (7 on a scale of 10) at a place called El Meson. In fact, we have had lomito saltado several times and other traditional Peruvian food but none of lives up to the Peruvian food at Limon in SF. Sometimes, you don’t have to go very far to get away.......

Monday was all about white water rafting. It was MASSIVE! So much fun. Rapids were decent (some class 3s, lots of class 4s, some people fell in the water, etc). At the end, 25 of us crammed into a sauna built for about 7 and then had a surprisingly delicious provided lunch. Met a lot of cool people along the way, even a few Australians (thereby officially wrecking my theory that they are all jerks). When we got back to town, we decided to get one hour massages. How much would you be willing to pay for such a service? $149.99? How about $79.99? Well, act today and you can get a Peruvian massage for $6.99. Wow. Not the best massage I have ever had, but $7? Are you kidding me?

Tuesday, we toured the Sacred Valley, which really can’t be described in words, but I’ll try:

“Look at that! That’s awesome!”
“No way, did you see that dude?!”
Several minutes pass
“Hey, look, more ruins”
“Hey, another village of people trying to sell us crap”
Yawn "There is another llama.”
Several minutes pass
“Hey, can you pass me the coca leaf”
Chew, chew
“WOW! What incredible views!”
“Look at all the different colors!”
“I could run a marathon right now!”

Actually the views & ruins at Pisaq and Ollantaytambo were amazing and the coca leaf (yes, the key ingredient of cocaine) does in fact help ease the effects of higher altitude. It also helps you forget all of your problems and helps you become the life of the party and helps you stay awake for 3 days straight….and…..and….and…..

We just arrived in Aquas Calientes via train and we will cap off our 5 week odyssey with a visit to Machu Picchu tomorrow. Then only 3 more days in South America before we embark for the good ole USA.

If there is one thing I have re-learned on this trip, balance is key. Remember that folks and stay sane. Besos.

Toto, we are definitely not in Argentina anymore…..

Ok, so this is definitely a third world nation, BUT the Lonely Planet warnings seem a little exaggerated. Although we spent only 24 hours in Lima, we never felt unsafe. Might be because we stayed in the ‘nicer’ part of Lima, the San Isidiro neighborhood (compares to the sketchier parts of Oakland, CA).

Our first day in Lima, we hit Plaza Mayo, the main square in downtown Lima. The colonial-style government buildings were in great shape (especially compared to the graffiti-littered government buildings in BA, a city that is supposedly “so sophisticated”). Would-be-thugs were probably intimidated by the tanks marked “Asalto” and manned by a solider with his finger on the trigger of a machine gun. No seriously. Make the wrong move and you’ll get gunned down.

Next interesting observation – American chains have a big presence in Lima. You can eat at one of the many KFC or Pizza Hut locations, have your Starbucks, eat some McDonald’s and even get some jalapeno poppers at Chili’s or TGIFriday’s. Huge difference from BA where besides a few Burger King and Blockbuster stores, American crap chains were relatively nonexistent. Well, except for McDonald’s which is on every other block in every city in the world……

After a trip down the Fisherman Wharf-like strip of tourist shops, we stumbled upon a local market that was total chaos. Hundreds of vendors selling pots, pans, food, small children, etc. Kind of like the Crenshaw Swap Meet, except manned by midgets. Speaking of short people, Brianna and I feel like giants here – people stare, point fingers…. one kid yelled Godzilla and started running the opposite way. It’s pretty great.

We also stumbled onto Chinatown. We saw Chinese statues, Chinese restaurants, Chinese decorations. There was just one thing missing………….Chinese PEOPLE. What? It was like someone went through with a magic wand and turned all of the Chinese people into Peruvians. Interesting.

After an obligatory 4 hours of touristy stuff, we headed back to the ‘hood where we had a really authentic Peruvian dinner…..pizza. Considering we got only one hour of sleep the night before (hey, we HAD to go out to the clubs on our last night in BA right?), it was a pretty productive day. Next stop: Cusco

Buenos Aires, Round Dos

Our second tour of Buenos Aires has been on the ‘chill’ tip. Brianna and I quickly got back into our routine of staying up late, sleeping in, eating lunch, hitting the pool, running, eating dinner, going out, repeat.

We had a relative coup at the local Disco on Monday (this is one of the grocery chains here). We found great produce, healthy bread and get this…..PEANUT BUTTER (this is a tough find out of the states). This has enabled us to 1) get some fiber in our diet; 2) avoid eating beef and white bread for breakfast and 3) watch several episodes of Los Simpson dubbed in Spanish. We love the Disco!

Since we have not done much in the exploration department, I will report on the MANY restaurants we have tried in our second tour (all in Palermo Soho/Hollywood):

Green Bamboo – Who knew you could get good Vietnamese food in BA? Brianna had a chicken dish and I had fish and even the dessert was awesome. As a side note, the waitresses at this place are gorgeous.
Xalapa – Jonesing for Mexican food, we made a return to this spot. This time we sat inside and the experience was not nearly as rewarding as the first. The food was still good, but doesn’t hold a candle to the real deal.
Rave – We both had pasta in very heavy sauces. It’s more about sitting outside and checking out folks strolling by….. and seeing if the cop stationed at the corner is going to shoot anyone.
Casa Cruz - This is THE see and be seen place where the beautiful people dine. By far our fanciest and most expensive meal (still under USD$100 for 2). Nice space, tasty food.
Mark’s – Great lunch space with sandwiches and salads – very fresh ingredients. We sat next to a bonafide TV celebrity………….in Australia. Chris Taylor of the Daily Show-style Aussie comedy “The Chaser’s War on Everything” sat right next to us. You can take pictures of the hand I used to shake his when I get back!!!!! Actually, he was a really nice dude and had a beautiful girlfriend that looked like a young Naomi Watts.
Bar 6 – Although I had read mixed reviews, we really enjoyed our meal here. Not the best cut of meat, but the best preparation of steak I had in BA. Brianna had a wok chicken/vegetable combo that was delicious.
Cafe Tortoni - Ok, this is not a restaurant, but a cafe that has been around since 1858. Avoid at all costs - this is a tourist trap and there is absolutely nothing special about it.... there was very sleepy dog outside when we were there (see above).
Mott – Tries too hard, we were not blown away by anything we ordered here. Certainly nothing to write home about. Or if you did write home, it would go something like this:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Just wanted to let you know that I had a mediocre meal at this place called Mott. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, I would recommend that you eat dinner somewhere else. If you are forced to eat at Mott, maybe you should just go for the apple crumble, which ironically (for a place called Mott… you know, the applesauce?), is pretty good.

Your loving son,
Michael

After 16 days spent in BA, we are definitely ready for Peru. The Lonely Planet book does a wonderful job of getting one excited about the country. A few snippets:
“While you are unlikely to be physically hurt, travelers do regularly have their belongings stolen and muggings can happen”
“Taxis don’t have meters. You will need to negotiate the fare with them….foreigners will pay more”
“You will likely obtain an infections disease while in Peru. This is normal and you should see symptoms dissipate after 6-9 months”

Awesome. Looking forward to that. Stay sexy.

Brazil doesn’t take American Express

After a crazy night out on Saturday night in BA that ended at 7am (went to a dance club called Bahrein that was really fun/smoky/lite-brite(y)/etc), Brianna and I sleepily headed to the airport on Sunday for our flight to Brazil. At check-in, we found out that you need a VISA to get into Brazil*.

MCA: “Ok, great here is my Visa Card.”
Check-in lady: “Um, not that kind of visa”
MCA: “Oh, yeah, we don’t need a visa. We’re not going to work in Brazil, we’re just going for a week”
CIL: “Yeah, you still need a visa.”
MCA: “You need a visa just to get into the country?!?!”
CIL: “Yes”
MCA: (muttered under breath) “$@(%^&)(#////1”

Yeah. Welcome to Suckville, population: you.

Grabbed a cab back to our hotel. Was one of those cab rides where you see your whole life flash in front of you….you know the type…. where the cab driver is driving as fast as his held-together-by-duck-tape car will go, all the while turning around to talk to you the whole time trying to tell you in broken English how he used to play baseball and all you can think about is, "how do I say shut the f*ck up and look at the road" in Spanish?

After a chat with the front desk of our hotel, I thought getting a visa would be as easy as going down to the Brazilian consulate the next morning, filling out the paperwork, getting our visas and getting on a plane that evening*. Yeah. Um, NO. Here are the things you need to get a visa to get into Brazil:
- A roundtrip ticket or proof of inward and outward travel (printed off)
- Contact information in Brazil & in the country you are departing from (in our case, Argentina)
- Passport, valid for six months at least (obviously)
- Passport size photo (whatever that means)
- Copy of your credit card and a copy of your most 3! most recent bank statements (HUH?!)
- 14 toothpicks
- A case of pudding
- Michael McDonald Greatest Hits CD
- A ‘clean’ metal spatula

If you have all this, they take your passport and tell you it will take 3-10 days to process. Needless to say, we didn’t have 3-5 days, as we had planned to be in Peru in 7 days! SO, back to the drawing board. We spent nearly all day Monday changing reservations and trying to figure out what we were going to do for the week.

Dejected that we were not going to get to go to Rio, we thought we would try to ease the pain by hitting the beaches in Uruguay (Punta del Este) or in Argentina (Mar del Plata). But tons of locals we talked to said that the beaches were pretty weak (Mar del Plata sounded like Daytona Beach). So, we decided to get a really phat apartment and stay for the week in the Soho district in Buenos Aires. Our place is super modern, has a pool and it is good to be back in a cool ‘hood (Hotel PanAmericano was great but the location was next to the really touristy stuff). Only drawback is that we didn't every get the internet (as promised) in the apartment. Hence why this post took forever to get out. Keep on keepin’ on peeps.

* Apparently OUR government requires Brazilians entering the US to have a visa and this was Brazils retort. SO, we can’t even really be mad at the Brazillian government. I’m going to naively blame he whole thing on W.

** I also thought that Brianna and I would also be able to develop a cure for cancer that evening in our free time.

Yeah, we're moving on up.... to the East Siiiiiiide

Wow, what a different experience the last couple of days have been.

We woke up on our last day in El Calafate and had one of those, 'our flight leaves at 8pm tonight and we have nothing to do for the next 10 hours in this crap town' kind of moments. Luckily (or maybe it was fate? or maybe divine intervention? or maybe the work of Al Qaeda?), we stumbled upon an absolute oasis - the Humus Spa (part of the Hotel Posada Los Alamos). After a long hike and 3 nights of restless sleep we decided we should treat ourselves. Although the massages were not that wonderful (downright mediocre), it didn't matter. We had a great day - got our work out on, got our pool and hot tub on (yeah - nice!). Awesome.

The day just kept getting better. We got to fly FIRST CLASS back to BA. No WONDER the flight was so expensive! This was a first for both Brianna and myself and I can safely say that it is going to be hard to go back to peasant class. The meal we had was actually decent and we got to use real silverware?! Although we didn't get to our hotel until 1am, we were EXTREMELY pleased when we got to our room.

This place is awesome!!! Our room is HUGE and we have a view of the Obelisk and the famous Teatro Colon, which are right across the street - we're staying on '9 de Julio', which is the largest street in all of Argentina - 14+ lanes! The cherry on the top is the pool and gym on the 23rd floor. The views are pretty wonderful.

On our second tour of BA, we have eaten sushi at SushiClub (yum - NO BEEF for a whole day!), had dinner with our friend Gloria at a trendy bar/restaurant called Gran Bar Danzon (food was ok, but the dulce de leche souffle and ice cream were incredible), had drinks at this really cool bar called Milion which is situated in a refurbished 3 story colonial home, AND planned the logistics for the rest of the trip (this took the better part of yesterday)

We are headed to Rio tomorrow for 6 days and then on to Peru/Machu Picchu for the last week of our trip. As we bid Argentina adieu, I present to you the 5 worse smells we encountered:
1) Our room at the Hostel del Glaciar in El Calafate
2) The water surrounding BA (Puerto Madero, La Boca)
3) The dead llama smell at the restaurant/stop between El Calafate and El Chalten (a dog was gnawing on an uncooked leg portion)
4) The Zoo (we ran by here everyday when staying in Palermo)
5) Our bathroom every morning..... remember the commercials, 'beef does a body good'? I am going to have to disagree with that.

Also, 5 random/quirky things about Argentina
a) When you want a drink, you have to first go to the cashier and THEN stand in line and hand your ticket to a bartender (this happens at ice cream places too) - think Soviet Union circa 1985
b) Then when you order a drink, lets say vodka and red bull, you get a glass with vodka in it and a whole can of red bull (unmixed)
c) Everything is in what they call the 'metric' system. I have never heard of this, but it seems very confusing.
d) This is more of a BA thing, but the double l is pronounced 'zh' instead of 'yuh'. We confused more than one cab driver with our pronunciation of 'Callao'.
e) All of the above

The answer is e). Overall, we had a great time. The people have been extremely friendly and tolerant of 2 English-only speaking gringos. Adios to the land of Evita...

El Calafate… a dusty, dumpy town near a big ass glacier

WOW. For the first time on the trip, we officially heard the record player screech to a halt. You know, like when you walk into a Mexican bar and you are the only gringo and everybody’s like, ‘what the f*ck is he doing here?’

We arrived Saturday in El Calafate, a dirty town in the middle of nowhere and a stark contrast to the green lush beauty of Bariloche. After driving down a dirty road and several trailer park style houses, we arrived at our hostel, Hostal del Glaciar Pioneros. First, they screwed up our reservation – put us in a dorm (ok, I am DEFINITELY too old for that). After I argued with them for awhile, we finally got our room. Ah, how I love the smell of mold in the summer. Blargh. And, as we tried to sleep the next morning, we heard cleaning ladies, people walking down the wooden staircase (they say location is everything?), even a few dogs that sounded like they were dying of hunger… not exactly the Ritz Carlton. There are about 4 blocks downtown that are dressed up pretty nice, but otherwise this town is a heap full of old tourists.

We decided to take a painful 4 hour bus ride to El Chalten on Sunday, an even smaller town, but with great views of two mountains, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. El Chalten was amazing! Lots of charm. It also is a pretty dirty town as there are no paved roads yet, but the hostel we stayed at was great, the brewery next door was amazing (food and beer) and the views on our 8 hour, 20 mile (no exaggeration!) hike on Monday were stupid. So many great trails in the area. Although we had to battle winds of 40+mph, it stayed sunny all day….and all night. We are so far south that it stays light until 11:30pm!!!! So incredible!

Today we went to the Perito Merino glacier. We got to hike on the glacier for a couple hours and the hike ended with some whiskey and alfajores on the ice! Also saw huge chunks of ice fall into the lake (this is pretty much all you do at the glacier, other than making fun of old people).

Brianna and I are so tired of eating the same 5 foods and are eager to get back to the city (BA) where we will spend 4 more days. Small change in plans after that…. we are headed to Brazil for a week! Brasil, Brasil, Brasil, Brasil. Too bad we will miss Carnivale by 3 weeks!

Sorry for the delay in posts… El Calafate did not have anything but dial up internet - Dark Ages!!!

Bariloche es muy bueno y mumblio enchiladas....

So much for the posts every couple of days - it has been a busy week! I'm going to try to be a little more diligent in the future.

Brianna and I left the sweltering heat of BA (95 degrees when we left and a heat index of like 350 degrees) and arrived in a small Swiss influenced mountain village called Bariloche. The 'get out in nature and bike/hike/kayak/river raft' portion of our trip was officially underway.

The area surrounding the town is INCREDIBLY beautiful - surrounded by lakes and totally green (pictures to be uploaded at future date - current connection horrible!).

Even though I was pretty sure that I was too old to stay in a hostel, my friend Miriam, Brianna and I decided to book a room at the luxurious MarcoPolo Inn. I haven't really talked about it too much, but everything is dirt cheap down here. It is amazing. Our hostel is not an exception. It's actually pretty nice/clean/free of rats/fun and is $15 per person per night with free breakfast AND dinner. We decided to hit up the free dinner the first night - here is a summary of the contents:
1) One scoop of gruel - I think it was a rice and potato dish? The sauce was kind of a reddish/gray color
2) White bread, one pad of butter
3) Tap water
I had better meals when I was in prison. Needless to say, we ate out most nights in Bariloche.

On Wednesday, we woke up at 7:30am (this is the time that we had been going to SLEEP the previous 7 days) and embarked on our first outdoor/get active activity. Unfortunately for us the weather was extremely sucky. Rainy, cold, it even snowed for about 30 seconds in the morning. YEAH! Totally unprepared for that, as it is SUPPOSED to be in the 70s this time of year. All that said, the hike that we did (ok, it was more of a bus tour) was amazing. We saw the Tronador glaciar (surrounded by no less than 50 waterfalls! FIFTY!) and a couple of other waterfalls up close. Truly incredible. Brianna was mistaken for a movie star for the third time on the trip - one of the Argentinian girls on the trip thought he looked like Tom Green. SWEDISH.

At dinner that evening with our friends Marcel and Lindsey, Miriam was serenaded by a cheesy Argentinian lounge singer. Think Engelbert Humperdink meets Los Lobos. This guy quickly became my hero and my second favorite lounge singer of all time (behind the venerable Michael Parrish, of course).

The next day we rented mountain bikes and rode the Circuito Chico (about 35 kms total). If you are ever in Bariloche, I would highly recommend doing this – get your bikes at Hostel Campanillo. The people are SO nice/cool and after your ride you can warm up by the fireplace, eat delicious snacks and even play the guitar/ping pong/pin the tail on the donkey. The ride had several ridiculous views of the many lakes that surround the area and the Llao Llao golf resort is also on the path. We froze our ass*s off at times, but only got rained on for about 15 minutes. Again, where is the summer weather?!?!? We also spied lots of younger children on the trip and have now determined that if you are male and want to be cool, there are some age group differences:

Ages 7-12: Must wear a beret
Ages 13-45: Must have a mullet

On Friday, we were going to either kayak or do white water rafting, but it was still too cold. Instead, we decided to hike Cerro Catedral…….which we found out is essentially a ski resort…. um, yeah…… so we pretty much walked up a black diamond trail the whole way to the top (1000 meters of climbing). Kind of a crazy (ie stupido) thing to do, but the feeling of accomplishment and the vistas at the top were ‘breathtaking’ and/or ‘much better than CATS’. Even better was the chocolate cake we had at the lodge!

That night (and the night before) we had Italian food/pizza at Ristorante Brava – yum!

Speaking of food, here are some observations on our trip thus far:

• Nearly every restaurant has the same items on their menu
• Beef
• Pasta
• Empanadas
• Ham sandwiches
• Ethnic food is relatively non-existant – although B&I did have one ‘Mexican’ meal in BA that was really delicious (Xalapa)
• Healthy eating not necessarily a concept that has made it to Argentina. Fibrous foods would be great right about…… NOW.
• American brands have weird flavors in Argentina. Examples:
• Gatorade - Green apple protein
• Lays Potato Chips – Ham flavored
• Certs Breath Mints - Chorizo flavored (ok, maybe not)
• Standout items thus far: Steak (of course), gnocchi (which Miriam consumed at nearly every meal), and dulce de leche in MANY different forms
• Quilmes beer is EVERYWHERE (think Budweiser with a different label)

Brianna and I are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to El Calafate where we will see huge glaciers and more natural beauty and stuff. We are sad as we just had to bid adieu to the third point of the ‘triangle’ the past few days, Miriam. We will miss her energy, humor, spirit and…………. her ability to speak Spanish! Back to being treated like gringos everywhere we go!!! Ciao for now.

NO.....SLEEP...... 'TIL.....BA

Ok, I've said it before and I'll say it again, this city never sleeps. Brianna and I have been out every night except for one and have progressively stayed out later. Unlike the rest of BA, however, we like to get our sleep on. We have only been up once before 3pm this whole trip - luckily it stays light until 10! There isn't a whole lot of incentive to wake up too early, as you can hit the main sites in BA in the first 2 days.

On Thursday night, we had a delicious dinner with my friend Miriam at Bar Uriarte and then hit up a cool (rockabilly?!) club called Mundo Bizzaro - it definitely felt like a night out in San Francisco. See above - b&m dressed as twins that night. HOTT!!! Highlight was the candy girl who was trying to sell lighted knickknacks. She was at least EIGHTY years old (and I'm being generous here). Also, there was a couple who made out (standing up the whole time, nonetheless) for at least an hour and a half straight IN THE BAR. Earlier in the evening, two different couples were spied accosting each other in very public places. Needless to say, PDA is a national pastime here.

Brianna and I hit up a fun dance club called Kika the next night and danced until the sun came up. Music mix was pretty decent and there were several dudes with mullets (which means this is where the cool kids and cute chicas hang out).

Last night, after a very yummy Italian dinner (gnocchi!) at Sotto Voce with 10 folks, B&I hit up a different club called Honduras and it felt like we were in a completely different world. Not sure if there are any bridges or tunnels that lead to BA, but if so, this bar's clientele would best be described as 'b&t'. Brianna said it best, "If that is what the country of Honduras is like, I don't ever need to visit Honduras".

They say Sunday brunch at Olsen in Palermo Hollywood is a must. I agree. Yum. Cute waitresses, great patio, lots of fun boys, delicious Norwegian food. WAFFLES with no beef added!!!!!

Here are some other random observances from our time in BA:
- Dogs can crap pretty much anywhere they want - no rules here about picking it up
- Red lights mean stop...... or maybe go..... depends on your mood
- Taxi cabs don't turn their lights on and rely on the city lights (and Jebus) for guidance
- If you want the best service in town, head to the McDonald's on Scalabrini Ortiz at 5am. Ask for Maria. Note: eating at McD's can cause a serious case of what the locals call McDiarrea.

Ciao for now. Next post will come from Patagonia. Hope everyone has a nice work week. GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mullets galore

Yes, BA is sophisticated for South America and yes, it is kind of like Paris..... a very DIRTY Paris (see above). This is the scene at a port right next to a relatively tourist area. And the smoke that the buses emit is unbelievable - I think I might now have the black lung. It's disgusting enough to drive a hybrid owner to say "F*ck it, if this is how the environment is being treated outside the US, I'm getting an SUV".

But more importantly friends, the mullet has made a return.... to the land down under.... where they no speaky American. Oh my gosh, there are a lot of chicas and chicos with mullets here in BA. We've seen the minitruck mullet, the femmemullet, several meximullets and even a rastamullet today. These kids would fit in well in Missouri.

Today we made plans for our Patagonia trip. There are only a few local airlines that fly within the country, so we booked tickets with Aerolinas Argentinas. They have a real convenient system where you book your ticket online and then have to go to their sales office downtown and wait for an hour before getting to pay someone (that also takes nearly an hour). The Swiss could learn from this extreme efficiency.

Brianna and I have learned very little Spanish, but we do at least know what Lil Jon would say if he were here:
"Queeeeeee"
"Esta bieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen"
"Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
"Como"

Also, we learned that the Spanish word for diarreah is diarrea. Hasn't struck yet, but always good to know.

In tribute to all of the Argentinian teenagers out there. Ciao for now. Time for dinner (10:30).

Feliz Ano!

Buenos dias amigos from Buenos Aires!!!

After a long flight Brianna (my bro) and I spent the first couple of days getting situated in our apartment (awesome location) and catching up on some zs. No matter how hard you try, when you are 6'5" and sitting in peasant class, it is impossible to sleep. Brianna and I each watched 3 movies and played poker /trivia for most of the flight against the rest of the plane.

Buenos Aires is AMAZING so far. A couple of initial observations:
1) VERY European - tree lined streets, piazzas like Italy, lots of McDonald's everywhere
2) People always say it's the Paris of South America and I have to agree..... no one speaks English (or if they do, they pretend like they don't). And their accents make it extremely difficult to understand even basic Spanish words. Brianna and I have been STRUGGLING. Here was our first meal experience:
Miguel: "Uno burrito y uno pizza, por favor" (translation: I would like a burrito and a pizza, please)
Waiter: "Mumblio Mumblio Mumblio (I don't understand what you are saying, you stupid gringo.... or something like that)
Miguel: (Points at menu): "Uno burrito y uno pizza, por favor"
Waiter: (Said EXACTLY as I said it): "Ah, si, uno burrito y uno pizza. Mumblio mumblio mumblio mumblio."
Miguel: Si
45 minutes later, we got the pizza. After about an hour and a half, the burrito still hadn't arrived. Awesome - we had to ask for it again. This time they brought us a live donkey (ok, maybe not).

Spent New Year's with my friend Miriam and her friends Marcel and Lindsey. They are staying in this phat apartment in the Congressi district that makes our place look like a rescue shelter. We had a meal at their house - arrived an hour and a half late.... apparently BA had a daylight savings time change for like the first time ever the night we arrived. Luckily, no one told us. So, we ended up counting down the New Year's at the house. We had some drinks at a bar in Palermo Soho (the neighborhood we are staying in....it's named after NYC's Soho... no Houston street here though) and ended up at a Tango club. It was a trip! These old dudes (one guy looked like Dean Martin, another like the fat version of Marlon Brando, and, to top it off, Phil Donahue was in attendance) were totally picking up young, hot ladies. Needless to say, Brianna and I spent our time on the sidelines, but it was a crazy experience nonetheless.

They say this is the city that never sleeps. At 6am, we were walking home and stumbled across a street party. It was amazing and more representative of a traditional NYE celebration.

Ok, time to wake up my brother, it's 5:17pm. Hope everyone had a great new year! Check back periodically for updates. I'll post pics when we get them loaded. Stay golden.