El turisto

Peru has been a little bit of a change for me and jim as we are doing more of the tourist thing. This has included going to the two big attractions in peru: Lake titicaca and machu piccu. while machu piccu cost a pretty penny everything else has been suprisingly cheap. Ive been living off street venders who sell awesome food like this Choclo (corn) pictured below. It is basicly a corn on the cob with huge kernals but is not sweet. it comes with a hunk of cheese too. other delightful items include fresh bread and shish kabob things that have a big potato on the end and some sort of meat below it. the meat may or may not be guinea pig which is a popular food item here. the most any of this cost is about 50 cents.

Lake titcaca is located about at 12,500 feet in the middle of the andes. Jim and I decided to take a boat tour of it that took us to a couple of islands. the tour was only 13 dollars and consisted mostly of boat time going to and from the islands. The first island we visited was the uros floating read village which is exactly what it sounds like. the people take the reeds from near the shore and build a huge island out of them. we got a cool 15 minute talk about the island and then were attacked by the villagers trying to sell us hand crafts. I decided to try a bite of the bottom of the reed that the islanders eat and call the titicaca banana. It didnt taste very good. After the floating village we visited a real island and had lunch there which was nice. The downside to doing the whole tourist thing is that everyone you meet is trying to sell you something so it is hard to really talk to any local person you meet.

After lake titcaca we took a bus to cusco which is the ancient capital of the incas as well as one of peru´s main cities today. Cusco is also the launching point for several inca related adventures including machu piccu. we decided to sign up for a tour of maccu pichu which was a good idea. the place is kind of a zoo and you can only get there by train. the tour we bought ended up being way cheaper than the only train tickets we found independantly. however this was because instead of just jumping on the train in cusco we were ushered through a series of guides, buses, and trains which we could have never figured out independantly. the guide service was quite an experience in its self. starting with being picked up at our hotel it was a constant stream of people meeting us and delivering us to our next guide/transport. when we had no idea what was going on a guy would always show up yelling our names and tell us what to do. Once at machu piccu we got a tour of the place from our man willy who when learning we came from chicago replied "whats up my homies." Maccu piccu was pretty cool mainly for the fact of its location. it is in the middle of absolutley no where on the top of a mountain with 1000 ft plus drops on every side.

Willy would periodicly stop the tour and tell us to "take picture now" and even tell us to pose. this is me pretending to touch the top of wyma piccu which is the mountan next to machu piccu and is in every photo ever taken of the place.

Peru at last

So After leaving the desert and San Pedro we headed north to the border town of Arica to get our selves together before crossing into Peru. Arica actually turned out to be rather pleasent. It was still more or less in the desert but is located on the coast. We were only there for about 24 hours but happened to catch this man pooping in a grassy island in the middle of a busy intersection. We were pleased to learn that our next destination puno, on the coast of lake titicaca, was supposedly only 4 hours away. We bought the ticket from the bus guy but we felt from the beggining that something funny was going on. When we showed up for our bus the next morning we were suprised not to find a huge bus waiting for us but a taxi driver with a pony tail and dragon ball z decals on his buick lesaber. Apparantly he was to drive us over the border to the next town in peru where we would catch a bus to puno. The drive went well enough and we passed into peru with no problems. However our taxi driver did disapear with our passports for several lengthy periods of time which made us a little uncomfortable. The second we stepped out of our taxi in the bus terminal in peru a man yelling james and joel told us to grab our bags and run. apparantly we only had 10 minutes to get on our bus that didnt even leave from the terminal but some other spot accross town. We ran and jumped into another taxi and started weaving through traffic accross town. When we got to the other bus terminal our bus was gone. The man who was rushing us around town would not settle for defeat. he got us back in the taxi and told the driver to chase the bus down outside of town. about 5 km later we caught the bus going up a steep hill just out of town. our helper guy waved the bus down and we got on. once on the bus we realized that things worked a little different in peru. there were people everywhere and half of them seemed to have the plauge. they were hacking and throwing up into grocery bags. we soon realized that this bus ride was not a mere 4 hour jaunt into the mountains. Puno was over 400km away through winding mountain roads. the roads we were on were like nothing ive seen before. at one point we were driving through a blizzard going over a 15000 ft pass. starting the day at sea level jim and i were both suffering from the alitutde change. gaining 15000 ft in 4 hours is no joke. at one point all i could do was close my eyes and take deep breaths to not pass out. After 10 hours of winding mountains roads, children throwing up in bags, one stop to fix the front bumber, and countless others so vendors could jump on the bus to sell us jello we finaly made it puno. So far it has been great here. both jim and i currently outfitting ourselves in full alpaca jump suits.

Colorado, cougers, myth busting and goose hunting

Where do I start? Let’s start with Myth #1: Vail is the second best ski area in North America behind Whistler. Truth be told: Vail sucks a fat one. It is not a skier’s mountain. It is flat, doesn't get much snow and if you are more than an advanced intermediate, it is a total bore; kind of like skiing a big bunny hill. But, if you like fake people that look like they have killed off a whole regions mink population for one coat, you are in heaven. Myth #2: People from Colorado have all these ski areas and are great skiers. Truth: I have never seen more terrible skiers in one place. Granted there are always a few diamonds in the rough, but shit, these people are all show and talk and no go. Myth #3: Vail is the Cougar capital. TRUE! I have a goose hunting date with a 38 year old divorced cougar with 3 pups. She owns a huge spread on the New Mexico border and I have an all expenses paid trip to hunt migratory birds and pheasant later in the week. The river that runs through the property is also famous for its fly fishing. I'm trying to find some time off of work as this could be the best adventure/story to date. I'll keep you updated. So here is the overall verdict on Colorado. There is great skiing if you go to Telluride, Crested Butte, or Silverton. Everything else blows. The people talk skiing and biking just like Montana folks, they are a little bit more put together, but unfortunately they suck ass once they get on skis. Colorado is cool as long as you know where to go. Stay out of the cities and the I-70 corridor and you will have a lot of fun. I'll keep everyone posted on the Cougar if the trip materializes.

Dale over and out

The Grey Wolf

I had my first Grey Wolf sighting on Saturday. As we rolled out for the Shoot Out the group of about 60 riders were attacked by the Grey Wolf. He describes his riding style as, "short and powerful." He was dressed just like he is in the picture and was riding his custom 12lb bike. He only rides the flats and will take a bus up the hill to his house. He has no need for water because he only drinks milk and coffee. His persona could easily be replicated by Pippo in the future. Just picture it Pippo attacking the Hell Ride group in Missoula.
The Shoot Out itself was super fun. There were a bunch of strong riders and the pace was pretty quick. The ride ends with a short uphill sprint. I finished with the lead group in a pack sprint. The Grey Wolf was then spotted at the U-district Starbucks sipping coffee. His legend lives on!

The desert

Its not really that the atacama desert is hot that makes it so intense. The temprature only really gets up to 85 degrees in the dead of summer. Its that at an altitude of over 9,000 ft in the valley it feels like you are only inches from the sun wherever you go. Even in the mornings when it is only 60 degrees you can feel the sun just pounding you relentlesly. The desert is flanked to the north and east by the andes mountains with countless peakes over 18,000 feet. The Atacama desert is also huge and there is litterly nothing out there except for a few copper mines and small oaisis towns. One of these towns is San Pedro de Atacama where me and Jim have been for the last few days. Its only a town of about 2000 people but dont let that fool you. San Pedro is the biggest tourist trap that we have been to so far. Every buisness in town is either selling crafts, excursions, or overpriced food. Its not only the food that is overpriced here. Everything is at least twice as expensive as anywhere else in chile and there is no way to find low budget stuff because the town is so small. Once you get passed the fact that your getting ripped off the place is pretty cool. There are a ton of cool things to see and do. One of these things is sandboarding which is basicly what is sounds like. you strap a snowboard on and ride down some big sand dunes. It was pretty fun except when you crash and get sand in ever crevice of your body. Our guide was actually pretty helpful eventhough he was super hung over and kept talking about how a girl busted her grill when she was drunk and he had to take care of her. The other cool thing about San Pedro is that we came during carnival week. Im not really sure what that means but random parades with marching bands and whatnot break out randomly. one passed our hostel last night at about 1 am.

The March North

Our march north continued with a stop in La Serena. I call it a march north becuase our real motivation is to get to peru and check out machu pichu, lake titicaca, and a smaller lake that jim told me about named lake poo poo (i dont konw if that one realy exists). However instead of taking a rediculous 2 day bus ride we have been breaking up the trip into small sections which is nice becuase you get to see alot more that way. La Serena has ended up being a nice touristy beach town. It has a nice 2 or so mile beach and all the ammenitys that tourists love such as horse rides on the beach which jim got really excited about.

I would have definatly been more excited about the beach too if i didnt get a insane sun burn in vina del mar a couple days ago. I took my shirt off at the beach and lay there for an hour but was to tired to put suntan lotion on. That night my stomach was a nice shade of hot pink. I guess thats what i get for trying to get golden when there is absolutley zero ozone layer. Another thing about staying in towns for a few days at a time is that it produces what we call street urchin days. We usually try to get the latest bus rides we can to the next town so we can just sleep all night on the bus. However when we have to be out of the hostel at 10am we are left with like 12 or so hours to just walk around the town with our huge backpacks like street urchins. There are some perks to this as we get to see alot of funny things like this llama.

and not to be outdone street preformers like this guy. His act in particular was not very original as i have seen this act in almost every city we have been in. However i have never seen someone spin as fast as this guy.

Valpo

Im becoming a sleep ninja. When I first got here all i could thing about was getting a comfortable sleep and not being woken up by infants crying or an uncomfortable bed. I can now sleep in almost any situation. Last nite i passed out for pretty much the whole night on a cramped bus then got a couple more hours of shut eye in a hostel while small children were running around screaming. Unfortunatley Jim has not aquired the same sleep skills and i dont think has slept more than 5 minutes in the last 30 hours. Today also marks the first day of the entire trip that we havent had immaculate sunny skies. The skies over Valporaiso are a dim gray but that has done nothing to diminish my excitement for the town. This place is beauitufl and consists of steep cobbled streets with all sorts of multi colered archetechture. Another great part about the city is that it is absolutley bustling. The downtown area feels like the center of some metropolitan and wordly city yet the population of Valpo is only 260,000. The downside to this is that things are pricey. My sandwich cost 7 dollars at lunch today. I cant complain to much though becuase i did see a tabloid newspaper where the front page is about a women with four breasts and around the corner was a bronze cowboy. I kept waiting for him to do something cool but he was playing with a digital camera or something.

After a week of hanging out with my friend Barret Jim and I are moving on. We are heading up the coast to valporaiso which is an hour northwest of Santiago on the coast. Our tenitive plan is to make our way up the coast of chile until we hit Peru. Once in Peru we will explore some 6000 meter peaks and whatnot and then probably fly home from Lima. The last week has been relaxing and a ton of fun. We have been keeping ourselves busy by playing games like "Helan Keller" and "hide one of Jim´s shoes." Posted below is some media of the trip so far.

This is a video of the game "Helen Keller." The game consists of closing your eyes and covering your ears and pretending your Helen Keller. No offens is meant to Helen Keller R.I.P.

This is a peek into the world of South American stray dogs. They number in the thousands and spend there days chasing cars, eating scraps, and rough housing.
This is Jim in Buenas Aires after a day in 115 degree heat and no ozone layer. Best farmers tan ever. He was pealing for weeks.

Your not a Big Timer unless you chew Big Time gum.
All you need is one. Everyone down south rallies on a single speed.

Update from Passion HQ

As Missoula's epic winter rolls on, new faces have been seen at the passion as well as on the ski trails. Jessica B is now the umteenth new member of club passion and a very fresh face. For a while things were pretty bleak around the palace with Hugh in the wilderness and heather out flippin her car. Speaking of Hugh and the wilderness, he and Ed returned successful from their trapping adventure. They even had enough surplus fox to outfit me with an amazing hide. I have officially cured my SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder) with my new winter obsession, Nordic Skiing. Although, like biking, I think I have just stumbled into yet another money pit. Unemployment has other perks besides skiing every day, I have been getting pumped up on youtube highlight reel (http://youtube.com/watch?v=pVAuBJX0nAA) and doing hundreds of reps on the Ab Roller. In the tradition of many Passion four fathers, Jessica moved in and instantly tried to move her way up the totem pole by challenging me to a 10k running race. Confident yet foolish kids are these days. The contest is set for May 11th at the Scary Forest 10k trail run in Missoula. Apparently she didn't get the memo from Horan that the Ol' Pippo can run like the wind blows. Her and hugh have been getting rides to and from school in the Passion Van (complete with new plates, thanks Joel). Thats about it from the center of the universe, we all look forward to all the passionites remembering that the rest of the world sucks more and more D the farther one gets from Missoula, Montana.

Pippo out!

TCOB at parellel 12!

I only have like 10 days left here in my new home, codenamed: Pedro Snachez. I had quite a lot of work to get done with various projects that I had started in my 100 days here. Crunch time. I pulled a little trick from Doug and hired a local guy to help me out. He doesn't charge much, but man, is he bossy. Plus, I am pretty sure that he came to work drunk yesterday. He kept loosing his balance and falling into the hole, and this one time, when we were carring a huge sack of goat doody across this little stream, he slipped in the mud and left me to carry all of the load by myself.
My buddy Josh came and visited a while back and I took him on a burly hike through the jungle to some crazy waterfalls. It was so thick that we had to machete our way through for hours. When we got there, my dominican friend tried to get me to jump into what I would clasify as a "whirlpool on steroids." I thought that he was kidding me and then he went in-jeans and all. it ended up being awsome and I wan't sucked down another waterfall.

On the way back, where we had to hack our way again, I got bit by a tarantula. When they get on you, they just don't let go. I had to pull it off with my other hand. I swelled up douggie-style, but a benedryl and a good nap set me straight (one has little choice after taking that much benedryl.)

I talked to some of the locals, specifically the doctor (Hot girl about a year younger than me, dresses like a slizzle). They told me to rub some menthyl on it. Seriously, that is the cure for everything....except when one needs stiches, then the cure is "try and hitch-hike to the capital to go to the hospital. and pick up some needle and thread on your way, they won't have that there." I find all of this amazing, since I see little kids playing with machetes and big knives everywhere that I go.

laters,

jeffro

Hola Barret

On the bus ride from Pucon to Concepcion Jim and I were both bubbling with excitement. However this was more due to the fact that were going to suprise Barret than it was to actually see him. We had told Barret that we wanted to come visit him but had not told him any of our plans for the trip. He had no idea that we were coming to see him let alone that we were even in south america. Getting off the bus in Concepcion we found a map in the bus terminal. We found what we thought was Barrets street and started walking to it. Jim and I had imagined barret living in a fairly nice neighborhood but as we walked to what we thought was his street we moved deep into a neighborhood that can only be described as less than friendly. Eventually a chilean on a bike stopped us and asked if we were chileanos and when we said no promtly told us we should probably leave this part of the city. Considering the sun was about to down we took his advice and took a bus to the downtown area. We stopped and asked a few folks if they knew where the Barret´s address was located but no one knew. We thought that he probably lived near the University where he works. Once we got in the U district a young lady pointed us in the right dirrection and we found Barret´s apartment. Unfortunatley he was not there. We decided to go around the corner and get some food and wait for him to come back. It would be even more comical to surprise him on the street. As were discussing the finer points of suprising him Barret turned the tables on us found us first. He had spotted us from accross the street in the university where he had been doing a crossword puzzle. Concepcion has been nice and we have been spending our time just hanging out and realaxing with Barret.

DAME cinco Peso (Give me five...pesos)

Yes that's right folks, that is a rosary. The most holy Catholic tool of prayer...with a Spongebob ornament.

I have been holed up down here in the Dominican republic for near three months now. I was afraid that it might make me hate America, all of the poverty and whatnot. But -I tell you what- I've only had one hot shower in three months and my grunion is not any the better for it. I miss home.

I have had the oppertunity to travel from my hometown of Pedro Sanchez and visit some surrounding areas. This past weekend, I rolled north to this park called Los haitsis. I think that the translation is "dead indians and crazy people." There are a lot of legends about beautiful women walking around the islands and through caves...with their feet on backward, and probably looking for people to eat. It's all Columbus' fault. Here, everyone is looking to eat you, Especially haitians.

We saw a good amount of Pre-Columbian cave drawings. The guide (the first Dominican that I have met that is aware of the concept of rules), wouldn't let me take pictures, so I reproduced some on paintbrush. enjoy. I am not sure why they have a rain god, since this

is the freakin`JUNGLE. It rains every day. In fact, it rained on us while we were on this tour.

Also photographed is the bow of this serious old wooden boat that we took way out to some islands. the motor died several times on the way back. We tried to paddle for a while with a broken kayak paddle, but considering that we were in the ocean, and the boat weighed about 2 tons, we did not make much headway. I think the Dominican didn't buy enough gas. Ass.



Also photographed are some figurines that are thinking about joel. My "bus" that I took through Jurrasic Park. -Note the door does not shut, even while careening down steep mountain passes. And an ancient Taino warrior. Apparently the indegenous people looked like muppets...and enjoyed chewing their nails.

I don't really have a job here. I do the dishes and wash clothes. I also help this guy install water filters for 1 peso a pop. I suppose that I also built a garden. Considering our yard has an inch of standing water, that's not so weak of an achievement.

I have also been slightly influenced by the culture. I now have not one but two pairs of tight pants. think pippo-pants, but not tight on the ankles. and sexy.

laters,

jeffro

Pucon 70.3

Located in foothills of the Chilean Andes Pucon is a small tourist town with almost perfect climate. The pucon 70.3 half ironman took over the town on sunday. It seemed like everyone came out on the streets to watch the race and cheer people on. Chris Corbin and I took a little jog through town on race morning at about 6am and were cheered on by drunks coming out of the discotechs chanting "ironman, ironman." It wasnt just the drunks though who cheered people on. Many locals came out to the streets and even tour buses pulled over so people could get out to cheer. Although the race comes in the middle of most Americans off season Ben and Linsey seemed pumped up for the race and confident in a good result even though they were not in peak form. The race did not disapoint. There were many fast south americans as well as some foreigners, most notably Chris Mccormack. Personaly i was super pumped up to unleash my inner super fan south of the border sytle. Ben and linsey both got out of the water a few minutes back of the leaders but started making up time fast on the bike. One intersting note was that Chris Mccormack was looking a little chubby. Apparntly he hadnt started training until Jan 1. At about mile 30 we saw him coasting on the bike and i guess a few minutes later he dropped out. Both ben and linsey hammered the bike and ben came off in 5th only about 6 minutes back of the leader while linsey came off second 3 minutes back. tbe run was a brutal course that consisted of three 4k trips to the the "peninsula" that was extremely hilly. Linsey looked strong but definatley taxed on the run. She quickly gobbled up the first place girl, teresa macel, but in the end got caught by a hard charging heather gollnick and took home second place. Ben seemed to pay for his big effort on the bike. It looked like he muscled through the run but still seemed to be holding it together and staying solid. he came through in 8th place in a pretty stacked field. After the race we all sat around the fire pit and and grilled up some big peices of meat and drank beer montana style.

Dale gets ghetto

I finally found a place to live. It's a hotel in Minturn connected to the round table resaurant about nine miles from Avon. A mexican lady owns the place and there are a couple of toothless kids running about.....i'm not sure where they came from. The room is 650 a month, cheap for around here, and is about the size of a jail cell. I don't even have room for my bike. Maid's clean my linens every day and there are always fresh towls. The other morning I was awakened by a domestic dispute down the hall, this place is wack. It would be something you would find in the slums of east missoula. I'm trying to ride my bike to work everyday but yesterday morning it was 22 below zero. I'll send some pics when I get my camera up and running.

D

Thumbs up

Our stay in Bariloche ended up being very fun and relaxing. My stomach problems cleared up for the most part and after 5 days we were ready to hit the road again. Pucon was our next destination which was only about 6 hours away. To see more of the amazing landscape we decided to take the senic Seven lakes route to San martin de los andes and then take a bus the next morning through the andes and into Pucon, Chile. The seven lakes route was truly awesome including the famous sideways volcano. We winded our way on dirt roades through some of Argentinas most beuatiful landscapes. When we got to San Martin we ate a nice lunch and then went back to the bus station to get our ticket to Pucon for the next morning. To our surprise the next available bus to Pucon was for tuesday (Six days away and two days after the Pucon Triathlon that we were trying to see). Before this point getting a bus ticket had never been a problem. We panicked and ran around the station trying to find other buses to other citys in chile. Unfortunately we couldnt find any bus to chile leaving before saturday. The only thing left to do was stick out our thumbs and hitch a ride. We started the journey by hoping a local bust to the next town up the road. This got us 40 km closer to pucon but it was getting dark so we set up camp for the night and decided to start hitch hiking the next morning. I woke up the next morning pretty confident that we would be able to get a ride but still a little nervous. We started walking in the direction of pucon and with each passing car became less and less confident that we were going to get a ride. Alot of people were pointing up the road using hand singnals we didnt understand. After walking about 5k out of town we realized people were pointing at the check point up the road. No one wanted to pick us up before this military check point. After we crossed the check point we hit a split in the road between the main highway and the road to Pucon. If the cars not picking us up before was making me nervous the sheer lack of cars on the side road was definatley doing it for me. However after walking about 30 minutes up the road and 3 cars passing us one pulled over. Praticia and Rodolpha were a nice couple from Rosario going to do some hiking near the border. We had a nice ride to the border and even nicer conversation that consisted of thier bad english and our even worse spanish.

We proceeded to cross the border on foot which was less trouble than we thought it would be. Niether the Argentine or Chilean border police thought anything of us crossing the remote mountain pass border crossing on foot. After crossing through Chilean customs we turned the first corner and put our thumbs up again. The first car to come by stopped and picked us up. They were a nice Argentine family that seemed to pick us up for the sole reason of thier daughter to practice english. They were headed to pucon for the weekend and astoundingly were staying the hotel right across the street from where Ben and Lindsay were put up for the Race. Seeing some familure faces was nice and the two are looking lean and mean for the race this sunday.

Tummy ache

Arriving in Bariloche was a nice change of pace. The mountain enviroment was a welcome change from the fast moving citys we found on the east coast. Bariloche sits on the very edge of the Argentinian andes and is located in a beautiful national park. The town is very touristy and reminds me of Boulder in that it is the epitome of comerical outdoorsy-ness in Argentina. We quickly got oursleves set up on a awesome looking 4 day 3 night backpacking trip. The trip would go up into the Andes and each night we would sleep in a different mountian "refugio" which is a high mountain hut that has a kitchen and bathrooms and whatnot. These refugios made me feel better about our somewhat ghetto backpacking setup (no stove, hiking in gym shoes, etc). However the next morning when we set off for the trailhead i fealt that i was getting sick. I figured that after the first day of hiking i would probably start to feel better. The hike was laborsome to say the least. I started to feel worse and worse as the day went on. When we got to the refugio, which was truly an awesome sight, all i could do was crawl into the tent. The Andes truly shoot up out of nowhere. The refugio and our campsight were located on a high glacial lake surrounded by an impressive Cirque of towers. I would post pictures but i was to sick to take any. However i did take a picture of a painting of where we were. That night at dinner i realized that i was really in bad shape. I could barely eat and had my first case of explosive diahhrea. The next morning we decided it was a good idea to head back down. I peed out of my butt all the way down the mountain and made it back into town where we soon found a nice little spot near the town center. Ive spent the past two days more or less just relaxing trying to get better and walking around the town center while staying within running distance of my hotel bathroom. The plus side of this is that i got to see alot of cool stuff in town like the Chuck Berry puppet cover band which i took a video of for everyone elses enjoyment.

The Easy Life

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Life at TCH has been great. Days consist of long rides, runs, swims, good food and surfing the net. I arrived to 75 degree weather and immediately started to get golden. The house is enormous, i think it has 6 bedrooms and 3 or 4 bathrooms but I could be missing a few. The entire house has marble floor and is very loud. We soon will be releasing our own version of cribs on youtube. We hatve only had a couple of clients thus far so it is super relaxed. The staff consists of myself, Owen, and the Scultz brothers. Needless to say we have some strong riders. Tucson is full of riders and the likes of Ben Kneller, Zychek, and others can be seen on a daily basis. We have not penetrated the ladies of Tucson yet but I'm attempting to plug us into the social pipeline. Thats all for now, I need to go hit the road and meet up with the University of Montana triathlon team on Mt. Lemmon. I miss the passion and the lifestyle. As soon as we are all back in town we will have a huge party passion style. Phil don't go crazy and yes the house is haunted. Passiooon!!!

Bahia Blanca

When we got to Bahia Blanca yesterday it was still 115 degrees like it had been in Buenos Aires. There is not really alot do here. The town has about 300,000 people in it and is more or less an average middle class city. Jim and I were pretty bored and mostly just sat around, checked email, and attempted to play cards. This morning started off well with the hotel lady calling us at 9:30 and yelling at us in spanish. We took this as a sign that we should probably check out. The morning was a fun treasure hunt for pancakes. Jim kept calling them pancaques which i thought was a word he invented. I found out that really was the word for pancakes when were served some in a cafe. I think there was something wierd about ordering them becuase everyone kept laughing at us. We spent the morning just wandering around town which is way nicer than it usually is becuase its about 30 degrees cooler today. The highlight of the morning was finding this monster dog in a park. The owner was nice enough to let me take a photo with it.
The photo does not do it justice. We thought it was some kind of wild boar from across the street. I think this dog might have been ¨beast¨from the movie sandlot. Im not sure though becuase my spanish wasnt good enought to ask the owner. We are hoping a 14 hour bus tonight which is alot more exciting than i thought it would be. The buses are super nice and you get to watch movies the whole time. We are heading out to bariloche which is a mountain town on the Argentinian side of the Andes. Hopefully we will be able to do some camping there and see some cool stuff.