sinovicadventures

[sinovicadventures]

Meet Wylder Leslie Sinovic

We are a little late in getting this announcement up. I’m sorry, but we’ve been held hostage by a (now almost) 9 lb emotional terrorist. Look at this little monster. He barely lets us out of the house to eat let alone post announcements or do anything fun. 

Anyway, we had a son! Wylder Leslie Sinovic (him above in case it wasn’t clear), came barreling into this world at 6lbs 8oz 19in long, on 09/10/2018 after an insanely long delivery.

This will be one of the few posts we do about Wylder on Facebook. Look, this place is a trash heap of political arguments, offensive memes and in your face BS that we don’t want to mix Wylder into. I’m not here to judge (if you’re reading this) and all about the book. We just aren’t. We want to keep some of him private so that one day he doesn’t come to whatever dumpster fire incarnation Facebook is at that point and see photos and info about him commented on and shared by strangers. There is a whole host of other reasons that I won’t delve into but you get the gist. We have a protected spot for him so family and friends can see him if they want. All you have to do is not be a creep, be someone we know and ask. That’s it.

Back to Wylder. I meant what I said above. He is an emotional terrorist that has held us captive for almost 8 weeks. This is a hostage situation plain and simple. I’m not saying we don’t have Stockholm syndrome for our captor, I’m just saying what most people won’t about newborns - they suck.

Look, I love Wylder. Like a weird amount for how emotionally withholding he is. I look forward to getting home and seeing him even though all he does is scream in my face for no reason, shit through his clothing and then on me when I am trying to change him and be so frustratingly lacking in any kind of positive reinforcement that he makes me want to put him in the garbage.

Before you go calling child services or write me some strongly worded note where you @ me in the comments, save it. I’m not actually going to put him in the garbage. I need him to at least make it to the age where he can rake the leaves that are overtaking the yard.

But this baby business is a weird mix of emotions. On one hand I love him so much it takes my breath away. I constantly think about him, what his smug little face is up to and what he and Claire are doing. Then on the other hand I spend my days screaming into the void/pillow/back at him because he’s screaming at me. I have never been so conflicted about something or someone in my life.

I get why parents are so excited when their baby raises an eyebrow, smiles, or does anything with intention and purpose for the first time. I used to think they were ridiculous and would be less than enthused if they made me watch their video or look at their pictures. But now, I get it. Holy shit, do I get it. It’s less about the act and more about the fact that this goblin has starved you/it’s parent(s) of all things positive for the first however many weeks of its life, that when it finally toots with purpose it is the biggest freaking deal. They spend all of their time just taking everything you have to give that when they finally give you the tiniest bit back you want to tell the world. Now just because I realize this does not mean I need to see your photos. I’m sure they are great but I’m probably good…

There are no words for how grateful I am that I have Claire as a partner especially in this. Where I am irrational about this trash monster that has moved in, she is understanding. Where I want to scream and write overly dramatic woe is me blog posts, she is calm and collected. I knew we were a perfect balance before Wylder took us captive, but I really know it now. That is one to make sure of if you are thinking about doing this kid thing. Make sure your house is in order because a newborn is like a earworm that will ferret out any and everything that may be a problem in that house. Lack of sleep and incessant crying will make even the strongest of relationships be put to the test.

There is no one stronger than my wife, no one kinder or better suited to be a mom than her. If I (and now we) didn’t have her this wouldn’t be possible.  If you don’t feel that way about your partner, maybe get a dog or possibly a fish first.

Wylder is so much better at 8 weeks than he was at first. Again, before you tell me about how newborns are angels, save it. I’ve now experienced this first hand and know you are a lying liar. Sure I loved him from day one but like, not so much. Would have been real cool for someone, anyone reading this, to tell us the nightmare train we were about to board. Not a one of you told us how those first days were going to really go. Well listen up if you’re thinking about doing this, shit is HARD. You want more background message me. I’ll give you the horrific poop filled deets that will haunt your dreams.

But damnit, he is amazing to look at. I catch myself looking at him and just getting lost in thought. Thinking all the things I want him to learn from me and Claire, all the mistakes I made that I want him to avoid and all the traits I hope he has.

I think to myself, I hope you are kind. There is no reason to be someone’s pain or discomfort (unless they are asking for it which is often). Life is hard, don’t make it harder for someone else. Your namesake is after your Papa Leslie. You need notes on how to be the kindest, most thoughtful person you can be? Take a page from his book. It’s why you got his name. 

Man, I hope you are funny. It’s not a deal breaker, and I know I think I am funnier than I actually am but truly, there is nothing better in life than making someone laugh. It’s like a drug causing a bellyaching laugh that makes someone light up. I remember making your Nonni Pam laugh from a very young age and thinking there was nothing better. I want this feeling for you. There really is nothing better.

I hope you are strong. Not in the physical sense, but strength in personality. Strength to stand up for you convictions, your beliefs and strength of will to get you through the tough times that fill up even the best of lives. You need to look no further than your Nana Terry and Nonni Pam to learn about strength. These two hard headed, loud Italian women are some of the strongest people you will ever encounter. Learn from them (not everything of course unless you want to get into trouble...).

I don’t want you to give a shit about what other people think (this shouldn’t be an issue as you were born a Sinovic where that is our family crede.) If you ever have someone tell you to be normal and be like anyone other than you, know that you have every right to tell them to go screw themselves. Want tips? Ask your Dido Jerry. He’s got a lifetime of not giving two shits (in the best possible way - most of the time). Normal is a word that people use when they are scared of something different. Don’t be afraid of different. The best people are different and you are going to be one of the best people.

We have no interest in you being who society wants you to be. I hope you know this, as long as you are who want to be, your mom and I will be proud. I will have to figure out how to deal if you want to be a Republican or a bro (please God no) or something else that we disagree with.

Out of everything I think when I’m looking at you, the biggest standout is that I just hope we don’t mess you up too much. There is a fine line that parents seem to have to walk between forcing their ideals on their children and trying to keep them from making the same mistakes they made and letting them be who they were meant to be.

I hope we are successful in walking this line, because there is nothing in this world we love more than you.

I mean, your mom will be successful, I may still put you in the garbage.

Welcome to the world Wylder Leslie.

[sinovicadventures]

Thank you

We are at the finish line.

After waking up this morning and having to trim my mustache (that would make any 8th grader jealous) with nail clippers, yes nail clippers, I am ready to come home. 

I am starting to look like castaway, even after the grooming, and we are starting to smell like garbage pail kids. I am also done putting toilet paper in the trashcan, drinking out of water bottles and living the dorm life. Do you know where soiled toilet paper should go? In the TOILET not in a bin next to the toilet like you are some sicky saving it for later. It would be one thing if there was an attendant that emptied the bins at least somewhat regularly, but anyplace where you are putting soiled toilet paper in a can probably doesn’t have someone handing out mints and drying your hands at the entrance. 

Anyway, after 77 days on the road, countless dorm rooms and one too many communal bathrooms we are done. Looking back, I don’t think I have the words to describe how incredible this trip has been. I have a few choice words, but if you need a refresher on those reread the posts on this blog.  

I’m not being sarcastic or funny when I say I don’t have the words, I mean it, this has been incredible. 

For every diaper in the street, scam artist in Peru and f’ing hotdog on french fries there has been an indescribable experience filled with breathtaking scenery that I got to share with my beautiful wife.

Many people weren’t sure of Claire and I asking our guests to help fund this trip as a wedding present, and many people did just get us traditional gifts, which was great and more than appreciated. Looking back, I think we both could not be happier with the decision we made.

This trip is something that will not get old and break, we will never get tired of and sell, or lose between moves in the future. We will always have this time, this three months where we got to see a slice of the world together that not many people get to see. This time where we spent 24 hours a day together, 7 days a week with no one else to turn to for entertainment but each other. We not only made it, we are better for it, better communicators, better listeners, more patient and stronger together.  That has been what made this trip so amazing. 

My awesome father in law Les sent Claire and I a really good article about why it is important to travel often and early in a relationship and life and it included this photo:

That could not be more true.

For everyone that made it possible for me to spend three incredible months with this person - 

Thank you. 

(See, I can write nice things without complaining about how terrible everything is - but I would rather eat a handful of sand while getting a flu shot than stay in another dorm room. The only person I should hear breathing in the middle of the night is my wife. )

[sinovicadventures]

Uruguay

4 countries, 23 cities, 77 days, and countless hours of complaining from my husband and we're here at our last stop on our trip, Uruguay.  We've spent the last week and a half in the country's capital, Montevideo, which just in case anyone reading this is planning to travel to Uruguay, that is too long to spend in Montevideo.  More on that later.  

World, Welcome to Uruguay.

We were lucky enough to hitch a ride up to Punta del Diablo form Montevideo where we spent 5 wonderful days.  After our latest hostel dorm experience with high schoolers and no power, it was clear that my husband needed a change in accommodation style to save both his and my sanity, so we switched to airbnb. Best decision we've ever made.  We've been staying in apartments that we have all to ourselves and as I said, we were able to arrange a ride which was with our airbnb host from Montevideo.

Unfortunately, this is the only photo we have from our ride.  Ryan creeply snapped this shot from where we were sitting in the back seat.  This is our host's mom, who was very nice.  Ryan took the photo just in case we were kidnapped. We were not kidnapped.  

Punta del Diablo is a lazy little hippie beach town of about 900 people.  Here, we stayed with another airbnb host and this may have been my favorite place we've stayed the whole trip.  Our host, Cecilia and her newly wed husband Eddson were amazing hosts!  Cecelia is an artist and she's turned her plot of land into a little compound that she calls Planeta Cuchitril.  It sits about 5 km outside of town, she has a dog named Lola, 2 ducks, 2 chickens, a rabbit, makes her own soap, which she had waiting for us in our bathroom, she is a vegetarian and cooked us a vegetarian breakfast every morning, and she had a bottle of champagne waiting for us in the fridge! I mean, I was ready to move in for life. Our 5 days were filled with relaxation, a natural park, beach day, bird watching, an old fort tour, and great company.

Our 'apartment' for the week

Fire Ring - all of the clay structures, including this outdoor oven were built by Cecelia.  So unique and beautiful!

Herb garden where the bunny grazes 

Entrance to Planeta Cuchitril

Steep Stairs leading up to our loft bedroom

Frog in our shower :)

The Kitchen

Ceramic dishes all handmade by Cecelia

Ryan outside out apartment

Japanese Chickens 

Lola! la la la la Lola - couldn't get that song out of our heads all week

Helping with one of the ceramic structures. The Apple!

When this is finished it will be a smoker with the stem being the chimney

learning the technique

mixing up the clay and cement

Cecelia hard at work

Outdoor restroom

Road leading into town aka Central Avenue 

bum

Delicious veggie breakfast

Downtown

Punta del Diablo Beach

Yep

I couldn't resist 

More of the beach

Ryan testing the water

climbing on boulders

Tempting fate again...he didn't get splashed this time, but it was a close call

Entrance into Santa Theresa National Park

Eddson was nice enough to show us around

Ryan and Eddson 

I can't remember what these are called but they were grazing around the park

So of course Ryan had to pet one

Feeding goats

Baby goats!

Swamp bridge

Roof of the green house

A lesson in Uruguayan botany 

Compass Fountain

Ugly Duck

Old Portugese Fort 

Beautiful views from the top

Cannon

Ryan

Beetle 

Old Cemetery 

Lago Negro - This lake, named Black Lake, is named because of the vegetation that lives in it which gives it its black color.  Or it could be the soil.  Still up for debate.  Either way, it was beautiful 

Lago Negro

Lesson in solar power

experimenting

Lola waiting for Cecelia to get home

Enjoying our last night at Cuchatril.  Thank you so much Cecelia, Eddson and Lola for making our first stay in Uruguay so warm and welcoming! 

After Punta del Diablo, we boarded the early morning bus for Punta del Este, which is sort of like Miami.  This wasn't our favorite town, but it wasn't a bad way to spend a couple more relaxing days. The highlight of Punta del Este? Ryan relearning how to drive a stick shift, because why wouldn't you in a foreign country where there are no lines on the road to divide the lanes and very few stop lights/signs and where everyone apparently lives on their horn.   After 15 years of driving an automatic, Ryan drove us around in a tiny little stick shift for an afternoon in Uruguay.  I'm not sure what the man at the rental car place was thinking letting us take it off the lot, because the exchange went something like this.  We walk out to inspect the car for scratches and dings, the rental guy hops in to get the mileage and I see him mess with the shifter.  Uhhhh, Ryan, do you know how to drive a manual? After about 20 minutes of me saying I wasn't sure if this was a good idea and contemplating renting a golf cart instead (the only automatic car they had) Ryan got a 2 minute crash course in when to shift and how from the rental guy and we hit the road.  As we pulled away the rental guy was waving and laughing in between making the sign of the cross. Encouraging. It was actually really fun once I stopped holding my breath and loosened my grip on the oh shit handle and after about an hour Ryan announced that his next car will be a manual. 

Hmm can we do this?

Don't worry we're at the one stop light in town, not in mid drive

It was like a toy.

We spent most of the afternoon in the little beach towns popping into art galleries and shops.  

Donkey Statue 

Heart sculpture made out of pipes and faucet handles 

We also stopped at the beach

Since we now had the freedom to go places without having to walk, that night we decided to head along the coastal highway to a place called Casa Pueblo. It is an artist's house that has been turned into a museum and a great place to watch the sunset.  

The entire building was ceramic and looked like a sand castle

kisses

sunset

Sunset

The other attraction in Punta del Este, besides the beaches, is this weird giant hand that sticks out of the sand.  We did the tourist thing one afternoon and snapped some photos with it.

me

Ryan

There was also a little row of fisherman selling fresh caught fish.  They would throw the remains into the ocean which would attract sea lions.  

Just saying hello..err hola

poking his head out

After they'd had their fill, they would beach themselves up on the dock and lazily lie around snorting and moaning.  I imagine they had some serious belly aches after all that fish

Stretching

Lounging 

After Punta del Este, we headed for our last stop, Montevideo.  As I mentioned before, we are finding out that we set aside waaaay too much time for Montevideo.  Since we have just been planning on the go, I think we might have rushed through certain parts and countries and the result was 3 whole weeks in Uruguay.  In high insight we could have spent more time in Peru, but we were really excited for Chile and didn't want to miss out on anything that Patagonia had to offer.  Long story short, you only need about 4 days max in Montevideo. We've spent 10.  It's a bigger city, on a beach with not a lot to do.  We are here during Carnival, but apparently we are the only ones not invited to this great party. We've been led on several wild goose chases by locals we've asked with hopes of finding parades, drum circles, dancers, street performers, concerts, SOMETHING! but instead, we are welcomed with closed shops with signs indicating that they are closed for Carnival and will reopen on Wednesday.  Where the heck is everyone!  We will never know.  The closest we've come to 'carnaval' is 3 homeless men walking down the street banging on trash cans with sticks. And I guess we did see a bus of people fly by us with their faces painted.  Oh well, I guess you win Montevideo. 

Like the other big cities we've been in, we did a lot of 'urban hiking' in Montevideo. Ryan likes to throw the word hike in there when we’re about to embark on a 10 mile jaunt across town.  I think he thinks he’s tricking me, but I know exactly what’s going on!  An urban hike really just means we’re about to walk in the heat and smog through/against a crowd of very busy people who are all staring down at their phones and bumping into each other.  It is my own personal slice of hell, but we did see some pretty interesting things....not Carnival, but interesting. 

Crazy dog walkers

Pretty building 

Artigas.  Not sure who he is but he's really famous here

Is this Carnaval?

Mural

Locks Fountain

Had to add ours to the mix

Claire y Ryan Sinovic 4.4.14

Solis Theater.  Oldest theater in Montevideo

Mural on the ceiling of the main hall

 Chandelier inside the theater

Black box theater 

Stumbled upon some paddle boats 

Walked along the fisherman's pier 

Giving mate another try

Medio y Medio - half white wine half champagne = delicious 

We also spent a couple hours in a small town called Colonia

Light house

Draw bridge leading into oldtown

More Love Please

Mural outside a school

Oldest street in Colonia 

We also stumbled upon a vegetarian restaurant where we met someone who knows Megan Dora! What are the odds?  We had just finished eating and Ryan, who is always on the hunt for english speakers spotted Sarah when she sat down.  We struck up a conversation and turns out her and Megan taught tother in Brasil! Small world.  Speaking of small world, back in Cusco, which was the first week of our trip,  we met this German couple.  Didn't really hang out, but we just sat at breakfast together one morning and swapped travel tips. Fast forward 11 weeks and we run into them at a supermarket in Montevideo!  Our trip has officially come full circle. 

Sarah, Ryan, and I 

For our last three days, we decided to treat ourselves check into Montevideo's Radisson. When we were getting our keys, I told the front desk guy it was our honeymoon to which he replied Oh, well let me see if I can get you a suite, it's much better than the room I was going to put you in.  Umm, thank you?  I'm not sure what the room we were originally going to be in looked like, but Ryan has taken to calling us garbage pail kids and thinks that everyone we come across in nicer places are judging us, so maybe it was a room that fits our garbage pail kid attire. We ending up getting a suite, which was bigger than our apartment, muuuuuch bigger than anything we've stayed in lately (with the exception of Cuchitril) and really nice. In the mornings, since Ryan and the sun rise together, he was able to go in the other room and leave me alone until at least 8:00am! It was glorious.   The only downside was that the window frames are made of steel which makes a very loud mooing sound when the wind whips through them.  I'm sure you'll be hearing about that from Ryan later.  

Garbage Pail kid # 1

Mural outside the Library

A building caught on fire near our hotel

One side effect of urban hiking - perma socks

When there is nothing else to do, there is always a jug of wine

These last couple days have been kind of weird.  We keep asking ourselves how this all happened so fast and Ryan keeps giving me Kansas City weather updates. I'm not ready for snow. Don't get me wrong, I am really excited to see everyone, but it seems like just yesterday we were getting out of the cab in a very authentic part of Lima at Casa Ana's.  Ryan's little bald head was looking at me like, "what the hell have you gotten us into," while simultaneously threatening to book us a flight home.

Yep that's the one

We've come a long way since then and even though my husband has kicked and screamed figuratively and at times literally, for most of the way, I can't imagine spending 24 hours a day 7 days a week with anyone else.  What an incredible ride.  We board our flight for Miami in 5 hours. How the hell did that happen? We love you and we'll see you all soon!

[sinovicadventures]

Buenos Aires y Iguazu

We loved Santiago and we had heard nothing but great things about Buenos Aires so when we landed in BA after another short flight from a less than official aiport in Trelew we were ready to go.

Our first Bed and Breakfast - bonus, it's not a dorm. 

The guy that owned the B&B was nice. He put us in the double room that was inspired by the Beetlejuice movie and next to the one bathroom for the entire building, so that was good. I mean other than listening to travelin folk use the toilet it was nice. 

He also made one of the richest most sugar filled breakfasts we have eaten down here. 

This is some place I thought looked cool. I think Claire is annoyed that I am taking another picture. 

These bendy trees were everywhere. 

We are both Italian so I took this photo. 

We got off the plan in the huge Metropolitan airport, walked to the window and saw a big ol river of brown water with garbage floating in it.

Breathtaking. 

I should say that BA is beautiful. It is filled with history, jam packed with people, culture and nightlife and incredible tango and architecture. 

That being said, the city is gross. I'm sorry if you are from here or are one of the many people that told us tales of the beautiful city in Argentina, but I stepped on a diaper filled with business on our way to the waterfront one day. 

A DIAPER. 

I can let an isolated diaper step go, but had my wife not been her ever attentive self calling out diapers, prophylactics and dog/human - yes human - poop in the street so I wouldn't walk through them this would not have been an isolated incident. 

So I am sorry people of BA and those in our lives that have such deep admiration for you. 

As I said, you are beautiful and historic and wee had a great time but call a meeting and deal with the diapers.

It wasn't just the trash that was overwhelming, it was the smog. Claire and I like to walk in these cities, so we can see the city, save some money and get some form of exercise in. 

But here, in the streets of BA, our legs and faces turned black from the smog after days of walking around - and it was smog not diaper business, we checked. 

Anyway, on our first day, after finding our hostel, we went to the zoo because Claire and I are both masochists. 

We both don't like the zoo. My wife in particular brings wire cutters and tries to free the animals each time we go. The days we spend in zoos consist of us walking around, judging people for contributing to these poor animals confinement. But what happens every time we see a zoo? I open my mouth, and like a child beg to go in. It is me and my fellow four year olds shaking the bars outside the zoo crying to enter until our parents (or wife) break.

This was our third zoo on this trip and our last. I no longer have interest in hearing myself complain about the  conditions or stopping Claire from chaining herself to the malnourished animals cages. 

I will spare all of you photos and just show you the best part of the zoo in BA. For those of you not fluent in Spanish this means "this zoo is a terrible place."

Day two in Buenos Aires we tried to catch the free walking tour but could not figure out where they started. We went to the place where it said to meet. This was outside a museum where a creepy mannequin was sitting on a plank. 

We couldn't find the tour and were tired of sitting in a McDonalds in order to use their free WiFi, so we left and went to an historic cemetery in BA. This place was pretty cool, massive and in the middle of the city. 

I wish I had the attention span to tell you what our tour guide was saying about all these photos below but all I can tell you is that one is Ava Perone/Evita. I kept wandering off, thinking maybe I should have gotten an ice cream cone at McDonalds while Claire listened. 

She is the one with the attention span in our relationship. Surprise...

This is some boxer.

This is the lady that gave our tour. She was really great even though I retained exactly one thing that she said. 

This is Ava Perone's tomb. She is buried under a few trap doors to protect her from grave robbers.

You should google this place or ask Claire about it (not me), It is nuts.

We ended up eating a great lunch at an Italian deli and then, because I was so good at the cemetery, Claire said we could go to a movie. We saw Boyhood and even though I pouted when I thought I was going to have to read subtitles, we both had a great time (and it was in English).

I was very happy.

After returning home from the movie we were beat and went to bed. The next day I wanted to walk to the nature reserve in town which was 17 kms rountrip from our hostel. 

The walk was weird. This is where the diaper was and the streets looked like New Years Eve had just been celebrated the night before. I checked and it was the end of January so this place was just gross on it's own.

That and for a good mile of the walk, there was nothing but mannequin stores and towels. 

We did get to see the place where Evita gave that one speech. 

The reserve was cool. We saw the entrance and then moved on.

I'm sure it was nice but it was hot and I was cranky.

A bunch of other stuff was cool to look at. Again, if you have questions about this stuff and what it is please ask my wife. If you want to know how many ice cream stores we passed, I am open for your questions.

That night, after our four hour urban hike, we decided to go out for dinner. 

We ended up at an Israeli restaurant and had a really great traditional dish that consisted of a red like spaghetti sauce and two fried eggs on top. 

It was good. What wasn't good about this meal was our newfound friend we met while eating. 

Our server's name was Daria, she was very friendly, young and terrible at her job. Halfway through our meal she decided to sit down and just start talking to us about her life. In the process of talking to us about her life she decided to ask about us. We told her where we were from, what we were doing and that we had just gotten married.

"Married?" she said. "But you are so young, so very, very young." We have both been told this a lot so we laughed and Claire said "well Daria how old do you think Ryan is?"

She immediately said "30." To which we said "yeah that is almost exactly right. What made you say 30, we thought you were going to say younger than that."

To which Daria laid this gem on me "well your face looks young, but your hairs, your hairs they look old...." Pointing to my power alleys.

We are not friends with Daria anymore.

Here is a photo of the sign of that place and nothing more on this.

After spending the rest of the evening looking into hair transplants and telling Claire that when I buy a toupe she is just going to have to deal with the stares, we decided to go to bed.

We left that superficial neighborhood the next morning and walked down to our new Air B&B. We finally had a whole apartment to ourselves so it was great. We spent most of the day just relaxing, looking up tickets to a tango show. We decided to go see there version of a Broadway tango show and it was actually really good. I could not for the life of me tell you what it was about but it had some cirque de sole stuff so it was pretty cool. 

We ended up switching places the next day because the place we were in had bugs and the ac units flooded the place. 

The last couple of days in BA were fine. We went to the seventh circle of hell, the San Telmo market, where I lost 10 lbs in water weight from the heat and bought some things and ate at a good veggie restaurant.

We left the BA with an appreciation for it's history and culture and with a new found gratitude that we are both up to date on our vaccines. 

Iguazu has been on Claire's must see list since even before we decided on South America so we jumped at the chance to fly up there for our last stop in Argentina.

Before heading up, we booked another Air B&B. The place had a description that mad it sound like an amazing little jungle hut, with homemade smoothies and a relaxing atmosphere.

What we got was a mother daughter team that accused us of stealing their umbrella and a jungle theme room. 

This is the place. It is one of those occasions where should just go ahead and judge this book by the cover, because the contents of this book are ROUGH and smell like cabbage. The picture below really doesn't do what I am saying justice, but trust me, it was no bueno.

Again, Claire will tell you that this place was majestic (although that may have changed since they accused us of umbrella theft) but I can still smell it.

Our shower was heated by a live wire that fed directly into our shower head. If the power was out there were no showers. Apparently this is something that Jennifer Kongs has experienced. My condolences. 

The town is nothing special. I mean it has it's charm but it's charm scammed us at dinner one one night, a process I again threateningly documented much to Claire's delight. 

This winner served us some of the worst food we have had down here. I told him this photo was going to be posted ON EVERY REVIEW SITE and that we would not be back. You can tell I got to him. 

Claire was pleased. 

The park was breathtaking. I have 0 complaints about this place and everyone should see this if they have the opportunity. 

Leaving Iguazu was great, the town not the falls. We flew out of an airport that was a small brick house where the power kept going out and into Montevideo.

Claire arranged for us to hitch, yes hitch, a ride with a few locals to our next stop in Punta del Diablo. I still have all my organs so we made it there successfully. 

That's it for now. Home in two weeks. 

[sinovicadventures]

A tea service in a Welsh town...in Argentina

While planning this trip, I had read about this little Welsh town in Argentina called Gaiman.  Naturally, with the last name of Evans, I had to see what it was all about.  Turns out the town is really tiny and the thing to do there is have a tea service.   I didn't really know what a tea service was before experiencing one, but basically you get overcharged for a lot, like A LOT of mediocre pastries and breads and then drink unlimited large croche covered pots of tea until you think you may burst.  The tea house itself was pretty nice and it kind of reminded me of grandma and grandpa Evans' house.  Go figure.  So here it is in all it's glory, the tea service of Gaiman!

Ryan was super excited to be there.  Unsurprisingly, we were the only ones in the tea house taking our tea without sleeves.  Classy.  

Argentine and Welsh flags.  I'm assuming croeso means welcome since bienvenidos is above it. 

Inside

They brought everything out one at a time.  Jam was first.  I told Ryan that it is customary to wait until everything was out before eating or drinking anything. Really I have no idea if this is true, but it was fun to watch my husband try to be patient. 

Side eyeing the bread.

The cakes

When they finally stopped bringing everything out, it was really just an obscene amount of bread, sugar, cheese and jam for two people, and we felt pretty miserable when it was all said and done, but it was still a unique experience that we will probably never repeat.

Welsh dragon in the gift shop

More Welsh swag in the gift shop

Map of Wales

[sinovicadventures]

High school kids and broken toilets (Bariloche, Bolson and Puerto Madryn)

We made it back from the gates of hell in Southern Patagonia to the part of this region that we both really love, the Lake District.

It was beautiful in San Carlos De Bariloche. We landed in warm weather, shared a cab with a very lost, wide eyed German guy named Daniel who paid for our transport and were actually able to get a private room. This place was great, the town not the hostel. The Hostel was one of those places that liberally uses the star system. The place we stayed claimed two stars even though the carpet was stained, the bed wasn't exactly clean, the hot water knob fell off in the shower and the toilet sounded like an jet engine. This plus the owner was less than enthused about her life. To her credit, if I had to stay in this "2 star hostel" everyday, I would be hating life too. Again, Claire will probably put up a post calling me dramatic and saying it wasn't that bad but the hot water knob FELL OFF IN THE SHOWER like that was it's job and the carpet had stains that looked like the bathroom floor of a run down Fazzoli's. So just picture that when you read her description. This is the outside of our Hostel. If you look real close you can see the two stars that the owner drew on herself with a sharpie.

Public transportation in Bariloche was really easy. We took Pam Sinovic's worst nightmare everywhere, the public bus with locals. It was pretty easy to use and for the most part the people were great. We did have to sit by two Americans who were "riffing" really shitty songs out loud with each other for over an hour. Made me realize why people may not have the best opinion of the U.S.

We took the bus to two hikes while in Bariloche. One was a very relaxing walk through nature and one I thought my time had come and I was going to have to be air lifted off the side of a mountain. The first hike was a four hour loop up a few small mountain sides and across a few beautiful beaches.

After this easy hike we took the bus back to town and found a vegetarian restaurant that we ate at not once, not twice but three times. It was incredible AND the owner spoke English.

Those plates are just as full as they look. After a few weeks of Pizza and cheese sandwiches we enjoyed ourselves. The next day was low key. We walked to buy bus tickets to El Bolson and Puerto Madryn, I worked for most of the day and we walked all around town. This is a big church in the town. I did not have the patience to seek out the sign that tells you what it is.

We also bought cups for and had our first taste of Mate.

Mate (Mah-teh) is a drink that the people in Argentina are obsessed with. I am not being dramatic, I am not exaggerating, they walk around shaking, with their thermoses full of hot water looking for their next fix. Mate (dis-gus-ting) is a cup filled to the brim with ground Yerba Mate leaves that tastes like hair. I mean I imagine it actually tastes like grass that cows throw up and then eat for a second time but I haven't ever eaten that so I can't compare.

People down here have specific sets of rules for drinking the Mate - don't touch the straw (I touch the straw), don't say thank you (I say thank you), don't refuse Mate when offered (I am not drinking after some of these people, so I say no. They are very nice but I am just getting over my kennel cough.) Ignore most of what I am saying here if you happen to get a Mate cup as a gift from us. Surprise... After our laid back hike and rest day we thought it would be a good idea to do a really challenging hike so we looked into one that scaled the ridge of a mountain to Refugio Frey. We talked to the tourista guide woman, found our route and got on our bus to the ski town of Catedral. I should note that prior to this decision I had taken every cough and cold pill, syrup, and tablet in an attempt to kill the kennel cough the night before. And low and behold instead of curing the cough it made it so I couldn't sleep. At all. We started the extremely hard ridge hike that had a four hour ascent and 4 hour descent time with Claire skipping along excited to be alive and me cold sweating, yelling at strangers to go find help. After awhile into the hike and an hour or so deciding who I would put in my will outside of Claire and where to tell her to bury my body on the mountain, I started to feel better. I think I sweat out all of the cold medicine, because I was drenched. This hike was aggressive and up large boulders, through big streams and on all fours at times, but we made it.

We were in a daze when we got off the mountain that night. I was walking like a drunk toddler and Claire couldn't see straight. We rode the bus home in a daze, stopped by that vegetarian restaurant for a quick bite and had a celebratory bottle of wine to accompany my whining. We checked out of the "Hilton" the next day, said goodbye to our cheery hostess and got on a bus to the small hippy town of El Bolson. Claire read that the town is filled with happy people because the large mountain that overlooks the town puts off special ions in the air that make people happy. Having now been here and having now seen the amount of bongos, dreadlocks and unwashed masses on the streets, I can tell you what's filling the air and it's not ions. Our hostel was fine. The only issue that I had was that the mens room had two options for toilets. There was this technological marvel:

Where the seat, that was made out of the stuff used to wax bowling alleys, wasn't attached to the bowl. Every time I went to sit and I so much as exhaled, the seat would slide and I would dunk my cheeks. Then there was option B, the other wonder of the engineering world.

There is no back to the toilet in option B. The seat is fully attached, but there is no back. No big deal right? Wrong. It is a big deal if there is no knob to flush the water and instead a sign directing you to stick your hand in the back of the tank and yank the chain to flush. This water should be clean so no big deal right? Wrong again. This toilet was a special toilet, that somehow returned the dirty water to the back of the tank instead. No thanks. I spent the three days with wet cheeks. We shared a room with a 50 year old woman who wouldn't talk to Claire and I called Norma because I couldn't understand her. We spent our time touring a craft festival, hiking at Lago Puelo (where we made a great new friend named Merily from the states) and the Cerro of the local mountain and drinking lots of wine.

This is "ion" mountain.

We left Bolson and Bariloche and boarded this 15 hour death trap to the coast of Argentina. The ride wasn't terrible and I think my wife may have slipped me something to get me to fall asleep and leave her alone.

We woke up at a stop that we thought was Puerto Madryn our destination on the coast. We heard the brakes hit, the bus stop and we opened our window. This was the first thing we see at 6:30 in the morning.

That is what I assume to be a lady of the night and her gentleman friend who is covered in blood surrounded by two cop cars and a small gang of troubled youths. Claire (and I) were to say the least pleased when we felt the bus go in reverse. We had stopped in a hole in the wall called Trelew, not Puerto Madryn. We arrived in Puerto Madryn, found our hostel and checked into this week's dorm experience. This week's roommates were two actual high school guys that were on a senior break, who were very confused by our ages and who mocked Claire and I as we went to sleep. This is the outhouse (it smelled like one) that we shared with them.

We saw a lot of amazing wildlife on our trip to the Valdez Peninsula and our bike ride to Punta Loma. If you ever feel the urge to ride your bike to Punta Loma when you are down here just go find the softest, sandiest pebble covered beach, throw your bike on it, try and peddle without sinking while having Spanish speaking people throw dirt in your face and yell at you for 40 kms. Then look at a photo of a sea lion and you will have the same experience.

Puerto Madryn was a great last stop in Patagonia. We saw some wildlife, continued our bike tours and toured a great little beach town. We did have a power outage that left our block dark ten minutes before my day of conference calls leaving me running through the city with my laptop screaming like a crazy person for "Wifi, WIFI" and yelling "jesus christ" with Claire following trying to make sure I didn't get hit by a car. Other that that and the high school kids, this was great. We left this morning, saw a great sunrise and boarded another plane at a jank small town airport to Buenos Aires.

4 weeks to go.

[sinovicadventures]

The Silver Lining

Most of what Ryan said about Southern Patagonia is true with a few exaggerated Ryan elaborations of course. In true Claire fashion though, I feel the need to share a few positive experiences that we had on our time there. But first let me just say that much like the temperature outside, we unfortunately found the attitude of the people we encountered in Southern Patagonia to be cold. This was such a huge shock and let down for us, as we have met some truly amazing people on our journey. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush here, but it just seemed like the tourist industry has seriously jaded the towns we visited, making for less than pleasant human interactions. Fortunately for us though, the landscape was absolutely stunning. Torres Del Paine National Park has been on my bucket list since middle school I remember watching a documentary about it in geography class and thinking wow, that place looks freaking amazing! Seeing it with my own eyes was definitely a highlight of our trip and I wish these pictures could do it justice.

Torres Del Paine

TP

TP

TP On one of our days in Puerto Natales, we were sitting down to have a drink at a pizza place when a girl across the table overheard us talking in English. She asked us where we were from and it turns out she is from Kansas too! This was a pretty cool coincidence considering most of the people we tell we're from Kansas usually say something like, "What are you doing all the way out here?" It turns out that her family is in the military so she moved around a lot as a kid. One of her favorite places though is Kansas and specifically Overland Park, because thats where they shopped a lot. Gotta love OakPark Mall. She is currently stationed in Santiago through an exchange program with the air force. It was great to visit with her and hear all of her experiences she's had so far. Definitely a welcoming upside in the human interaction column for Southern Patagonia. Our next stop was El Calafate, Argentina. As Ryan mentioned our hostel was less than stellar and our roommates were, well 20 something year old partiers who smelled a little funky. As we lay in our self made bunk beds that first night, I hear this from across the room at 2:00am, "Claire, are you asleep yet?" Poor Ryan was like that nervous little kid at a sleep over. The house was dirty, the other kids were weird, and he just wanted to go home. I have to admit I felt the same and I really was concerned Pierre was going to drunk pee on me in the middle of the night. Not a Ryan exaggeration. Not to mention that I was the only woman in the room, so changing after my shower was an awkward game of hurry up and put your bra on under this towel before someone sneaks a peek. The silver lining, El Calafate is very close to Peitro Moreno Glacier which is magnificent and the town itself sits on one of the clearest lakes I've ever seen. All in all Southern Patagonia was not our favorite but here are a few more reasons why it was still pretty great: We got to play in a park after riding our bikes

We picked and ate wild berries

Ryan ate a lot of them

Glaciers are beautiful

We did a wine tasting with all Mabecs, which is my favorite

We found a license plate with Matt and Steph's wedding date

There are horses on the side of the road in beautiful green pastures

The water is turquoise

Everyone on our 6 hour bus from Puerto Natales, Chile to El Calafate, Argentina abided by this rule. If they wouldn't have, it would have been one smelly hiker's foot of a bus ride.

Ice cream still tastes good in freezing temperatures

Ryan feels better after shaving his beard. Doesn't he look happy?

[sinovicadventures]

Man buns, BO and pretentious attitudes

I've been sick for three weeks. There is no way I am going to get better anytime soon no matter what pill I take or what doctor I see. We are staying in the equivalent of kennels for humans down here. It's like everyone has been boarded at the vets office and developed kennel cough. Everyone is hacking and sneezing on each other. No good. We left Santiago, on a 12 hour bus on New Years day, not our finest moment but not the worst thing we could have done. As far as 12 hour bus rides go it was fine. We watched some movie about some actor that was at least half in English. We were in the front row of the bus too so there were no altercations between myself and people who reclined to far into our space. A bonus for Claire. I think I slept most of the way, either that or I blacked the terrible memory of the night bus. Either way I think it went smooth. We got to our new hostel which was nice. Our honeymoon package for our room came with two complimentary hoarders so we were excited!

This place was good and got better as the week went on. The first day we walked around, booked a boat ride in the bay and argued with a waitress at the breakfast place over the fact that she would not sub toast for bacon. The lake was/is incredible. Neither one of us had ever seen a lake this clear, this color and in this setting.

We made dinner that night and were in a crowd of people trying to cook dinner in a small cramped kitchen. One of the people that was trying to cook was a really awesome person named Debby from Germany who Claire and I got to know and really like. So much so that we cooked and shared meals with her for the next two days and told her we want to come visit in Germany. Debby is on the left in case some of you have problems and can't figure out who Claire is.

The next day we thought it would be a really good idea to rent bikes and ride to a local German town called Frutillar - partially true. This trek was 72 kms (45 miles) of mountain hills, rock - not gravel - but rock roads and insanely strong winds. The trek started out bad. The first 45 minutes were on a narrow rock/boulder path with a ditch on one side and railroad tracks on the other. I fell off my bike at this point and screamed, throwing our backpack like a child and then pouting for the next half an hour. I am a mature adult. The rest of the ride was beautiful and horrible. I never want to be on hills that big again unless I am being towed behind someone else's bike in one of those baby wagons. I am still walking like I have a full loaded diaper and now need one of those soft toilet seats to sit down. However, the ride and town in the middle of the ride were great.

The next day was by far one of the best things that we have done on our trip. Claire and I went canyoning which is basically like whitewater rafting except without the raft. We hiked up a mountain and jumped off water falls and floated/swam down the mountainside until we got to a huge waterfall that we repelled down and I jumped off of. For some reason, a lot of the footage was deleted off the GoPro so there is not documentation of the final jump unless we can get the files recovered off the disk. I do however have some nice hillbilly teeth to go with my gringo accent now. Enjoy looking into my mouth. you can sort of tell but I ripped the front side of one of my teeth off and took a hunk out of another.

On that final jump I forgot to have my jaw tight and on impact, smacked my teeth together causing two to chip. I am continuing to represent the United States well. Waterfall that we repelled down, jumped off of and that claimed parts of my teeth.

Waterfall we went backwards over.

Claire in the water.

Claire and I in the water.

We have a few videos too but they will make you nauseous. We tried holding the GoPro like the guide and it did not turn out well. The final day in Puerto Varas we did nothing except walk around the town and ice my butt. We left that Tuesday to go to a place that Claire and I have always wanted to go, Southern Patagonia. After a quick ride to another sketchy small airport where they didn't check tickets and let me through security with a water bottle the size of my thigh, we jumped on a plan to Punta Arenas, one of the southern most cities in The world. Punta Arenas was fine. We went from the airport to the bus station to buy an immediate ticket to Puerto Natales which is the city closest to the national park we wanted to tour. While we were there we got a sandwich for really cheap that was delicious at a local coffee shop. I, as usual, inhaled my food because it was so good. On our way out of the shop I clearly was zoned out and still hungry because as Claire was paying I eyed some locals sandwich and audibly in her direction said "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." to which the lady's mouth dropped open and then she laughed. That is an appropriate amount of m's for my awkward drool slur at the local woman's sandwich - it was long and weird. Claire may have been embarrassed. After another 3 hour bus ride we made it to Puerto Natales and our new hostel Yagan House. We were very excited to finally be here and get our plans underway for Torres del Paine and then we were greeted by this apathetic teen at our hostel.

Yes I took a picture. I have been openly threatening people who I feel cross Claire and I with negative reviews that I will accompany with the offender's photo - in this case sunshine here. She was over us from the minute we walked in and wanted nothing to do with helping us plan our trip. We ended up booking our day trip to the park through another hostel in town. Our room at this hostel smelled like someone had been stirring old indian food with a sweaty tennis shoe. I luckily had a cold so didn't have to experience it the same way Claire did. The breakfast here however was great. We left for the park early on day two where we did a mix of busing and hiking of the W circuit in the park. We had originally planned on hiking and camping but the refugios and camp spots were full and we didn't want to rent all the equipment. That plus the park/town/entirety of southern Patagonia seemed to be filled with man buns, BO, and pretentious attitudes. Don't know what a man bun is? It's this:

And the park is littered with them and bad attitudes. No thanks. All kidding aside, the park was incredible and the 12 hour day of hiking and busing around was well worth the interactions with all the unwashed self proclaimed world philosophers. Everyone wanted to tell us how the park was so majestic - it was - and how it spoke to them. I could hear the park too, it said buy a speed stick and cut your hair.

I am speaking in broad terms when describing the people. They weren't all terrible and Claire and I will definitely be back hopefully bringing a few of you with us to do the full 5 day hike of the W circuit. We booked a bus out of town to El Calafate Argentina the next day. It was definitely worth the trip to the park and I wish we would have had our own gear and places to camp for the trek. If you are planning on making it down here and don't want to sell a kidney to pay for your trek, make sure to book at least 6 months out. Here's a little pro-tip for all of you wanting to take the bus for 6 hours from Puerto Natales Chile into El Calafate Argentina. Make sure you step in a big pile of dog shit before boarding the bus. This way you are the one that smells literally like crap for the duration of the trip. Claire was again embarrassed.

Yes that is poop on my shoe because yes, I wasn't paying attention and stepped in shit even though Claire tried to warn me. In my defense, the streets are literally paved with poop from strays and probably from a few of the man buns too. We arrived in El Calafate late and made our way to our hostel, Hostel del Glacier.

This place was a hole. I know I say that about most of the places we stay but this place was bad. We got in and the guy showed us to our room, but not before handing us sheets to make our own beds. We got in the room and one of our roommates was passed out and the other was wasted and offering us his half eaten food and left over water. The front desk guy showed us the two "available" beds, in different bunk stacks, and one was covered in clothes, food and hippy dirt. I told the owner, "no you are out of your f'ing mind, we won't be sleeping on that, it is not clean", to which he said "yes, yes it is clean" after a few rounds of yelling and thinly veiled threats he cleaned the bed and let me put an extra layer of sheets on it to sleep. Claire spent the night hopping that Pierre in the top bunk above her didn't drunk pee the bed and I spent most of the night sobbing into my pillow contemplating where my life had led me that night (we didn't fall asleep until 3). The next morning was no better. It seems as Pierre was leaving at 530 in the morning to go on his all day trek, he decided to leave his phone in his locked locker with his alarm on. That sucker went off for two hours. Two straight hours and there was nothing we could do about it except try and kick the locker in and maybe almost get my arm stuck while trying to wedge it through a crack in the door. After two hours of sleep and showering in our prison shower that was in the middle of the room along with the toilet, we left to go rent bikes and make our way around Lago Argentino.

The lake was a turquoise green that was so beautiful it almost knocked you off your bike or maybe that was the crazy powerful wind. When we got back and Pierre had destroyed the toilet and he and the other drunk roommate were speaking in hashtags (never ok). We decided that we had had enough of Southern Patagonia and booked our ticket to leave to head back to the lake district. First, we made sure we hiked around and saw the main feature of this area, the Perito Moreno Glacier. This was an incredible sight and sound to be in the presence of. I highly recommend seeing a glacier in everyone's lifetime.

After this, we hoped a plane and headed up to Bariloche. which is amazing.

We are now in a two star Hostel, which is nice, but I don't think the star system means the same here as it does in the states. I think two stars may stand for days without an infection or number of rooms without bedbugs. It is much nicer than our last place though that is for sure. More soon.

[sinovicadventures]

Santiago Thoughts

Probably one of my favorite cities that I have been to not just on this trip but ever. The city feels like a lazy Chicago/New York. I'm not necessarily calling the people lazy (they could pick up the pace when they walk) but everything in Santiago just seems more relaxed. Claire covered most of this stuff in her post so these are just some additional things that happened. This photo below is street underwear for the ladies.

Not just any street underwear but yellow street underwear that is sold on every corner of every street in Santiago. At first I thought this was for the forgetful women of Santiago who leave the house in such a hurry that they only later realize on the subway that they have gone commando. Or maybe these underway are there for emergency situations when you can't find a bano and need to swap for a fresh pair. If you are reading this and think I am being ridiculous thinking that someone may need a fresh pair of undies on the streets of Santiago I have news for you, it is an actual issue. Not to overshare (but I am going to) I almost pooped my pants twice on the streets looking for a free bano and Claire had issues as well. It's a problem and having a pair of clean underwear within arms reach may have very well come in handy. They say that the yellow underwear is for people to wear on New Years Eve so that they will get lucky. I think if you are trying to get lucky on New Years Eve maybe don't lead with "I'm wearing street underwear." One of the days we were here we hiked the San Cristobal hill, the highest point in Santiago. The views were beautiful and the hike was good. I bring this up because on this hike I received my second terrible sunburn of the trip because if there is one thing I do not do (ask my wife) is learn. I hate bro tanks. Not a fan, never have been. So why, why did I pack FOUR on this trip and why do I continue to wear them on these hikes. I now have a permanent burnt bro tank that I cannot and will not ever escape. (this photo is from burn one. There will not be a photo of any future burns)

This is a view from the top of the hill.

This is a view from the back of a guys dreaded out rat tail at the top of the hill.

This is a great shot of Claire on the top of the hill.

When we got to the top of the hill we noticed there was a bike race going on and a sign for Dove Men's products (the sponsor of the event). After further investigation I realized that they were giving away free samples to race participants, so being the grandchild of Carl Sinovic, I pulled Claire further up the hill to make her stand in line with me to get my free deodorant samples. Nevermind that I wasn't in the race or that we had to hike even further up this hill out of our way and wait in a long line. The deodorant was free and I am Carl Sinovic's grandson. My only regret is that we didn't wait until the staff changed so that we could go through the line again.

The streets in Santiago and in Valparaiso are covered in street art. Every building in the area that we were staying in had some sort of really beautiful artwork covering the buildings.

Our first hostel, the really sweet dormitory, was actually great. And by great I mean the people we met there were great. The place could have been nice but it was dirty, had one "official" roll of toilet paper that got passed around the house and had dishes that I told Claire I am convinced were covered in Hepatitis. It came with the added bonus of double showers in the morning. What's a double shower? It's when you take your first shower, turn the water off and are still getting wet/showered from the upstairs women's shower through a rusty hole in the floor. Bonus...

The people were great though. The front desk guy was a really overly dramatic Frenchman who got so excited anytime another English was at the hostel. His voice sounded like a pre pubescent Kermit the frog. One morning he ran into the room of an English speaking couple, woke them up and brought the husband down to meet me proclaiming that it was his dream for us to meet. The guy and his wife were actually a really cool couple from Chicago so it ended up being ok. The Frenchman was just a weird dude. He is the guy in White in this photo. I took this without him knowing because I didnt want him to get excited that we were taking his picture.

We met really funny people from Switzerland and Sweden who told us horror stories from the bus and one guy named Erik who would "translate" the Spanish for Claire that people were speaking around her. Only later did we/she realize that he was making stuff up and not actually translating what the people were saying. That is him in the blue.

The subway system was easy to figure out and quick. It was relatively clean and only occasionally smelled like air conditioned diapers. However, for someone who doesn't like to be in very close proximity with strangers it can be trying. If you like having other people breathe directly in your mouth then by all means, ride mass transit. I actually would really like if this came to Kansas City, I would just prefer for Claire and I to be the only ones on it.

This is a less crowded day. I didn't want to pull my phone out in a packed house and get shanked for it.

We did go to Valparaiso one day and it was beautiful. We walked around, toured a museum and had some really great local beer. We also went to this restaurant in Valparaiso and when we walked in we were each handed a menu. We sat down, and started to look over the food options. I kept telling Claire that all of it looked great and was telling her what I think she would like. She was confused as to how I was all of a sudden reading everything so well. It's because they gave her, who they assumed to be local, the Spanish menu and gave her dumb gringo husband the English menu. I'm telling you she has everyone fooled until she talke to them (although both our Spanish speaking abilities are improving). Claire with her Spanish menu.

Me with my Gringo menu.

New Years was also fun. I have never, nor have I ever wanted to, be in such a crowded place on New Year's Eve. This was pretty great though. Between 500k and 1 million Chileans (I didn't get a full head count) in the streets of Santiago cheering, excited and having a good time. We felt totally safe except for when I tried to pee in a shady alley. The only downside was that right before midnight people in the crowd started opening up umbrellas and the man next to me, whom I thought had brought champagne to drink, started shaking the bottle. Then everyone started spraying everyone with everything when the clock hit midnight. It was actually pretty cool even even though I am sure there is a law against spraying babies with booze (many people had babies on their shoulders).

Claire covered most all the rest in her post so I will stop now. Other than reliving dorm life and almost catching hep from the dishes at our first hostel, Santiago was a great city and one everyone should try and make it to if they can.

We are in Puerto Varas now, back in a luxury suite enjoying our romance package with our two German roommates who have both been on hoarders.

[sinovicadventures]

Santiago so far

After spending Christmas at hostel de Radisson in Iquique, we hit the road again or actually the air and flew to Santiago. Yeah, we’re really roughin’ it. The Iquique airport is the smallest airport I’ve ever been in. The lady who printed our tickets, without checking our passports, was the same person who took our tickets as we boarded the plane. We did go through somewhat of a ‘security’ checkpoint but it was not being manned by anyone. We put our bags through a tunnel, literally a tunnel. I really don’t think it had an x-ray machine attached to it and there was no need to take our shoes off or get our liquids out. Top notch security. I thought the plane ride was great. We got snacks and I had plenty of room. Ryan was uncomfortable due to the lack of leg room.

Very suspicious of the lack of security. A very nice and clean airport though

This guy was farting the entire flight and of course Ryan was not quite about letting everyone around us know that “Something smells really bad!” Also please notice the seat to person proximity. Not much room for the average human. Ryan says he would have preferred the 35 hour bus ride, but I really don’t want to be anywhere near Ryan Sinovic after a 35 hour anything that involves cramped spaces and no wifi to distract him. I’ll take the 2 hour whining flight with smelly men and no leg room any day!

And besides who doesn’t like getting off a plane and unloading straight onto the runway!? I think it’s kind of fun.

Our taxi driver from the airport to our hostel was really nice. He got a little lost on the way so he stopped the meter, asked for directions, and gave us a discounted rate since he took a bit to find our place. He also stopped in the midst of all of this to give money to a homeless man, which I’ve never seen a cab driver do before.

In the beginning of our ride, Ryan thought we may be getting scammed so just in case he snapped a photo so we could show the police. Rule number one of being a Sinovic: Trust no one.

We made it to our hostel in one piece, surprise, surprise, and checked into our 4 person dorm. I know this doesn’t sound ideal, but it actually wasn’t so bad. The hostel overall had the appearance of being very nice and the fellow travelers we met there were amazing. All three nights we spent there, we visited with everyone in the little common area. The place had a few quirks about it though that were really just kind of gross. A few examples: None of the shared dorm bathrooms had a toilet paper role in them for longer than an hour. We joked with our fellow hostel mates that there was an official hostel role being passed around. 4 of the 4 women’s toilets were broken leaving me to have Ryan guard the door to the men’s room when I had to pee. We washed our dishes with laundry detergent. There was no dish soap. And my personal favorite, the 3rd floor women’s shower would leak into the 2nd floor men’s shower. We stayed on the second floor which means Ryan showered in the 2nd floor men’s room…you get the idea.

View from the 3rd floor looking down into the common area

2nd floor men’s shower

Why yes, that hanging wooden statue located in the breakfast nook is exactly what you think it is. Just another quirky addition

cooking in the kitchen

Ryan makes the best eggs!

A scrambled egg veggie taco feast for two!

On our first day in Santiago we decided to do the 4 hour free walking tour. I highly recommend doing this when you arrive in any new city if it is offered. It was a great way for us to get our bearings and we learned some interesting historical facts about the city that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise known. Allow me to butcher that knowledge here as I attempt to remember what our guide told us.

The presidential palace - where she works not where she lives

Statue of famous 1970’s socialist president. His name is in the photo so feel free to google him if you want to know more. I will definitely tell the story wrong if I try, but the CIA was involved. Pretty interesting stuff.

Christmas tree made of dolls in Plaza de Armas. All towns established by Spain have a Plaza de Armas. If the city were ever under attack, the men would flock to the city where the guns were stored, collect their arms and defend.

Largest Chilean flag in Chile or maybe it’s the largest in Santiago. Either way this thing is massive!

Statue of the man who founded Santiago. I don’t remember his name, but his mistress’ name is Esmerelda. There is a street named after her.

Not part of the walking tour, but as a Hunger Game fan, I took a photo anyway

Also not included in the walking tour, but I thought it was ironic since Ryan and I told each other to keep our eyes peeled for Vegetarian restaurants. This definitely is not one.

Our first night we decided to walk around the neighborhood we were staying in which is called Bellavista. The area reminds us a lot of Westport as it is artsy and bars and restaurants line the streets. We decided to sit down at one of the little sidewalk bars and enjoy the street performers that walk from stall to stall doing a performance, collecting their tips, and then move down the way to the next bar.

Street musicians

We meant to order a local Chilean beer but ended up with a Heineken. This language barrier thing is still a bit tricky.

On our many walks around town, we stumbled upon a radio station which was apparently sponsored by coco cola. It was kind of strange because we just walked in and looked around. The guard at the front was distracted by his iphone so didn’t bother to tell us we probably weren’t allowed to come in.

Coke FM

Wall made of coke cans

At the suggestion of our walking tour guide, we decided to check out Mercado Central, a huge fish market, and try paila marina, which is a boiling clay pot of fish parts, muscles, and clams. Like all the fish parts. I’m talking eye balls, hearts, innards, everything! Ryan gobbled his up, but I only ate a bit of mine. It actually tasted pretty good, but I couldn’t get past the gritty, rubbery texture all the parts had going on. Ryan felt a little sick afterwards. He claimed the fish had reassembled in his stomach and was trying to swim out of him. He is always so subtle.

The entrance. Is everything sponsored by coke?

Excited to eat some fish parts!

Probably the last time I’ll ever eat Paila Marina

In addition to a walking tour, barging in on coke fm, and eating fish parts, we also tried our hand at the metro aka subway system and made our way out to the Cousino Macul Winery for a tour and tasting. This was probably my favorite day in Santiago so far. It was cool to tour the winery and who doesn’t like the tasting part? We also met a couple from London who also happen to be vegetarians. What are the odds! We hit it off and made plans to meet for dinner and drinks that night. He had been to Pakistan and Croatia and she was an environmental scientist! Great company to spend a night in Santiago with.

Please notice the thick yellow line instructing all metro riders to stand behind. Of course he would.

Entrance to the winery

Our glasses just waiting to be filled with delicious wine. mmmm!

Massive wine barrels. 6,000 Liters!

The entire wine cellar was made of brick and the mortar was made of egg whites.

room where they make the wine

inside of one of the containers that makes the wine…not sure of the technical term

Old stencils from when the winery used mark the shipping crates by hand and only ship to a select few locations outside of Chile

Look what or rather where we found!

Rows and rows of smaller barrels

The owners private collection of over 150,000 different wines from all over the world!

Good thing we were coming to the end of our tour. Ryan was getting bored and staring to wander

The best part. Salud!

The same day as our winery tour, we stopped in at Vega Central for some lunch. Vega Central is the main fruits and veggie market in Santiago and a great place to get a super cheap lunch.

entrance to Vega Central

If you’re lucky, it may also be a good place to become famous! While we were waiting for our food, a camera crew came in and started interviewing people at random tables. We have no idea who this guy is but he must have been pretty famous because everyone was snapping photos and getting autographs. After host interviewed a few locals he came over to us! To make this story better let’s just say we were on the Santiago version of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and we were interviewed by the Chilean version of Guy Fieri! At first he spoke to us entirely in Spanish and we must have looked like a deer in head lights (unfortuantely those head lights happens to be the camera) but don’t worry I saved the day once again with my stellar Spanish by saying “lo siento no hable ingles.” Yes, I know I got nervous on camera and said, I’m sorry we don’t speak english. I meant Spanish! Ryan still has not let me live that one down. Luckily, Chilean Guy Fieri knew what I meant and spoke English. He went on to ask us how we liked Santiago so far, what we ordered to eat, and why we were in Chile. He also gave us some great tips for New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, we still have no idea what program we were on, but with some luck you may be able to find us on Youtube under dumb gringa claims to not speak English but then speaks English. Worth a try anyway.

Chilean Guy Fieri making his entrance

sitting down for some lunch after he interviewed us. I’m sure he was exhausted and a little confused.

Stay tuned for for the rest of our adventures in Santiago including, our hike up San Cristobal Hill which felt like a paved mountain, our day trip to Valparaiso, and Ryan’s take on Santiago, all coming soon!

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The commentary leading up to this photo series was a back and forth between Ryan and I where he just HAD to go look over that big rock that we had seen waves crashing over and I advised against it. As you can see, my advice was not taken. Sometimes it feels really good to say I told you so :)

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Iquique

We left our Hostel in Arica this morning and that place was by far the best we have stayed....until today. Our Hostel in Arica was run by a couple named Jenny and Nico and it was right on the beach. What really made it great though was that every morning Jenny would get up and cook everyone in the hostel breakfast which is way better than the rolls with jam you get at other hostel. I kid you not, I have had more rolls with jam and nothing else for breakfast than an inmate. Anyway, we left our hostel this morning after eating a fresh fruit parfait and french toast -

Walked down to the bus station and waited to board our TurBus to Iquique on the worlds 5th most dangerous road. A little fact Claire did not tell me until after we arrived in Iquique. The bus was fine. Some lady boarded it at one of our 15 stops and sold Claire and I empanadas. They were good. Here is Claire with the Empanadas while a woman who talks in her sleep is passed out in the background.

We got to town after rolling down the death road, past a huge sand dune shaped like a dragon and took a cab to our hostel. It's a local place, you may have heard of it. It's called the Radisson, it has hot water that isn't heated by the sun, climate controlled room, clean bed, and an ice machine. I need a break from communal living, dorm showers and every backpacker thinking they are John Mayer playing the guitar until two in the morning in the hopes that they score with the German girl. I'm thirty one years old. I shouldn't be sleeping in a dorm and wearing shoes in the shower. No mas.

We had our complimentary drink on the patio that overlooks the beach. This is the shot from our window.

We spent an hour walking to a place for dinner where I KNOW we got scammed. The scenery is incredible here.

We are taking surf lessons and going to a duty free zone by the dunes tomorrow. Then Friday we fly, yes fly to Santiago because the bus is 30 HOURS. That is non stop and a total of 10 Spanish movies with SPANISH subtitles because I must have done something really wrong in a past life. Speaking of I must have done something wrong in a past life, I have been told we are going to have our first 6 person dorm experience in Santiago....really pumped for that.

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Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley, and a few side notes

For all the hype that surrounds this wonder of the world, it could have been a major let down, but as promised it truly was magnificent. There are several ways to do this trip but ours was a 2 day 1 night deal with our overnight being in a touristy trap of a town named Aguas Calientes. Our journey began in Cusco at 7:30am when we met up with James, our “travel agent.” I’m pretty sure we over paid him for his service, but at the time it seemed like a pretty good deal or maybe our brains were just overwhelmed from the altitude change from Lima to Cusco. The morning of our trip we met up with James at one of the churches in Cusco. While we were waiting for James who is never late, but was late, we watched as the Cusco city police assembled what looked like a stage. I sneaky snapped some shots of them here.

Yes, that kid is touching a gun.

I got super nervous and moved closer to the church with a plan to use this huge door as a shield just in case the thing went off.

When James showed up, we walked with him to the bus meeting spot. Which turned out to be the wrong spot. On to the real pick up spot then! This all added to the fact that, as Ryan mentioned, we were sure we were being ripped off. My thoughts were that he probably made some shady back ally deals and the tour would be a little sketchy. Ryan will tell you he was going to sell us. After finally getting picked up by the bus, which was actually a van, we picked up a few more gringos and were off to the sacred valley. This turned out to be a really good tour as our guide was very knowledgeable.

We stopped at 2 different ruins, one in Pisac and one in Ollantaytambo and at the latter, we hopped on a train that took us to Aguas Calientes. The Sacred Valley Ruins were beautiful! we spent about an hour at each and then went down to the little village markets that sat at the bottom of each town.

village market

We stopped for a little Empanada de Queso snack. So fresh and hard to beat for 1 sole.

piglets with their momma

piglet crossing

Ryan looking a bit European with my bag

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Ruins

Can you spot the face?

While we were waiting for our train, I thought I should snap a quick photo of these purses. I am in Llama purse heaven here in Peru! They’re everywhere. I haven’t bought one yet, but it’s still early.

After exploring the Sacred Valley ruins, we rolled into Aguas Calientes via train. This was probably the nicest mode of transportation we’ve taken thus far. Drinks and snacks were included and the scenery was beautiful!

Train pulling in

Once in Aguas Calientes, every street we turned down had restaurants advertising happy hour at all hours of the day/night and selling pizza familiar and hamburgers and unfortunately, everything was super expensive.

Aguas Calientes

The night we spent there was pretty frustrating. Our search for a good, cheap, vegetarian meal, was pretty much impossible. Not the veg part just the cheap one. Since we wanted to be on the first bus up to Machu Picchu, which departs at 5:30am, we folded and split a pizza familiar which tasted like they put ketchup on bread with some cheese. Yum. On the plus side though, Aguas Calientes happens to sit at about 1,000 meters below Cusco in elevation, so Ryan and I had the best nights sleep in Peru to date. It was marvelous! I also decided that since we’d be in the sun for 8 hours the next day, I needed to shield my already burnt face. I bought this beauty and let me tell you, it will probably prove to be my smartest buy of the whole trip.

The next day Ryan and I joined everyone and their mom at 5:30am in a race to the first bus up. Even through the line was long, there turned out to be several busses going at once so we didn’t have to wait long.

The first hour or so of our time at Machu Picchu was probably my favorite. The air was crisp, the place is huge so everyone could spread out giving the illusion of it not being crowded, and the white puffy clouds that continuously rolled in and out were unreal.

MP

MP

MP

MP

MP

Llama!

MP

Llama!

After an hour or so of exploring on our own we tried to meet up with a guide that James had arranged for us. In short, it was not our favorite experience and our time with the guide only lasted about 15 minutes. Our group consisted of a very eclectic mix of people (one woman wearing heels) and a guide that was very enthusiastically reading facts out of a book. We decided to go it alone and I think me made the right choice. In addition to exploring Machu Picchu we also opted to make the 3 hour round trip hike up Montana. Let me break here a moment and give you all a sample of ryanisms that I had the pleasure of hearing as we hiked up this beautiful and yes I’ll admit it, challenging mountain. “Claire just go on and leave me here to die.” “Why didn’t the Incas put in a paved road instead of all these damn steps!” “If I break my leg maybe they’ll just helicopter me out of here and I won’t have to walk.” And my personal favorite, “Do you think there is a restaurant at the top of this thing?” It was a magical 3 hours that ended with these views, which made it all worth it.

Steep stairs on the way up

Even steeper stairs

Cool fungi

Cool hat

We made it!

View from the clouds

Always enthusiastic….even when in the clouds

Ps - there is not a restaurant at the top, but for anyone who is planning on visiting Machu Picchu, I advise that you pack a lunch or at least snacks and water. There are signs everywhere saying that you can’t bring in food or drink, but no one checks your bag and even the park rangers were eating snacks they brought in. But remember to take all your trash with you!

Please see all of our photos from Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley on our Facebook pages to get your full fix!

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Cusco

Before we do this post I want to make sure I make note that I am actually enjoying myself. Claire and I were talking to Katelyn, a good friend of ours, and she pointed out that I do not sound or look happy. I am. We left Casa Ana in Lima and got ready to head to Cusco. Our same driver arrived to pick us up and only twice did Claire and I think we were taken to be murdered. We go to the airport and looked for our gate and couldn't find it. Apparently in Peru they like to assign the gate for your flight at the exact same time you are supposed to be boarding, just to make sure everyone flying is panicking, running around looking for someone who speaks English that can explain what is happening. We found our gate, got on the plane and were amazed. It's not that we were expecting overturned crates for seats and dirt flooring (at least Claire wasn't) but this plane was nice!

At least it was nice in comparison to the dump truck we flew on to Lima from Miami. Claire had hair in her pillow, the seats were sticky and there were tube tv's hanging from the ceiling. Claire and I were also excited because the flight was filled with English speaking people heading to Cusco. We ended up sitting in the middle of an elderly group that was on their way to climb Machu Picchu. These older English speaking travelers, specifically this man sitting behind me, decided to represent America well by telling the plane that "all Chinese people smell like gravy." Priceless, racist information that will no doubt be useful in the future.

The flight was easy and when we arrived we were picked up by the hostel. After driving for about ten minutes we got into the side streets of Cusco and realized quickly that one, my Aunt Doll in Chicago missed her calling as a Peruvian cab driver and two, that we were on two way streets that were supposed to fit two cars and pedestrians, even though they barely fit one car. We checked into our new hostel which was at first glance an improvement on Casa Ana as our room had windows thus missing that prison cell charm of our first room. We got settled in, booked our trip to Machu Picchu with a guy from our hostel that used to work illegally in the United States. If this sounds shady its because it was. I am here writing this blog so we are alive and everything went very smooth but that did not stop us from thinking that "James" was scamming us. So much so that Claire had me take a photo of him with our money to show the Peruvian police had he taken our money.

We spent that afternoon eating at a place that James recommended and it was gross. We finished the night playing cards and drinking tea on our balcony that overlooked the city.

(not our view but still a photo of the city. I couldn't find the picture) We did not sleep that first night or the next night for that matter. Another fun fact, altitude sickness sometimes means that your body won't let you sleep something Claire and I realized at 4 in the morning. I am sure the all night dog fight that took place in front of our hostel and the fact that we could hear everything (use your imagination) that was going on in the bathroom next door had something to do with it too. The next day was good. We walked through the not so great part of town for an hour or so to buy a bus ticket and found a really awesome vegetarian place that was really cheap and really good.

So the day was pretty great. Saw a bunch of the city, found really great food and were getting excited about Machu Picchu. Then there was the night. We had been told earlier by James that in Cusco it rains whenever without warning. We thought no big deal, we have water proof coats! Wrong. It was a big deal. It was pouring and we were stuck at the bottom of a huge hill trying to get up to our hostel. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the hail that accompanied the rain.

I have video of this and the cab ride from earlier but Peruvian youtube keeps rejecting my stuff. It was bad. We were soaked and not in the best mood. We got up the next morning to go to Machu Picchu. Claire is going to be doing a post on this so I will just leave it like I left it with the photos I posted. It was a lot of fun and amazing to see but I may have told Claire to leave me behind to die more than once. When we got back from Machu Picchu we again had to walk through the rain up to our Hostel. We checked back in and they gave us the "Suite de Matrimony" which is a fancy way of saying they put us in a room where this creep stared at me/us all night -

The next day we spent walking around an 800 year old market in Cusco. The food all looked incredible and we were able to buy ingredients to cook ourselves dinner later that night at the hostel.

We walked throughout the city for the rest of the day, bought some wine and cooked dinner that evening. We finished by playing chess while looking over the city. It was nice. The next day we got on a bus, a 7 hour bus to Puno, which wasn't the best. The bathroom alone looked like a crime scene. Now we are getting ready to get on another bus for 6 hours as we head to Arequipa because Claire and I live our lives on buses now. Also, Claire tells me while we are hear that I need to have my first "van experience." I don't know what she means but if I go missing you know why. A few other things from Cusco. Claire does a pretty good job blending in with the locals (see photo)

Until she speaks to them, greeting them with "Gracias" and telling them I am her "hermano." For those that don't what those mean they are "thank you" and "brother." The city was beautiful and once we found the correct restaurants we loved the food.

Once we have better internet we will post video and all the photos in an album on Facebook.

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Puno, home of Lake Titicaca and apparently potatoes. They're everywhere! Ryan had his first bus experience, 7 hours from Cusco to Puno. He was not as pictured for the whole trip as I'm sure most of you can imagine. Instead we played a fun game of, Ryan I swear if you don't stop poking me! We also managed to find a pull up bar. Yeah, we were those people. There were some beautiful views of the lake from the harbor, but as Ryan said, this town was not our favorite, so in about 2 hours we board another bus. Arequipa here we come!

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Getting ready to leave Puno and lake Titicaca. Definitely not my favorite. That glowing sign is the sign for the place we slept last night...

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Sacred Valley! Can you tell I'm excited to be here? It was kind of windy.