wandering feet

the necessities

images into words: valparaìso

on the half hour walk from bus station to hostel

• a man staggers into a butcher shop with literally half of a cow slung over his shoulders. beatles music is blasting through speakers in the doorway.
• an old lady in a flower print dress is playing pinball in an arcade with bright flashing lights. she whacks the side of the machine and utters a chilean profanity.
• pirate-esque eyepatch man (neighbor one) stands arguing in the doorway with belly-length bearded man (neighbor two) across the street.
• two junked televisions sit stacked and abandoned on the corner, the first painted "apáguelo" and the second "viva la vida".
• lazy dogs sleeping EVERYWHERE. children eating avocado smothered hotdogs bigger than their heads. murals, tags, graffiti, urban art on every wall and surface.

switchback ride at the argentine-chilean border

santiago sunset

book meme

tagged by rufus mccain and ursumagrandma

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

la casa de los espìritus, Isabel Allende

al morir su madre, fèrula se encontrò sola y sin nada ùtil a lo cual dedicar su vida, a una edad en que no tenìa ilusiòn de casarse. por un tiempo estuvo visitando conventillos todos los dìas en una frenètica obra piadosa que le provocò una bronquitis crònica y no llevò nada de paz a su alma atormentada. esteban quiso que viajara, se comprara ropa y se divirtiera por primera vez en su melancòlica existencia, pero ella tenìa el hàbito de la austeridad y llevaba demasiado tiempo encerrada en su casa.

with the death of her mother, ferula was found alone and without anything useful with which to dedicate her life, at an age that didn`t have the ilusion of marriage. for a time she was visiting tenement houses every day in a frantic charitable deed that provoked chronic bronchitis and didn`t bring any peace to her tormented soul. esteban wanted her to travel, to buy clothing and have fun for the first time in her melancholy existence, but she had the habit of austerity and spent too much time enclosed in her house.

i reached into my backpack and grabbed this first, which is way more interesting than lonely planet (the other book in my pack) would have been.

mike. renyel. aldo. jared. justin.

post em in the comments

avocados and ecuadorians

saludos de santiago, chile!

after a cross country journey i have arrived in the capitol of the longest country in the world. as the largest city in one of south america´s most developed countries, it feels like i´m closer to home in the US than to it´s andean neighbors of peru and ecuador in the north. however, i find myself in the home of 4 cuencanos, munching on ecuadorian candy and banana chips and complaining about how damn hot it is down here in the summer. not quite the full chilean experience but hey, i´m having a good time. andres vinueza, the nephew of the baker i briefly worked for in quito, ecuador, has graciously offered me his couch for a few days. it´s really quite amazing how friendships can lead to human connection all over the world. being warmly accepted by a group of people i´ve never met in a country i´ve never visited feels good. better than good.

today i´m getting oriented in the city, visiting parks, museums, and a cemetary with a memorial for the victims of the pinochet dictatorship. tomorrow i´m headed out into the countryside for a wine tour (!!), and on sunday i´ll make a daytrip to valparaiso, a nearby town and birthplace of pablo neruda.

my grandma potter would survive here just fine, avocados get smothered on everything. yummmm.... lunch time

visions of sombras and a semi-cama

last night i took a bus to còrdoba, argentina. kickin' back in a semi-cama on the second level of a double decker, my neighbors included a holland-aged boy, loudly sniffling on his mothers lap as he waved resistantly to an old man outside the window (grandpa), an elderly stern-looking argentine lady who commented on the punctuality and service of this particular bus company (the aunts? jaja), and a young couple who probably spent more time gazing into eachothers eyes during the 9 hour trip than sleeping. I drifted in and out of conciousness, arms arduously shoved into my dad's purple backpack for warmth because who knew that the temperature automatically drops 20some degrees when you leave buenos aires? the bus driver's unused jacket hung, daunting me, within arms reach for the entirety of the drive.

a drizzly morning greeted me in còrdoba today, which quickly turned into pleasantly overcast as i wandered the streets of the so called "cultural capital of the americas". while "palm springs of washington" quickly comes to mind, i won't completely take away it's credit: the old churches, universities, and plazas hold a relaxed charm that could be refreshing if you ignore the blocks and bocks of tourist-geared shops.

speaking of tourism, the conveniency of aprx. 5 kodak shops within walking distance of my hostel leads me to share a noteworthy note: i purchased a disposable camera for 15 argentine pesos. it should hold me over until my intended brush with santiago's electronics black market. according to felipe, my chilean friend, you can get a sweet-ass camera for a mere 20 bucks. who knows, maybe i'll get a good deal on a nikon d40X with pictures from antarctica on the memory card.

me: (looking wide-eyed and very american) ¿de verdad?
translation: really?

Felipe: Estàs en latinoamèrica, mi amor.
translation: you're in latin america, my love.

until then, i'm taking a ride back in time to the pre trigger happy days of non-digital cameras

a boat ride to montevideo

oh capital of uruguay
your beach and plazas make me cry
their beauty one cannot deny
and this would be the reason why
caught in a trance i stood to fry
under the sun in uruguay

scheming in buenos aires

Hola!
for grandparent proof that i am alive and well, refer to above foto taken today at an art museum in buenos aires.

moving on, allow me introduce you to a.) a crazy metal flower in BA that opens and closes with the sunlight and b.) an equally crazy german named kim who i have been running around with for the past few days.

moving even further along, the following is a rough outline of my wandering scheme between now and the beginning of march. my plan is to catch a night bus out of BA tomorrow evening.

BA-Cordoba-Mendoza-Uspallata-Santiago (chile)- Valparaíso-Serena-Antofagasta-Arica-La Paz (bolivia)- Oruro (for carnavaaaaal!)-Uyuni-Sucre-Copacabana-Cuzco (peru)-Lima-CUENCA ECUADOR

i should be able to cover most of the distances by night buses, so i can sleep through long boring rides and not waste much day time on travel. somehow between the 1st and 6th of march i need to find my way back to buenos aires but i haven´t decided how i´m doing it yet. all together it´s about a 3 day bus trip, or i could split it up with a cheap flight or two.

anyway, in true alana fashion i have put off my last antarctic assignment until the last minute so i´m off to finish it up and email it out.

paz, alana.

Happy Birthday, take two

no seriously, i love and miss you dearly.

have some fun today, and enjoy your vanilla bean cake a la jean this saturday. i heard she´s a decent cake-maker.

lovelier,
alana

aires buenos aires

he caminado andado vagado disfrutado
one week here in aires buenos aires

passing my time with old friends new friends in parques museos centros culturales casas calles donde sea

it´s overwhelming here, all of the life, activity, sights, sounds, smells
a flooding of the senses

today i woke up itching for the countryside. my mouth sipped from a mate gourd and my mind wandered onto a bus headed for the chilean border. i managed to grab it`s attention and convince it to come with me first to uruguay.

i´m headed across the river.

besos, alana.

Happy Birthday

I kind of miss you and your stupid dogs.

lovely,
alana

Yuck.

did you know that president bush´s daughter was in buenos aires a few weeks ago, and that her bag got stollen along with the pickpocketing of her secret service escorts?

this = less tragic.

alana getting robbed in plaza de mayo = more tragic.

Antarctic Haikus

Albatross wanders
circumnavigating sleep
wind pushes feather

***

a polar sunrise
came from the blue-frozen ice
never haven sunk

***

curious penguin
lies starving on his rock nest
for the sake of life

Andando por Buenos Aires, Argentina

buenos días buenas tardes buenas noches de la ciudad de BA, where professional dog walkers stroll through parks trailing a dozen leashes and wagging tails, the old and young alike sit on benches sipping their mate from morning till night, and all of the lingo and slang i picked up in ecuador in an attempt to socialize like a local sounds foriegn and silly.

i'm entering my third day here in a city that never sleeps, and have yet to scratch the surface of the countless barrios, lugares, cultura that there is to discover here in the capital of argentina. my friend´s apartment (who´s couch is where i currently reside) has a balcony that overlooks a small fruit stand and the buses, motorcycles, and pedestrians that make their way up and down our cobblestone street. i have already both lost and found myself with great success on the subway to the city center and back, and i find myself saying che with greater frequency as the days roll on.

a couple fotos from the past couple days:

Russian word of the day: кит

Pronunciation: "keet"

English Translation: Whale

Welcome aboard the orlova: a russian owned and operated ship that rests in the hands of captain Igor. while igor may be a man of few words, he is an inteligent and perceptive all around bad-ass of the bridge. while you may be squinting through the binoculars, focused on your surroundings, he will lean back nonchalantly, a cigarette hanging from his lips, and effortlessly proclaim ..."kit"... after your hours of fruitless attempts. Don´t be dismayed, however, by his wildlife spotting superiority. he is master in command of a ship the frequents antarctic waters. you are a silly little tourist.

Humpback whale!

snow ball fight. antarctic style.

the drake shake

game: FUEGO
instructions of play: stand on a boat crossing the drake passage, facing either port or starboard. every time your feet become unplanted as a result of your inability to master the "drake shake", add a letter in the sequence F-U-E-G-O. once you have completely spelled out the word, you are a big fat loser. sit down and take some sea-sickness medication before it is too late. the last (wo)man standing is the champion, which makes the fact that you looked completely rediculous to all other passangers on board who had no idea what you were doing totally worth it.

Dearest Peg,

I have gone against all integrity as an environmentalist studying the impact of tourism in antarctica and smuggled a (small) rock off the continent for your collection. the only stipulation of the gifting of said rock is that you are not allowed to make fun of my granola eating tree hugging ways for an entire month upon my return.

Love,
Alana

the MARCH of the penguins??

contrary to what the title namer of this film would lead you to believe, penguins are in fact some of the most rediculously clumsy creatures when attempting to navigate around out of the water. the chinstraps, gentoos, and adelies i hung out with during our landings were a neverending source of entertainment. so once a penguin gets it in his or her penguin mind that it would be nice to move around out of the water (usually to nest, meet other penguins, or head back to the ocean, but honestly, sometimes they´d be chilling on an island with one or two others for absolutely no reason) they stick their wings straight out in an attempt to balance themselves and then waddle about similarly to ralphie´s younger brother in a christmas story when his mother bundles him up for school. if the terrain is slightly rough then tripping and falling is usually involved, and big human footprints in the snow further complicate the matter. to make their lives a bit easier they play endless games of follow the leader, thus forming penguin highways of packed down snow across the landscape.

"penguins may seem cuite and cuddly, but they are in fact loud, smelly guano producing machines" -jenn, a classmate

penguin guano is a very distinct smell, especially when you´re talking about the penguin guano produced by social breeding colonies of 300+ pairs. if you´re lucky, you might get a bit of the true antarctic experience yourself upon my return, as i´m sure the odor will not have left my waterproof pants by this time.

ends and beginnings

I think it was Tolkien who wrote, "It´s dangerous business, going out your door. You step into the road, and if you don´t keep your feet, there´s no knowing where you might be swept off to..."

well, i´m in some serious danger.*

buen día to all of you, my family and friends, from the end of the world. ushuaia is a curious place, a small argentinian town nestled between snow capped andean mountains where time rolls by with the coming and going of ships, travelers, and the tide. as the world´s southernmost city, it seems to become the beginning or the end of many journeys. aner has sold all of his possessions, left his life in iran, and bought a plane ticket to ushuaia: the starting point of his plans to hitch hike and gamble his way around the globe. philip has come from germany to ride his bike across south america, from tip to tip. and here i find myself, dropped off by a ship sailing from the antarctic peninsula and left slightly disoriented, reintroduced into civilization, and scrambling to collect my thoughts.

it is the beginning of 2008, my time as a south american wanderer, and all that is to come.

it is the end of my trip to antarctica (the things i get college credit for), english contact for the next two months (other than y'all), and a long-time absence of meat in my stomach (yes, i tasted argentine beef).

traveling to antarctica was like hopping on a boat and sailing to another world. as we left the beagle channel and entered the open waters of the drake passage, south america was left behind for wandering albatrosses, icebergs, and boat rocking waves. it would be impossible to catch all of my thoughts, sensations, and memories in an entire book, much less a single blog post, so instead i will un-methodically document this and that over the next few weeks.

i will say that visions of waddling penguins, napping seals, and bright blue ice will not be leaving my mind any time soon. i´ll do my best to send them all your way.

paz y amor,
alana.

*for grandfather clarification, the danger i am in is nothing more than figurative. please refrain from buying a plane ticket to south america to come rescue me. i repeat, i am in NO need of rescue.