nice things

Alrighty here we are probably on one of the last blogs I´ll do for the next three weeks. Granted that I will be travelling between Peru and Chile during those weeks. Something that I am looking forward to extremely. I have two friends one in Lima, Peru and the other in Santiago, Chile where they have invited me to stay at their houses. I am pretty stoked about that, since I am traveling by myself I don´t have to join the rest of the people fighting for hostel beds and super tours. Instead both of the these dudes (Oscar-Peru and Cristian-Chile) have both decided to take the week off of work to show me around and go exploring for themselves as well. Super cool people I must mention.

Well, Mara left about an hour ago and here I am sitting in my little computer cafe. While she was here (she is the little red thing in the picture above) we managed to go out every night, went to Boca twice, a trip to the province of Tucuman, we managed to go see a soccer game, and walked the city for sometime. I also played in a soccer game the other day, I must say for never playing soccer in my life and playing against my buddies who were brought up with it, you couldn´t really tell who never played and who has played their whole life, even ask Mara if you don´t believe me.

Here is Tucuman Mara and I took a tour that involved going through the city,a rain forest, a mountain peak at about 10,000 feet, and to the high desert where an ancient Inca civilization lived 800 years ago. Tucuman very very humid almost unbearable especially with the heat. in fact worse humidity I have ever been in.

This is just after coming down the mountain that was at first a rain forest.

Here is what is left of the empire, only the current furry creatures are its cohabitants now. At its peak it housed more than 6,000 people, something very humbling hits you when you arrive at a place like this.

A night out in the city of Tucuman, accompanied with Mara´s ghost.

Another little tour that was more close to the city, a nice little place I must say.

San Telmo street Fair and the Botanical Gardens across the street form my house

Buena Onda

¡Pretty weird I leave soon! School is now over and I have much more time on my hands. So lately during the extremely hot and humid days we´ve been having, i tend to make my way to the park. It has been averaging 35 that is like almost a hundred, and humidity to go with it. As soon as i step out my front door I feel like somebody has just lacquered me with that humid feeling. I for one am for the humidity, i really dig it. It´s better than those hot windy dry summers i grew up with in Riverside.

Alrighty so the one on the left is this "¿art house?" I have been helping them put together art installations, and even sat in with everyone to decide which band we want to play on certain nights. Everyone there is super friendly and they always want to practice their English with me. The name of the place is Arte de 2 Corazones. It is a super sweet place with nice people. Dave came over one night and pulled out his sax rooftop style, on a very pleasingly warm night -2 in the morning, that's still night time- total good time. The makeup of the house is very hard to explain and I know this picture does not do it justice, but it´s very San Francisco style. And another funny thing is my band is playing there, not really my band, it´s Gulas I just play the cajon peruano. Still pretty cool to be able to play with folks. The picture on the right is from the rooftop of my buddy Cesars house. Hopefully you can get a good idea of just how grand this city is, the other view points you have are just the same, except when looking one direction Uruguay is waving its hand hello to you. It is unbelievable. We tend to spend a lot of time at this spot, it is very hard to leave.

Here is one of the "beaches." Its called Peru Beach, it is in the barrio of Martinez, about twenty minutes by car and no traffic. I went with my friends Carolina and Areal, and then decided to make more friends there, by the days end. It was a great time, a beautiful place, and perfect weather.

This is the little park I tend to be attracted to. I like a lot. Full of dogs conversing, people playing, and the sun smiling. I don´t know the name of the park, but it is next to the Japanese Gardens.

I was trying to sneak up on him while he was sleeping. He actually scared me pretty good when I was real close to his face and looking through the camera screen watch his eyes open and teeth showing. Pretty fierce looking dog, but a sweetheart.

So my plans to for to the "bottom of the world" have changed. It is pretty expensive and not really cracked up to be all that cool. So Mara and I are going to Puerto Madryn instead, to watch the Orcas come into town. One really cool thing about this event is you don´t have to get on a boat. The whales come right u to the shore and try to eat some penguins or seals. At night I guess you can her them breathing you stay so close to them. I can´t wait. Then after that I am going to Chile and Peru for a 2 week stint, and eventually making it back to CA. Chau Chicos, besos y abrazos. Check out my friend sofia, amazing http://www.myspace.com/sofiaviola22