screeching cicada!

Today we hiked in the reserve and were followed by a huge monkey who was super playful. Apparently some sickness just killed a bunch of monkeys so this guy who was gathering firewood told us that monkey probably lost his pack and thats why he was following us. We went to a small agate and amethyst mine and walked around the caves. I bought some agates and now am hauling more rocks in my backpack, geez, I need to cut down. I lady rescued my favorite coat for 20 pesos. She is totally a miracle worker, I feared it was unfixable. I´m leaving tomorrow. I will miss this place and all the beautiful shirtless boys, I mean, uhh, the beautiful scenery. I haven´t done a scrap of homework. I´ll think about it tomorrow....after I hit up the swimming hole one last time of course. Saw the cutest animal in the world today! It was a tiny baby deer, smaller than a cat, don´t know what its called but I´m going to find out!

post christmas lazies

This has really been a true vacation. I get to sleep in every morning to the sound of a blaring fan (you know how I like that). They are putting me up in my own room with its own bathroom apart from the house. I wake up, read a chapter or two from the book mom sent me, then work on my collages. Then I drink some iced coffee with Quique. Their house is beautiful and they have 2 cute dogs named Ican and Tieffy. No idea if I spelled that right. Yesterday we had a water fight, and I really hope to have another one today as its so hot out. We went out for icecream after dinner then played 7 games of pool. I lost 4 of them, grrrrr, but they were really close. You know I was just playing easy, tonight I won´t be so merciful.

Christmas cheer

So this was the most unique Christmas I´ve ever had. On Christmas Eve, Quique and I had a picnic at a small waterfall and spent the day swimming, jumping off rocks, eating incredibly juicy mangos and painting ourselves with the red mud. In the evening we listened to the Christmas CD mama sent me (I might have shed a tear or two), and then had an amazing dinner of a roasted pig (head intact), salads, asparagus pie, and these amazing beef rolls that his dad makes. The meat is soaked in milk for a long time then rolled up with peas and spices. It was really delicious. We counted down until midnight, then toasted with cider and danced around the living room while fireworks exploded outside. It was quite like New Years. Then they brought me a birthday cake and all sang feliz cumpleaños. It was so sweet! Earlier I had heard Quique yelling at his dog. Apparently the cake was hiding in his room and the dog got in and started licking the corner of it. I kept asking why he was mad at the dog and he wouldn´t tell me, but I laughed a lot about it later. Then we went out with his sister and her friends to a club and had some champagne. I didn´t get back until 4 in the morning (which is really early here, his sister got back at 9 am) and so we slept in through most of Chirstmas, but thats normal since we already opened all the presents at midnight. I opened my birthday presents and we spent the day lounging and playing madlibs. Then we went out to dinner at a nearby town and walked around afterwards, stopping by the casino. We decided to go in and spent 5 pesos (less then 2 dollars) and we won some then lost it all, of course. It was so creepy to see the people glued the machines just playing over and over, and if someone got up off one of the machines next to them, they would start putting coins in both machines! Yesterday we went to a wildlife sanctuary then to a place where the natives use fallen wood from the forest to create beautiful structures. We tried some artisan beer from Misiones and some special jam and dulce de leche. Then we went to the hummingbird garden and the woman tending it was so nice. She sat and talked to us, helping me identify all the hummingbirds as there were around 8 different kinds that frequented her garden. When she saw me looking for feathers, she got out a little box and dumped its contents into my book. It was about 20 hummingbird feathers! I couldn´t believe it, I was so excited! They are adorable. Two are simply extrodinary, a beautiful shiny copper color. I´ve been wanting to find a hummingbird feather for so long and now I have like 20. Most of them are black and white, from this one type of hummingbird, can´t remember its name. Those ones are probably easier to find then the darker colorful ones. Anyways, one other amazing thing about this place is how beautiful it is at night. You can see all the stars, its warm out, and the takataka come out. They are like fireflies but bigger and glow a bright green! They are pretty much the coolest thing ever and look like little fairies. Hope everyone is having wonderful holidays! I miss my family and hope they know that! I love you all!

sunshine and bus exhaust

Buenos Aires greeted me with a blazing car fire. Its great to be back in the old stompin grounds.

Not a good idea to eat an entire pineapple. My mouth hurts. What would I do with out agua con gas? Off to the boliche!

Iquazu waterfalls

So basically this place is Never Neverland. There were rainbows, millions of butterflies and tropical birds, sunny blue skys, lush trees and flowers and waterfalls everywhere.