Tourist season it is not

So after Iguazu Falls things have been fun but bus travel and lack of communicating well in Spanglish has gotten us moving slowly and costing a bit more. Things have been fun and low key. We took a total of 3 busses to get to this little town of Mercedes where we were going to see an area similar to the everglades but then their was no bus travel to the park until 2 days later and then travel back to Mercedes was limited (they said that before we got off the bus, make sure there is a returning bus - what?!) and we could have been stuck there for up to 5 days and it was a little bit out of our way.... But the Hostel in Mercedes was fun. We met up with two women from Spain and we went out and danced and had a few cervesa´s. After a long night with Cassie falling asleep in the chairs we decided to leave around 4 (I didn´t fall asleep until 3:45 AM - give me a little credit). After a full night, we thought the bill was going to be big, but the locals were very nice and gave us most of the drinks for free. We paid 3 American dollars. CRAZY and it was CRAZY FUN!! So we stayed one more night and met some people bike touring through Argentina. They were from New Zealand and Australia. Fun to talk too. Then the main worker at the place we were staying came in drunk and tried talking to all of us and that was awkard but a hoot.

We officially left Mercedes without going to the park on Monday 25 and headed to Parana. We arrived there at 3:30 in the morning. Then got on another bus to Cordoba. Oh we thought things were going well. We camped outside of Cordoba for $1.60 and took transit back into town the next day. The day we had arrived was a very busy city and seemed fun, but we had our back packs and wanted to get to the campsite and set up and go into town the next day. Cassie hitchhiked.....Yeah she did, that was crazy. NO.....a woman in her 40´s picked Cassie up because she was a little behind me and then drove up and picked me up and she gave us a lift to our campsite that was about a mile from the bus stop. She was nice. We thanked her and went on our way. When we arrived at camp there was no grocery and we had no food but there happen to be this little hole in the wall shop and the man made us Ham and cheese sandwiches for the night. We had company the whole time from a little puppy....He was so damn cute. Then we woke up early the next day to see the city of Cordoba. We got on the city bus and thought things were odd because NO ONE was on the bus at all. But we went into town and everything in the 1 million people city bigger than albuquerque was shut down because of la censa (the census, we figured out). NO FOOD NO SHOPPING JUST BUSSES. Streets were empty. LUCKY Enough we found a little panaderia that we got to before all the goods were sold, but I think they were getting in trouble by the government because they were open. People were taking pictures and nasty words were traded. It is a good thing because we had no food. Cassie was getting very nervous and was beginning to food stress as we were walking around seeing the dead city. So after about 2 hours of walking around we went back to camp. The puppy was there. WE gave him some food. Later in the night the ham sandwich man was there and he hooked us up with more food.

Now we are in La Falda things have changed for the better. We are hiking today and are seeing some falls. Free camping on a lake. Higher in altitude so cooler which is nice. Some smooth transitions have been good. Things are swinging a good direction. We are making long term plans with our travels and prepping ourselves a few weeks to a month out so we can see as much as we possibly can. Keep writing and keep blogging. Off to San Luis and then Mendoza for our last hip hip hooray in Argentina for a while. OFF TO CHILE!!! YEEHAW. We will keep you updated. Enjoy the spot and our locations. Chat later. Love you all Cassie and Tito

FALLS are Out of This World

Cassie and I left Buenos Aires and Headed to Brazil to check out some falls. After an 18 hour bus ride that was super comfy and more trouble at the Border with my VISA (they let me in illegally to Brazil and could not leave unless I paid Banco De Brazil 80 bucks or so) we landed a Hostel in Foz De Iguazu in Brazil for 17 Reals 2 nights of camping on a Balcony. Nice place with breakfast, pool, hot showers and fantastic people. We visited the Brazilian Falls and they are amazing HUGE large, lots of spray, dwarf´s Niagra Falls easily. You won´t believe it until you see the pics. Lots of butterflies so many and so many different kinds. That was a day and then we moved back to the Argentina side for a closer look at the falls. We were able to get close to more of the falls. We took a hike into some falls and were able to get some nice pics. We saw 2 toucan´s in the wild and were able to get some pics. Then finished all off with a view of the Devil´s throat where the largest amount of water goes over the falls. Insane noise and energy. Now we are headed toward Cordoba Argentina after a few stops in some National Parks. We are leaving Puerto Iguazu Argentina at Midnight tonight. Pictures will be up soon but this computer is too slow. Wish us luck chat at you later. Tito and Cassie

Leaving BA!

We are heading out from Buenos Aires tomorrow. Catching an 18 hour bus ride to Iguazu Falls, Brazil!

We loved visiting this city, and wanted to add a few more pictures before we left.

Joe Schneider was nice enough to bring us around to his bars.... Thanks Joe :)

Two of the pics are of the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires, a large cemetary with famous families and wealthy families of the area buried in shrines. It is like a village of the dead... very beautiful and interesting. Evita´s grave is the one with all the flowers on it.

Then there is a really big flower sculture we saw on a walking tour and a pic of the two of us before our pub crawl that lasted until 5 AM.... they sure do know how to have fun here in BA...

love cassie & tito :)

Buenos Aires GREAT CITY!!!

So Cassie and I have had a few days to relax. Good times were had and It is almost time to move on from the fanastic city of Buenos Aires. We celebrated Cassie´s birthday, we recovered from the bike trip in a nice apartment for 10 bucks a night per person. Anyone interested we can get you contact info. We met some of Sarah Schneider´s family and they treated us to a great Argentinian Asado. They also took us to the Delta area of El Tigre. They have told us about a fantastic festival on Sunday a little ways north of the city that we are going too on Sunday. They have been Fantastic. THANK YOU SARAH they were wonderful!! WE have taken the time to explore every barrio of Buenos Aires.
Palermo- Full of green Space and nice restuarants and night life
Recoleta- The cemetaries are to DIE for. No they were were really neat.
Retiro- This is the hustle and bustle area of Transits
La Boca- Colorful and music and passion for life and sports area. ON the waterfront too
San Telmo- Working class area, tango is life here, antique fairs and older buildings
City Central- Nice with tons of museums and pedestrian walkways and shopping
El Tigre- Is the river, lots of green and tons of shopping and paddling of boats
Subway- Easy to navigate and let me tell you about being close to the people it was like 12,000 sardines in 1 can. Cassie loved it and her fear of close quarters no longer exists.
Pictures are going to be added soon. Computer time is costly. We are leaving on Monday to head on a bus for 18 hours plus to Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil. All visa stuff is taken care of and now we are able to focus just on traveling. We should arrive on Tuesday. Enjoy yourselves and keep in touch and we will do our best in return. Love you all C & T :-)

If you want to see pictures from the bike trip go to: http://www.flickr.com/groups/twowheelviewargentina2008/

The students set up a ¨flickerpool¨whatever that means, but the whole group has been posting photos there... check it out!

Sorry about the post

So our posts are a little out of order. Enjoy the updated info. Just scroll down and read it first then go to the message after. Blog to you soon. Tito and Cassie

Bike Tour Continued

I think my last entry was too long... I finished typing up our whole trip and it deleted my last few paragraphs... so here we go again...

the day after the mountain climb we woke up in Tafi del Valle... because we took so long summiting the mountain on the previous day, we were looking at riding close to 75 miles to get to our final destination of Yerba Buena, Tucuman! So with as much gusto as we could we started our trip with a downhill ride into a lush, forested, damp, jungle type area with waterfalls... we had a lot of fun stopping to take pictures. Once we reached Famailla we were close to Tucuman... we rode a final grueling push on a really busy road, but made it to town by 7:30 PM (we started around 9:30 AM). We met up with Santiago again and he planned a dinner for us around 10 PM... (Argentines typically start dinner around 9 or 10 PM) needless to say our tired bundles of joy were asleep at the table by 11:30 when the main course arrived... everytime we looked over at them they looked more and more tired, so eventually we had them shuttled home to get some rest.

The next day we went to a local high school where we were able to speak to a class who were learning english. They were very good at english which made our students feel more comfortable. We spent time talking with them and invited them to an Asado that evening.... after that souvenir shopping and packing ensued... a closing reflection circle for the group and then the final Asado and bonfire.... what a trip! We had a lot of fun...

Before we knew it, it was 6 AM and we were in a taxi heading for Tucuman airport. We arrived to Buenos Aires only to find our bag was not there. We packed our stuff in trash bags, returned the bike bags to the group, and high tailed it out of there to make it to our rented apartment where our bag was en route to... big challenge trying to figure out how to make that work! So we had to say good bye quickly to our students which was sad... we had such a great time with all of them!

So here we are in Buenos Aires spending a few days recuperating, sleeping, eating, and soon we will be sight seeing and on our way to other places... we are getting tired and will figure out how to upload pictures soon... thanks for all the comments. Keep em coming! We love and miss you all!

C & T

Bike tour of Argentina!

What an adventure we just completed! Tito and I are sitting in a computer cafe in Buenos Aires right now... we have rented an apartment through a contact we made on the trip. We will be here for 10 days to recuperate and plan our next adventure :)



When we arrived to Salta, Argentina it took a good solid day to get prepared for the biking part of our trip. Fixing mechanical issues, sizing bikes, teaching basic bike maintenance, etc. We felt that even though this was the largest trip that TWO WHEEL VIEW has lead in Argentina, we were pretty well set. Here is a recap of the rest of the trip:



On day 3 we started biking: We headed out on some busy streets to the country side. Unfortunately one student had a few spills near traffic which gave us complete heart attacks! We worked on it and she improved greatly by the end of the trip. As we were traveling along enjoying the ride one of our students tried to peddle and his peddle came off his bike! The peddle was actually stripped and would no longer be able to be screwed into the krank shaft (for those of you not familiar with bikes, pretty much it made the bike unridable). So we talked with the local police who drove Phil and Liz (the other two trip leaders) door to door in the town to ask if anyone could help us. It was Sunday and everything was closed! Luckily an old man came to the door of one of the houses and said, ¨wait here, I have a machine that can fix that, but my dog is mean and you cannot come in¨ So they waited outside and in a few minutes he came back with the part fully fixed! It seemed to be a miracle... unfortunately it put us behind schedule a bit and we did not make it to our first destination point. We instead had to ask for a place to stay. A very nice woman and her family offered for us to stay on her property for free and so we set up camp! Her 8 year old son, Franco came to play soccer with us and he pretty much schooled us with his skills...



The next day of biking was grueling because we had to make up the miles we missed the day before. It was a long hard day of rolling hills.... we arrived to a small artisan town called Alemania where we camped under some abandoned rail road tracks. It was by a river... we celebrated one of the students´s birthdays (Quinn) and somehow managed to lose a sausage, four cans of tuna, and some other groceries we had purchased that day.



The next day was quite adventurous indeed! We headed out biking with some very physically sore students... we had been peddling hard and all our muscles were a little tight. Breanna unfortunately got a migraine head ache and by lunchtime it was apparent that she would have a difficult time riding that day. We met many friendly people in Argentina- all who wanted to help us! We asked some nice people if they would drive her and an instructor in their truck, but they were going in the wrong direction. So we attempted to head out... Phil and I rode up with the group while Tito, Liz, Breanna, and another student who is mostly fluent in Spanish (Aaron) stayed back to try to find Breanna a safe ride. Phil and I continued on with the group up and down some beautiful countryside. Very hilly, red rock, reminded me a lot of Arizona or Utah... Breanna passed waving from an ambulance that helped us out. Tito Liz and Aaron strapped Breanna´s bike to their bikes and biked all the way to camp where we met up with Breanna again nice and safe. The camp that evening was windy and sandy. We all woke up with sand in our pants and everywhere else too.



The next day we made it to the wine town of Cafayette. It was an oasis of heaven. Students were able to shower, rest, wash clothes for a day and a half. They also shopped and ate glorious food. Empanadas are great find them and eat them. We had a few students ready to call it quits and go home but we talked them into staying. What other choice did they really have?



We biked to some ruins where we met our argentenian contact Santiago. He led us to his farm on a dirt road for about 20 miles to Santa Maria. OOHHH WHAT FUN that was, let me tell you. OUR bodies were numb when we were done. We got in late and were able to watch a mother earth ceremony called the PACHA MAMA. We all partcipated in giving back to the earth in the hopes that next year the earth will give back to the people that partcipated. Then we ate Lamb stew and went to bed very late. Santiago and his friends prepared great meals for us.



The next day we hiked to some Incan Ruins and met an old man who oversees the ruins. He told us to come back and stay anytime we like and we are always welcome there. Then we biked to Amaicha del Valle. A great town where they were celebrating Pacha Mama with a wine festival. There was folkloric dance and music. The locals were celebrating with wine and food and dance. We at Locro with high school students from the area. Goat corn, beans, stomach and other inards of the animal. It was great food. We chatted with local students in spanish and had a great evening with the students. We all learned to dance and sing into the wee hours. Students and staff had a great evening also celebrating Cassie´s Bday. They gave her a nice hat native from the area.



The next day was supposed to be a day off, but Santiago had other plans for us! Due to the language barrier when we told him we wanted to bike to a barbeque (Asado) he had set up for us, because it would get us there faster, he thought we wanted to take a long bike ride! So we were following him thinking he was leading us to the Asado but he was leading us up this dirt road hill to a lake that was way past our destination! After our students realized this, they weren´t in the best of moods but were able to laugh it off when they arrived to the Asado and had an amazing meal of lamb, potatoes, tomatoes, bread, and empanadas! A friend of Santiago´s who was a professional chef chopped up the lamb right in front of us after it was cooked! Lots of greasy happy faces :) We all went to bed that night knowing that the next morning we were going to be biking up over a mountain pass.



THE MOUNTAIN DAY! Whew what a tough day of riding that was. Up and Up and Up we went, in and around the switchbacks pushing ourselves harder than we had done previously on this trip... the reward was the town of Tafi del Valle on the other side... what a downhill ride into town! We arrived there after dark and after we had to fix three flat tires on the way down... we spent the night in a hostal which all the students appreciated.



The following day was our last day of riding. Because it took us so long to summit the mountain the previous day, we were faced with close to 75 miles to ride to get to Tucuman. After a great downhill ride from Tafi del Valle into a lush forested, jungle area