now i have done it, i went paragliding today. it was probably the most amazing thing that i have ever done. it was kind of a spontaneous thing, but it was well worth. i rode in the back of a little chevy pickup to the top of a mountian, that was one of the scariest rides i have ever taken in my life. even the bus rides in bangladesh dont compare, the road was about ten or twelve feet wide. one side of the road was the face of a cliff, the other side was straight down, and when i say straight down i mean about a thousand foot drop. the driver was hanging out the window with a cigarette in his mouth making sure that he didnt go off the edge. after about a hour of straight up the mountian we arrived at a small shack with a three hundred and sixty degree, there was a massive valley below us in which mendoza was located, behind me stood the towering andes. after a good bit of preparations we were ready to take off, believe me i was being very patient. it was a tandem flight thank god because otherwise i would have killed myself. the man told me to start running toward the cliff in front of us, let me tell you something, you really have to trust some one to follow those orders. so i took off running toward the cliff with this little argentinian guy strapped to my back and the glider attached to him. those twenty steps were some of the most exhilirating of my life. as i arrived at the cliff i took a mssive lunge. i felt like my whole body went weightless, it was unbelievable. immediately we dropped about twenty feet off the side of the cliff and then all the sudden we were flying, my adrenaline was pumping through my viens like gas through a high powered engine. i couldnt believe that i was literally flying, it was a one of a kind experience. we sailed through the air for about a half an hour, spinning and doing aereal manuevers. the landing was really smooth, the guy obviously had a lot of experience. i have to say that it was definately the highlight of my trip, if not the entire year. i can see how it is easy to become an adrenaline junky, and it looks like i am headed down that path due to the nature of this trip.

yesterday was much more docile, we rented bikes and rode through the city to all the different wineries in the area. it was really fun, the wine here is phenomenal. we were pretty buzzed by the end of the day, dont worry we werent wearing helmets. it still wasnt anything compared to the paragliding though.

tommorrow i am headed up to the border of brazil, uruguay and argentina to see some of the most amazing waterfalls in south america, that is if everthing works out okay. you just never know what is around the corner down here, that is why i never really make to many plans while traveling. anyways i will update if anything crazy happens between now and monday, which is pretty much a given since it is the last week of my trip.

jack

well here i am again, once again i am not quite sure where to start. so i will just try and start at the somewhere. i went snowboarding last week, it was pretty neat but needless to say i am not much of a snowboarder. i did okay but it was pretty tough for a first timer. so after coming down from the mountian i drank a bottle of wine with brazilian girl and decided to make it skiing next time. she really wanted to go skiing, she had never been nor had she ever seen the snow. what a surprise that must have been for her. so we (the brazilian girl and her friend (she had never skiied either) as well as an english guy that we met) went up the mountian the next morning on the first bus. it was wild, the first time they ever saw the snow there was a white out on the mountian. we couldnt see more than thirty feet. that didnt deter us from going up up the hill (me and the english guy, the girls got some lessons). it was some of the wildest skiing i have ever done, it was really dangerous but it was really fun. so we came down the mountian later in the day when it was forced to close. when we got down we found out that the pass up to the mountian was closed and that everyone was stranded during the whiteout. it was a major travesty to get off the mountian, believe me we got very lucky to make it off, there were several hundred that were still stranded when we left. let me just say that i am very thankful that i speak spanish, it has gotten me out of more than one sticky situation.

so now i am much deeper in the Andes, i took a twenty hour bus ride north to mendoza, heart of wine country. also the outdoor capital of argentina. today i went white water rafting among the snowcapped mountians. yes i know that sounds a little crazy but it was amazing. we had full body wetsuits so we didnt get too cold. it was definately an experience whitewater rafting in the crystal clear glacial runoff in the andes. tommorrow i am going wine tasting with a couple of friends that i made in the different hostels that i have been staying in. it is amazing how many people you meet in the hostels. but anyways, am looking forward to tasting the best wine in south america.

will keep the blog going when i get back the buenos aires, or something like that.
so cheers to wine steak and the increadible Andes.

I am not sure where to start...... how about trekking through the fjiords (if that is how you spell it) . oh my god, they were some of the most amazing things that i have ever seen. massive glacial valleys that are full of crystal clear water, with stands of trees that i never even dreamed of. it was almost nausiating, i was standing on the edge of this cliff about two hundred feet tall and was so mezmorized that the girl had to grab my shoulder to make sure that i didnt just fall off into the glacial fed lake below. it was breathtaking, i am not sure that there are many things in the world that i will see much better than what is here (naturaleza speaking). we stopped off and drank from a stream that was coming directly off the snow capped peaks one hundred feet above us. it was some of the most refreshing and pure water that i have ever tasted (or didnt taste), i dont care if there were a thousand parasites and it makes my stomach do flips for a week, it was definately worth it and i would do it again even if i get sick. between the chocolate the snow capped andes and the diversity of foriegners my age, i have already gotten my moneys worth two times over.
so the plan is as follows, tommorrow i am going to summit Cerro (mount) Catedral on horseback, which is the highest peak in the area. then on thursday i am going to make my first attempt at snowboarding which should be fairly interesting. they say that is fairly easy if you have any experience skiing, i guess i will find out soon enough. there is much more to do, but i dare not speculate on this blog.
so anyways, until next time.
chocolate, glaciers, and whatever comes to mind.

well this is my first posting from patagonia. it is absolutely beautiful here, the mountians are unbelievable. right now it is snowing massive snowflakes outside, i am staying in a hostel called the tango inn. it is pretty nice and cozy, at least it is warm at night. tommorrow i am going trekking in the mountains, to a place called cerro catedral. i met two english women in a bus station a couple of days ago and they have "convinced" me to go trekking with them. so this should be nice, i am definately enjoying the company. but before i go to far into the mountains i am going to enjoy the plethora of chocolate shops in downtown bariloche today. although there are qute a few tourist in town it is pretty easy to avoid them since most of them are in large groups.

i cant post any pictures till i get back because i dont have the cable to connect my camera to the computer. but there are plenty of websites that have many pictures, just look up bariloche argentina.

man i will tell you what, the bus rides are really long and boring for the most part. i havent taken a bus ride less that six hours yet, fortunately the busses are nicer than anything that i have ever seen (the seats are practically beds, they serve coffee and lunch), so i cant complain too much. but now that i am in the Andes i think i am just going to hang out for a little while. it is nice to hang out with people from other countries as well, i think that we counted eight different nationalities at our dinner table last night, myself being the only american. thank god i speak spanish or i would feel like a real idiot among these travellers. but i guarentee you that none of them speak Bangla so ha to all those upity linguist, well not really because bangla is about the most impractical language one could know. anyways we had a massive barbeque last night, actually i have steak every night, it is the national food here. a massive filet cost about three dollars, i end up spending more on beer than i do on my steak (a liter of beer cost about a dollar fifty (in that case maybe i should cut back a little)). but none the less i am having a good time, of course there are those moments where i wished i could be in my comfort zone back home. but i guess that is what it is all about, leaving your comfort zone and experiencing something new (ha, my silly little philosophical quotes are riduculous sometimes), feel free to stop reading at anytime. anyways i will post more after my little trekking expedition, hopefully i wont fall into some crevase on the side of the mountain, but if i do you know i will be having a good time all the while (i live to say that when i know my mother is reading). enshallah i will make it.
until next time
allah hafez

well, it is getting colder the farther south i go, and the accent more and more difficult to understand. i am in a place called Bahia Blanca, they call it the gateway to patagonia. i will be here tonight and will probably head west en la manana. the bus ride down here was really long, about ten hours mas o menos. but let me tell you, the busses are some of the nicest i have ever seen. they have recliners for seats as well as coffee and juice. the only problem is that they travel really slow. the ride was really boring because we had to travel through las pampas, which is pretty much the equivelent of Oklahoma with really green grass. there are cows everywhere here in las pampas, so as you can imagine the steak is really good. last night i went to the parrilla (grill) for a bite to eat. it was owned by five sisters, they were really sweet and made sure that i wasnt hungry when i left. the place i am staying is really neat, it is an old colonial mansion with fifteen foot cielings and tile floors. it only cost about ten bucks a night (seems a little high, but i guess anything will seem high after bangladesh). on this side of Argentina there arent many tourist, which is nice but there isnt much to do besides just relax. i have a feeling that the andes are going to be quite a bit different, from what i have been told there are quite a few more tourist/backpackers over there. thats okay though, there will just be more people to meet.
it is funny because the only thing that separates me from the argentines is my height and my mexican spanish. it feels wierd not to be stared at in a foriegn country, this place is diametrically opposite from bangladesh. which, believe me is a nice change of pace. but to be honest i dont think that i will ever experience anything quite like bangladesh again, everything seems so tame now and everyone is so mellow.
well anyways, i will update the blog again when i get to the andes.
adios
jack

here i am again, but this time i am on the other end of the world not the other side. i have come to the conclusion that you can never judge a country by its airport because Buenos Aires is one of the most unbelievable cities i have ever seen in my life. it has some of the most amazing architecture, the best steaks i have ever had and some of the most beautiful women i have seen. let me just say it is a really neat city. it was definately worth the ten and a half hour flight plus some pretty grueling lay overs. tommorrow i am headed down to patagonia, it will be about a nine hour bus ride (the bus is double decker with reclining seats). the weather here is really nice, it is about sixty with a light breeze coming off the atlantic. I am staying in a building that looks about a hundred years old and is adjacent an old catholic church that is about wice that old. the only problem that i have encountered so far is the spanish. it is going to take a few days to the Spainish, no i didnt spell that wrong, they have a very heavy accent here. it sounds like they are from Andaluthia. but oh well, it is great practice to round off my spanish. anyways i am off to the pub and whatever that will entail. will update the blog when i get a chance, hopefully they have the internet in the far reaches of south america, and if not i really dont care.
adios
jack