Carpe Diem

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Roadtrip to Utah

I flew out to Utah last Sunday and spent a few days with some friends out there. I rode home with my buddy Ben. We went a little out of our way but we had alot of fun. We left Provo at 3pm, spent a few hours at Arches in Moab, and arrived in Albuquerque, NM at about 2am Thursday morning. We spent Thursday in Albuquerque with Ben's sister and then left at about 9pm. We arrived in Memphis, TN around 11am local time. Memphis was a cool city. We walked around for a few hours. We hit up an all you can eat barbeque restaurant, the civil rights museum, Sun Studios, and went up top a hotel to take pictures of the city. It's a fun place to go, people were sitting on the side of Beale St playing blues. There are B.B. King and Elvis statues everywhere. Anyway, we left Memphis around 4:30pm and arrived in Dobson at 2am local time Saturday morning. Here's a link to my photos.

Album 1
Album 2



Monday, August 04, 2008

End of the Travel Logs

Well it was fun updating everyone with my trip. Sorry that the posts got boring there towards the end. I wanted to upload more photos but I went the last 2 weeks of my trip without a good internet connection. I've picked out about 300 of my favorite pictures that we took and posted them on Facebook. Anyone can look at these pictures by selecting one of these links. You don't need a facebook account to see them. 60 pictures is the limit in an album on Facebook so I had to create 5 albums.

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4
Album 5

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Travel Log 7?? I lost count.

So were sitting in the hostel about to take a bus to Posadas Misiones. Its Sunday morning and while all the good God fearing people are in church we`ll be visiting some ancient ruins in San Ignacio. I am at the worlds slowest internet connection right now so I will not be able to upload the awesome pictures from the Iguazu Falls that I took yesterday. That place was amazing. Two days ago we ran into an old man in the street that offered to walk with us for a while. We were on our way to visit a house made completely out of plastic bottle. Walls, foundation, even furniture, all plastic bottles. I`ll show pictures of that later too. We ended up spending all day with our friend Lima, the old man we had met in the street, and he ended up paying for bus fare to take us all over downtown to show us stuff. He took us to this place called Tres Fronteras (Three Frontiers) where Paraguay, Brasil, and Argentina touch. It was a great view. We ended up walking with Lima until well after dark and he even paid our cab fare back to our hostel. Whereever you are Lima, thanks buddy.

Tomorrow Lauren takes a plane to Buenos Aires and then home. I`ll be returning to Villa Angela to spend a few more days with Danny and Olga and then from there, who knows. We are still well and no one has robbed or arrested us yet. I don`t know when I`ll have a chance to put up some pictures, hopefully soon. Hasta la pròxima.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Baseball

I got Danny and Olga's son a baseball and bat. This is him playing baseball for the first time in his life.

Country Roads



This is of us driving through the country about 50km from Villa Angela. It hasn't rained since March.

Travel Log #6

We got to Formosa a couple of hours ago. We're staying in a hotel tonight and tomorrow night. Tomorrow is Argentina's independence day so there are going to be parties all day long. Here are some pictures from Buenos Aires and Villa Angela that I haven't been able to upload.




This is in the neighborhood La Boca where the soccer club Boca is from.



They make you pose like this.




More of La Boca.



Boca Stadium



Me and my gaucho buddy. See how different my mission area is from Buenos Aires?



The wind was blowing too hard for the classic clint eastwood photo



This is some goat they cooked up. It was awesome.



Danny and Olga's daughter Valentina



Eastwood



It's too hot for winter time. I'd like to see some snow or sleet. Today in Formosa the weather is actually chilly enough for long sleeves. We're about to go out and get some lunch. And that's all she wrote.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Travel Log #5 - Villa Angela

I'm at a bad connection here. I had 5 pictures to upload but I'm not going to be able to upload them here. I will upload them next time I'm somewhere with a faster connection.

Tuesday we went to a neighborhood in Buenos Aires called La Boca. It's where the soccer club Boca plays. It was our favorite part of Buenos Aires. I have some pictures of it. We sat in a restaurant and ate lunch and watched them dance the tango. Then they asked if anyone wanted a picture and I was the only one. Lauren got one with them outside. All the building are painted different colors and there were alot of cool shops. We made a lot of friends with people out in the streets. Then Noelia and her husband came and got us and drove us around some before we had to get on the bus to Villa Angela, Chaco.

We arrived in Villa Angela yesterday with no problems. It's like we're in a completely different country from Buenos Aires. I think maybe I could spend the rest of my life here. Danny and Olga have been really good to us. Olga met us at the bus station and drove us to their house. They gave each of us guest quarters to stay in. Danny cooked a big asado yesterday. It was amazing. I think it was better than the beef in Buenos Aires. We went for a walk around town yesterday afternoon. We went to the chapel and found my old branch president there. It was the strangest feeling ever sitting down and talking with him. We reminisced about some old times like when the police came to the chapel looking for me and he had to go with us to court. We also talked about some people that I had taught and baptized.

Dinner was about 10:30 last night. After that we went for a long drive around town. Danny and Olga have left their house completely open to us and have even let us drive their cars. I'm afraid to drive in these streets though. These drivers are crazy. The roads have lanes divided by lines just like in the States but the drivers act like the lines aren't there. It sounds like an exaggeration, but seriously, all the drivers look at are the other cars and they drive all over the road avoiding the other cars. I probably wouldn't last too long out there.

Me and Lauren are both loving the mate. Olga fixed us some sweet mate which is made with water that has sugar in it. Last night Danny fixed us some bitter mate which is plain mate. He says that what the real gauchos drink. I have a fascination with the gauchos. So we drank it bitter and we both liked it. They have some land in the country with some animals. We're going to ride out there Saturday. Danny said he's going to take me out to see the real gauchos. It's like we're taking Isabella out to see the real elephants.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Travel Log #4 - Aguanta Buenos Aires






We walked all over the place today. I can't believe how many people there are. I like to go up to people and have conversations. Most people are extremely friendly. One cab driver stopped me and told me to put my camera away because somebody might try to rob me. I'm glad we have cab drivers to keep us safe. We saw a lot of different neighborhoods. Recoleta and Retiro were our favorites. We found a law school. That's the building with all the pillars. Things are really cheap here (for us) which is nice. We found an art musuem. It was pretty cool. I put a picture of a Picasso piece and an Andy Warhol piece up above. I could put captions for each picture but it takes time and time is something I'd rather spend drinking mate and talking philosophy and politics. We're laying low in the hostel right now. We're meeting a friend of mine, Noelia, tonight at 10:30 for dinner and walking around. We're going to see the Puerto Madero which is something I've been looking forward to. Tomorrow we're going to Boca Stadium which is something else I've been looking forward to. We check out at 11am tomorrow and hop on a bus at 8pm which will arrive in Villa Angela at 10am Wednesday morning so expect it'll be a couple of days before I can write again. I love you all.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Travel Log #3 - First day in Buenos Aires









We got to Houston right on time yesterday. I got in trouble for trying to carry deoderant in my carry-on. I forgot it was there. Houston was a lot of fun. I met up with an old friend from my mission and he showed us around. Houston was really hot and really muggy...it was awesome to leave that and wake up in Buenos Aires.

It's been nice and chilly all day. We've both been wearing our coats. Our hostel is nice. I'm sitting in the lobby area right now watching the Germany/Spain game. Everyone's getting into it.

We made our first friend this morning at the airport. His name was Luis. He was a cab driver. We weren't going to use his services but he really put forth an effort to win us over so we went with him. I want to buy from everyone down here because they work so hard to sell something to you. It's impressive to see such a work ethic. Luis turned out to be really cool. He gave us a little tour on the way and ever drove us to the temple and stopped so we could take pictures. He gave us a card so we can call him throughout the week when we need him.

Our hostel is right in the middle of everything. A few blocks away is Florida St which just for walking on. There are shops and stands everywhere. We spent most of the day just walking up and down it. I go in every sports store looking at soccer shirts and hoodies. Everyone is cool here. We've stopped and talked to lots of people. Or they have stopped and talked to us I should say.

I find people's impression of my spanish is greatly influenced by whether I'm willing to buy their product with dollars.