Hey Kids!

Well, I really haven't written in a long time, thats for sure. Not a lot has changed, except for some fundamentals of this trip : I am not biking any more.

I really would like to see a lot of Brazil, where I am headed in two days, but it is a huge country and there would be no way to meet some friends who are going to eb there if I was only biking. I also am thinking that I would like to take some portuguese classes, hopefully figuring out how to pronounce this letter "ç". I also might volunteer a bit there. Who knows I will have about a month and a half in Brazil, and while I miss my bike already I don't think it will be too useful in places like the Amazon.

So where is my bike? the answer: mommy. After m,y Dad came top visit for a great two weeks in Argentina, I met my mom and one of her friends a few days ago here in Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay, right across the river from Buenos Aires. This place is gorgeous, and I got to live the plush life with Mom instead of on the cheap (the main diference being that we ate at restaurants and I didn't sleep in a tent! whoo!). Mom is going back to Alaska, and is taking back my bicycle as I write this. Its going to be a bit of a hassel, but she likes me, so she is doing it! Thanks Mom!

I think that the last time I wrote was in Posadas Argentina, where due to a money problem Dad and I were stuck for three days. We finall got out, and made our way to the Reserva Nacional de Iberá. There are lots of cool boat rides and ature-y things that you can do in that area, but Dad was too hot to do anything but sit in the shade, so I had to face the boiling heat by myself. My walk was fruitful however, because I was able to see a howler monkey (two actually). Some of you may know that I do a howler monkey expression. I thought that it was pretty good, but this 18 year old local guy I was hanging out with told me that I was missing a few crucial decibles. Eh, wjhat can you do. I didn't get to hear them howl, because I guess they only do that in the matingh season, but I did have to give them a few grunts to get them to come out of the jungle and get closer to me. I waited about 2 hours to see these little guys. Pretty much the point of the whole trip.

Dad and I wanted to get back into Buenos Aires the day before his flight, so we had to get up at 3:30 in order to catch the bus out of this tiny tiny little nature resurve town. The bus was OK.... actually it was the bumpyest road that Dad had ever been on (not me, I have definately done worse or equal in then last few months) but the LAME thing was that a huge thunderstorm blew in and started pounding us halfway through tyhe 4 hour bus ride. The bus was a little... antique, which I found out the hard way as the torrent was released on my head, sleeping in the back seat. I had a great comfortable situation going on, all comfy and warm, untill I started getting rained on. Oh well. We made it back to the slightly-bigger town of Mercedes (and we discovered our bags had goptten soaked! great!), where we waited 5 hours for a bus. Then another 11 hours of bussing to get to Buenos Aires, and a 40 minute walk to then hostel... Dad and I were traveling 20 hours in the rain. whee. He wanted to have a beer, but I was so travel-stoned that I almost passed out halfway through mine, so I just said goodnight.

The next day was sending Dad off to the airport, and the day after that was sort of getting other loose ends tied up before going the NEXT day to Colonia de Sacramento, in Uruguay, where I met Mom. We had 4 nights in this really cool hotel in the old disctict of this historic portuguese town. We had 4 relaxing days, in sort of mas o menos weather. It is really fun just to walk around this place; all the streets are cobblestoned, and the old portuguese style buildings with rough cut stone are everywhere, you can see the old 18 feet high stone wall that blocked the end of the peninsula (the old city) from invading peoples... Just a very cute, pretty, nice place. Even our hotel was a mansion back in the day, and still had a lot of oriional materials in it... including my roof which leaked. Oh well. I have had a hit of a problem with leaky roofs this past week. Eh.

So I just took Mom and her friend Eileen to the airport in Montevideo to get the all squared away on their flight, said another parental goodbye (two in less than a week, ack!) and came back to Colonia. Mom is taking my bike all the way back to Fairbanks, and I really appreciate it. Again Mom, THANKS.

Yeah, so tonioght I stay here in Uruguay, tomorrow I take a bus to Argentina, and tomorrow night I take a LOOOOONNNG bus ride from Argentina to Brazil. If people know their geography you might note that I am going backwards to get to Brazil, and trust me I know: US citizens need a Brazilina visa, and in order to get one I needed to have an entrance and exit ticket, so I go Back to Buenos Aires, where I bought it from. Kinda lame, but it will be OK.

I have signed up for a Portuguese class in a souther beach town, Florianópolis, where after a week I am sure I will be fluent... hah. After that I will go to Rio de Janiero (maybe...?) where I will meet a friend from Brazil I met traveling, and hopefully a friend from Germany who will randomly be there. I am pretty excited to see them. After that, who knows? Maybe volunteer somewhere, maybe take a slow boat down the Amazon... whatever. I leave this continent from Quito Ecuador in the end of April, so eventually I will head that way. I will keep writing in this about as often as I have been, but people should know I am no longer the biking anomaly, but a backpacker. with a violin.

Allruight, hope everyone is good. And wish me luck in applying for jobs for this summer (which I am doing right now...): how do I explain this year away in a professional way.... Eh.

---Collin