Hola!

After a 24 hour flight delay and a 12 hour flight, we made it safely to Buenos Aires. The first stop in the 7 week Latin America portion of our trip. Muy emocionante!

I think since leaving New Zealand Tony and I have gotten somewhere between 10 and 12 hours of sleep total. I had booked a hostel for us in the Boca area of Buenos Aires. Boca is fine, it is by an old, culturally rich neighborhood called San Telmo, but the hostel was no bueno. I won´t get into details, it really could have been worse, but it was bad enough that we didn´t hesitate to cut our week long reservation there very short. There is a giant convention in Buenos Aires this weekend and we were told that literally every single hotel and most hostels were booked solid. Sooooooomehow we managed to find a nice place to stay last night in a guesthouse and upon looking for a phone up the street, found a really nice hostel with a lot of character and open rooms for the remainder of our time here. It´s a little more expensive than the first place (which was about $8 each) at about $14usd each but is worth the extra few bucks. We´re staying in San Telmo and I really like this area. Lively enough, great food, lots of live music and art.

I can´t wait to see some Tango! Tango tango tango! Tony won´t learn Tango with me...if someone could kindly remind him that Tango is the dance of love (right?) and that he should probably learn it...I´d appreciate it. K thanks.


Anyway, I have to admit, Buenos Aires is dirty. Really dirty. A thick layer of smog hangs low over the city. You can see it in the street lights, feel it in your lungs and I swear I saw Tony´s breath in it yesterday. It´s gross.
Coming from 300 days of sunhsine a year in colorful Colorado, the air quality and trash everywhere depressed us for a day or so.

But Buenos Aires is really growing on me. It has a lot to offer and I can´t wait to explore more. Dinner here is at about 11pm and we have yet to have a bad meal. The food is unreal. Ordering it, however has been another challenge. I have faith that my spanish will come back to me, but as of right now I feel like I´m two and can´t communicate what I need. It´s as easy as asking for a cajero automatico (ATM) and a cajeta automatico (which would be a fudge dispenser....which someone should invent). My ability to communicate at the present moment would make every spanish teacher I´ve had since 7th grade cry. A lot.

The people here, so far, are really beautiful and nice (read: understanding) so it hasn´t been too bad (plus we tip like Americans so they like us...) and Tony and I have a realllllllly good sense of humor. If not, I´d probably cry.


It´s raining (of course) so I´m going to try my best to get pictures up somewhere today...

Hope all is well!
Much love,
Brandee

Roll with the punches

The airport in Auckland has free internet--which almost makes up for how expensive everything else is!

Our flight to Buenos Aires tonight got cancelled and rebooked for tomorrow. Kind of a bummer because Buenos Aires was one of the places I was looking forward to most, but you've gotta roll with the punches.

New Zealand has been good...we spent a few nights in a fishing town in the bay of islands called Paihia. The people were really great and it was a relaxing break from the madness of Auckland. We were able to go onaboat and spend some time with playful dolphins while touring the bay of islands--this was definitely a highlight.


Anyway, hopefully next time I write I'll be in Buenos Aires....but I'm blogging in an airport and that's weird.

Hope everyone is well!
Brandee

Writing from the future...

Of course, the day we left Fiji it was sunny and beautiful. It rained 4.5 out of the 7 days we were there, MUCH to our dismay. We had high hopes for the weather in Auckland, but the rain started pouring right when we got here. It's different, though. We can do stuff INDOORS! Whoa. We're in a very developed city sitting atop volcanoes. It is ridiculously green here, the people are very friendly and the stores (quite literally) alternate coffee shop/sushi/shoe store...coffee shop/sushi/shoe store. I have little to no problem with this. :) Needless to say, we ate sushi last night (I should also note we slept 12 hours).

I had to go buy a new sweatshirt (ohhhh darn) because it's only in the 50's today! I thought i did better research than this! Tony and I are VERY prepared for warm weather (hopeful, even) but weren't as much for cold weather. 50's! I still can't believe it.

I should note that we're in love with New Zealand. The best way to describe it is peaceful. It is a lot like San Francisco--great culture, fashion, food, easy public transportation, ports and harbors, roaring fish markets, calm weather--However, there are less crack deals and an abundance of funny accents.

We're staying in a little neighborhood called Parnell, which as much as I can tell is a lot like the uptown area of downtown Denver. It's within walking distance of downtown and a great area called Newmarket. We're staying at the City Garden Lodge which is really cute and homey. We're here for two more nights and then are off to Paihia in the Bay of Islands for 3 nights. I think we're going to do some whale and dolphin watching. Thought we'd be swimming with dolphins here--but at 50 degrees...you couldn't PAY me to splash around with Flipper. That will have to wait for Costa Rica! :)

We went to an excellent museum today and are going to check out the Sky Tower later.

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures, it's been a bit harder than I thought! Still trying though...

Hope everyone is doing well! Tony and I haven't killed each other yet... :)

Drop me a line or shoot me an email-- brandeecastle@gmail.com

xo
Brandee

Bula

"Fiji Time" is the expression used on the islands when referring to their lack of urgency, mostly due to the heat and laid back attitude. In our case, it's been because of the rain and lack of surrounding action. We've done nothing for long enough, although we saw some action as well: horse ride on the beach, trip to Sigatoka town, jungle trek, village visit, snorkeling, swimming, volleyball. Perhaps the highlight was church service yesterday in the small village next door, followed by lunch with our friend Juta and his family; chicken soup off the floor. It was a very special experience to soak in some true Fijian culture.

Off to New Zealand tomorrow morning, we're ready for some Kiwi.

Vinaka

Feejeeeeee

Fiji is still great, but it has been raining for the last two days. Not much sun to speak of...and I'm still waiting to see a rainbow like in postcards...:)

Tony and I have been doing a lot of reading and sleeping....which has been nice, although not what I thought we'd be doing. We actually went into a little town this morning called Sigatoka. By little I mean bigger than the one we're in now. I have bug bites covering my legs-over 30-and they are all swollen (ew). We went to the "care chemist"-pharmacy- to get something to fix it. They gave me some spray and some benadryl, both of which I have taken, and both of which have yet to effect the bites... It looks like I have some sort of disease. Ha. I think I made people on the public bus nervous!

What else, what else...
Tony and I found out that falling coconuts kill more people than sharks do, and being situated in a coconut grove, we've been watching our heads. :) We have, however, found a lot of fallen coconuts. Watching Tony repeatedly chuck one against a wall in hopes of breaking it open was wayyyyy more entertaining than having someone else open it with a stick in a matter of seconds. We were able to drink the milk out and eat some of the coconut which was awesome.

We're meeting a lot of great people and are the only Americans at the Beachouse as of right now.

I love reading your comments--and we'll post photos as soon as possible.

xo

Extreme hammock surfing.

We made it to Fiji...and it is beautiful here. We may never leave.

The beach where we are staying is exactly as I had hoped it would be, and our room is way better than I imagined. We are staying at the Fiji Beachouse in Korolevu which is about 2 hours from Nadi, the capital. I guess when I thought of Fiji I pictured a million resorts, and maybe a shopping mall look, although I wasn't hoping for that. I was hoping for small little towns, hard working & friendly people, beautiful palm trees, a laid back & happy vibe, beaches and lush greenery. THAT is what we got.

So far we've...laid in a hammock, eaten fruit, laid in a hammock again, walked around the beach, napped in the room, laid in a hammock, eaten more food, watched the ocean, slept, laid in a hammock.... you get it.

The people here are so incredibly friendly. We're going snorkeling in a few minutes. I'll try to post some pictures later in the week...so you can be super jealous.

Can't wait.