Oops!

Sooo... I had a little Machete accident a couple of weeks ago, and I've meant to write about it but our internet has been wacky, but it's a great story.

It was early in the morning and Angelica and I couldn't find our monkeys, and it started to rain. I decided to take one more pass around a set of trails to try and find them before heading out of the forest because of the coming storm. This turned out to be a silly decision, mainly because this meant that Angelica was a few trails away and without a radio. So, I was walking up a hill in the rain, when I slipped on the mud or a root and fill down. Somehow I dropped my machete straight through my hand and sliced my left thumb right open. I looked down and saw a lot of blood dripping onto my pants. I immediately grabbed my thumb with my other hand. I was in total awesome survival mode. I can now safely say I am good under pressure in weird situations. This was odd, because I then couldn't use either of my hands, one being useless and one holding onto the other. I looked around my body to see what I could use to wrap my thumb in and found nothing. I couldn't rip any part of my clothing or use my machete, now lying in the mud, to cut any part of clothing or something. I felt very useless and actually was laughing at myself with my hands tied. Then I struggled to get to my feet, left my machete lying on the trail more out of spite and anger with it after being a good friend always at my side for 5 months and now this. I yelled for Angelica that I needed help but she was too far away to hear me. I ran out of the forest with both my hands held in front of my face (because of the spider webs, which even in a dire situation I didn't want on my face) and onto the larger main trail. There I tried to keep my hands above my hand to stop some of the blood flow. Then I stood there for a while laughing at myself as I tried to reach my radio which was to my side and my back. I let go of my gaping wound quickly and reached for my radio, and clumsily called back to CIES. I finally reached Dan and told him I needed help and that I was coming back. I had him wake up Lydia to help me with my finger and told him that he needed to go into the forest to find Angelica, so she wouldn't be out there alone not knowing what was going on. I was very focused on things that needed to be done. Then I ran down the trail with both my hands over my head. I looked absolutely ridiculous. Luckily there were no tourists on the trail or I would have scared them to death. And sadly all the rain had washed the blood off my pants and hands, or else I would have looked truly badass.

Lydia took me to the infirmary here where they looked at my finger and rummaged around in my thumb, much to my dislike, and then gave me three stitches to close up the wound. Regretfully I didn't bring my camera with me to the infirmary! The giant needle to numb my thumb hurt much more than the initial cut, which actually didn't hurt at all I noticed, and then I watched the doctor stitch me up, which I found fascinating. The medico didn't seem too concerned about my thumb, and I think if I went to someone in the States I would have gotten a couple more stitches and better care instructions, but alas, that's what I get for living in the jungle. I think if I cut a finger other than my fat thumb it would now have only 9 digits.

Then I went to town to get some antibiotics, pain killers, and 2 tetanus shots in my ass (a nice ending to an already horrible morning). I took about a week off from work, finally took my stitches out a few nights ago, and am now working on some self-prescribed physical therapy for my thumb. It's still healing. The nerves in my thumb are slowly repairing themselves. I have a weird numb, tingly sensation in most of my thumb that is preventing me from being able to eat and write, and play guitar, with my left hand, which may I remind you, is pretty important considering I'm left-handed. But I'm managing alright now. I'll have a badass story and a badass scar when I get home.


On another note: My good friend from high school, Shosh, and two of her friends, came up here to visit last weekend. She is studying and working in Buenos Aires for the time being, randomly, and it was great to see her. I took them all around the park for free and then to town one night. They loved the falls. We were fortunate to see 3 different monkey groups also! A very rare sight. They were lucky. It was nice to see a different face for once and also crazy to think that we've been friends for about 10 years and we're both in Argentina now. I'll be hanging out with her in Buenos Aires next week when I'm done with work also. And now we're winding things down in Iguazu!

WILL BE HOME MARCH 2ND!!

Patagonia

Hi all--I just got back a couple of days ago from an awesome 2 weeks down south in Patagonia! I can't tell you how nice it was to experience just a little bit of cold again. I went with Dan, Boi, and Angelica, while Lydia was vacationing with her family who came out for a Christmas visit. All the details of the 15 days are long so I'll try to give you the highlights.

For the first two days Boi and I went to Montevideo and Colonia, Uruguay, while Dan and Angelica went to Buenos Aires. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in Uruguay just walking around the cities and celebrating with a little wine and chicken. Uruguay was pretty cool, but very flat with lots of farms and cows.

Then all four of us bet up in Buenos Aires and flew to a tiny town called Rio Gallegos way in the south of Argentina. We spent quite a few hours in the bus station waiting for our bus, which we finally took to El Calafate. It was very windy and the coldest weather we had experienced since last december in the states, but it was oh so nice not to be sweating every minute. Anyways, El Calafate basically is a tiny town with one long tourist street, with lots of souvenir and clothing stores for a few blocks, and that's about it. Very touristy, but pretty cute. I was happy to get to do some light shopping for once! The town serves as an entrance to a beautiful glacier named Perito Moreno. We spent a day walking on the trails around the glacier, and of course taking lots of photos. The glacier is huge and blue and very close to land actually. We were blessed with excellent weather. It is especially cool to listen to the big chunks of ice falling off the glacier and hitting the icy water beneath.

Our next stop was El Chalten, a mountain town a couple of hours north. Now here was the coldest weather we felt all trip, and man was it chilly. The town of El Chalten is nestled between the mountains of the Fitz-Roy Range and a river, and was only founded in 1985! It, in stark contrast to Calafate, is a bare-bones town with very very very few stores and shops, and even houses. It basically serves for a gateway for backpackers to go into the national park for a few days. We hiked the first day to a nice campsite besides a river and took a mini-hike to a lake surrounded by some mountains, which were unfortunately covered by clouds. But the next day was clear blue skies which gave us a great view of Cerro Torre. We hiked along the trail to a beautiful alpine lake, where the boys decided to go swimming (waaaay too cold for me), and to views of Cerro Fitz-Roy. These peaks are world renowned, but are way too technical of climbs for the average hiker. The hiking was hard and I got some nice blisters, which led me to have to buy hiking boots in the next city.

Then we made a long journey, through a part of Chile and crossing the Straight of Magellan on a ferry, to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world. This was my favorite place of the trip. The cute little sea-side town of Ushuaia also had its fair share of touristy shops, which again I loved, but it had a little more character to it. We spent a couple day walking around the town and a couple of days hiking in the national park. Boi and I went on an afternoon boat excursion on the Beagle Channel to see some Cormorants, two penguins, sea lions, and a cool lighthouse. We spent New Years camping and just hanging out with a fire and the guitar, pretty chill and fine for me. That's about it. Then we took a long bus back to Rio Gallegos (a crappy town with nothing important), flew back to Buenos Aires, and took another long bus back to Iguazu, where we were greeted with 90 degree jungle heat again.

Overall, a pretty awesome vacation!