MentalPictures: Infinite sky, BONES, gluttony, and HIGH SPEED KARAOKE

Well, I don´t have ACTUAL pictures to share, but instead... I´ll try to paint a mental picture or two.

1) The infinite sky of patagonia. I took several pictures of Patagonia while traveling across it in bus. It was a 42-hour ride from El Calafate to Mendoza (the Wine Region). I had plenty of time to stare out the windows :)

In Patagonia, the sky is a beautiful cerulean blue. The scrubby brush in the foreground is a light sagey brown, going on for many, MANY km until dramatic hills rise up out in the distance. In this photo, there are many distinct clouds in the sky, all over, but for some reason (temperature inversion?) the clouds only descend to a certain altitude. It is a plane below which there are no clouds at all. Between the clouds one can see the blue sky. This gives an effect which is quite incredible: the layered clouds in the sky make it look as though it goes on forever. Stunning.

(if a picture is worth a thousand words, I still have a long way to go!)

2) While in Valparaiso (Chile), my companion Nike and I went to a graveyard on a hill. There are many old tombs in this graveyard, and one of them was particularly old and looked as though it hadn´t been maintained in decades. It also had a gate on the front that wasn´t locked. We could see from the outside that there was a hole in the back of the tomb (presumably where a coffin would be put), and it APPEARED that there was a tattered old black plastic bag inside.

We opened the gate to the vault (The dead don´t get visitors very often, I´m sure they didn´t mind!) and stepped gingerly inside. The floor was an old plywood plank which creaked in pain once we set foot on it. We stayed inside only long enough to take a photo. The hole in question was about 2 meters away, and I used my zoom. The old tattered black bag WAS IN FACT full of bones.


3) The Buffet
While in Mendoza, my travel companion Daizo and I found a wonderful buffet. When we got there, a number of people were having their photos taken at their tables, so this buffet was a special buffet--one where people go for special occasions.

There was a parilla (tons of meat!) section, there was a seafood section, there was a pizza section, there was pasta, salads, fruits, desserts piled high. In actuality, this buffet put the cruise to SHAME. (Sorry Marco Polo!). There was a dessert kiosk where they´d whip up crepes and another where they´d whip up omeletes.

The desserts had been paid special attention, and each slice of cheesecake had its own decorations and fruit. There was flan, there was pudding, there was ice cream of every imaginable flavor. It would have lit up the eyes of any Roman who walked in that door.

In case I look like I put on weight in any of my photos, I will blame this buffet! (gluttons that we are--we ate there TWICE!)

4) High speed Karaoke
On the trip from El Calafate to Mendoza, our bus attendant was a friendly and cool guy named Sebastian. To make his announcements, he would plug the microphone into the roof of the bus, stand in front, and speak. Of course my spanish is very poor, and I understood little of what he said, BUT at first, it LOOKED like he was setting up for karaoke.

So I asked him if the microphone was for karaoke, and he offered the microphone to me at which point I of course chickened out and said, "broma, broma, chistoso!" (joke, joke, funny!). After he was done making his announcements, I had him bring the microphone over and stick it in my face. The photo I took has him looking suave, holding the mic in front of my face while I look horrified.