Happy New Year!

A bit late I know, but to say I've been lazy the last week would be an understatement. All the hiking and go-go-go in Tierra Del Fuego and Patagonia wore me out and I feel I've earned the right to be a bum over the holidays. I'm currently in Mendoza - wine country in Argentina. It's definetly my kind of place; wine is dirt cheap and it is quite nice to be in a proper city again. New Year was a blast. We had a party at the hostel, big grill-out with like 30 steaks, two whole chickens and a bunch of chorrizo for about 15 people. Unfortunatly, later in the night, Alex, the dude I've been traveling with, decided to take a drunken walk around town late at night and was jumped. He lost some money and all of his bank cards. Not cool. We're both heading up to Salta (our last stop in Argentina) tonight and hopefully his new cards will meet us there. I'm not terribly optomistic that they'll arrive soon which leaves me with some tough decisions to make. I'd rather not head into Bolivia alone but I certainly can't affort to stay in Salta for an extented period of time -- I've got too much ground to cover in the next 3 months.

Anyway, this is likely to be my last Argentinian post (unless I get stuck in Salta). It's a great country and seems to be on the upswing. Since the Peso fell tourism has expanded drastically, new hostels are opening every day and small towns are now seeing the money in the form of gringos with packs wandering down their once deserted streets. It's still somewhat cheap to travel the country but I feel this will soon change. As of now you can get a hostel bed for around $10-13, a liter beer at a bodega for $1 or less, a nice meal at a restaurant for $5 and ride the subway in BA for about 27 cents. Apparently, last summer it was even cheaper -- prices will continue going up as more and more find out about this great place. Seriously, if I hadn't moved all my stuff to NYC this entry would likely read: screw you guys I'm moving to Buenos Aires. Seriously....