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Running of the Bulls part II - Video of the week

Part two of the Running of the Bulls confirms that the most dangerous part of the run is actually in the ring.  The run (which you can see in Part 1) is only a couple of minutes long through the streets of Pamplona.  Once you reach the stadium they close the gates once the last bull gets in the ring.  So if you haven't made it in the stadium then you are locked out.  Once all of the bulls are out the ring the crowd goes crazy!  Then they start to release one bull at a time into the ring to run around for a couple of minutes. It is hard to get out of the bulls way, because there are so many people shoving and pushing that people get caught off guard and crushed by a bull!

In this video you will see all kinds of crazy stuff that happens inside the stadium!  Reed, who took the video, got a love tap from one of the bulls in the ring!  Enjoy the video that Reed put together! 

Running of the Bulls 2008 - Must see video

One of my good friends who I met while traveling the world just went to the Festival de San Fermin.  He was able to capture the opening ceremony (and how crazy it is), how much or a party the festival is, and also the first day of the running of the bulls.  If you really want to experience what the Festival is all about then you have to check out this video.  Enjoy

1400 Kilometers on Route 40.......Priceless

Renting a Ford Tatoo for 25 Days....1200.00, 275 Litres of Super Gasoline.... 150.00, Repairing 7 Flat tires...... 200.00, 9 nights lodging in Hotel Ford Tatoo....Free, getting ripped off for a used jug to put spare fuel in 5.00, Driving 1400 Kilometers down route 40 on the worst gravel roads you can imagine with 60 mph winds, in the middle of nowhere, and with 3 Israeli soldiers packed in the tatoo with all there luggage like sardines.....the experience...priceless!

I don't even know where to start on this one. It was a wild one and very memorable thats for sure and you can probably already guess. I took off from Rio Pico on a mission. I was anxious to get across this Ruta Cuarenta that I keep reading about and people keep trying to tell me not to take. I mean how bad can it be its just a gravel road going over 1000 kilometers though the most desolate part of Argentina. Obviously they didn't factor in that I got the Ford Tatto with me. She will get me through. I know she wont let me down. At least I hope.

I left there around 2 and drove 5 hours south to Perito Moreno.  Which is like the staging area for this trip. I got a bunch of water here and some extra gas and found a good spot on the side of the road to park tatoo for the night. I took off around 8 and headed south on the first leg of the journey which was only 2 and a half hours. When I got around 16 km from the first town it started. I got my first flat of the trip. I was actually pretty happy about this, I mean if I didn't get at least one then the tough route 40 would be like a total let down for me and rather pointless. These trips are always way more fun when stuff goes wrong.

Finally relaxing a bit in my private cabana on Lago 4 in Rio Pico

So I took off again heading south down to meet my new friend from the Internet cafe, not really knowing what to expect. It was much better than the other option of going down there blind. I got to this tiny town of Rio Pico late at night and that is where I attempted to download the pictures of the last blog and almost punched out the computer. I ended up finding a nice street in town to make my campsite where I parked the tattoo for the night. The next day I had to wait until around 11 for the gas station to open before I took off to find Augustin´s cabin. The service down here is terrible and they have no sense of urgency with anything. I think they would rather just lose business than put any effort forth what so ever. I guess since there is very little tourism in this area they have not adapted to the change yet.

It ended up being like a 30 min drive to his house. As I pulled up he walked out with his some fresh bed head and a big smile on his face. I think he was pretty  surprised I actually came. Right away we went over to Miguel's house to get my cabin lined up. It was a pretty nice pad and only 40 bucks a night. You could have up to 5 people in there too. That afternoon, Augustin took me down behind Miguel's house about 30 min to the Rio Pampas. On the way he showed my all of the wild strawberries all over the place. There really tiny, but really tasty.

This was my cabin on Lago 4. It was the only cabin for rent on the lake and very solitary. I loved it. After sleeping in my car the last 5 days it was a pleasant change.

I finally found what I was looking for.......Fish and lots of them

By Reed Whiting

Well, here I am in a town of about 100 people on the only computer in town attempting to put this blog together. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. I had 30 ready to go on, but this Internet connection is driving me mad. I'm so frustrated I cant even see straight. Anyways I got the most important one on there of my big fish.

As of my last blog I was pretty frustrated with the fishing situation and was losing hope fast. My decision to head south paid ff big time as I found some beautiful rivers and a lot of fish that were dumb enough to let me catch them. I headed about 3 hrs south of Bariloche to the Los ALceres National Park. I had researched a river called the Rivindavia and it seemed like at good of a place to start as any. I got into the park as it was getting dark and pulled into the first camp sight I found to put up my tent, oh sorry I mean ark my car.

After another uncomfortable, yet cheap night sleeping in the tattoo I headed to the river. It was around half mile walk from the road as I headed down into the river valley. This river was right out of a dream. The water was the color of the Caribbean sea and surrounded by pine forests and the snow capped Andes. I couldn't of painted a better picture in my dreams. The river was pretty big and like the others up north difficult to fish, but I managed to find one spot where I got into position and slammed them. Over the next 4 hours I hooked into around 25 fish and landed around 10. A great start to this leg of the trip. I also made a new friend down here named Bruno.  (Picture above is Lago Rivendavia.  This was just the last town on my way into the Los Alceres National Park)

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

Entonces. (so in spanish) I left Mendoza around 900 on wed night and hopped on a two level bus on my way to Neoquen. These buses down here are no greyhound. They are luxury for a bus. We had a nice dinner and then I managed to instantly fall asleep. When I awoke we were already in Neoquen after a 12 hr journey. I got a cab at the bus station and took off to the airport in search of my rental car. Lined up a top of the line Ford Tatoo, which is probably the smallest car I have ever drove. Got some vague directions from the guy at the counter along with a map and hit the road to Alumine.

This ended up being about a 4 hr journey, but it went by really fast. The changing scenery in the are kept my attention for the whole trip. This country is vast and open. Its similar to a Montana landscape, just bigger. I traveled on pavement for half of the way and then took a rough gravel the rest. Every time we got into a rough part of the road I found my self praying that a tire wouldn't pop. (when I refer to we I am talking about me and tatoo..we have gotten close after my 1200 or so kilometers with her and shes more than a car to me now)

I got to Alumine around 100 and somehow found the cable tower in town where I was suppose to meet up with a guy amed Joey who is a fishing guide in the area from the us. Had lunch at the local diner as he told me about where to go and kind of how to fish the areas. From the start he told me I would be better off to hire a guide for part of the trip. At this point in time I was full of enthusiasm and thought there was no way I would need a guide to catch trout. Reed doesn't use a guide for fishing. Never.... 3 days later and Ill be the first to admit I was wrong. Very Very Wrong. I got my fishing license and a couple flies from a make shift fly shop in the hotel and headed to the Quillen River. I fished for a couple hours and hooked zippo. It looked like a great river but it was tough to access the right holes and spots to fish with all the willows along the bank. That along with I'm not as good of a fly fisherman as I thought equals no fish for my first day. (The picture, From Neoquen on my way to Alumine, I had to take a very rough gravel road for 2 hrs of the trip. This is part of it where it drops straight down into the valley. The drive was amazing. The vastness was amazing)

Mendoza, Argentina - Wine Tasting

By Reed Whiting

I got into Mendoza around 730 on sat. and got a cab to go and meet with Duffy Crane, who I was staying with. After dropping all of my stuff off at her apartment, we headed directly for the wine tasting room to show me around. A little background on Duffy. She works for and is a partner in a start up company called the vines of Mendoza. They have a very nice wine tasting room in Mendoza where tourist come and do flights of the best wine Argentina has to offer and they are in the process of building a customer base from the US that they ship bottle back to on a quarterly basis. They have only been at it for 7 months and they already have over 270 people in the wine club. They also have a real estate development going in where they actually sell the vineyards for around 40-60K per acre with all of the infrastructure in place including the panted grapes. Comparably speaking in California a similar piece of land that has this climate for growing grapes would be over 500K per acre. They ave already sold out of there first round of sales and 

So we went to the wine tasting room and I did a fight of wine. I really felt like a high class individual with my sandals, long hair and backwards cap for about 10 minutes. Basically I tried 5 different types of wine and got detailed explanations of each one. It was a cool experience even though I'm not really into stuff like that. I did learn that the people who are into this wine stuff are REALLY into this wine stuff. I guess there main wine person can identify a glass of wine in 74 different ways. Unreal.

Whitewater Rafting in Mendoza, Argentina

By Reed Whiting

My last couple days in Mendoza have been full of action. Exactly how I like things. I just cant stand getting caught in the lazy days of vacation where you do absolutely nothing. That is except Ruttgers. That is an exception. So on Monday I had arranged to a trip to Argentina Rafting to go down the Rio Mendoza. I have been white water rafting in Honduras once before and had a great time. I assumed this trip would be similar, but I was dead wrong.  (You are able to sign up to go whitewater rafting at any hostel/hotel or travel agency in Mendoza.  They have trips daily)

Upon arrival to the site I soon saw that this river was chocolate brown. I also found out that the water is freezing cold as it is runoff from the Andes mountains. I was kind of excited about these facts as it added a little twist to the trip. We proceeded to get our gear and head up stream about 20 min. to the launch spot. I ended up being in a boat with a bunch of retirees and along with there guide had to carry the burden of the rowing from the front of the boat. I had no problem with this because this way I get to hit all of the rapids head on. There were no drops on this river, but some pretty intense rapids that almost put me right out of the boat. After we made it through all the tough areas I jumped in the water to get a the blood flowing a little and it worked to perfection. Overall it was a great experience. I would of liked to flip the boat or have something else happen, but not on this one.