after 8 days of driving, travelling around 7500kms from anchorage, we have finally arrived in new jersey where we've been staying since thursday.. it feels good to be back to civilization, not on the road but at the same time, i do miss the adventure and waking up at new places, meeting different people everyday. the reason we made a pit stop here is to shop.. to treat ourselves with some (or lots of) shopping bags and to walk around, instead of driving around. we are currently now staying in saddle river, a quiet place (and a definitely must come back for me if i ever be back here that is) in a subburb, half an hour away from new york and 20 minutes ride from the shopping heaven, woodbury commons. you-know-who was also here, flew in all the way from buenos aires for the weekend.. yeepi!! and the minute he left, 4 hours ago, i felt lonely and lost. damn it!
and since we are already at the end of our journey, there is nothing much to say.. only a recap of what happened from the day we started, 13th of july and the day we arrived here, 6th of september. pictures above and captions below are the only thing i have for you now..pictures might be all jumbled up, forgive my untidiness..

picture 1. the group having dinner and piranha soup as entre
picture 2. piranha soup, up close n personal, yummy!!
picture 3. wonder if i could live here.. what do you think?
picture 4. famous spot in the colorful la boca
picture 5. first night in buenos aires.. love the beefy!
picture 6. i lived in these flip flpos for weeks.. cute toes arent they?
picture 7. iguazu falls.. border of argentina, brazil and paraguay. definitely
a must come back!
picture 8. group picture before leaving ruben and rosa

i went to north pole and guess who i met..

hah! you must be thinking about that 'north pole' ay? i wish for that too.. but i would be freezing my skinny ass even if i wear 10 layers of jacket. north pole is a small town, famous for ... ta-da.. santa claus house. i was like a lil girl, honestly! jumping out from the car when we got there and rushed in into 'santa claus house' which is by the way a shop selling all cristmas stuff.. but i made a quick u-turn upon seeing rudolph! rudolph the red nosed reindeer.. la-la-la-la-la-la-la.. cant remember the rest. i paid my visit to their cage, said i was sorry that i ate their friends every morning for the past few days so many times but i couldnt help it as they taste so yummy. os courfe they wouldnt know as i dont think they eat their own kind or do they? eeww.. bye rudolph and rushed into the shop. when suddenly i heard 'ho! ho! ho!' wowwee.. i met santa and his wife and just when i thought i wanna catch santa only wearing his underpants since its summer, he was wearing the full outfit. i laughed my head out ( i was in shocked actually ) and said hello, still amazed and excited. i dont know why!! he was sitting on his chair, the ones you always see in the malls during cristmas and the wife, sweetly next to him, knitting i think. didnt pay much attention to the wife as i was, again , still amused with santa. I MET SANTA CLAUS IN NORTH POLE! hehe.. i still giggle everytime i think about it. i ran out to call my dad, forcing him to take my picture as a proof.. for what? god knows why.. think about it and tell me ok. i didnt even know why.. after all the excitement, i browsed thru the shop with a basket in my hand, buying ridiculous stuff and i wasnt the only one. hantu was even faster in filling it up. if you looked into mine, you might think it belongs to a 5 year old.. somehow, i enjoyed shopping in there.. and i even signed up for their catalogue so i could order more and more and more.. cant wait! i love it.. love, love, love it. what a happy place..

off to denali..

from seward, we drove 8 hours north to denali. i booked a cabin in crow's nest.. a cute and small lodge nearby denali national park. as it was already dark, we went to have dinner and i stayed in the cute cabin whole night, hoping for northern lights to appear some time in the middle of the night while online with him till i fell asleep.. only to wake up there was no northern lights, as i did register myself at the reception to wake me up in the event there is one and no signs of him os courfe next to me. wishful thinking.. one day, one day. in the morning, hantu and i went for 'tundra wilderness tour' into denali national park.. it was so cold as i didnt realized that we were actually quite high up. got onto the tour bus with a bunch of old but crazy old couples who cant stop cracking jokes at anything that moves. they are so happy and content with their lives, i bet. i wish that one day, i too could have a life like that. growing old, aging gracefully yet crazy and funny as hell! the drive in was very scenic and boring at times so being me, i fell asleep.. zzz.. only to wake up at the first stop where they had a pee stop and to snap pictures at yet again another scenic view of the mountains and rivers but no wildlife sighting so far. we then continued our journey to the deep end of denali park to view mount mckinley from a distance which was breathtaking, i must say. hantu had hot chocolate and coffee for me to stay awake while admiring the scenery and posed a few.. you see, when there's only the two of you in a group and your father always wanna take a picture of you, after some time you dont give your best pose anymore so i started making faces to brighten and cheer up my day and i hope his too.. to see that his daughter not only can give people a hard time but could be a clown as well. obviously those pictures wont be published and as much as i wanted to (yes my friends, i would love for you guys to see my other side but i think you've seen more than that, agree?) i couldnt as he didnt bring his cable for me to transfer it into the laptop. what the hell? why am i telling you all this? anyway on the way back, finally we saw few animals such as moose, dall the mountain goat, lotsa different type of birds and bears.. grizzlys in the wild! we saw at few different stops but my favourite was when at this section where the grizzly was busy eating by the roadside. twas quite far at first but it headed towards us and nearer and nearer and walked in front of the bus, passed by us and started eating on the other side of the road. that was the closest encounter so far.. but sad to say, i only got few pictures and mostly of his backside.. yeah, you like that 'backside' word, dont you my dear? that was the highlight of the tour for me and i assumed the coffee i had didnt work coz i did it again.. zzzz.
after the tour, hantu and i went to town, if thats what they called it. i will rephrase it tho.. we went to this row of shops.. one row, just to rub it in to do some shopping. apparently, cris was right. i am a compulsive buyer. i cant see shops, i have to go in and buy something. even if it is just a kiosk at a petrol station. i didnt know what to buy so i got myself an ice cream, cookies and cream, yummy!! which obviously didnt help as it was so cold and eating ice cream freezed me up and my hardly used brain as well. later, we had our dinner, halibut for me and for dessert, i signed up to white water rafting for tomorrow morning activity.
white water rafting was fun!! by 8.15am, i was already in my wet suit, helmet and paddle, ready to get into the raft and enjoy. the first splash of the cold cold water woke me up, no shit! it was 3 degrees if im not mistaken. andy, the guide was cute, adventurous and very informative. he give up being a banker to enjoy winter as a ski instructor in hmm.. i forgot, and during summer, doing white water rafting in denali. i told him to try out queenstown, new zealand.. he would love it. i love queenstown.. and i would love to go back there with my chicas.. will you my friends? we can bungee jump, white water rafting by day and drink all sorts of beers by night. wowee..what a holiday! please.. it has to be our 'things to do before you are 30' and that is in 2 years time. why am i reminding myself that im growing old? not old.. older.. hehe. it sounds better that way ay..

p/s above, there are two favourite pictures of mine. one is the food, which i have to show you guys. it was what i had for breakfast most of the time, eggs toast with reindeer sausages,love, love, love it!! i hope santa would still list me under his good list tho.. and another one with me in it, not because im in the picture but the background is so picture perfect. it may looked like it was taken in a studio but this is real! the reflections of the sky and mountains could be seen so clearly on the water, can you see it? if you cant, you will be growing balls at your neck soon, so you better see it, or admit that you do.. or else..

i totally forgot about..

i havent been smoking jojo but i act like i just did.. hah! i wish and i miss you jojo..i cant wait to see you. thanking you in advance adik! anyway, after doing my dog sled, a short drive later, we reached wildlife conservation center. it is a place where they keep injured animals and heal them before releasing it into the wild. it is quite a big place and with a small fee at the entrance and a map, we drove in and stop at the first cage, i called it 'the moose house'. my god, they are huge! i never thought they are that big, well, maybe as big as a horse but they are bigger! their head itself is huge and with one strike, i bet it can overturn a 'smart car' but then again, a big fat angry lady can do that too.. but they are huge! how many times do i have to say it? sheesh.. next stop, 'the grizzlys house'. now they are cute! and adorable and doesnt look scary at all. maybe because they are not angry or intimidated and playful and happy i supposed..i couldnt stop snapping their pictures, so did hantu. we also visited 'the bison house', 'the reindeer house', 'the black bear house', 'the brown bear house', 'the caribou house', 'the owl house'.. hmm.. and being me, sorry but i was only into fat animals and so only fat animals pictures are in here.