Glaciers and Rain

Alright, my apologies for missing 5 weeks or so between blogs. We had super limited Internet access, and if we did not for more than 10 minutes at a time. It turns out it takes a really long time to write 7 pages of blogging. I am totally into chronicling this adventure. ITs a fine line between mundane events from day to day (journaling) and providing you with the details in a chronological order. But really, whatever, here it is. El Calafate and El Chalten a bit of trekking through insanity. Wish you all could have been there or that I could share pics with ya, but here we GO. (sidenote: blogger doesnt allow exclamation points....)

El Calafate and Argentina
    We began to take our trip North through the rest of Patagonia. We took a sunrise bus through the border back to Argentina and had to say good-bye to beautiful Chile. We took a bus across desert, insane lakes, and dropped off a valley wall into the relative desert of Argentine Patagonia. About 2 hours later we arrived in El Calafate. El Calafate, named after the wild Patagonian blueberry, is not the  most attractive town. First, it was super expensive and the only hostel in town was a massive hotel style place, quite a change from all of our previous hostels that were very personable hostel owners.

The town is full of people who have flown into Argentina for a week or less and want to do trekking in the summer or skiing in the winter. Therefore, most of the shops are gear stores, there’s a huge casino, and all the restaurants and grocery stores were the most expensive so far in our whole trip. But once you get over all of that there is a ton to do, but all outside of town with a tour, that inevitably you have to pay for. But to El Calafate´s credit, the town is the springboard for one of the most incredible wonders of the world: Perito Moreno Glacier.

So naturally we had to go to the Glacier. We had already seen some glaciers but nothing like Perito Moreno. We got some bus tickets and were swept off early in the morning on a partly cloudy day. About an hour later we arrived at the Southern Entrance of Parque National Los Glaciares. The national park is HUGE and encompasses some of Argentinas most massive Glaciers. You have to pay to enter the southern part (Perito Moreno Glacier) but the northern part is free (El Chalten, more on this later). So after paying our entrance fee the bus dropped us in front of a visitors center and the entrance to an incredible maze of suspended walkways that twist and wind all over each other closer and closer to the Glacier.

Perito Moreno Glacier is incredible. The setting: the glacier is half a mile wide and several deep. It is also close, if not over, 100ft tall. Just massive It emerges from a valley with treeless peaks on all sides that make their mountainy way down to Lago Argentina. Lago Argentina is a pretty huge lake (miles long and at least half a mile wide) that has a dog-legged shape. The glacier itself is one of the few Glaciers in the world that is considered “stable” in size and hasn’t lost any mass over the past century (unlike 95% of Glaciers worldwide). In fact the giant mass of ice move nearly 1meter every day. The coolest thing about the whole glacier is that because of its massive advancing it eventually races across the lake and divides the lake in half right at the dog leg. This happens every several years and eventually the pressure of the lake and the weight of glacier creates a rupture where massive chunks of ice, rock, and water spew, explode, and fly all over as the lake claims the dog-leg once again. This happens sporadically; 1998, 2004, 2008, 2010, etc.

About a month before our trip the Glacier had once again reached the other side of the lake (the more frequent ruptures a sign of climate change? heh heh). This created a crazy aspect to the lake where half of it was a different color, one side green, then the other side of the glacier blue. Also the two sides were even different heights. Totally a different lake, although it was the same. We were sure to bring lots of food for our bus was not returning to pick us up for another 6 hours. So when we arrived we walked along miles of these catwalks until we were only several yards from the Glacier which was spread out in an unworldly sprawl. So we did the only natural thing at this juncture. WE sat for 6 mind blowing hours, hypnotized and picnicking. Even after looking at it for hours its still difficult to fathom the actual size of this ice cube.

The Perito Glacier is an experience of all the senses. Even after the sun came out and bathed the whole valley in sunlight, you can feel the cool air blowing off the ice (not unlike a hockey game...). The most interesting, and unexpected, sensation is listening to the glacier. IT makes insane noises that I cannot begin to explain. IT gurges, gushes, creaks, and moans. It splashes, splays, cracks and whistles. Half of the enjoyment is listening to the unworldly sounds. But the real reason everyone is there for the spectacle. Because the glacier moves close to a meter a day the giant 100 foot face calves of in massive skyscraper size chunks. So literally, we found a place we liked and for 6 hours just watched the glacier. IT is comparable to waiting to see a shooting star or a strike of lighting. Waiting to see the awesome power of nature. The first glimpse you have is unbelieving, mezmorizing. And after that first glimpse you are HOOKED, so all you can do is continue to stare and wait. Sometimes you are rewarded and sometimes not. Then when the first piece falls, it is with such power, and insanity, that all you can do is watch and wait in anticipation for the next to fall. Even the smallest pieces that fall make a little cracking sound, then silence as they fall 100ft or so, then an INSANE crashing sound as they are obliterated on the waiting sapphire lake.

Highlight: The crown crash of the day came around 3pm or so, just as we passed the 5th hour of straight Glacier watching. The sun had been baking the face of the glacier since about 11am when the clouds finally broke and the glacier was looking a beautiful deep blue, swirling with whites, and greys shaped in insane spires and impossible shapes. Slowly, larger and larger chunks would break off. Every 20 minutes, 5 minutes, 45 minutes, until one little, itty bitty piece fell off the top. This piece was the keystone and soon a massive, 80feet or more, skyscrape size chunk roared into the water. You could feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it, not one sense was left unenlightened. It was unfathomable.

We returned to Calafate in awe, and the next day we jumped on a bus to El Chalten.

El Chalten:

This town is ridiculous. First off, it is the youngest town in all of Argentina. It was built in the early 90´s and was only started because Chile and Argentina were debating where the border was, so Argentina won. Secondly, El Chalten boasts having the worst weather in the world. Which is true. Thirdly, El Chalten is also the, most importantly, the springboard into some of the most raw, stunning, and impossibly beautiful natural landscapes that Patagonia, and the world, have to offer. So it seemed completely logical to go there.

We had heard from several travellers before we even made it to Patagonia that El Chalten doesnt have a bank, the only ATM rarely has money, and that food at the few grocery stores flies off the shelves. So we prepared by taking a bunch of money out in EL Calafate, buying most of our food before we arrived, and planning on camping to keep costs down. We also had talked to our Hostel owners in Puerto Natales about El Calafate for the best 5 day backpacking trip and had a pretty good itinerary set up. We were ready for anything. Then everything came. But first...

The bus ride was awesome. Only about 2 hours from Calafate, El Chalten is located off of famous Ruta40 in Patagonia. An epic highway that cruises the desert on the rain shadow side of the mountains in Patagonia, right in the foothills. The entire time there are beautiful jagged peaks in the distant, insane colored lakes and river, and tons of giant ostrich looking birds and herds of llama type animals. Its totally nuts. We arrived in El Chalten which is a gorgeous little, brand new town.

El Chalten is in the shadow of Mount Fitz Roy (seriously, google up a picture right now) and reminds me of Silverton, Colorado. All the roofs, and buildings are different colors and hunkered down tight for the insane winds and rain that come out of the mountains. There is also a bunch of construction going on because the town is new, and in the last 4 years it has seen a huge increase in toursim. Our hostel, it turns out was actually illegal and without papers, was still being built and the second floor was a skeleton of a building without windows, a roof, and only a couple brick walls. It was the cheapest place in town and everywhere else was double or triple the price of what everyone had been quoting us. This put us in a cash strain, even though we took out abunch of money, because the ATM was, of course, out of money. But not to dampen our spirits. We stayed one night, got some last minute food, and got a ride out to the boondocks to begin a 5 day trekking trip back to town. Oh boy was it epic.

Piedra del Fraile - Lago Electrico

We got dropped off on a partly cloudy day, where the mountains were doing a sort of dance with the fog and mist, right at the confluence of the Rio Blanco and the Rio Electrico. As their names imply, the Rio Blanco was a beautiful crystal clear river running over white granite while the Rio Electrico was an incredible electric blue/sapphire/turquoise meandering down a multicolored valley. We began our hike out to Piedra del Fraile away from the valley of Rio Blanco and along the Rio Electrico. It was perfect. The mist blocked the sun and made the temperature perfect for backpacking. When the sun is out its almost too hot when you are moving, but when its cloudly and cool the temperature is perfect for hiking and once you stop your body temperature cools in about 5-10 minutes so it naturally keeps you moving.

We made it to Fraile in a couple hours after walking along through beautiful forests, over creeks, and next to a couple mooing cows to the privately owned campground. We were sent here by our hostel owner in Puerto Natales solely on the reason that few people venture back here. He was right and there was only one other couple staying at the camp when we arrived. The gentleman that owns the camp is an awesome dude that 4wheels in the summer and backpacks in the winter to keep the place stocked, does epic climbing,and skiing in the winter and was stoked to talk to us even though we could barely even retort in our broken spanish. We put down the tent, payed some cash money, and took off up the valley further to check out the headwaters of the Rio Electrico, Lago Electrico. As we headed up a massive valley, that had obviously been abused by a glacier only a couple hundred years earlier, the clouds began to clear. we were in an incredible valley that ended only a couple miles ahead of us. To the south there was incredible colored rock in Reds, blacks, yellows, whites, and greys that peaked out at Cerro Electrico (electric peak). In front of us, to the west, was a massive glacier field and scraggly, treeless peaks that directly fed, the still hidden, lago Electrico. And narrowly on the North side was another giant, treeless ridgeline. Behind us, to the east, was the giant wash of the Rio Electrico and Piedra del Fraile, which really is one of the only rocks, a giant one, in the middle of the valley where the camp was nestled up in the forest. Beyond that was more mountains and rivers and epic Patagonia.

After much scrambling and jaw dropping scenery we made it to the cliffs on the southside of the Lago Electrico. The first glimpse was an onslaught on the senses. It was still cloudy, but the lake was the most insane color blue. Indescribable. I know I keep saying things like “impossible”, “insane”, “epic”, etc, but after weeks in this wonderful land Megan and I were mostly speechless with the frequent “wow”.  Then a couple more steps and “wow”. Its all just wow.

We continued on our Journey next to the lake over some orange, purple, black, white, and cream colored rocks that had obviously taken a beating from some glaciers not too long ago. We stopped to have a bite to eat with our legs hanging over the lake still about 30 meters above the water. Here, while we ate, the sun came out and gave the lake, if that was possible, an even more insane color as well as lighting up EVERYTHING.To our left we could see the massive glacier expanse covering a jagged black mountain with several peaks poking through the ice and stretching back to the right over across a huge valley. The right side of the glacier abruptly stopped into another incredibly orange, glacier abused jagged mountain that ran along next to the lake and most of the valley back to Piedra Fraile.

Now that the sun was out we boogied across the rocks and down to a pebble beach (florida?) next to the impossible lake. There we could see a peninsula that sticks out into the water which literally looks like it is floating. Without lagging too much we juanted up the the left into a valley next to a small creek that was feeding the lake and it was incredible to see the geological change. The rock type was changing at a pace reserved for weather in the mountains and not the usually relaxed meandering over millions of years. We were in a band of soft crumbly white rock which had huge boulders and white sand everywhere. I could have been in Jtree or in the hills by Santa Cruz if it wasnt for the granite peaks and glacier bays. But differing terrain is the name of the game here in PAtagonia so another 30 meters and we were in a different band of beautiful crystal induced yellow granite that to the step was super sticky. We followed this up to the top of the creek was another lake with another insane view.

This was insane. There was an absolutely glass lake that was being fed by 2 blasting waterfalls at least 10 meters each. Behind the falls on the right was an incredible granite wall with black streaks of water cascading down. IT looked like a wall of Northern California Granite except of being stained black there was a glacier sitting on the summit. It was almost as if we were watching Yosemite being formed. Then just to the left there, shrouded in its eternal mist cloak, was the giant Cerro Fitz Roy. The entire geologic party was being reflected off the glassy lake and we stopped to enjoy the solitude on a rock right on the border of mirrorlake meeting cascading creek.

We returned to the gorgeous Lago electrico in the still brilliant sunshine and once we got to the shores of the insanely colored water I had such a desire to jump in. Minutes later we found a nice spot on the beach and I went for a quick, and freezing dip in the awesome water. IT was literally swimming at the base of a glacier but it felt great to dry off in the sstrong patagonian sunshine afterward. Hands down the best swim I have ever taken.

The next day we headed straight up next to our camp about 1300 meters or so to a small valley and pass called “Paso del Cuadrado”. We had to climb straight up some beautiful granite and once we reached the treeline the color of rocks became insane. We were hiking next to a peak called Cerro Electrico which, true to its namesake, was striped in 5 different color rocks and was a brilliant peak on the way to some of the most incredible geologic formations in the world.  The rockfields above treeline were situated by color in an unbelievable precision. There was a giant band of black rocks from the summit of the many peaks running down to treeline, a perfectly distinguished line then a band of bright orange rocks, another line, and then white rocks. IT was crazy. Once we made it up to the top we were in a sharp bowl-shaped valley.

On the left were the 3 bands of colored rocks heading to several peaks that slowly crumbled down from the sheer faces of perfect granite Cerro Fitz Roy. IT was insane, probly the most dominating rock in the world. IT is soo much bigger, more sheer, and beautiful than any rock in Patagonia (the world?). Then tumbling down from that peak was a glacier right in front of us and lake. We were standing less than a kilometer from Fitz Roy and it was surround by snow, rock and ice. But today, the only day of the 6 we were in El Chalten, there wasnt a cloud in the sky. All there was was brilliant blue, perfect white granite, white snow, and the multitude of colored rocks tumbling down to the Valley. Not a bad place to be.

This blog is already too long for my tired fingers and the fact that it has been so hard to find time and a computer that I can sit at for more than 20 minutes, but I must go on without sparing any insanity (it all is insanity).

The day after Cuadrado We hiked around to the other side of Fitz Roy away from Rio Electrico and up the Valley along the Rio Blanco. However, now there were no more cloudless calm day of el Chalten. Fitz Roy had decided to live up to its renown as having the worst weather in the world, and it did a good job. The first day after Cuadrado was ok. We went from partly cloudy to insane wind to sideways rain in a continually revolving weather wheel. We also got to see some insane things including Lago Sucia and a whole bunch of other glaciers, epic rock scrambling with 40lb packs over rivers with no other witnesses except waterfalls and glaciers. However, that night when we reached the busy campgrounds at the trail head to  lago de los tres all weather hell broke loose.

We entered the heart of a 4 day storm of 40mph (or more) wind and rain for days. We had luckily got our tent set up before the drizzle went to the downpour but it lasted for days. That night was insanely loud. The rain was constantly dropping on our tent and water with nylon is exactly quiet. But that was a whisper compared to when the wind came and shook all the water out of the trees into torrents that you had to yell over to be heard 1ft away to the other side of the tent. This lasted for 24 hours or longer. The next day we slept in, moved slow, and were staying realatively dry in our tent, but shortly after noon we were getting cabin fever and put on all our rain gear, gaiters, and gloves and headed out for a walk to see what we could see. The answer was nothing. The mountains were completely cloud drenched and the rain was blowing sideways. We were able to walk for a couple hours, but with that much rain and wind not even the best goretex can keep you dry and we were completely soaked to the bone.

At this point we had to head to the tent. We were 3 hours from town and, because the atm didnt have any money, had nowhere to go. Our bus didnt leave for several days, we had enough food, but still needed to buy a little on our last day so we were camped out in a true patagonian rager with no retreat. That night, close to dawn, silence for the first time in 2 days meant that the rain had given up for a second. I had tied a clothes line and it gave us a couple hours to hang our stuff out and hopefully dry a little. After a couple hours the drizzle came back, but with less strength than the downpour. We decided we were going to see anything so we took off for the closest campsite to town, still an hour away but not 3.

So  we packed up all our stuff a fast as possible and right when we made it to the other campsite the downpour resumed. As we were hurrying to put up the tent to try to keep something dry the tent pole SHATTERED right on the plastic joint which makes it impossible to fix. . Mala leche. Quickly we pulled out the ducttape and a metal pole and tried to tape it together but the tent still wasnt holding its shape. So I had to cut a whole mess of guidelines to tie from the tentfly to trees, and other stakes and after a bit we had a tent that look like a tent. WE threw all our dry stuff in the tent, our wet stuff under the vestibule and in the insane downpour decided that we werent getting any wetter so we should do our last trip to town for some supplies.

The money situation was a bit dampening. Everything was more expensive than we planned for and we had 2 more nights. So with the ATM out of money the little cash we had lead us to 2 options. We could camp in town and have a meager last 3 meals, or camp an hour outside of town in the free camp and have a more luxurious last 3 meals (box of wine anyone?). So we decided that our tent might not make it through another breakdown and set up so we decided to spend our last remaining pesos on tasty vittles. So down the mountain we slipped in the down pour towards tiny El Chalten.

An hour later we were walking through the streets completely soaked and cold and ehadedd to the bus station so we could eat lunch somewhere dry for the first time in 3 days. After shedding some layers and getting some hot tea from some fellow trekkers with teh same idea at the bus station we tried the ATM and VIOLA. MOOuuLA. It was like winning the lottery. Now that we were ganster-balling-rich-folks our soggy fruit cake didnt taste as good so we headed for a pizzaria with a heater and coffee. But first we also decided we were going to get a hostel for our last night and dry out and warm up. There is something chilling about being soaked to the bone in 40+mph winds for 3 days that makes the price of a hostel not matter. We were tired, hungry and soaked. The lady at the hostel was so sorry she didnt have a room for us when we asked while we dripped a huge puddle on the floor from our soaked clothes. But was overjoyed when we told her it was for tomorrow. We booked our room, she even gave us a discount for nothing (probly pity) and pointed us to the cheapest pizza joint in town. WE left with our spirits much higher and camped out in the pizza joint next to the heater for a couple hours and some of the best pizza ive ever had. Afterwards, bought a box of wine and walked up the hill in the mud to our tent in the dark.

What we arrived to was an insane river running through our camp and threatening to wash our backpacks our from under the vestibules, the inside of the tent was still the driest place for a couple miles but had puddles building. That is when out came the most dynamic, useful, and my favorite tool I brought on the trip: my Spoon. Megans plastic “light my fire” half spoon, half fork/knife that seem to be very popular among most backpackers, had broken a week or so before at a hostel while we were eating Polenta, POLENTA. But the entire trip I was constantly crooning over my love for my MSR super strong spoon, and, truly, it was the only shiny thing in the dark hour in the downpour of Chalten. I was able to dig an entire trench around the whole tent successfully diverting the river from under our tent into a pretty good sized creek running safely next to the shelter. And it was flowing fast. But after a tasty meal and some wine we laid back down to the sound of rain beating our tarp for the last time...

A lot more happened, but Im going to end here until I bring us to El Bolson, Wwoofing, The Futaleufu, kayaking, MORE RAIN CAMPING, and the return to cities, friends, waterfalls, and Che Guaveras hometown. Hope you all dont get too bored reading. Holla atcha.
Ciaoito

Nic and Megan

Part 1/2 - Torres Del Paine - Sol en me hombros

¡¡¡¡SO no matter how much I mess with Blogger I cannot get the whole text to be the same color. Im Sorry. Also, this is only part one, its take forever to write these things, and I will try to get part two up as soon as possible. Megan and I are now Wwoofing down in Palena, Chile, which is awesome. Its only 1200 people and doesnt have too many services, including an ATM, so were a bit limited on resources. Hope everyone up North is doing well and enjoy the story to go with the pictures!!!!

Alright, back to the blog. It has been over a month since Ive been able to find a computer that I can sit at for more than 10 minutes and relay probly the most dense part of Megan and my´s adventures. We had finally arrived in Patagonia in Punta Arenas right on the Straight of Magellan. We  have a couple pics of Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine that can be found HERE.
Firstly, Im going to clear up what Patagonia really means. I had a pretty good idea in the states before I left, but only after bumming around the region have I begun to grasp the epic expanse of Patagonia. I run into travelers down here that still ask where the town of Patagonia is and are confused about the whole concept. Patagonia is a region of the South America. Its where the end of the Andes crash into the Ocean at the southern tip of the world before the insane Oceans break up the water between Antarctica and South America. Patagonia if you want to truly define it is Southern Chile and Argentina below the 40th Parallel. It has been described by many travellers and authors as one of the few great expanses of lands that has not been fully discovered. And true to this claim, there are immense stretches of land, mountains, and rivers that are incredibly inaccessible. There is no town, province, or state named Patagonia, its closer to a region (like the Southwest in the USA).

To give a general description from West to East. The West is insanely Lush, fully of a scraggely, wind blown tree called the Lengua and full of broken land, ocean and mountains-It reminded me of the inside passage of Alaska. Then you get to the Andes that at sea level give you the feel of being in the heart of the rockies at 1,000´s of feet. Because the mountains get so much snow and they are so far south Treeline is at about 3500 ft of elevation. And they truly look like the rockies, 1000s of years ago. The Geology is happening in front of you with glaciers, Alpine lakes, and rivers tearing through EVERYWHERE. There is no lightning, but the thunder booms through most valleys in the summertime as glaciers calve off and tumble hundreds of feet and destroying everything. Finally, when you make it east, (Argentina now as the Continental Divide is generally the border between Chile and Argentina) you get the feeling of BV or Grand Junction. I mean that in the way of the Rain Shadow effect. Where all the rain from the oceans dump on the Chilean side or in the mountains and have nothing for the massive Argentine expanse. IT is usually miles and miles of grasslands that go on forever with nothing but the shadows of epically huge mountains and insanely colored lakes and rivers collected from Glacial runoff. So here we are in Patagonia.

So picture this, a small tattered town, the largest of size in South Patagonia (60,000), the best brewery in Patagonia (Cerveza Austral), crazy ragtag houses of every color nestled up a hill of brilliant green and all the way to the emerald sapphire of the Straight of Magellan, This is Punta Arenas. The coolest thing of Punta Arenas, although im going to rush through it to get to even more epic things, was travelling to the Isla Magdalena and seeing 1000´s of Pinguinoes!! (penguins)  The first day we tried to go but as was explained to us there was a “little winter” going on so we had to wait a day. It was super rad and the first official “Tour” we have taken in our entire trip. But for 25.000 Chilean we were able to jump on a Ferry for 2 hours and cruise through the straight of Magellan north until we arrived at a Island with nothing on it but a lighthouse and insanes amounts of Pinguinos. Seriously though, nothing else, no vegetation, nothing but penguins. As were waiting to disembark there are flocks(?) of penguins swimming into the island after fishing. We got a couple hours to walk around and literally stand next to tons of penguins. Awesome. Then a gorgeous sunset and ocean ride on the way back. Then we were able to head 2 hours north to the heart of trekking in Patagonia, Torres Del Paine (TDP).

The base camp for the Circuit is a little town called Puerto Natales that really doesnt have anything going of except for the insane amounts of people heading and returning to the National Park TDP. It is insanely gorgeous with mountains, glacies, and the end of a 3 day ferry ride from Puerto Montt arriving, but the town is really just for backpackers. Every single store sells gas for trekking, tons of different food, dried foods, and is actually a perfect place for preparing for a trip. So we arrived at one of the best hostels of our trip, Patagonico Hostel. It is owned by a couple that are both Trekking Guides in the park and around Patagonia. Also this is the first place that we ran into the 100 year old wood fire stoves that are Always hot. There are super cool and used all over patagonia. They stay hot all the time and have a giant metal flat top that is boiling hot on the left and slowly cools to the right where simmering heat is. Always hot, and serves a double purpose of heating the house in the winter. This hostel was an awesome place to prepare for our trek as well as we had the two owners there to answer any questions before we headed off. This was the last place I sent the blog from on the Eve of probly the most epic, and revered backpacking trips on the planet-The Torres Del Paine Circuito Grande. I´m going to try to do the literary impossible and put the Circuit into words. (Ineffable)

The Torres del Paine Circuit Grande is a 100km (give or take 20 km, probly give) loop around Chile and Patagonia´s most prestigious national park. The 100km is a trek around 2 insane mountain peaks the Torres and the Cuernas. You literally hike around the whole thing, desert on the east and a HUGE glacier field on the West. The North is more mountains, lakes, and glaciers, and the south is tons of Lakes, and rivers with distant mountains.  A big difference between South American trekking and USA trekking is that in South America all the trails and hikes are in valleys to epic view points in incredible places with almost no summiting and in the USA people only want to climb to the top of things. I enjoy both, but I will take scenery over a summit 9 times outta 10. I love South America. There is a lifelong debate on whether it is better to go Clockwise or Counter Clockwise. After much debilitating and a 2 hour discussion at a hostel in Puerto Natales we decided to go Counter clockwise, which throughout the hike we determined there were about 300 or so reasons why this was the best choice. This is going to be really long, so read if you like or skip ahead to the return and Calafate, but im going to break down our 10 days into the routes we did and the epicness, that is impossible to describe, along the way.

Day 1. Laguna Amables - Campamento Seron --

After a 2 hour bus ride from Puerto Natales you arrive at the park entrance where you have to pay your entrance fee and can choose to keep heading into the park to catch a ferry to Refugio Pehoe, take a shuttle to Refugio Torre, or walk along the road to Campamento Seron across the Desert. Already at the entrance we were greeted with epic views of the Cerro Torres, the beautiful electric river of Rio Paine, and herds of Guanacos (crazy llama looking things). Then we began walking. The first day was 8 hours through desert, mountains, and the highlight was walking off the mountain to golden grasslands sandwiched between epically huge mountains and the sapphire Rio Paine. Just unreal, impossible colors, views, and nature. Then we arrived at the none to pleasant Campamento Seron. A big grass field, that was the most expensive camping, with the worst facilities.

A quick note about the park. Its Euro style trekking, takes some getting used to after trekking the wilderness of the USA, where you have to stay on trail and camp only in designated spots or you get thrown out of the park. This is good and bad. The good, is that you cannot get lost, and you have a set day of walking most days and keeps you moving (which is good and bad). It also concentrates all of the human impact, waste, trash, and crap into one place and leaves the rest of the park pristine and beautiful. The bad is that you are stuck with running into people the whole time, its impossible to find any solace, and that there is trash, and waste, and people everywhere. But once you get into a ryhthm its good, the views outweigh any negative aspect, and you end up hiking with the same people day after day, and you start making friends. Its pretty rad.

Day 2- Campamento Seron -- Refugio Dickson
    People say that the first day of trekking is always the hardest because you have the heaviest pack and we had the farthest to go, but that is untrue. The second day is the hardest, because you are now SORE and you still have a heavy pack. We also had one of our longest days and we thoroughly got our buts kicked on the way to the most epic place I have ever slept- Refugio Dickson. The hike there was the worst weather of the entire 10 days we were out there (I will describe the impossibility of this in a minute). But we hiked along the desert, mountain, emerald river combo for a while then hiked straight up over a hill to walk around the back side of the Cuernas peaks. We then walked slowly down the mountain, through a swamp, with just insane mountains and glaciers slowly revealing themselves. There was also a helicopter making trips to Refugio Dickson dropping off training supplies for CONAF (chilean forest service) and fire fighting. But at one point we were watching the helicopter, and then noticed a second helicopter, but soon we realized it wasn´t a helicopter but a bird. A giant freaking bird, the freaking 10ft wingspan Patagonian Condor. It was our first glimpse of this bird and it was surreal and totally mesmerizing. We then hiked up another giant hill and got our first glimpse of Dickson. Refugio Dickson is located on a peninsula nestled between 3 giant mountains, two glaciers and the lake that feeds the Rio Paine. Unnreal.

Day 3- Refugio Dickson -- Campamento Los Perros
    This was a shorter but no less insane hike. After waking up to an unbelievable morning of swirling clouds, sunshine on surreal peaks, calm lakes, and flowing fog we hiked off the peninsula and along the backside of Cerro Torres and Las Cuernas to the basecamp of Los Perros the night before the most insane day of the whole circuit, John Garner Pass. But before we got there we hiked out of the peninsula to a viewpoint (mirador) that was surrounded by mountains, glaciers, creeks, clouds, and forest. Then the we continued on through the woods and mountains.

On of the ultimate hightlights of all of Patagonia and especially the Circuit are the microclimates. Everytime we would venture over a hill, pass, or across a creek the vegetation and forest would immediately change. IT was crazy. The abrupt and obvious change of tree type, vegetation, moss, and everything else was incredible to witness and kept your mind off the miles and the weight on your back and your attention on the beauty at hand. Gorgeous.

We made it to Los perros which is surrounded on one side the valley and creek we walked up from Dickson. An incredibly lush forest in a narrow valley with tons of creeks, waterfalls and shear mountains all falling over each other. The opposite side was  a rocky slope to the inevitable John Gardner Pass over 1500 meters above our heads. Then on the South side was the Los Perros Glacier and an incredible Glacial Morraine holding a huge lake with icebergs floating everywhere. The Los Perros Glacier is huge and stretches all the way to Valle Frances (we´ll arrive there on Day 5), but we were only able to see a little stretch of it up on 300 foot cliff with a little sliver reaching down to lake (frozen waterfall). The opposite side of Los Perros Glacier was another beautiful grey granite valley with a creek coming down from another glacier a couple hours hike from the camp. Here we ate, made camp, and talked to some familar faces about the impending pass in the morning. There was a mysterious air amoungst the hikers because of John Garner Pass reputation for being the steepest, hardest, and worst weather of the whole circuit. It sends people to the frontside, shorter trek (the W) just so they dont have to do the pass. We sat around hearing stories of strong winds, upwards rain, people having to turn back, and somehow all got some sleep for the impending climb in the morning.

Day 4 Los Perros -- Campamento Los Guardas
    We woke up at 530 to get an early start and started to leave around 830 (pretty good time for breaking camp actually). Within the first 5 minutes we were trudging through roots and muck knee deep straight up the valley. After about an hour we put our gators on and the next rock field we made it to we were above treeline-typical. As we crossed the rockfields were slowly became surrounded by a narrower and narrower valley with insanely steep, jagged peaks, glaciers, and waterfalls, not to mention the most beautiful blue sky and sunshine ive ever felt. We slowly kept heading towards the saddle. On the way we stopped for some lunch next to a gushing river coming straight from the bottom of a glacier. Best water ever.

    One of the best parts of all of patagonia and especially TDP is the fact that all the water everywhere is drinkable. You see a glacier, then it melts in waterfalls and running down the rocks into a lake that flows into a river. It all happens above treeline and the cliffs are so steep and barren that there is almost no wildlife outside of birds and insects which means its the cleanest in the world. I always prided Buena Vista with having the best water in the world. I am now convinced its the 2nd best water in the world. the river we stopped next to on John Garner Pass, after hiking straight up in the Patagonian sunshine was the sweetest water Ive ever tasted. You walk up to the river and plunge your waterbottle in and drink the coldest, sweetest, most refreshing glacial melt. Every town and river is safe to drink in all of Patagonia, and every tap is cool, clear, and delicious. Reason 412 why Southern South America might be the greatest place on earth.

    Three hours, 4 false summits, and 1200 meters straight up later we arrived to the top of John Garner Pass. Despite being renowned for the worst weather in the world we had not a cloud in the sky and the golden ball of sun beaming down on us. We met up with the other jumble of hikers we had been traveling with for 4 days now and every one was laughing, eating, smiling and sun bathing in one of the most epic spots on planet earth. Behind us was the narrow valley yawning from glaciers, rocks, and jagged spires into lakes, creeks, waterfalls, forests and sprawling valley. In front of us was, if possible, an infinitely better view, impossible really. Glacier Grey is one of the most unfathomable views I have ever tried to gulp down. I will try to explain it without exaggerating one bit. From the top of the pass Glacier grey spreads out miles and miles below you. It is nearly a mile wide and miles and miles long. On the far side of the valley are numerous peaks (well say 8) and inbetween them are more glaciers flowing down into Glacier Grey, so many Glaciers in fact that not all of them have names. On the south side Glacier Grey falls into the massive Lago Grey the next spot of our hike, and miles later Glacier Grey disappears into more snow, ice glaciers and peaks. Ineffable really.

We then hiked down 1200 meters straight down, 2 meter steps, 3 hours more to Campamento Paso. But we wanted to keep going so we had 2 more hours to Campamento Guardas which turns out the craziest 2 hours in the whole hike. We were walking on cliffs right hundreds of meters above the glacier and sporadically crossing gorges with waterfalls and creeks and always, incredible views of glacier, lake, and mountain peaks across the way. Twice we came to such steep gorges that there were huge, super sketchy ladder to descend and ascend. We were also the last people through Paso to Guardas but at the last ladder this old guy caught up to us. We soon found out that he was an old smoke jumper from Montana and was called in by the World Bank to do consulting for the massive fire at TDP a month earlier. He told us of a trail that went down to Glacier Grey. Once we got to camp he disappeared down to Refugio Grey and we were stopped at the Campamento Guardas. It is situated in the forest and a 50 yard hike to a giant cliff overlooking the spot where Glacier Grey meets Lago Grey. The meeting point of these two epic natural phenomenons is over 80 feet high. So we camped and planned on some relaxing days ahead after the best possible day on the Pass ever.

It was here that after we had eaten dinner and played a couple rounds of cards I headed out to the view point and the cliffs overlooking Glacier/Lago Grey and was greeted with the best view the heavens have to offer. The Southern night sky is an incredible treat to be able to gaze at after getting more comfortable with our Northern sky. The obvious treat, the Southern Cross was gorgeous and even has a couple colored stars, like orion, an old red star and a fresh hot blue giant. The red one on the left cross and the blue one at the base, sitting over the lake and the mountain ridge from where I was standing. But the even bigger treat of Southern star gazing is the Milky Way. There is a fatter, more galaxy dense section of the Milky Way that only stretches over the Southern Hemisphere and it is quite a site to see. We were also miles and miles from any source of lighting but it was literally incredible colors of white, blue, and red gas lighting up the sky and just punching out all the darkness. Incredible.

Day 5 Campamento Guardas -- Glacier Grey -- Refugio Grey
    So we slept in today because we only had a to hike an hour to our next camp, but after talking to the Montana guy we decided to try to head down to the Glacier. A quick side note. You cannot leave the trails or camp anywhere off trail. Its not patrolled, but if you are caught off trail you will get escorted out of the park. So we headed back along the trail and bummed off the trail into a valley and followed some cairns down and down and down until we got to the massive glacier. Unbelievable. We climbed up onto the glacier with rivers, mountains of insanely sculpted ice, and an unbelievable view of the lake. Also the first time we were by ourselves in the whole park. Awesome. We headed back then made the hour hike south to Refugio Grey and the insanity that was there.

So the difference between Refugios and Campamentos is pretty grand. Refugios are more established camps that have hotel sorta things that people can pay for beds, meals, and you have to pay for a campsite. There are also showers at most of them, and stores to buy insanely expensive food. Campamentos are more rustic and there are two distinctions for them two. There are free ones and pay ones. The pay camps have showers and toliets and the free ones have hole in the ground to do you buisness. So going from the free Campamento to the Refugio was quite different. Refugio Grey is also on the frontside of TDP. The front side is consisted of the hike the W (which looks like the W) that A LOT of people hike then the circuit adds on 3 more days around the back of the mountains. So at Refugio Grey there was an incredible amount of people everywhere. However, we had an epic sunset out on a penisula looking at the Glacier and the lake and an incredibly content evening with our first purchase of the trip. One can of Cerveza Austral.

Day 6 Refugio Grey -- Campamento Italiano -- Valle Frances
    Today we cruised through the burn that happened in Mid January and burned for over 2 weeks. So what happened, there was an Israeli that wanted to use the bathroom off trail and lit his toliet paper on fire. Then in the windiest place on earth the fire burned over 115,000 acres for 3 weeks. We got lucky and the park opened 2 weeks before we opened. But it was a massive problem. Today we had no option to head to Campamento Italiano because we were walking through the area of the fire and there was no camping between R. Grey and C. Italiano. Only minutes after leaving Grey did we reach the fire and all the haunting trees and fire remains. For 5 hours or so we walked through fallen and charred trees and ground incredibly scorched except for the little mounds remaining from the grass roots. Incredibly sites and pretty eerie. It gave the place a different type of otherworldly feel. We walked South until we reach Lago Pehoe which was another insane version of blue-green-grey combination. We walked over a small pass dividing Lago Pehoe with another lake and were greeted with one of the most beautiful views of my favorite peaks in TDP- the three Cuernas Peaks.

    The Cuernas peaks are three huge scraggly peaks that are this beautiful dark rosey brown sandwiching a GIANT band, now blocks, of perfect white granite. The top band, and much softer rock, of the brown has been eroded away to leave jagged spires at top each peak and the much harder white granite is arrogantly refusing to eroded leaving massive domes of spectacular colors. We walked along an insanely colored lake and now we had the end of the burn in view to the base of Valle Frances where, at its base, Campamento Italiano lay. After a couple more hours we crossed a couple rivers on really cool/sketchy hanging suspension bridges and arrived at the camp.

Campamento  Italiano is an awesome free Campground at the base of one of the highlights of TDP, Valle Frances. We quickly set up our tent to sounds of thunder then took off up the valley to catch a Mirador. Valle Frances is unbelievable as it follows up a river then breaks off towards the Cuernas peaks. On the East side of the Valley are the 3 Cuernas peaks, on the West side is a HUGE, 1000 meters or so, wall of rock and ice that constantly had glaciers breaking off and tumbling and thundering down until they smashed on another glacier feeding the river. It was one of the  most incredible things to witness. Then the far end of the Valley was where the Cuernas peaks ran into the Valle of Silencio, Cerro Torre, and more towering granite domes creating the most epic Amphitheater on the planet. We made it to far side of this unfathomable amphitheater before we had to head back due to time. But the view down the valley was of insanely colored lakes, islands, and mountain peaks in the distance.

I need to talk about Glacial Flour. This is the fine powder of granite that glaciers grind as they slowly move, but this sediment is what is responsible for giving glacial melt such an insane color. They create minty blue waters as beautiful, if not more so, than any carribean beach with many different colors of blue. I love Glacial Flour.

Day 7 -- Campamento Italiano -- Campamento Torre
    Not much going on today. We just set off, across gorgeous forests and streams to hike up the Valley behind the Cuernas peaks. The highlight of the day came as we were walking up a hill to get to the valley and a HUGE shadow falls over us, then as we look up a GIANT condor soars only a couple meters above our head. The biggest bird ever. There were a couple that followed a little bit higher up. An amazing site to behold, a bit of natures best.

After climbing straight up and straight down we walked along the eastern edge of the valley North towards Campamento Torre and the Torres peaks. All the peaks were so massive we couldnt see them above the mountain we were trekking along until we made it to the Camp. The were stunningly gorgeous only poking about a giant glacial moraine. Only an hour away and straight up the side of a  mountain was the Mirador Torre. Which we eagerly awaited so we went to bed.

Day 8 -- Campamento Torre -- Valle de Silencio
    Today we woke up at 430am and packed up our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, breakfast, and all the warm clothes we could find and took off for the mirador with our headlamps on. We took our time up, with the stars bragging overhead, up higher and higher. We werent alone and there was a constant snake of bobbing headlamps far below and far above as we went up which was an eerie yet incredible site unto itself. We made it to the top just as the sky was beginning to change and lighten up. We found a spot on a rock, pulled out our sleeping pads, jumped in the sleeping bags and put the kettle on while we waited for the show to begin.

    The torres peaks are 3 giant spires, all at several 1000 meters, of perfect white granite that create the most perfect ampitheater with a glacier at their base that streaks water down into a lake that eventually feeds a river. We set up on the far side of the lake with a bunch of other fellow trekkers and just sat and watched. At first there were mist and clouds covering the bases of the Torres and only their peaks could poke throught. But as the violet sky began to transform to navy, and closer and closer to slate then blue, the clouds began their insane swirling dance first up the peaks, then down to the water until finally the sun came to join. At 703 exactly, the sun hit the first middle Torre to cheers from the crowd. From our spots in the sleeping bags we felt the rush of cold air as the last of the night air got sucked into the valley, running from the sun. The colors were impossible. We basked in the glory of this view for hours and were the last to leave close to 10am after the sun was high in the sky, the colors gone, and the first day trekkers only just appearing.

We had enough food so we decided to stay another night at Campamento Torre. We headed down, got a nap in, then decided to walk a bit more. There was a trail that went further north from the camp, but on every map it was marked for rock climbers only. So I decided to check it out, while Megan sunbathed on a rock near the river, basking in the shadows of the Torre peaks. As I headed North up the valley. After an hour I made it to Campamento Japones and a sign that stated “Fin de sendero” Do not continue. So I continued up the mountain to the West as the valley I was in ended and the Massive Valle de Silencio came in from the west. I climbed up a creekbed and straight up a bit more before I began to traverse around to the West and follow the mountain with the Valle de Silencio far below. After walking for another hour I met up the Valley and massive, multi colored morains, of just spectacular rock. After a bit more I was soon in the most remote place I had been in all of TDP with no one else in site and spectacular views of the backside of the Torres, Cuernas, and the massive peaks we had seen at Campamento Dickson 6 days earlier. IT was a place with such massive earth that it made you feel small.

Day 9 -- The Return
    On day 9 we continued with the perfect weather. TDP and patagonia is renowned for its insane weather. The only thing more epic than the views is the weather. We were warned of the two most dangerous parts of the whole park, wind and sunshine. But somehow, after 9 days, we only had 1 night of rain, and a couple windy spots. The majority of our days were full of insane sunshine and swirling clouds. PERFECTION. We headed down the  mountainside past lots of day hikers heading to Mirador Torre for their only day in the park. This is one of my favorite parts of backpacking. After we were 9 days dirty coming down, smelling ripe, giant, filthy pack on our backs and passing people in perfect white t-shirts and nothing on them but a camera around their neck and reeking of perfume/cologne. Hilarious. One of the highlights of the whole day is when we were only 100 meters or so from the beautiful, road accessible Refugio Torre there was a perfect, brandnew wooden sign that states “DO NOT BURN YOUR TOILET PAPER”. Awesome.
Puerto Natales
    Another great park of Backpacking is once you return to civilization you get to eat tons of awesome fresh food that was impossible the last half of your trip. These were a couple meals that Megan and I pondered over for days while just walking for the hours on the trail. I had mine set up as a whole bunch of homemade burgers and we were going to go to an incredibly awesome Vegetarian joint for Megan to feast on (which had an avacado, ginger, walnut smoothy). However, when we arrived in PN Megan realized that our little bathroom stop between the park and Puerto Natales she had left her Ipod, Journal, and all the little amount of cash we had which put a little damper on our reunion meal. The Ipod had all of our pictures from before TDP, and her Journal had everything she had worked so hard to write about our trip. So using our awesome Hostel owners we tried calling the store where we left the prefects, but there wasn´t even a phone, let alone electricity, at the place. So luckily, Andres (the other hostel owner), was out guiding in Argentina and needed to be picked up at the border (right where the stop was). So the next day Megan headed to the border and the little elderly lady that owned the pastry/empanada stop had kept her things in her purse. The lady wouldnt even allow Andres to take it back to Megan, she wanted to return them in person! It was a great reassurance of humankind.

    The rest of our time in PN consisted of some delicious food cooked on the woodfired stoves, including my new culinary love- Empanadas. We also had an incredible trip where we rented some bikes and went on a 34mile (55km) bike ride to a national reserve called the Cueva de Miladon. It turns out the first fossil of a Giant Sloth was found in these sweet caves out near PN. The ride was really the truly epic part in gorgeous valleys, insane winds, and not a short distance. We were then given a farewell with our Hostel owners as they surprised us with a shot of Calafate liquor. Its a tart blueberry type fruit that according to an old patagonian folk song, ensures ones return to Patagonia after eating them. Then we took off for Calafate the next day.

Buen Dia Amigos!

<<<<IMPORTANT: This blog is being written on public computers in South America on a Google program that is not operating with Chrome, therefore spelling corrections are impossible as is formatting. In the case of horribly spelt words and/or formatting, I reserve all blame for the machina. Thank you>>>>

Welcome to the South American TravelBlog. This blog will be randomly updated with the Travels of Megan and myself. The tentative plan for our next 3+ months is not to have one. I will write frequently and very infrequently, so if its short tough, its its really long, wear glasses. It turns out that not having plans is sometimes the best strategy because if something unexpected happens you can easily take it instride instead of having to complete rebuild an itinerary that was meticulously built.We learned this first hand after refusing to make plans and have our feet take us where they would. However, after our first couple days in Buenos Aires (BsAs) we made a rough outline of a 3week plan and that is when everything fell apart. Let me start from the beginning.

The beginning of our trip did not even start in Argentina, but in Los Angelas, California. We took the train out of Gallup, NM, overnight, to Union Station. Before we were even able to get on the train, 5 mintues until it arrived, Megan realized that we had left her passport in the scanner while we were making copies of everything for the trip. WILD. Megan and I stayed at the train station while my folks took off for the passport. The train arrived and still no more passport. Then, with only moments to spare, my parents came screetching into the parking lot, pedestrians popping out of the way like corn kernals from hot oil. We completed the pass over the chain link fence and jumped on the train. SAFE!

After a long night on the train we arrived in Union Station where we were greeted by Mr. Andrew Jones and the sweet Lara Fernando. They whisked us off to Andrews new, super PIMP apartment (CONDO) in pasadena. After lots of talking we hiked and enjoyed the beautiful LA smog, however, this is not a story of North American smog. So the rest of the weekend was filled with great meetings of friends as we got to see Summer Disante and friends, Lots of lovely Beta ladies in Brockton, a short meeting with Tim Krantz, a near miss of seeing Francisco Guzman Guzman, some of the first and last Frolfing of 2012, Beers with Kit and Robyn in Pasadena, dinner in Long Beach, then getting passed off to Nick G. Zaharapolis´s place in Huntington for our last night in Norte Americano and one of Nicks last in his superpimpalicious house. ´WE had a crazy fancy breakfast in Huntington full of crepes and waffles in Huntington then got dropped at LAX for the flight to BsAs.  Then Sur Americano.

BsAs is big. I mean freaking big. ITs like 13 million big. Like, so big it has the widest street in the world (16 lanes). 13 million of the 40 million argentines live in BsAs. But we started it out right. My sister, gifted me a bonus free night to a Hilton anywhere in the world. So once we figured out we were going to South America we immediatley chose to use it for BsAs. This hotel turns out is the nicest place I have probly ever slept. It was soooooooooo pimp. We got upgraded to an Executive room which gave us access to the Exec lounge (E-lounge) and didnt leave the hotel our 1st 24 hours in BsAs. We were on the top floor of the Hotel overlooking the dikes of BsAs (the city is on the widest river in the world). Our room was really nice, but the piece de resistaunce was the bathroom. We had a huge jacuzzi tub, a toliet, a bedah (sp? aka butt squirter), and a shower. There was a roof top pool that we frequented for a huge portion of our stay. BsAs is super hottt too. It hasnt really dipped below 70F while we´ve been here. Back to the E-Lounge, this place had food 24/7 (salmon, brie, mushrooms, ), a fridge full of soda and beer, pool table, computers, and at 4pm they bring a full bar out with ordouves. Full bar = red label, JD, Tanqueray, all topshelf liquor. Slept for 16 hours then began our journey.

We randomly found this place called Portal Del Sur, a great hostel located right in the heart of BsAs near the central Plaza de Mayo. Its a crazy hostel on a small dirty street with a very unassuming entrance. You have to be buzzed in, you have to be buzzed into almost every store that is not a restaurant or supermarket. But the hostel is 5 stories and most of it is built on floor 2-5 all around a very large atrium that has a roof that opens and closes. The top floor is a rooftop bar with a great view of the city. Every store in BsAs has giant metal screen that they use to block their stores from vandalism/graffiti etc. they close these during every siesta (2pm-5pm) every night, and every sunday. This gives the city a very ominous, closed, metallic feel if you are walking in an abandoned neighborhood where there is nothing but the dirty streets and closed shops. However, BsAs is far from being dead.

The city is one of the most lively and adventurous places I have ever spent time in. It is pieced together by neighborhoods that range from types of stores, price of goods, and very strong economic gaps. We resided mostly in the microcenter which during the day bustles with business people, but at night there are very few buildings so it is alive with many homeless and more destitue souls. However, it was not a far walk or bus ride to anywhere. The whole city is patchworked together with possibly the most complex and successful bus system ever created. There are close to 200 bus lines all with different routes that you can ride from 10 mintues to 2 hours. Every bus ride costs 1.35 pesos (4.33 pesos to 1USD) but takes only coins and gives no change. This has created a phenomena where coins exclusively remain in circulation and are impossible to obtain at a bank. They go from pockets to buses to pockets. Therefore, coins are once of the most valuable commodities in the city and people are always reluctant to give them up. If you want 100 pesos of coins you will essentially have to buy them for a premium (receive only 90pesos worth for example). Most of the time we opted to take the subway which is very fast and gets to most places in the city.

Argentines are some of the nicest and friendliest people and have a very European mindset and feel to their lifestyles. Everyone drinks Mate and eats ice cream. Just about everywhere you go you see people drinking mate and they have every type of accessory you can think of. Most people have thermos´s with hot water with them to enjoy mate anywhere. Every park (which there are 1000´s of in every neighborhood) you can spot people playing soccer, drinking mate, eating ice cream, guys on bikes screaming ¨HELADO´´ trying to sell ice cream, and couples making out hardcore to the point of ridiculousness. For some reason middle aged women love to ask me for directions and no amount of spanish study prepared me for the slang and twang of Argentine spanish. They leave off the endings of many words and run it all together and soon my spanish became one sided where interestingly enough I can speak more than I understand. ¨¿Que?¨ has become my favorite word which means What? as I try to gain more time to understand what they are asking me. After they repeat it louder and usually faster. At this point I usually just start talking about where Im from and what my plans are for Argentina which usually has nothing to do with what they said/asked, or nod say yes a couple times and point. The outcome is usually they thank me and walk off (after I point) or they just start laughing at me and ask someone else. ITs fullproof.

Our favorite activities have boiled down to walking 10´s of km a day, exploring different neighborhoods, and going to the many parks to practice yoga, play cards, do ab workouts, and enjoy the company of other travelers. Turns out the 2 largest cities that participate in couch surfing are New York City and BsAs so there is a huge international community. We met an English guy who was a friend of Dre Kaelinas (a friend from redlands) who had just come from Columbia. Talk about a small world. But we have had yoga sessions with people from Hungary, Germany, USA, BsAs, Brasil, Estonia, England, Lithuania, and more. We have tried to contact our friend from school, Jane Carten, but that has also been difficult. After a couple attempts with email, we were able to use the phone to talk to her once, but were disconnected before we could make any plans so that never worked out. The pay phones took us about 2 days to figure out anyway. After entering every combination of numbers we could think of and trying to figure it out, we learned from some guy that you had to use exact change (25 pesos) and Viola it works. But most of these activites were for the 12 days we spent in BsAs. We first spent 5 days there then left and had to come back, this is when we started making plans.

With a few days left in America we started finally putting together plans for what we would do when we arrived. We finally came up with an outline of arriving in Buenos Aires, staying there for a couple days, then head to Mendoza which is the 3rd largest city in the country at 1 million people and nestle right next to the Andes and the tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas (a whopping 22,000ft), then take the bus over the mountains to Santiago and Pichilemu (the surf capital of all of Chile), where one of my good friends from High School, Sean, has been living for years teaching English. From there we were going to fly down to Patagonia and work our way up hiking, seeing sites, and Wwoofing near Bariloche. We started by going to the Omnibus terminal to buy our bus ticket from BsAs to Mendoza.

The Omnibus terminal is huge. Three levels over 100 ticket windows and over 100 terminals for busses to leave from. Its in one of the more destitute parts of the city, and we even saw a guy that had gotten stabbed and was bleeding all over the place at a restaurant on our way to the subway, as well as the ambulance going to pick him up. We were able to navigate the maze and buy a 375 peso ticket to Mendoza on a 14hour overnight bus. We did this the day before the departure and went back to the hostel to pack and spend one last night with the few people we had met in our short time in BsAs. The next day we packed everything and headed to our 715pm bus on the Metro. It was rush hour and the Subway was packed, like Japanese packed, where it was shoulder to shoulder, ass to face packed. We squeezed in with our giant backpacks and tried to look as local as we could in and just try to get out. We finally got to our stop and shuffled along, and up the stairs, and finally away from the crowds to the Omnibus terminal.

When we got to the terminal that is when I noticed the pocket where I had been keeping my wallet (and my passport for the bus ride) was completely unbuttoned. Not even I can usually unbutton this thing, but somewhere in the 5 minutes when we got off the subway to the ground level some dude had unbuttoned my pocket and swiped my passport that also had one of my credit cards! LAMESAUCE! With only 10 minutes until our bus left we ran around and found an internet cafe where I was able to cancel my creditcard. And not wanting to waste our bus ticket, or get back on the subway we went to catch the bus, and there was NO BUS. Then we were running around trying to find our bus (they give you a range of 20 terminals where it might leave). Our bus was scheduled to leave at 2010 and soon it was 2100 and still no bus. We tried getting on some to Mendoza with no luck. Finally, we found some Argentinian guy who was also on our bus and we ran around until we found more people in the same delemma, and our bus was an hour late and we finally jumped on and were able to calm our nerves.

AFter the 14hours we arrived in the beautiful Oasis of Mendoza that is surrounded by Vineyards and mountains and is filled with parks and fountains. There are even canals of water running next to most roads. Once we found our hostel I was able to get online and figure out the steps to getting a new passport. Long story short, the US is the only country without a consolate in Mendoza and that we had to do everything back in BsAs. So we enjoyed teh city for a day, a night, a day, and then headed back to BsAs. But our time in Mendoza was great, filled with huge parks, awesome fountains, very nice people, vegetarian restaurants, tree lined streets, a relaxed pace and lots of running around to get passport photos. But then, with our tails between our legs, we had to head back to the raging metropolis of BsAs.

We rushed back so we could file a police report and head to the embassy before the weekend. So on friday we got to the bus terminal and filed a police report. Like I said before, we can understand very little Spanish but enough to go to stores, ask for directions, buy food, make hostel reservations, but you cannot fake spanish when you are being asked very pointed questions by the Policia Federale. So after lots of frustrations the Popo´s finally found a guy that kinda spoke english and we were able to file the report necessary for my new identity and for filing for a new passport. So when we had all the paperwork in hand we rushed to the embassy with hopes of reaching American soil where we would be welcomed with open arms, english speakers, apple pie, discussions of the super bowl, but instead, we had to speak to a mirror with a speaker, with a guy that had a very sassy attitude and informed us that passports could only be processed M-TH 830am-Noon. I couldnt even report my stolen passport to the embassy to prevent someone from using it. So we then headed back to the Hostel to a hilarious homecoming after having just said our goodbyes.

We ended up having an epic weekend filled with lots of new friends at our hostel. First, an outline of a typical argentine day. Wake up 11am or later, enjoy some coffe con leche and sweet croissants, seista and eat a HUGE lunch at 3 or 4pm, do your normal daily routine till about 10pm when you eat dinner, relax and shower, then start to have some beers around midnight or so, then at 2/3am go to a club and dance till the sun comes up or later. Some of the weekend highlights include partying 10blocks with a guitar, beers, 10+ people on our way to a club that was in an old cathedral full of locals, great reggaeton, cigarette smoke, and 1 liter beers. The next night we ended up going to a bizarre club that at 2am had a trupet interlude after great music, a standup show that we understood nothing of, then a striptease by NEO, a dude totally jacked on roids, then a lap dance contest, followed by another NEO show (we left when we found out NEO was coming back on). Also lots of Foosball on the roof throughout the weekend. On Sunday we drank tons of Mate and learned an awesome card game, Yassiv, from an Israeli named Yotom. Monday we went to an incredible drum show called La Bamba Del Tiempo and had a wild Subway ride with Spanish, Swedish, and German friends until the first and one of the craziest downpours stopped us in the streets under an overhang for quite sometime. It ended up being an incredibly great time in BsAs.

On monday, at 8am I was finally able to head back to the embassy to see what I could do about my Passport. Totally lucked out. AS the first person in line I got to talk to the guy behind the mirror who greeted me with a ¨Hello Again.¨ But Got in had all my paperwork and had 2 options. Get a 1year emergency passport that day or wait 2 weeks to get my full passport. Took the 1 day option, went back and picked it up at 4pm the same day. We were then able to plan the rest of our trip. And after lots of research it turns out the easiest/cheapest way to patagonia was still through Santiago and getting a 7bus pass for $380 bucks. The buss pass can be used anywhere in ARgentina and Chile where most bus rides cost between $80-150 bucks, so it was a great deal.Now in Mendoza we met up with a girl from Germany we spent a bit of time with in BsAs and tomorrow we will get to see legendary Katie Shea. A friend from school who is working at a Winery here in Mendoza until April. It should be a great time.

So now 2 weeks after we arrived we have come full circle back to the original plan, although with a huge bump. We are back in Mendoza after using our 1st of 7 bus rides to get to Mendoza. We plan on being here through the weekend and then finally getting to Chile! Yeah! For some surfing and visiting with our friend Sean. We might even get some Spanish lessons and see if we cant get better. We have some plane tickets to fly down to patagonia on the 8th of February then we will spend a month exploring all the national parks down south and soon hopefully we will be wwoofing (ina month or so). But our spirits are high, our bank accounts are getting lower, we are making friends, learning Argentina (and so much more), and were almost back home to the mountains. We miss you all and will try to keep you updated, if you have any questions, please post them as we would love to update you on all we are seeing/experiencing.

But now off to enjoy the sunset, drink some Mate, and wander the main Plaza for some music and memories.

Ciao!

Nic and Megan