In My Own Dreams

Welp, for the past week or so i have kept myself busy kicking around el Chalten hiking in the woods and climbing high on mountains. Not too bad a way to waste a little time. Probably the best part of the trip was being able to experience fall in the mountains. The air was crisp, the wind calm, and the trees were transitioning to all sorts of shades or red, orange, and yellow.

Now, after two twelve hour bus rides i am in El Bolson! I don't really know much about el Bolson other than it's really pretty and pleasantly warm. Apparently there are very nice farmer and artisan markets on the weekend. Also, i have been told i can go volunteer to work at a farm if i want to kill some time and a free place to stay... Might be time to get my hands dirty!

Halley's Comet

Welp, i'm in Argentina! I have to say that after five and a half months in Punta Arenas, it really is a breath of fresh air. The streets are cleaner, the people are easier to understand, the food is better, and everything is cheaper. Additionally, i can see mountains from town! Not saying i did not enjoy by time in Chile, because Chile was amazing. Especially Parque Torres del Paine and Peninsula Brunswick. But this is what i imagined Patagonia to be like.

Today i took a bus to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, home to the Glacier Perito Moreno, Cerro Fitzroy, and Cerro Torre. I spent five hours in awe gawking at the ridiculously large glacier. It is one of the few glaciers still "gaining" and is the world's third largest fresh water reserve. AWESOME! Soon i will walk and sleep among the famous mountains.

While i have only spent one day in the park, i am almost certain it will become one of my favorite places i have visited in my travels. It certainly is not least accessible, least visited, or least secluded, but it is easily one of the most stunning. I intend to spend close to two weeks hiking all that it has to offer starting tomorrow. Go figure that one of my favorite places i have visited in South America shares the same name as one of my favorite places in North America.

What is the central theme to this everlasting spoof, i wonder? Sparsely populated, glaciated national parks? Maybe... but probably not. I think it's just walking around in the mountains. I recently wrote to my father about my love for mountainous locations. I told him i didn't know what it was exactly. I told him that it´s hard to describe, but there is certainly something. There's something that makes me feel right and keeps forcing me back. After i left MT, i thought it was simply a love of gravity and speed and playing outside. But now that i have spent time living away from mountains in Wexford and Punta Arenas i have learned that it goes far beyond that. More than anything, i believe it comes down to a feeling of rebirth, a renewal of spirit, and a coalescence of scattered energy and thoughts in me. Thoreau put it more succinctly when he described it as living deliberately.

I will come back to this in future posts. Now i will leave you with photos. Enjoy!

Down With Disease

Welp, I leave Punta Arenas to head for more northern latitudes today. Working and living abroad has been an experience i will never forget. It's too soon to say what i have taken from my time down here or how it has changed me, only time will tell, i do not regret taking the adventure. It has been hard being away from my family for so long, but such are the pitfalls of traveling. Needless to say, i am excited to begin my month long journey home today.

Also worth noting, i am throwing out my boots after five (maybe six?) years of solid use. You've been good, boots - but you just aren't keeping my feet dry or providing me the support i need anymore. We had a good ride, but nothing lasts forever.

35 days until i am back in the U.S.A. Here's to making the most of my time!

Language Lesson of the Day: This has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way. Say it with me now! Todo esto ha sido maravilloso, pero ahora me estoy saliendo.

Fish On

Welp, after five months in Patagonia i finally managed to get out to a river and get my hook wet! This past weekend i hopped on a bus with my friend French Will to the Rio Penitente. While the Rio Penitente is advertised as a premier fly fishing destination near Punta Arenas, it proved to be very popular with the locals but lacking in fish! Over the two days spent on the crystal clear waters i saw one good sized brown trout and hooked another that measured about six inches in length. Given that this is a fish tale, i'm probably being generous with that estimation. To add some insult to injury, i couldn't even land the little guy! The bit of shore i was pulling him onto was very shallow, and with all my care and caution he spit the hook out before i could get a picture. So it goes. Just another fish tale really.

As mentioned earlier, what the river was lacking in fish it made up for in people! And i'm not talking crowded by MT standards here, but i honestly saw 20+ Chilenos wading it's banks over about 5k of stream! What was even more surprising was the number of fisherman i saw spin casting. Over the two days i spent fishing I only saw one other person fishing with flies. I believe the low numbers of fly fisherman can be attributed to Patagonia being super windy. It was damn hard putting my fly where i wanted on the water. On the plus side, this was the first time in my life i was able to throw out 20 yard casts with ease. Go figure there was nothing in the river to bite.

One of the plus sides of fishing a crowded river is that we had ample opportunity to talk with the locals! Aside from "Buenas, que tal?" our main question was "donde estan todos los peces ocultando?" or "where are all the fish hiding?" Most of the Chilenos would just smile and shrug and make a joke of our crazy gringo questions. Fortunately, one Chileno took our question seriously and took the time to explain that this past winter was too cold for the fish or something. I only understood every other word he said, but I always thought cold weather was good for cold water fisheries. Chalk it up to being lost in translation i guess...

Green Acres

Welp, i hopped on a bus and got out of town this Saturday! I didn't really know what i was in for when i purchased my ticket, but the price was right and anytime spent outside of Punta Arenas is a good time indeed! Turns out i bought a ticket for an ecotour on the Isla Riesco about two hours NW of town.

What's an ecotour you ask? Well mine involved a bus ride to a working estancia (spanish for ranch or farm!) outside of town, lectures about the local flora and fauna, a guided tour of the trees on the ranch, a demonstration on how to sheer wool, as well as a sack lunch picnic on the ranch. Probably the coolest part of the whole experience was that this was not a very touristy trip to make. The entire tour was presented in Spanish and i was one of only three gringos on the entire bus! While it may not have been the most exciting way to spend a Saturday, it was a great way to get out of town and to really soak up some local culture.

Also worth nothing, owning a farm has been bumped up much higher on my things-to-do-in-life list. I'm not really interested in own animals, so maybe i should say i want to own and work a decently large garden and orchard.

Gotta Travel On

Welp, it's been a while since i've written a meaningful blog entry. And it's actually going to probably be a little while longer before i write another, because there just isn't that much going on right now. The race is over and we're tying together loose ends at the office getting everything cleaned up and taken care of. I feel very fortunate to have been able to provide cartographic solutions and work the race, but five months in Punta Arenas is getting to be a bit old. I am ready to start traveling north and preparing for my return to the U.S.

My tentative travel plans for my remaining time in South America are as follows: two and a half more weeks in Punta Areans -> Bus to Puerto Natales for the night -> Bus to Calafate, Argentina to see Perito Moreno Glacier and spend the night -> Bus to El Chalten (the trekking capital of Argentina!) for a week or two to hike everything there is to hike and celebrate their annual trekking festival -> bus to Pucon, Chile to visit my host family from this past October and kick around some -> Bus to Santiago to visit Vina Del Mar, Valparaiso, and wait to fly back to the U.S. April 18th -> See my Sister, Mom, and Charlotte Grace!

Language Lesson of the Day: That silly wind will soon begin and I'll be on my way going home to stay, going home to stay. That silly wind will soon begin and I'll be on my way, and I feel like I just want to travel on. Done laid around, done stayed around this old town too long and it seems like I've got to travel on. Say it with me now! Ese viento tonto pronto comenzará y voy a viajar. Volviendo a casa para quedarse, volviendo a casa para quedarse. Ese viento tonto pronto comenzará y voy a viajar, y yo siento que sólo quieren viajar. He dormido y he estado en esta antigua ciudad para demasiado tiempo y parece tengo que viajar.

Remember the Mountain Bed

Welp, i found Stjepan's pictures from the second leg of the route exploration. Here are a few i thought were worth sharing. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is a photo heavy post! I figured one photo for each day should do it...