Living for the City

Welp, i am spending my last 4 days in Chile doing the city thing. I just finished a 12 hour bus ride and arrived in Vina Del Mar. I will check out the ocean and explore the city today, experience the night life later, and visit Valparaiso tomorrow.

Also worth noting, i made my first phone call in almost 7 months today! From a pay phone, taboot taboot! How strange, but enjoyable, it has been to live phone free in the age of cellulars. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Spanish Lesson of the Day: Living in the larger cities, impulse thinking keeps you busy! Say it with me now! Vivir en las ciudades más grandes, pensando impulso que mantiene ocupado!

The Fishing Blues

Welp, i went fishing today on the Rio Trancura. Lots of risers, but it was a really tight river with lots of brush along the banks. I had a hard time casting and didn't catch a damned thing. It was kind of frustrating, but good time nonetheless.

Language Lesson of the Day: A day spent fishing is kind of like pizza or sex. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good! Say it with me now! Un dia de pescand es como pizza o sexo. iCuando es malo, es mejor aún!

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Welp, am i wrong to believe that The Complete Calvin & Hobbes is a book that can stand beside The Republic in terms of philosophic theory and political influence? Maybe so, maybe not.

Language Lesson of the Day: I have left Argentina and am in Osorno, Chile waiting for my bus to Pucon. In ten days i will return to North America. What a pretty afternoon. Say it with me now! He salido Argentina y estoy en Osorno, Chile esperando por mi bus a Pucon. Voy a volver a Norte America in diez dias. Que un tarde bonita.

I Wana Be Your Dog

Welp, I spent my last day in Barlioche walking around the city center and making friends. Say hello to Duke and his pup.

Slow Ride

Welp, i went on a bike ride today. 58 km or so. Barlioche is truly a beautiful city. I like it very much.

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!