El Calafate, Argentina. National Park of the Glaciers.
Hello from Patagonia!! Jason and I are currently in a small touristy town where the internet (and the pizza) is expensive!! Jason is trying to upload some pics now, so hopefully this 256kbsp connection will hurry up.
We just finished up 4 days in El Chalten, a town located right below the world-famous peak Cerro Fitz Roy. We had BEAUTIFUL weather, and were able to do tons of hiking and backpacking. From what we had heard, usually the weather is windy and cold and good luck seeing the peaks because they are socked in the clouds. But we arrived at dawn (after a 30 hour bus ride) to see the peaks bright pink and orange from the morning sunrise. It just got better from there. Sunny days allowed us to hike every trail we wanted to and even get in an overnight trip. The famous wind that blows cats down the street was not nearly as bad as we had thought it might be (although the outdoor cafes keep large rocks on the tables to keep them from blowing away).
We are planning an all-day excursion walking on a Glacier tommorow and after that we will cross back into Chile for Torres Del Paine. We plan on doing a five day backpacking circuit there if we have weather that cooperates.
So until then, keep your fingers crossed that our good fortune with the weather continues and that Jason´s photos upload in the next two hours.
Monday, December 7, 2009
256 KBPS & $10 USD later...
El Bolsón 
near El Chaltén
El Chaltén
Cerro Torre
Lago Viedma
Fitz Roy & co.
Parque Nacional Lago Puelo 
Esquel 
Parque Nacional Los Alercers
Ruta 40 
near El Chaltén
El Chaltén
Cerro Torre
Fitz Roy Range 
Lago ViedmaFitz Roy & co.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Patagonia (land of sideways snow)
Adios Mendoza
¡Vamos a Patagonia!
Refugio Frey 
Sarah is very excited to find Candy in her pocket.
Lessons learned....in spanish class (by sarah)
We just finished up a week of spanish lessons in Mendoza, Argentina. The class consisted of only myself, Jason and Janet. If any of you have taken a foreign language class, you know that there is alot of question-answer type excercises for practice. It doesn´t matter what you say, just how you say it. This made for a lot of very humerous moments in class. Well, for us it was humorous, I think our teachers thought we were nuts. I don´t know why some things are so funny in a foreign language, but they are. Some highlights:
Janet listing her hobbies as sleeping, reading, and talking to her cat.
Jason finishing most of his sentences with "...when I am drunk."
In an informational session on the first day of class, I accidently said that I have two daughters (not nieces) that live in Michigan. The next day when I corrected my mistake, our teacher was glad to know that I hadn´t left two toddlers in the States for six months while I travel with my amigos.
In a "Have you ever..." excercise using verbs the teacher wrote on the board and then we would ask her questions using this tense, Janet asked our very proper teacher "Have you ever, uh, smoked marijuana?" Yes, she actually asked the teacher if she had ever smoked pot. Good use of the verb Fumar, Janet!
I´m pretty sure both of our teachers would go home at night and tell stories of their crazy american students.
So it was with new confidence we left the city and headed south for Patagonia. One quick 20 hour bus ride and we were in the Lakes District in the city of Bariloche. It is situated on a lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains. Our second day there we hiked up to a Argentine High Camp called Frey. It was a set up very similar to what the three of us had worked at in Yosemite all summer, so we felt right at home. A 10km hike up to 1700m and it was beautiful! Jason and I set up a tent and Janet rented a bed inside for the night. The weather was less than perfect, with the wind blowing the snow horizontally at us and then rain and more snow, but nothing we couldn´t endure. The rain the next morning kept us from staying longer, so we headed back into Bariloche. This high camp, or refugio as they call them here, is the first on a five-camp loop. We wanted to do a five day excursion and visit all of them, but there is too much snow right now and you can only go if you have a guide. So....
This morning Team Mexico disbanded for the final time, as Janet stayed behind in Bariloche and Jason and I headed south to the tiny hippie mountain town of El Bolson. We found a place to camp and are looking forward to doing some great hiking and backpacking in the area. From here on out it´s Patagonia...which means lots of mountains and lakes and glaciers and camping. Just like home!!
Janet listing her hobbies as sleeping, reading, and talking to her cat.
Jason finishing most of his sentences with "...when I am drunk."
In an informational session on the first day of class, I accidently said that I have two daughters (not nieces) that live in Michigan. The next day when I corrected my mistake, our teacher was glad to know that I hadn´t left two toddlers in the States for six months while I travel with my amigos.
In a "Have you ever..." excercise using verbs the teacher wrote on the board and then we would ask her questions using this tense, Janet asked our very proper teacher "Have you ever, uh, smoked marijuana?" Yes, she actually asked the teacher if she had ever smoked pot. Good use of the verb Fumar, Janet!
I´m pretty sure both of our teachers would go home at night and tell stories of their crazy american students.
So it was with new confidence we left the city and headed south for Patagonia. One quick 20 hour bus ride and we were in the Lakes District in the city of Bariloche. It is situated on a lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains. Our second day there we hiked up to a Argentine High Camp called Frey. It was a set up very similar to what the three of us had worked at in Yosemite all summer, so we felt right at home. A 10km hike up to 1700m and it was beautiful! Jason and I set up a tent and Janet rented a bed inside for the night. The weather was less than perfect, with the wind blowing the snow horizontally at us and then rain and more snow, but nothing we couldn´t endure. The rain the next morning kept us from staying longer, so we headed back into Bariloche. This high camp, or refugio as they call them here, is the first on a five-camp loop. We wanted to do a five day excursion and visit all of them, but there is too much snow right now and you can only go if you have a guide. So....
This morning Team Mexico disbanded for the final time, as Janet stayed behind in Bariloche and Jason and I headed south to the tiny hippie mountain town of El Bolson. We found a place to camp and are looking forward to doing some great hiking and backpacking in the area. From here on out it´s Patagonia...which means lots of mountains and lakes and glaciers and camping. Just like home!!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
South-bound (by Jason)
As seems to be the norm in our relationship, the blog thus far has consisted of Sarah doing most of the eloquent talking, and me geeking out on my Canon G10... so, I thought I´d give a stab at this whole ¨blog¨ thingy and actually excercise my metacarpules for a change. Bear with me, I havent written a essay since... freshman year of college? It may be a bumpy ride. Here it goes...
By the end of three months of living in the back country, you´re typically ready for a change of pace. I dont know if its the lack of amenities, or the lack of social outlets that gives you this feeling, or perhaps a little of both, but this high country season was no exception. Coupled with the anticipation of the plans that Sarah and I had started to make for South America, I started to get the itch to get out of the woods and into the world.
What better way to start your 9 month off-season then a nice long walk. Merced Lake to Mammoth. Contrary to what those of you who are not familiar with Yosemite are thinking, Merced Lake is NOT near the city of Merced. In fact, it´s in the heart of the back country of Yosemite and 14 miles up the Merced river from the Yosemite Valley. It was my home this past summer and its always bitter-sweet to leave home for 9 months. I couldn't have asked for a better departure though, with 7 friends, walking through the woods, stopping by the tallest mountain in the park, on our way out back to the real world via Mammoth.
After arriving in the foreign country we call civilization again, Sarah and I took a small amount of time to decompress from our backcountry jobs and visited friends and family on the west coast. These were short visits, and in no time we were back in motion. Point Reyes National Sea Shore for Sarah´s birthday on October 1st, Hardly Stricktly Bluegrass in San Francisco the 2nd, 3rd & 4th, back to my folks house for a night and on to the big Southwest Road Trip. We hit National Park after National Park in a tornado of a sight-seeing fury. California, Arizonia, a little of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and we even made it all the way down to Big Bend, Texas. All this and back in a little under two weeks, with about eleven major stops along the way. As if that wasn´t enough, we had all of two days to get ready for a 6 am flight to Mexico.
The fun didn´t really stop there. Oh MEXICO! But, as not to repeat everything all of you loyal followers ( all 10 of you, thanks to our families) have been reading in the previous blogs, i'll spare you the repeat of events that Sarah´s blogs contain. But if you havent checked those ones out and are interested, it pretty much starts with our arrival in Mexico.
By the end of three months of living in the back country, you´re typically ready for a change of pace. I dont know if its the lack of amenities, or the lack of social outlets that gives you this feeling, or perhaps a little of both, but this high country season was no exception. Coupled with the anticipation of the plans that Sarah and I had started to make for South America, I started to get the itch to get out of the woods and into the world.
What better way to start your 9 month off-season then a nice long walk. Merced Lake to Mammoth. Contrary to what those of you who are not familiar with Yosemite are thinking, Merced Lake is NOT near the city of Merced. In fact, it´s in the heart of the back country of Yosemite and 14 miles up the Merced river from the Yosemite Valley. It was my home this past summer and its always bitter-sweet to leave home for 9 months. I couldn't have asked for a better departure though, with 7 friends, walking through the woods, stopping by the tallest mountain in the park, on our way out back to the real world via Mammoth.
After arriving in the foreign country we call civilization again, Sarah and I took a small amount of time to decompress from our backcountry jobs and visited friends and family on the west coast. These were short visits, and in no time we were back in motion. Point Reyes National Sea Shore for Sarah´s birthday on October 1st, Hardly Stricktly Bluegrass in San Francisco the 2nd, 3rd & 4th, back to my folks house for a night and on to the big Southwest Road Trip. We hit National Park after National Park in a tornado of a sight-seeing fury. California, Arizonia, a little of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and we even made it all the way down to Big Bend, Texas. All this and back in a little under two weeks, with about eleven major stops along the way. As if that wasn´t enough, we had all of two days to get ready for a 6 am flight to Mexico.
The fun didn´t really stop there. Oh MEXICO! But, as not to repeat everything all of you loyal followers ( all 10 of you, thanks to our families) have been reading in the previous blogs, i'll spare you the repeat of events that Sarah´s blogs contain. But if you havent checked those ones out and are interested, it pretty much starts with our arrival in Mexico.
Since Sarah´s last blog, we´ve been taking in the scene around Mendoza, Argentina and also the empañadas....mmmmm. We´ve also been studying the language at an intercultural center in town. I never thought my brain could hurt so much. Not a word of English. If we have a question, we have to ask it in Spanish and you get Spanish in return. Our entire lesson is one big question asking session. By the end of hour 4 we cant even formulate full sentences in english, let a lone Argentinian (Italian influenced) Spanish.
Well, friday its further South for us. Onto the mountains and out of the pollution. Mendoza's a pretty cool city, but im ready to get back home... at least a different version of home. I guess the grass is always greener... wait it´s always green, when you head south for the winter. Those birds got it right. verano sin fin ...
(summer without end, in case you were confused)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
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