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
Friday, November 13, 2009
Welcome to Argentina (by sarah)
After an 8 hour flight - luxourious compared to our most recent busrides- we arrived in Santiago, Chile. We didn´t arrive until about 1:30am, so we basically found a hostel and called it a night. The next day we bought bus tickets to Mendoza, Argentina. After a lunch of completos and a side of smog, we hopped on yet another bus and headed east. What is a completo you ask? It´s Chile¨s most popular street food-a giant hot dog smothered in mayonaise. Anyone who knows my love of mayonaise will know that i was very happy with this meal. Jason and Janet couldn¨t stand up to the challenge of all that mayo, but I succeded. The 8 hour bus ride was by far our best bus trip yet, as we crossed the Andes. I was stoked to be in the mountains again, it reminded me a lot of Yosemite.
In Mendoza we headed out for our first Argentinian meal. The most important thing on every menu we looked at was the 3 dollar bottles of wine. Good wine. Ahhhh. We tried 3 different kinds with our late night dinner, each one better than the last one. (but that usually happens with wine, right?)
Today we had a different mission and that was to look into language schools. We found one reccommended by the hostel and are officially signed up for classes starting on Monday. They had us take a placement test-I haven´t taken a test in a looong time-but Jason and I scored well enough to get into Level 2. Muy bien!! The Spanish spoken here has a lot of Italian influence making it much harder to understand. Luckily that Italian influence also made it¨s way into the food. Muy bien!
So it looks like we will be staying in Mendoza for the next week. On Sunday we are going to visit the farm we plan on working on for the months of January and February to meet the owners and check it out. I like the feel of Argentina already-as Janet said, "it´s like a cheap Italy".
Well, it is 9 o´clock and we are going to head out for dinner. Late lunches, siesta, ice cream everywhere, cheap wine, late dinner - I think I am going to like it here.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Adios, Mexico! (by sarah)
Sorry, loyal blog followers, if this hasn't been as up to date as it should be. Jason and I talk about the blog alot more than any actual action. This will change.
Today we depart from Mexico and on to Chile. Since the last posting in Puerto Escondido, we've spent ALOT of time on buses. The ten days on the beach were filled with playing cards, swimming in the pool, cooking, and occasional beer drinking. I wish I could say I went to the beach more than once but...I didn't. As a fellow Ohioan once told me: Sarah, we are from the Midwest. The ocean is scary. Indeed. My fellow Californian travellers have no excuse.
We left PE Thursday night on a bus headed to San Cristobal de las casas. This town is in southeast mexico, known for its coffee and home of the Zapatistas. There are many indiginous cultures in San Cristobal (as well as the entire state of Chiapas) so it made for very lively markets. The state of Chiapas is mostly jungle and mountains, making for beautiful scenery. Lots of small streets and colorful houses-more of what I imagined mexico to look like. We spent two days there and then onto another bus to Palenque--about 5 hours northeast. Palenque is home to some great Mayan ruins--right smack in the jungle. I read about howler monkeys living there, so I was pretty excited when one of the guides who was hounding us for a tour pointed one out to me. I was obviously delighted since >I have never seen a monkey in real life (besides at the Mexico city zoo--another story all together, ask Jason for pictures). I am not sure if it was an actual monkey or not, it was pretty high in the trees, but the tour guides seemed to like my enthusiasm and kept repeating: monkey! monkey! and laughing. Hmmm.
After the ruins we hopped on yet another bus back to Mexico city where we should have had the day to relax and do research before going our separate ways. Jay is staying in mexico and heading to central america, Konrad is going to Ecquador. Adios Team Mexico!
Our 14 hour busride turned into 21 hours--yikes. Even our busdriver was sick of it as he started smoking cigarettes right on the bus. Apparently there was a hug accident that kept us from moving most of the night. Janet said she saw a passenger yell at the driver to wake up because traffic started moving. Luckily I slept through most of this but was quite confused when I woke up and we still had 8 hours to go!
We are excited to get to South America--for many reasons, one being able to eat fruits and vegetables without fear!! I know after my last post you probably thought I would never say this, but: I am officially sick of Mexican food.
Look forward to hearing from us (and adding pics) from South America!!
Today we depart from Mexico and on to Chile. Since the last posting in Puerto Escondido, we've spent ALOT of time on buses. The ten days on the beach were filled with playing cards, swimming in the pool, cooking, and occasional beer drinking. I wish I could say I went to the beach more than once but...I didn't. As a fellow Ohioan once told me: Sarah, we are from the Midwest. The ocean is scary. Indeed. My fellow Californian travellers have no excuse.
We left PE Thursday night on a bus headed to San Cristobal de las casas. This town is in southeast mexico, known for its coffee and home of the Zapatistas. There are many indiginous cultures in San Cristobal (as well as the entire state of Chiapas) so it made for very lively markets. The state of Chiapas is mostly jungle and mountains, making for beautiful scenery. Lots of small streets and colorful houses-more of what I imagined mexico to look like. We spent two days there and then onto another bus to Palenque--about 5 hours northeast. Palenque is home to some great Mayan ruins--right smack in the jungle. I read about howler monkeys living there, so I was pretty excited when one of the guides who was hounding us for a tour pointed one out to me. I was obviously delighted since >I have never seen a monkey in real life (besides at the Mexico city zoo--another story all together, ask Jason for pictures). I am not sure if it was an actual monkey or not, it was pretty high in the trees, but the tour guides seemed to like my enthusiasm and kept repeating: monkey! monkey! and laughing. Hmmm.
After the ruins we hopped on yet another bus back to Mexico city where we should have had the day to relax and do research before going our separate ways. Jay is staying in mexico and heading to central america, Konrad is going to Ecquador. Adios Team Mexico!
Our 14 hour busride turned into 21 hours--yikes. Even our busdriver was sick of it as he started smoking cigarettes right on the bus. Apparently there was a hug accident that kept us from moving most of the night. Janet said she saw a passenger yell at the driver to wake up because traffic started moving. Luckily I slept through most of this but was quite confused when I woke up and we still had 8 hours to go!
We are excited to get to South America--for many reasons, one being able to eat fruits and vegetables without fear!! I know after my last post you probably thought I would never say this, but: I am officially sick of Mexican food.
Look forward to hearing from us (and adding pics) from South America!!
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