Tag Archives: Travel

Photo Friday – Fishy Business in Punta del Diabolo, Uruguay

27 Apr

Fresh fish, salted and drying in the sun.

After our trip to Antarctica back in February, we felt the need to thaw out a bit, and we decided there was no better place than the small beach town of Punta del Diabolo in Uruguay.  We spent ten fantastic days lazing around, and eating fish empanadas every chance we could get.  There are four separate beaches in the area around Punta del Diabolo, one of which is known for the fish shacks that run along its edge.  As such, there are a few days a week where you can see, and smell, the most recent catch out salting in the sun.

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Word on the Street – Trekking the W in Torres del Paine

26 Apr

During our initially planning for our hike on the W in Torres del Paine, I spent hours sifting through material about the park, the hike, gear lists etc.  This post by World Travel for Couples was incredibly helpful for us and contains a whole wealth of information.

I was nervous because we aren’t generally big hikers and I wanted to make sure that we were totally prepared.  I stressed about the route, and then I stressed when we realized we’d have to change the route.  I stressed over what clothes to bring, what kinds of food we would need and how much food to bring.  Now that it’s all said and done I can honestly say that I could have spent that time doing other, more productive things.

I had pictured the trail as a great wild wilderness, where we would be out on our own, miles from nowhere, reliant on only ourselves for survival.  While the park is a great wilderness to some extent, it’s also incredibly heavily travelled.  Puerto Natales, where you will stay to base yourself and leave most of your regular travel gear, has built a huge industry around supplying trekkers for this area.  You can buy or rent everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you need in this town. If you do forget something, the refugios along the way have everything you might need, for a higher price of course.

The trails are very well marked.

There is no chance of getting lost, the trail is like a backpackers super-highway, and while there were plenty of times when we were alone, there was always someone just a few minutes behind.  The trails are very clearly marked with signs telling you where you are, and often, how far you have to the next stop.

The refugios that you will come across on the ‘W’ portion of the trek have bathrooms with flushing toilets.  Inside they have hot water available for you to use for free.  If it’s cold and raining you can sit in the dining area next to a fire and play cards, or buy boxes of wine and warm meals.  Occasionally you can find an open electric socket to charge a camera battery.

By the time this post goes up the free sites with the pit toilets will be open for use, and those will provide a considerable amount more of the “wilderness” feeling, but we hear that they too can get really crowded during high season so you’ll never really have to worry if you run out of toilet paper or need an extra package of crackers.

If you want to undertake the 10-day trek you will need more careful planning as the back half of the circuit lacks the amenities of the ‘W’, but as a novice, the ‘W’ circuit is challenging enough to make you proud of yourself, but not so wild as to require any knowledge of how to tie your food up into the trees or start a fire with nothing but a piece of flint and some dried grass.  In fact, you can even decide to just trek with the clothes you need since you can buy full meals from refugios, and if you arrange it in advance, you can rent tents and sleeping bags at specific campsites so you don’t have to carry your own.  One woman we trekked with decided her sleeping bag wasn’t warm enough for her, so for the second and third nights she rented one from the campsites we were at and returned it in the morning.  If you really feel like blowing some cash, you can even sleep in dorm rooms inside the refugios.

At the end of the day, what it all boils down to is this – if we can do it, you can do it.

Here are my personal top bits of advice if you are planning a trip to the park:

*      Even if you don’t stay at the Erratic Rock, you MUST attend their daily ‘3 o’clock talk’.  It is chalk full of info, in English.  If covers what to bring, routes to take, where to buy any food or gear supplies you need, and generally what to expect regarding trail conditions in the moment.  These guys are experts, they spend a lot of time in the park and they know what they are talking about.  You can rent all the gear you need from them (or a variety of other places in town).

*      Bring, or rent hiking poles. I have never in my life hiked with poles, but I swear, with a huge pack on your back they will save your knees on the down-hills and help you balance if you get hit with giant gusts of wind.  They also really help distribute the weight going uphill…”4 legs good, 2 legs baaaad.”

Our daily food bags

*  Think about what will fuel your body.  We met some guys who, I kid you not, brought 4 loaves of white bread, a huge jar of dulce de leche, and a bottle of whiskey for their 4 day hike.  Yeah, they survived, but still…give your body something to work with.  We found it easier to deal with mealtimes once we portioned our food out per meal ahead of time.  We had a huge ziplock bag for each day, and inside was all our food for that day – oatmeal with chocolate and raisins for breakfast.  Trail mix, chocolate, granola bars and dried fruits for snacking while hiking. Noodles or rice and meat sauce in foil bags for dinner.  We also had some random cheese, sausage, and apples that we ate along the way.

*      Speaking of fuel, if you plan to stay at the pay campsites, you don’t need to buy a whole new canister of fuel for your campstove.  Simply root around the “almost empty” bin at the Erratic Rock and pick out a canister or two that feel about half full.  You can use the already near-boiling water supplied by the refugios to get you started and you’ll end up using very little gas.

Justin fills up our bottles from one of the many streams.

*      You only need one Nalgene bottle.  The water from the streams really is drinkable.  Growing up in Colorado I was instilled with a healthy fear of getting Giardia from drinking mountain stream water.  Well, I swear, it doesn’t exist in Torres del Paine.  All the water you encounter is fresh, cold, and perfectly healthy to drink.

*     Bring two sets of clothes – one to hike in, one to sleep in.  When you take your hiking clothes off, hang them outside for a while if you can because, well, they stink.  Does it suck to wear stinky, dirty, damp clothing for four days in a row?  Not gonna lie here, it totally sucks at first, but once you get moving in the morning you just forget about it.  That shower on the fourth day will feel like heaven.

*      Blister band-aids.  If your feet don’t thank you for these, I promise you’ll run across someone who will.

*      Bring a spare camera battery.  We met a few girls who only had one camera between them, and the battery had died.  They were on their way up to the Torres and had no way to capture the moment.  Super bummer.

*      Go to the ‘3 o’clock talk’.  I have to put it one more time because really, you’ll get all the info you need from them.

Miscellaneous Details

At the time of writing….

  • To get to the park there are multiple busses that all leave from Puerto Natales and take you as far as the entrance to the park. Your hostel can probably sell you a ticket.  They tend to leave twice a day – around 7am and 1 or 2 pm, and return from the park twice a day – around 1pm and 5pm.  Cost – 12,000 – 14,000 per person, round trip ($25-30, depending on the company)
  • Entrance to the park for foreigners is 15,000 Pesos, which is about $30 depending on the exchange rate.
  • From the park entrance, you can walk, or take a shuttle for about $5 to the Hosteria Las Torres, which is where we started the trek.  If you prefer to start at the other end of the W you’ll need to take a catamaran across the lake to Refugio Grey, which costs more.  If you start where we started you will end up taking the catamaran back across the lake at the end.  Check for current catamaran pricing, it’s not cheap.
  • Camping in the park is free at some sites, but not at others.  In January 2012 we paid 6,000 Pesos (about $13)  per person for the Los Cuernos site, and 5,000 Pesos (about $11)  per person for the Chileno site.  Prices change though, so check out the website for each of the major refugios before you head out – Fantastico Sur and Vertice Patagonia

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Trekking the W – Torres Del Paine, Chile.

24 Apr

One of the original bits of inspiration for our trip was the desire to head way, way south to hike the W in Torres Del Paine, in Chilean Patagonia.  Unfortunately, the park was closed at the end of a December due to a devastating fire that was set by a careless trekker who chose not to follow the rules, and we feared that we wouldn’t be able to see this rugged bit of nature.

We delayed our journey south for a few weeks, which proved to be a wise decision as more and more of the park was re-opened to the public every week throughout January.  Just a few days before we were set to start our trek the entire circuit we intended to hike had officially been opened, though we were cautioned that the most recently opened part (the west side of the classic ‘W’ trek, named for the shape of the route through the mountains) would still be smoky, ashy, and not such a great place to be wandering around in. We decided to play it safe, and shortened our trek to just a ‘U’.

It was the first time that we have been ‘real backpacking’ together, which means carrying all our own gear – tent, sleeping bags and pads, cook stove, and all our food.   Patagonia is notorious for wild weather and it’s not uncommon to encounter anything from blistering sunshine to snow or sleet all in the course of a single day.  We attempted to balance packing enough layers for all the possible elements, while trying to keep our packs at a reasonable weight.

We had attended the infamous “3 o’clock talk” given at the Erratic Rock hostel, which is where we ended up staying both pre, and post-trek in Puerto Natales, Chile.  With their guidance, we diligently separated our food into ziplocks, portioning out each meal for easy access and efficiency.  We brought mostly lightweight, carb-rich and sugar loaded food such as oatmeal, noodles with packets of meat sauce, granola, peanuts, and tons of chocolate bars and caramel candies.  I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to be eating chocolate every few hours to keep my energy up, and knowing all the while I was definitely burning it all off.

Ready to go!

Looking ahead.

We set out with high hopes and heavy packs, and day one was fairly uneventful.  We chose to trek first to the Campemento Cuernos, the traditional middle part of the W.  We originally wanted to be able to stay in one of the free sites in the French Valley, but due to the fire the camps were closed so we knew we’d need to stay two nights at Cuernos to accommodate a long 26 kilometer day hike to the valley and back.

One of many river crossings

Towards our first campsite

The big attraction at Torres del Paine is, well, the Torres.  However, we had heard that the French Valley was majestically beautiful, and we were looking forward to spending the whole day exploring the valley.  The day started out beautifully and it didn’t take us as long as expected to reach the base of the valley where, unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse.

Storms in the French Valley

As we made our way over giant boulders, past glaciers, and wound our way into the forest at the top of the ridge, the weather turned from chilly and drippy to downright freezing with whipping winds and sideways rain and snow.

I swear, there's a view back there somewhere!

We made the push to the very top where the last mirador (viewpoint) lay just to say we did, but we weren’t able to see much.  By the time we made it back down to camp we were soaked, exhausted, and my feet had multiple blisters.

The next day was another big push, retreating out of the campsite and up towards the towers.  We started early and made good time, though we ended up stopping at Campamento Chileno instead of continuing another hour up to the free site at Torres.  My feet felt like they were on fire and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to continue standing, let alone hike another 5 kilometers.

Down into the last valley before the Torres

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing inside by the fire and debating the merits of waking at 2:30 am to hike the last two and half hours in the dark to see the Torres at sunrise.  We ended up deciding to sleep in a bit and start the hike at the more reasonable hour of 7.

The next morning we made it to Torres in great time since we weren’t weighed down with our heavy packs, and we were greeted with clear skies, and only a few other trekkers marveling at the immensity of the stone towers.

The Torres in the freezing morning

On our way down we began to encounter huge groups of hikers on their way up, as well as people on their way down who had stayed at the free Torres campsite and gotten up early to see the towers at dawn.  Apparently, there was nothing much to see at dawn as the sky hadn’t yet cleared, so it turns out we’d had the perfect timing – arriving after the sky cleared, but before the bulk of the late-morning crowd appeared.   We rushed back to the campsite, packed up all our gear, and started down the mountain, for the last 8 kilometers.   My feet screamed at the thought of being back in my hiking boots, so I wore my New Balance barefoot trail runners for the remainder of the day and while I might not recommend them generally for multi-day hiking, they were so much more comfortable for my aching feet.

We arrived to the end of the trail with plenty of time to spare before the shuttle left for Puerto Natales, so we rewarded our tired bodies with huge glasses of beer and some of the most expensive hamburgers we’ve ever eaten.  I have to say, after 4 days of oatmeal and ramen noodles with tomato paste, those hamburgers were the most delicious things ever!

We made it!

After it was all said and done, we had hiked around 60 kilometers in 4 days, consumed something close to a million calories in chocolate and peanuts, and realized that we are more ‘outdoorsey’ than we thought.  With the exception of one trip a million years ago when I was in college, we just don’t tend to do these kinds of multi-day outdoor hikes.  We weren’t really sure what to expect, and we were both pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed ourselves. Initially we were really disappointed to not be able to do the last part of the ‘W’ trail.  The thing is, Torres del Paine isn’t going anywhere, and we can always come back to finish the circuit.  In fact, when we come back we plan to do the full 10-day loop, which promises to be even more spectacular than the glimpse we saw in our 4-day version.

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Word on the Street

In the interest of not making a blog post into a novel, I’ve made a separate post dedicated to what you might want to know if you’re thinking of doing this hike.  Look for it in the next few days!

Until then, check out the slideshow on Flickr!

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Photo Friday – Tilt-Shift Machu Picchu

20 Apr

We absolutely loved Machu Picchu and were lucky to be there on a day with beautiful weather despite that it was technically the rainy season.  If you’ve been there, you probably have this same classic shot.   We decided to put a little twist on it with a technique we recently discovered called ’tilt-shift’.  By blurring out the top and bottom of a photo, you can make it appear to be a highly detailed miniature version of itself.  These kinds of photos work best when you have a wide shot with a lot of details.  There are plenty of tutorials online about how to achieve these results, and even some websites that help alter photos you have already taken, which is what we did here.

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Bolivia. In Theory.

18 Apr

In theory.  We’ve experienced this phenomenon in other places, but on our current trip it has hit us the hardest in Bolivia.  Things seem to be one way, until they aren’t, often for no apparent reason.

In theory your bus ticket costs 15 Bolivianos, until the driver makes you pay an extra 5 at the end of the journey.

In theory when the menu says “2 waffles” you get two waffles, until it is explained to you that by “2 waffles” they really mean one waffle.

In theory, spending nearly 2 weeks at altitudes above 4000 meters without incident might mean you won’t suffer from altitude sickness, until you almost pass out in your falafel one night.

The rockslide we encountered halfway between La Paz and Coroico.

In theory there is a paved road between La Paz and Coroico, until there’s a landslide, which apparently happens more than you might think.  In theory the road will be open in two hours, except that it’s BEEN two hours and no equipment has arrived.  In theory a 15 passenger mini-van shouldn’t plunge off the side of the road in an attempt to make an alternate route on a road meant for 4×4’s that clings to a cliff with no guard rail and is only wide enough for 1.5 cars, but it does.  In theory a massive tourist bus shouldn’t have done the same thing in the opposite direction, but it did and now someone has to reverse on the hairpin curves, cliff side, until there’s just enough room to eek by.

In theory the ticket you bought says the bus leaves at 1:15, but really it leaves at 2:45.

In theory the water you bought yesterday for 5 Bolivianos should be 5 Bolivianos the next time you go to that store, except that today it’s 7.

In theory a ticket on a bus costs a certain price, unless it costs 5, 10, or 20 Bolivianos more depending on how stupid of a tourist the vendor takes you to be.  In theory when you walk away without purchasing a ticket and tell the vendor you’ll just buy it on the bus, they would not make a huge scene like you’re the one ripping them off.

Electric showers in Bolivia

In theory the electric showers (yes, electricity and water – together!) are hot, but really they aren’t so for nearly two weeks your hair is washed in spurts in ice-cold water.

In theory the boat ticket to the lovely island on Lake Titicaca is all-inclusive, until you have to pay some sort of entrance fee 47 times for every little village you go through.

Bolivia is a beautiful country with spectacular landscapes and generally lovely people.  We’re a bit worn out with the inconsistencies of things right now, but we have really enjoyed our time here and would definitely recommend you visit.  Just be prepared for, well, anything.

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Photo Friday – Street Art in Santiago, Chile

13 Apr

Street art in Santiago, Chile

We’ve seen plenty of graffiti around the world, and generally we think it’s destructive and ugly.  Wandering around Chile we were delighted to see that many of the walls around the city were covered in an entirely different kind of graffiti that truly was art.  We took hundreds of photos of the different murals from Santiago to Valparaiso and beyond and we continue to be impressed by the quality of the street art we’ve found throughout our travels.

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Not In The Guidebooks: El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina

10 Apr

Lonely Planet’s South America on a Shoestring is like the backpacker’s bible.  I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve spent hours sifting through the zillion bits of info in our own guidebooks searching for places to stay, directions to the biggest tourist sites, or using the language guides to help decipher a menu.  However, at some point most travelers come to realize that the guidebook is only that, a guide.  It cannot possibly include everything, and it shouldn’t because really, a huge part of really travelling is learning to hunt down a fantastic local restaurant, bar, or anywhere interesting that isn’t filled to the brim with tourists.

Over the last few months we’ve stumbled across some real gems that aren’t in the guidebooks and we’d like to share some with you, provided that you don’t tell Lonely Planet!

During our time in Buenos Aires, our couchsurf host asked if we’d been to see the famous bookstore that was housed in an old theatre.  We hadn’t even heard of it, but we are both book and theatre lovers so we decided it would definitely be worth a visit.

El Ateneo bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina

We didn’t have big expectations, so we were a bit blown away when we walked in.  In addition to being simply massive, the theatre, originally called ‘The Grand Splendid’, has been beautifully maintained and is bright and welcoming.  All the seating has been removed and replaced with rows of books, including in the side balconies.  A few of the box seats have been converted to small reading rooms with plush armchairs, and the stage now holds a lovely café that serves coffee and sweets.

There aren’t any books in English, but it’s worth the visit just to marvel at how spectacular the space is.

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Word On The Street

* El Atenero is located at Ave Santa Fe 1860 in Barrio Recoleta in Buenos Aires. 

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Photo Friday – Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, Peru

6 Apr

Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, Peru

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru, yet it manages to maintain the feel of a much smaller place.  The Plaza de Armas in the center of the tourist zone was one of our favorite spots in all of Peru for people watching.  The square is very well maintained with a beautiful fountain and plenty of trees and benches. One entire block on the edge of the plaza is taken up by a spectacular cathedral.  We snapped this shot just as the sun was going down and the first of the lights illuminating the cathedral had been lit.

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Living The Dream – Why We Chose To Leave It All Behind

1 Apr

Recently we met a young couple who genuinely didn’t understand why we embarked on this huge journey.  They wanted to know why we didn’t seem to miss our clothes, our home, our ‘regular’ lives.  Why aren’t we worried about what happens when we go back, or when we run out of money?  Why aren’t we worried about our careers? Why would we choose this unstable sort of life?

These are all valid questions, and some can be answered at least partially by checking out our “About Us” section.

We’ve been on the road for almost five months and we’ve thought a lot about the things that motivate us to travel, and the reasons behind the decisions that have landed us where we are in life.

I’ve started this post a dozen different times and discarded every attempt at an answer until now.  It’s a complicated answer because life is complicated.

Why do writers write?  Why do athletes compete?  Why do artists create?  Most of them will tell you that it’s because it is their passion.  There is something that burns inside of them and says “This is what you must do”, and so they do it.  If you ask Justin if he has a burning passion for travel he’ll say no, but he does enjoy it.  If you ask me, I’ll say yes, I have a passion for travel, but it’s not all encompassing.   We have a love of the world, a desire to see new things, to immerse ourselves in different cultures, to meet new people.  Yes, it can be frustrating  to not have a huge wardrobe selection, or to have to move every few days, or to have to sleep in dorm rooms with 20 other travelers, but the benefits of what we are doing far outweigh these minor issues.

This alone might be answer enough for most people, but there is more behind it.

We’ve lived fairly comfortable lives.  We had the opportunity to earn university degrees, we had careers that we enjoyed, family and friends we love, and we could have settled comfortably into a nice routine in Colorado and lived out our lives pleasantly…but…there’s always a ‘but’.

People talk about living life to the fullest, taking advantage of every moment, every opportunity.  Most people don’t follow that philosophy in their everyday reality though.  Life is busy, things get in the way.  All those responsibilities build up and we have a hard time looking through them to where those moments and opportunities might lead us.  I’m as guilty as anyone else of living like that.  The conventional wisdom tells us to work hard.  Save money.  Plan for the future.  We were on that path.  We were saving money for a down-payment on a home. I was pushing myself professionally to make sure my career path had an upward trajectory.  We were diligent about putting money aside for retirement.

Then, over the last few years, a number of things started to jolt us out of that cocoon of complacency.  A close friend’s mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  My mother was hit hard financially and lost her home to the bank.  A schoolmate from when I was a child died from a brain tumor.  A classmate from high school died from melanoma.  Three years ago today, one of my most dear friends was murdered by her ex-husband.

Everyone knows life is precious and fleeting, but these events sucker-punched me.  There were things that had been left unsaid, regrets, and ‘should-haves’ and the weight of them felt terrible.  We came to realize that while we had a great life, we weren’t actually taking advantage of what it could be.  It became painfully clear that despite the best of plans and the most careful of arrangements, it can all be gone in an instant.  We took a good long look at ourselves and asked, What is it that we dream of?  Why don’t we follow that dream and see where it goes?

That burning passion that writers and artists and athletes have for what they do?  Well, I don’t exactly have that, but the thing that burns inside of me says take the chance.  So we did.

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Photo Friday – Wine Tasting near Santiago, Chile

30 Mar

The cellars at Concho y Toro

There are many great wineries in the area around Santiago, Chile.  You can take public transport to Concho y Toro, just 45 minutes outside of Santiago’s city center by a combination of subway and bus and spend the day sipping wine on their lovely patio.  The tour of their grounds was lovely, and we particularly enjoyed seeing the huge cellars filled with barrels and bottles.

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