This is the night we boarded the Navimag ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt- a 4 day three night trip up the Chilean side north.

This was a detour off the route that Navimag provided for all of us! A beautiful shot of this glacier. You can not tell from the picture but there were huge chunks of ice floating around everywhere. They were bright bright blue!

Enjoying the nightly view on the top deck.

Everyone had finished up watching the movie Pirates of the Carribean and if you have seen the movie, you would be looking for a green flash when the sun goes down over the horizon. There was no green flash but a beautiful picture!

So after arrivng to Montt, we quickly realized that it was the dumpiest city in Chile. We bought a bus ticket immediatley to Bariloche and left. Now I know there are some LOST fans out there and I want you know that LOST has been found outside of our hotel in Barlioche. Ever since I have been waiting to see Ben or Hurley. No luck yet. I am gonna try to join the Dharma intiative.

We were able to go white water rafting in Bariloche. There are some really good pictures that the rafting company took of us that we have on CD, but this is a good one of terribly uncomfortable wetsuits. They kept us warm when we got to swim in the glacier river water.

We had fun flying the kite from the Burks over the lake.

And we even spent 2 pesos to go to the fossil-dinosaur museum in town.

We woke up early in the morining on Sunday to get everything togoether for the big hike at the Torres Del Paine. Keep in mind we did not plan on doing a 3 day hike and we are not prepared for it by any means. So over coffee we checked out the map and plotted the route we would try to do. We found a company that had an experienced guide who told us about our options. We did not want to camp, becasue we did not have the equipment and the equpiment to rent was expensive, so we were hoping for availabilty in the refugios which are located at certain points on the trail. They are hostels which fit 6 people to a room, have terrible food and even worse bathrooms.

After planning this trip all day, we were reserved at the Las Torres Refugio, which is kinda the begining for anyone hiking. We rented a backpack and bought food and water at the grocery store and loaded up. The hostel we are currently staying at allowed us to keep our bags there while we were hiking, since we would be coming back there on the last day.

Monday morning arrives and the bus forgets to pick us up! Some poor guy picks us up and drove really realy fast to catch up with the bus. The bus was the worst bus I have ever ridden on. It was terrible. There were only two seats left on the bus, one in the front and one in the back. Annika sat up front and I sat in the back with the Hebrews. Seriosuly, they were all in the back of the bus speaking hebrew and I was crammed in the middle of all of them. It was pretty uncomfortable until I sparked a conversation with one of them who spoke english and found out that he was a drummer, likes Metallica and is coming to Seattle in the fall for 6 months. I got his e-mail. Cool guy.

The bus drops us off at admin and we catch another, much samller and nicer bus to Los Torres. We get to the top (3 hours later after leaving Natales) drop our stuff off at the Refugio and set off on the journey. Keep in mind that I carried the back pack and all the food and water that Annika would enjoy at the top ;)

This is the Refuigo at Torres. No more buses.

Below is the view from the Refugio. The little mountains in the lower right is where we are going to be hiking. It makes me tired just looking at them.

And so begins the hike. The heavy back pack and all. There are plenty of brigdes like this one along the hike. Some are not so stable as others. It reminded us of the time in Romania with the bridge without rails that I am sure Katy Yeager will apprectiate.

Some pics along the trail...

One of the more stable bridges along the way.

45 min from the top....we are almost there....but little did we know the best was yet to come!

Always save the best for last right? (The climb to the lookout)

Good thing it was worth it!!! Las Torres-The Towers!

A little ciesta below the magnificant view...

So we made it back 14 miles later stayed the night in the refugio and decided to come back to Natales the next day instead of wasting more money on the awful accomodations. Well worth it!

Hikes, Penguins and 20 Seater Planes

Punta Arenas is nice town on the water, but a bit too touristy with crazy people like ourselves all around so luckily we were able to find a hike above the town. It would be considered a short jaunt for all you avid cascade climbers, but I must admit we didn´t have to work as hard to find beauty. We also spotted very different South American birds and mysterious tracks in the mud....possibly baby puma tracks according to the trail worker. Who knows.

So I was going to find a picture of Bloom County`s Opus the Penguin to start this portion of the blog , but I couldn´t find one that adequatley describes my love for the next sentence.

Thousands upon thousands of penguins!

Wow. We took a ferry from Punta Arenas to the Magellana Isalnd, where there are 70 thousand penguins raising their young. Both Annika and I thought we might be lucky if we saw a couple, because no one says how many Penguions you are going to see untill you get there. I was seriously stunned. You get off the boat and walk on a designated trail to a light house, while the wind is whipping around and penguins ( who are not shy creatures) walk down the middle of the trail and get inches away from personas. They have even been known to bite as the picture below portrays...

Haha. I know its terrbile, but Annika was bit by a ruthless penguin. And the best part was I got it on film. The sacrifce was worth it! I doubt she will get Bird Flu or anything.

We have lots of pictures of penguins.

So we were able to book a flight from Punta Arenas to the absolute end of the world as we know it, Puerto Williams. I was not so excited about the 20 seater prop plane, but decided it would be worth it to say I have been to the southern most city on the planet.

I knew Annika would be worried about the small plane especially since we were so close the to the prop. But I kept reminding her that if the prop came loose and sliced through the cabin, which it would enter in our window, she wouldn´t feel a thing.

Not much of a city, but rather a village. We both agree it was the most beautiful place on earth with the sea at the bottom of Los Dientes peaks. Hungry when we landed we thought we might go get some food at a restaurant in town, but no such luck with no restaurants to be found and everyone on ciesta. We somehow found ourselves eating tuna and crackers on the side of the road and started on an afternoon hike. Wow. Amazing.

A little bit windy up top...

We have now made it to Puerto Natales and are looking forward to hiking in the Torres del Paine National Park for the next few days.

Barney In Buenos Aries

I forgot to tell everyone that I met this guy in BA outside the Buenos Aires Zoo. He was telling me how he used to be a big star in the states, but fell on hard times and some how found himself in BA. I dunno, I gave him some pesos. I dunno how a big purple dinosaur could become a big star, but weirder things have happened I guess ;)



In a previous blog we talked about a demented looking animal that we saw roaming around. Here is a picture.Let us know what combinations of animal you see in this creature! Maybe it is worthy of Brendan´s computer screen saver?



Oh and I found my dads mountain beaver swimming around. haha.

Have You Ever Eaten Beaver?

We were forced to stay the night at Rio Gallegos when we got off the bus from B.A. and found a hotel with ease. That day we spent walking around the town. Nice town. The picture below is of us having the first real meal in three days in Rio Gallegos. The bus food smelled like cat food. ugh.



The next day we caught the 1:00 bus to Punta Arenas, because our orignial plan to Ushuia would not work, becuase the busses were full. 4 hours later ( two of those spent at the Chilean Customs!!) we arrived to Punta Arenas where we are now writing this blog. This is a great town. It caters to tourists like us, a little overhwleming when it comes to prices as well. The picture below is on the bus from Rio to Punta Arenas. The ocean is finally here!



Now, it seems one of the many great parts of this trip is the food. Everywhere the food has been very good. I happy to report that Annika officaly hates beaver, llama, pickled goose and lamb as pictured below.


Annika had read about this restaurant in her travel book that deals expecially with game food. So we order the game taster appetizer, along with main dishes of king crab canoli and really tender lamb. Can you guess who had what?

The night was going well untill the waitress decided to give us a free drink. Well, we ( I) recieved more than that. The lady brought out three bottles of their traditon pisco sour. And she made us try all three of them. Annika kept saying no, rightfully so, but the waitress poured them anyway. Annika was in complete distress about her full shots of evil water and did not know what to do. Being the generous, loving, heart felt boyfriend that I am, I took the bullet and took them for her :) Your welcome.


After that evening we walked back to the hostal. Which is a very nice and homey atmosphere with fresh baked bread in the morning! Really good! I also wanted to say that it is really reallyu windy down here. The gusts shake buildings and can knock you over if you are not careful.

Today we walked in circles around Punta Arenas and from one end to the other deciding how best to spend our money....or give it away in the next couple of days. The biggest attraction here are the Penguin tours in the Isla Magdelena. So yes we will be seeing Penguins on Thursday. And the best part instead of bussing our way up the Andes decided to book tickets on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt ( a four day tour up the Chilean coastline). We´re very excited about this. So in figuring all of this out and going to different travel offices we found ourselves on the opposite end of town, but decided to enjoy the nice sunny windy weather on a long walk back where we found some fun parks along the way. Enough said...

Bussing to Rio Gallegos....40 Hours....

This is what you would look like too, if you made it on the bus! and made it off...

Have you ever driven through Yakima for 40 hours? Maybe in the twilight zone.....but definately in Argentina. So it all started with tickets in hand in a taxi ride to the bus station that should have taken 10 minutes, but rather it took 45minutes. Good thing we have learned to leave ourselves plenty of time. Friday night at the Buenos Aires bus station is...well....a complete nightmare. Pushing through people, we finally made it to the general docking area where hundreds of people were listening to three conflicting intercoms calling out dock numbers and destinations. All in Spanish of course. So there began a stressful hour of listening to every annoucement trying to find out which dock our bus would leave from. An hour after schedule, our bus finally arrived and we were the happiest people alive to get on and going.....and now the happiest people alive to be off!!!

This is the bu station in BA. This picture is generous!

The bus stopped in virtually every city and small town possible along the way to drop off and pick up passengers.....as we sat there....and slept there two nights. Thrilling. The prettiest part of the bus ride was the salt flats, the wildlife, and the nighttime sky, and the rest looked about like Yakima. Nothing to report. Don´t do it. Needless to say we saved ourselved quite a few pesos.

Pretty Rainbow though...

We made it Rio Gallegos this afternoon, thinking we might be able to catch another bus to Punta Arenas (4 hours) where we will hopefully station ourselves for a while. Unfortunatley the bus to Arenas was pulling out as we were driving in. We booked a hotel where we had a great conversation with the host there who is studying pysocology in B.A. We were very thankful for our lunch out today and now sitting at the internet cafe. More to come from Punta Arenas (hopefully more pics of scenery to share).

Thanks for your comments.

Buenos Aries Tambien...

The night before last, we enjoyed an early birthday dinner for Andy outside on the water at the nicest restaurant in town. The service was incredible with several servers coming to the table to offer various things. The food cannot be put into words on paper. Absolutely wonderful. Andy enjoyed his Bife Chorizo and I some Patagonian Spider Crab. Definatley a highlight. The bill was perhaps the best part. A full three course dinner and drinks for under US $80. Nothing like it in Seattle.

We woke up in the morning and went to the zoo and city parks. It was a monkey of a zoo. Animals obviously have taken a beating from years of the small children throwing peanuts and various food articles at them constantly. We did discover an Argentinian mystery animal- half rabbit, half dog, some cat, with the ears of a lynx.....not sure what to think of it, but they were just running around free. Hopefully we can get those pictures loaded soon.

It finally rained last night as we came home from Mr. Tengo. It was an epic journey of tango dancers, cheap wine and not so friendly americans from New York, conviently sitting at our group table. The show was a great performance in a huge theatre a little outside the city. The performance hall offered a van service that picked up personas from their hotels as well as the return. The show was going great until the end of the night when the check came. The two NewYorkers saw the bill was 80 pesos, but they presumed that it was in American currency. they freaked out. And it took 1o minutes of waiter-newyorker arguing to resolve the situation. During this, the neworkers made comments like, "they don´t speak english to us" and "I did not like the show so I am not payin!" Because of Annika´s wonderful ability to speak spanish and my ability to keep my mouth shut, we blended in with everyone while singing ¨DONT CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA!¨ and did not have to give oursleves away as americanas.

Damn Americans.

Today we went to the cementary. This is the biggest attraction in Buneos Aires. The graveyard is similar to a samll city. Amazing! The tall tombs and statues of generals, poets and polticiains. I have been to the New Orleans graveyard which is famous at home, but this blows that out of the water. And the really creepy part about this was not the thousands of dead people a foot away from you, while you are staring at their caskets, it was the gatos! All of these decreped cats roaming around the cementary, gaurding the dead. In a city were one has not seen a cat, and then to eneter into the land of the dead to see these things just lying around is really weird. I asked a lady later about that and she said that the guards feed them.

Have you every seen Sleepwalkers by Stephen King?

We´re heading South today on bus to Rio Gallegos and then onwards to the tip of the world..... 40 hours in total - we´ll let you know how that goes!!!