Dia 26 New Years Eve

I woke up feeling a little flustered this am. It can be really challenging to plan itineraries and execute them. I am staying in yet another tourist town, though beautiful, but it is hard to do things on my own. Things are very expensive and it is difficult to get good info. Mostly people want you to take their tour and charge you a lot for it. I'm a do it yourselfer!

My angst was some what mitigated over coffee with Anya and Victor. Victor had some great suggestions!  He recommended catching abus to Petrohue, checking out the cascades, and hiking the Solitario trail (6 km).  Away we went!  As you can see it was abolutely lovely except maybe for the tabanos (horse flies) which followed us everywhere.

 Fuscia plants grow wild here.  They remind me of my mother, because dad always bought her a fuscia plant for mother´s day from all of us.  So, I think about my mom a lot here when I see these flowers.  I posted this picture today, because it is my mom´s birthday.  Happy Birthday mom!

 Saltados de Petrohue with Volcan Osorno in the distance

I still have no plans for this eve, but maybe a steak dinner!  We are now working out our plans for tomorrow.  We are hoping to catch a bus to Correntoso to hike in Parque Nacional Alerce Andino.  Everything will be closed tomorrow (you should have seen the lines at the supermarket!), so hopefully the buses will still be running.

 Feliz Ano Nuevo!

And to Brett and Val, congratulations on your engagement!  I always wanted a sister!  Please send pics of the ring.

Dia 25 Puerto Varas

I got an early start today. I lugged all my crap across town to the bus station to catch an 8:00 am bus. Thankfully, Anya came with, so she could watch my stuff while I was able to procure instant coffee and a sopapilla from a local stand for the 5 hour trip.

I arrived in Puerto Varas at 2:00 under partly cloudy conditions, but could still see the tops of the 2 Volcanos, Osorno and Across Lago Llanquihue which the town is situated on. The new hostel, called Casa Azul, is German run. The rooms are nicer and more quiet than Ecole, but I am sharing with 3 others. People seem very friendly, in my age bracket, but none seem that adventurous.

After getting settled in, i walked into town to get my bearings and find out info about climbing Osorno. I got lucky again. There were two gringos sitting outside of the tour company who worked there and we chatted for a while. They suggested a guide who did contract work for them but who is starting his own company and is guiding under the table. Victor showed up and was psyched to have someone to climb with. He's still new to the area. We agreed to climb Osorno possibly on Sunday and potentially some other routes. He lent me a bike and we did a two hour tour of the area around Puerto Varas. It was really neat and I got a lesson in local culture, flora, and fauna. We even saw some parrots flying about.  La palabra del dia es amigable and amintoso = friendly.

There is a nice kitchen and dining area here at the hostel and most people seem inspired to eat in.  Not me!  I went out to a late dinner because I didn´t get back from my ride until after 9:00.  Note that this was not a late dinner by Chilean standards.  For the first time since Buenos Aires, I wfound myself dining alone in a Parilla.  It was actually quite nice and the sirloin steak was pure heaven!

Dia 23 Volcan Lanin

 The day dawned early.  On very little sleep from the noisy and extremely hot hostel, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for a gruelling day of drudgery.  Volcan Lanin is 3,776 meters high and I think the starting point is somewhere around 1,100 meters.  For us Americans, that´s over 8,000´of elevation gain!

My guide, Rodrigo picked me up, as arranged, at 4:00 a.m. for the 1.25 hour drive.  We put in at 5:35 a.m.  When I looked up at the nasty pile of volcanic rubble and scree, I thought what the hell did I sign myself up for?

 But then I turned around and saw the view across the valley.  In this photo, you can see a peak that´s called something like tooth of the devil on the left and Las Panetas (rock climbing) on the left in the early mourning light.

 It took us nearly 4 hours and 4000´or so of elevation gain to reach the first small snow finger.  This was followed by more crappy rock.  Though my guide didn´t speak much English, I think he understood my expletives when we would round over another rise and I would see more crappy rock.  Nonetheless, I plodded on in a slow, even pace.  The last 600 plus meters were actually interesting.  It was a mix of rotten snow, crappy rock, ice, and water.  There wasn´t anything technical, butdefinitely attention getting.  One wouldn´t want to make a mistake.  I felt really tired and down in the last hour.  I guess the guide sensed thisand he asked if I wanted to turn around.  This was all I needed to hear because I summoned up all my strength and in my best spanish responded with ¨F@#% no!¨  Then I put on crampons and plodded up to the top.

 We topped out after 8:20 hours. And I was happy with the time. The views were tremendous!  Villarica and Quetripillan (sp?) are in the distance!

This view was on the Argentine side.  The best use of the guide was that he knew where every patch of snow and every scree gully was located, though I am guessing that his GPS was the real hero.  We skied down on our heels and dropped over 8000´ in 4 hours.  Not bad!  Rodrigo has the head for the barn door syndrome worse than I do.  Though I will say, the last hour down was as bad as the last hour on the way up.  I was over heating big time.  It was much hotter at the lower elevation around 90 degrees and I was getting a headache from the heat combined with the exertion. I recieved encouragement from an unikely place...tabanos.  These are horseflies.  They swarm and bite.  Even worse, I hear they are attracted to the color blue, which of course, I was wearing.  I moved as fast as I could to the truck, but the damn things kept pace with me.  I have never had any flies follow me that far!

Surprisingly, I was not that tired or hungry really afterwards.  I actually felt pretty good when I joined Tracy for dinner at Latitude 39 and even had a glass of wine back at the hostel.

Dia 22 Monday

Picture is of the playa on the shores of Lago Villarica in Pucon, Chile.

I am finally getting around to updating my blog after a hiatus. Today I am moving into town. Staying at Tracy and Lance's place in the hills has been extremely relaxing, but I have decided that I need to be around travel energy. I am not meeting people when I am staying so far from town, so after five days of relaxation, I am making the big move. I arranged arise into town with Tracey's neighbor at 8:30. Since Tracy and Lance are on her birthday overnighter to hot springs (termas), I am caretaking. I got up at 6:00 to begin the involved process of watering the plethora of gardens and greenhouse and to feed the dogs. It was a rather involved process.Tracy has fabulous gardens, but it´s definitely a labor of love.

I am staying at hosteria Ecole! Which is a Hooke-ish hostel that Tracy is part owner of. I was instantly rewarded with two super cool roomies: Anya (German) and Kathy (Swiss). They are seasoned transports and were appalled at the amount of stuff I have been toting. After some discussion, I arrived at the conclusion that I need to lighten my load and immediately began to cull the heard. I am going to ship a box home. This also means I can go shopping and buy gifts to send.I have come to the realization that I can either climb or travel, but it is tough to do both without a car.  Hence, I will keep the basics (helmet, harness, crampons, tools, rock shoes) and send the rest home or sell it if I can get a good price.

I then began working on logistics to climb Volcan Lanin. It's complicated bc the common route is in Argentina, but the mountain straddles both countries.  Since I am alone, to be on the safe side, I would have to take a bus to the ARG side, check in at the guard station, hike up halfway to the refugio, and hope that there are other people on the mtn.  I also run the risk of getting food confiscated at the border which would be a deal breaker.  Since it is international, I would need to plan the buses up and back in advance which requires a manifest of passengers.  I asked around to find other climbers, but came up fruitless.  I talked to Travel Aid and they thought going solo was a terrible idea and recommended some guides.  It was hard for me to swallow the idea of needing a guide to do a largely non-technical climb, but I thought I would at least investigate.

I went to the Rumba Sur (guide) office and asked.  The guide immediately recognized me as being the sola chica on Villarica the day before.  He was impressed at my determination and agreed to guide me tomorrow up the mountain for a lower than normal price bc I had gear and skills.  And we agreed to make the 2500 plus meter ascent in one day.

I still had mixed emotions about having a guide, but Galen set me straight.  She reminded me that that is how you learn- learn new skills and about the area.  I was defnitely relieved to have a plan in place as planning is very difficult in Chile for some strange reason and I was happy to not have to deal with logistics.  Rodrigo would pick me up at 4:00 am.

Dia 24 "floja"

Every day I try to learn at least one new word. Today la palabra del dia es "floja"; English translation = lazy.

I figured that today would be a down day to recover from climbing Lanin, but I'm happy to report that I'm really not that sore. Regardless, i set 2 goals for the day: going to the termas or hotspring and buying a bus ticket to Puerto Varas. Over breakfast at the hostel I began talking to a guy from Santiago. His back was very sore so I suggested the termas. His response was can you drive? With that he gave me the keys to his car and I drove us to Termas de Pozones that afternoon. It was threatening to rain, so what better activity then soaking is there? The pools were very natural and didn't smell like sulphur. It was quite nice with a pretty river running along side, lots of flowers, and a low key international group of bathers. I practiced my Spanish all day since I was no longer around gringos.

In the evening, i packed up to get ready for the early bus to Puerto Varas. I ate at Viva Peru with Anya which was an overrated, greasy restaurant with poor service. Lonely Planet was wrong about this place!

Dia 21 El Volcan Villarica

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. anddrove Tracy´s funky old Subaru down the hill, through town, and up to the ski area on Villarica.  I stopped in at the CONAF office at 6:45 a.m. to convince them that I was worthy of a  permit.  Judging by their reaction, I somehow think that they don´t get many chicas showing up and asking for a permit to climb solo.  They inspected my gear and asked for my qualifications.  I had done my homework on this and was therefore able to produce 3 climbing club membership cards.  For $3,500 CH pesos ($7.50 USD) I was on my merry way.  I started at the very late hour of 7:15, but to my surprise, I was the first person on the mountain.  The first 1,200´were a slog up scree and dirt to the top of the chairlift reminiscent of the initial slog up the south side of Mt Hood.

Once I reached the snow, things got much easier.   I initially started following the trail the guides put in, sans crampons.  It was horse graded and extremely unappealling.  The mountain was a little icy from the hot temps yesterday and overnight freeze. So, I strapped on my crampons and took a more direct line.  It felt soooo good to be back on a mountain like coming home.  I listened to a mix of Beck, Beastie Boys, and G Love as I made my way up.  I could see the throngs of guided groups below me, but for the most part I was alone and enjoying the tranquil beauty and early morning light on the scenery below (Picture 4).  Villarica is one of the few volcanoes that you can look into the crater and see lava.  I topped out, but the mountain was angry and belching continues clouds of noxious gases which the wind carried my way.  I could only stay 5 minutes before beginning my descent.

On the descent, I think I blew past 80 or so people in guided groups marching up in neat little lines along the horse-graded zigzag path the guides had set.  I was really happy that I was able to pull this off solo, beacuse I would not have enjoyed marching along with the throngs.  They were all very surprised to see me.  Every guide inquired about the wind/smoke conditions at the crater.  One of the guides was kind enough to snap the picture above.  I descended in good form by walking down rather than glissading and was in the parking lot 1.5 hrs later.

Christmas

After the late night on xmas eve ( it is traditional to eat dinner at 10:00 p.m. and we followed ours with a movie), everyone slept in.  I think I was the first up.  I have had ants in the pants for most of the day; I have been really anxious to get out climbing.  It's just between x-mas and some weather, I haven't been able to and I'm starting to go a little stir crazy staying in the hills.  I am contemplating staying in a hostel in town for a few days so I can meet other people who are traveling and may be interested in doing the sorts of things I like.  I am hoping to solo Villarica tomorrow.  Afterwards I need to care take Tracy's house while she is on a birthday overnighter to some hotsprings.  On Monday, I can move to town.

After a lot of lazing about, the crew finally got motivated and we went to Ojos de Caburgua and la playa at Lago Caburgua around 4:30 p.m.

Christmas Eve

Laid low today.  Actually, we spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing x-mas eve dinner.  I don't think I've ever cooked a Christmas dinner before.  Tracy really likes holidays!  We had turkey, stuffing, and some great pies

12-23 Hiking @ Los Nevados

Since my climbing plans were aborted for today, Tracy and I went on a late afternoon hike.  We left on foot from her house and headed up the hill.  It's such beautiful country!  We did a nice 4.5 hour hike.

Dia 16 Pucon

Volcan Villarica dominates the landscape in Pucon

Dia 15: Hacia Pucon

I set my alarm for the wrong time and almost missed the bus to Pucon!  The bus ride is supposedly 4 hours, but most of that time is spent crossing the border.  I did manage to get all my climbing food across into Chile.

The hardest part of the day was driving past el Volcan Lanin.  It is the highest point in the area and straddles the border between Argentina and Chile.  It is so large at 3776 meters, that it occupied much of the landscape during the drive.  Hence, my eyes were peeled on the window.  It is generally done as a 2-day climb because it is hard to get there early enough to do it in one as it is over 8000' of elevation gain.  Nonetheless, because it is there, I must go back and climb it.

Once the bus crossed the border and descended to the Chilean side, things were much lusher and greener.  It has a completely different look and feel than the rain-shadowed eastern side.  The bus driver was kind enough to drop me off at the base of Tracy's road which is 20 min from Pucon.  Problem was that the bus was one hour late, hence Tracy wasn't there to drive me the 4km up the gravel road. After waiting 5 min, I decided to start hoofing it.  It was tricky wheeling my luggage over the rocky road, but I chocked it up to a training opportunity.  I was about to change into shorts and hide my duffel in the bushes when Lance, Tracy's husband showed up.

Dia 14: Ruta de Siete Lagos

Today I left Bariloche and headed northward to catch the bus to Pucon.  As luck would have it, Dick was planing to go fishing near Junin de los Andes, so I was spared the bus for that leg of the 2-day journey.  Plus Dick indulged me by taking the scenic route called Ruta de Siete Lagos.  The drive was beautiful and went through the touristy, well-manicured towns of Villa la Angostura and San Martin de los Andes.


We spent the night in Junin, which resembles an old western town.  It was hot, dry, and dusty.  Surprisingly, it is the fly-fishing capital of the Andes which is evidenced by the trout-shaped street signs.  The second photo is of a Auraucaria Tree (Monkey Puzzle tree) decorated with xmas lights and ornaments.

Dia 13 Bonita Chica Circuit

Despite the rain and high winds (gusts upwards of 35 mph), I decided to rent a bike and ride the Bonita Chica circuit.  It was 53 km, hilly, and about half on gravel road.  Seemed like a good thing to do in crappy weather, but I swear I was pedaling hard to go down hill with a head wind.

Now I'm packing up my stuff.  I head off to Junin de los Andes in the morning.

Dia 12 Floating el Rio Limay

Nothing too eventful today.  Mainly I did errands and laundry and bought bus tickets to Pucon.  In the afternoon, we decided to test out Dick's new boat with a quick float down the Limay River.  It was really pretty with the Andes as a back drop, but windy and cold.  I even got a rowing lesson!

Dia 11 Frey

This has been my best day so far!  I had my 3rd and final Spanish class with Annie.  The classes have helped a ton and I feel like I can communicate much better and faster already!  So here is a shameless plug for their school- Spanish Immersion Patagonia.  If you ever find yourself in Bariloche, look them up!  Plus they are super nice.  Carina was kind enough to call the bus station to help me purchase bus tickets to San Martin and Pucon.

After class, I changed, packed a sandwich and some gorp, and caught the bus to Catedral.  From Catedral, I hiked up to El Refugio Frey.  I put in at 2:00 and was worried that I would not make it up and back the 10.5 km and 700m by nightfall. To my surprise I made it up in 2:45 (no stopping), back in 2:00 hrs.  I orginally wanted to take the teleferico up and traverse the ridge down to Frey, but decided to take the hike instead because of lingering late season snow and lots of wind plus the fact that I am solo.

The hike was really beautiful and the area around the refugio is absolutely stunning.  I hardly saw anyone on the trail and was surprised to see 12-15 people inside the refugio.  The people were super cool- finally I encountered my kind of people! I wished I had brought stuff to spend the night.  For my Alaska friends, this is when I started to think about the "bife de chorizo" in my favorite Parilla (the Bear Tooth of Bariloche), and started to haul ass down.  Lucky for me, I made the hourly bus with 30 sec to spare!

Dia 10

Carina picked me up at 8:45 a.m. for my 2nd Spanish lesson.  I had 1 on 1 lessons with both Carina and Annie.   On the way to class I learned a new Spanish phrase "lomo del burro" which literally means back of the burro or in English, speed bump.  What a great word!  However, it was almost an omen because after class, my day went down hill in a hurry.  Lomos del Burro everywhere. 

Dia 9 Spanish class and sportclimbing

Today I had my first Spanish class with Carina. She and her partner, Annie, started a school here called Spanish Immersion Patagonia. The one on one attention seems to be improving my Spanish a lot. I have not taken or practiced my espanol in over 20 years. It has been frustrating because I know I learned this stuff, but can't remember it. Nonetheless, a lot of it seems to be coming back quickly.

I siesta-ed at Gene's house and did my homework (yes, homework!) in his back yard. Afterwards I went sport climbing with Esteban at Granito Suiza (see pic). It was humbling since I haven't sport climbed in years, but at the same time fun. It was a pretty little crag near Jakob.

When we returned around 9:00ish, Dick had already grilled u some steaks and had dinner on the table! Not a bad day!

Dia 7 going backwards

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to workout no matter how hard you try? Today was one of them. That's not to say that I didn't have fun or that a not-so-good day in Bariloche doesn't beat my best day in the office.

Dick and I drove into town with a huge shopping list and we were moderately successful except for buying the wrong lightbulbs. Afterwards we went home to put away groceries, eat lunch and siesta. We went back to town with a large agenda and could not find the items on our list for various reasons after 2 hours. When we returned to the car, the battery was dead. After a quick rescue from gene and $220 for a new battery, we were up and running.

Later we had a mini asado (BBQ). After a couple glasses of vino, we decided it was a good idea to go see the meteor shower and drove away from Bariloche. Despite best efforts again, we were unable to see them. On the plus side, I saw the southern cross for the first time.

Dia 8 Pichi Lefue

As luck would have it, I've been hanging out with two avid fishermen - Dick and Gene. Today they took me with them to fish the Puchi LeFue in the pampas. For those of you in AK who think it's crazy that I would use a rod and reel instead of a big net, don't worry; I went hiking while they fished. It was a beautiful area that reminded me of eastern WA near Yakima. It was hilly, shrub steppe type habitat with really interesting rock formations of all types and colors. I followed game trails thru the prickly brush to avoid stickers. It was actually better than American desert because there are few to no snakes! There was no shade, so despite best efforts, I got a little too much sun. By the end of the day I looked like a British tourist in the African subcontinent because I was wearing a off white long sleeve button down, pants and my dorky sun hat. Galen if youre reading this, I love the glacier shirt!

On the way out, we checked out an Indian cave with hieroglyphics. Also on the drive home there is a lake with flamingos. Esteban invited me over for dinner, which was very nice except I forgot to mention my passion for carne and had a vegetarian dinner. His place overlooks the lake, so there are good views.

Dia 6 Hiking near Colonia Suiza

 This place has a real Vancouver feel to it.

 Esteban on the hike up

 Near refugio; looks like winter in Alaska

 Esteban near Lengua tree

Llao llao fungus.  Pronounced Shao shao.  these are eaten by the local indians.

Text to be updated later

Dias 4-5

On Friday, I flew to Bariloche in a full blown storm.  On the plus side, I met a good friend of Ralph's from Jackson Hole who offered to put me up.  Such good fortune.  I am really lucky to have such a great place to stay, such a nice host, and to be spared the party hostel experience.  It feels so good to be out of the city.  I don't know whether it's the environment or the people here in Bariloche, but it somehow feels less foreign. This area is stunning.  There is pide in Bariloche- houses and gardens are extremely well kept.  Although touristy, this town has a really nice vibe.  I can't wait to get out into the mountains which are still invisible.  I'm in Patagonia at last!

Picture is of a bandelero.

Dia 3

Today I had a rough start.  After waiting in line at Citibank for 30 minutes, they told me that they would only give me change if I was a customer. Then I could not find the Apple store to buy a new protector for the iPhone.  I took the Subte to the Palermo, but it was windy and drizzly.  I wasn't really up for exploring, so I walked all the way back to Recoleta along the parks.  I stopped at the Museum of Modern Art and saw a really bizarre exhibit by Marta Munin (sp?).  Near the museum is the floralis generalis (see pic); it's a neat public art installation and the petals close up at night. I also went to one of the Lonely Planet recommended restaurants for a late lunch and ended up sitting with an American.  It felt good to speak English and not work so hard to communicate.  The empanadas were awesome.  I spent the remainder of the afternoon in the plaza reading once the weather cleared.  In the evening, I went downtown with a dutch guy, Nils, who was staying in the hostel across the street.  We went to a very disappointing touristy parilla.  The only good part was that it was also a tango museum of sorts.

At dinner I learned that there is such a thing as pork t-bone.  Guess I will have to wait another day to try real argentine steak.

Dia 2

Today I awoke groggy.  It took me a long time to get on step.  I took the "Subte" to San Telmo and walked around the cobble streets of this old section of Buenos Aires.  There were lots of art galleries and artists selling their wares in the plaza.  Feeling overwhelmed by the heat and the city, I made my way back to the Plaza in Recoleta where I find the large open green spaces calming.  I originally intended to go to an art museum to escape the heat, but it was closed.  Evidently, this is some big christian holiday.  The plaza had a large feria artesenal that I wandered through.  It was so hard not to buy anything.  I am now coming to terms with the fact that I have a leather fetish.  I love the handmade purses, belts, and shoes.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon watching street performers in the shade- capoiera, tango. 

Dia 1: Buenos Aires

After a sleepless redeye owing to turbulence and screaming babies, I arrived in Buenos Aires. My cab driver practiced Spanish with me politely and patiently during the 45 minute drive to the hostel. Háče mucho calor aqui! Even with a brief stop in south Florida to acclimatize, I had difficulty tolerating the heat. I spent most of the day in a sleep-deprived, foreign city induced state of confusion. Nonetheless, I managed to see some of the sites.

The Recoleta cemetery was amazing (first attempt as using a superlative)and much much more than I expected. There was a Menora (see pic) in the plaza erected by Jabad (note the spelling). I walked the 16 blocks back there at dusk to see if they would have a candle lighting ceremony, but I thing the lights are on a timer. The plaza itself was welcome respite from the bustle of the city and I enjoyed it both times.

In the early afternoon I attempted the subway. It costs 1,10 pesos or about 0.35 cents. I somehow ended up in the business district during rush hour and enjoyed watching lots of people in suits scurrying. In my wanderings I somehow ended up on calle Florida which is extremely touristy and very busy pedestrian access street with lots of street vendors selling scarves, sandals, belts and other assorted things. I now know where I will be buying presents on my return voyage.

I had a great dinner at Cumana which was recommended by SaraEllen and Lonely Planet. For apps, dinner, and wine it cost about $15. Maybe I should move here so I never have to cook again.