Torres del Paine

Unreal! Unbelievable! Wow! Amazing! Geezgolly! OH MY GOSH!!!! YAY! SUPER DUP... *stop*

This place is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have seen on this trip. There is something about Machupichu and all the energy you feel when you are there that makes it more magical than this but the experience we had in Torres del Paine was undescribeable. We did the "W" tour in four days which is quite a hard trekk on the amount of supplies we had and considering the distances we traveled, 120km in four days, with our big bags, going up and down the hills in a constant battle with yourself to push and keep pushing until the end of the day when you can sit in your sleeping bag and have that dry sandwich that somehow tastes like heaven.

The colors of this place, the size of the mountains, the ruggedness of the trekk, the idea of two young brothas trying to make it to the next camping spot without getting stuck. But this is park is not meant to be seen only by hardcore athletes like us. No. This can be seen at a leisurely pace for the older people we just wanted to do it in four days and stay at all the free places available. Because we had a limited budget and that services in the park were very expensive, $2 for a tea, we brought everything we consumed and only stayed in the places to camp that did not charge money to camp. You can also stay in a nice room in some hostels, leave your bags in the room, and go for a hike to see the park. This was not how we traveled though. We pushed and pushed from one place to the next and were able to see what most people see for a limited amount of money in a short period of time.

It was a great experience for us two "youts" as we both were able to enjoy the park, get a ton of exercise and bring the two of us even closer. After you go through such a challenge with another person you begin to find out what makes the other person tick and what makes you tick as well. You are both faced with the same challenge and you push each other and help each other to get through it. I think I make it sound like a horror story we went through. It was great, just rough at parts, but still amazingly beautiful with heavenly pictures everywhere we looked.

I highly recommend people to go see Torres del Paine at your pace. It is worth the trip all the way down south. We almost killed each other at the end of the trip but we made it and now we are better for it. is joke i make joke! we are not any better...

Saludos desde Mar del Plata. Os quero mucho,

-Ricardo

TREN AL SUUUUUURRR

The title is a song by Los Prisoneros a rock group from the 80s de Chile. Clasico!

From Bariloche Nicolson and I went to Puerto Montt and the next day to Chiloe. Chiloe was absolutely beautiful, and our experience even better. We got to Castro, the main city on the island, and went looking for a cheap place to sleep. After a few consultations we decided to split forces Nicolai would stay and take hold over the bags and I would go and ask more hostals in the area. And so I did and found a really nice one by the water for a really good price too. On the way back I quickly stopped by to get a type of empanada typical de chiloe: milaco, milcao, maicalo, ... no me acuerdo, but it´s a potato bread stuffed with pork and it is absolute deliciosness.

I arrived back to Nicolson´s spot and found him talking with Crisitian "el cofla" our new found friend. He was offering us a place to stay in his friend´s house a lawyer in the city for free! How and when do you begin to trust a person? By their looks? By their conversation? We did and were lucky that he was not a thief and really did let us stay in his friends house who gave us shelter, food, drinks, and good fun. His friend was indeed a lawyer from Santiago working in Chiloe. He had many friends in Castro from Santiago living and working in Chiloe who actually liked it better in the south than in the city. Luis was Cristian´s friend and he was quite nice.

Luis´s friends took us to a festival typical of Chiloe the next day where we saw customs from Chiloe like moving a house with bulls, typical music de Chile, and typical food from Chiloe. Nick and I each had a curanto... what a mistake that was. This massive gigantic dish can stuff almost stuff a small army. It is a pile of seafood, meat, milcao, more seafood, more meat, and more milcao and all of the food is cooked in a whole in the ground with rocks that have been heated up in a fire beforehand. Delicious! Please see the pictures when they come.

After Chiloe we headed even farther south. We took a 33 HOUR-BUS-RIDE from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas. From Punta Arenas we took a bus to Puerto Natales where we headed farther up to Torres del Paine. Next one we talk more about it. CIAO!

-r

Border crossing in the SOUTH!

Hello everyone on our bandwagon of adventures and escapades!

We crossed the Argentina-Chile border down near Puerto Montt yestday and our heading our way down south to Chiloe (birthplace of my dear friend Joseph Perloff) and onward to the legendarily beautiful park of Torres del Paine! Everything is green here and mountains flank us on all sides as well as lakes (the area is the lake district!) So anyone that reads this in Seattle, know that I am know in the second Washington with similiar color and freshness that surrounds that fair city.

We met three hombres de EEUU (USA) in Salta up in the north of Argentina and again as we were leaving Mendoza for Bariloche in the south. As we all sat in a transitionary city bus station in the south the three lads opened up their guitar cases and gave us a run down of songs that Jerry Garcia and David Grisman would be proud to have heard. Since Ricardo and I purchased a guitar back in La Paz we´ve been trying to learn various songs by ear (which I have to say Ricardo has been picking up in rapid pace!) The lads gave us good tips on how to grapple with chords and learn recently practiced songs in new ways. If you´re reading this pops: do you know the chords for the planxty song you always used to play? Send them to me if you get the chance! Oh and play your guitar while you´re at it! it´s probably up for a new stringing!

All three of the traveling trio go to Colorado college with is a school that has one class for 3 weeks straight every day, pretty intersting learning style. One of the guys went to Sierra Leone for a 3 week stint with this class and studied the societal structures in the post war era country.

In Bariloche, we attended a local bar called Che Papa with a local from our hostal. Wall to wall pictures of Che Guevara (photos and artist renditions as well) made for an amazing collage. Later that night seemingly on a whim the owner pulled out his saxaphone and another attendee picked up a guitar and began to play heartfelt, passionate songs of Buena Vista Social Club (traditional cuban music for whoever doesn´t know, go listen if you´ve never heard it!). The guitarist´s voice was flawless and the addition of the sax gave these old songs a new body. The rest of us picked up any instruments we could find or simply our hands and joined in. Hopefully we´ll find more spontaneous acts of music further on our travels. (I made a video of one of the songs so our next project will be to add a video section to the blog! Stay tuned!)
Right now Ricardo and I are feeling a little of the pressure of time and so we´re not stopping at a local farm around Puerto Montt to work for a few days in order to reach parks in the south and Tierra del Fuego for hiking and camping.

Hope all are well and if you can let us know about news in your respective areas we will devour every word!
Cheers!
Nick and Ric

Border Crossing!!

So I just want to say that we crossed the border from Bolivia into Argentina yesterday so we are freewheelin in a brand new country!! Brand new couldn´t be a truer phrase: roads, towns, cars, stores, food, hostals, etc. are all much more developed than in Bolivia. We enjoyed are 2 weeks in Bolivia with heavy bus travel from north to south (except for 2 trains in the south, love that smooth travel!). For 4 days we stayed in La Paz where we: got altitude sickness (I fainted, something I´ve never done in my life), bought everything we ever wanted (a guitar, a futbol, futbol jerseys from around the world, speakers for our ipods, and goodies for folks back home!), hung out with friends, and met the vice president of Bolivia ÁLVARO MARCELO GARCÍA LINERA who is a friend of our gracious hosts: Joel, Dora, Magali, and Nicole Bransky.
Afterwards we headed to Lake Titicaca where we swam (muy frio!) climbed rocks, and hiked for 7 hours. We caught a row boat through high waves finally reaching isla del sol where there was no dock. I learned to make some necklace and bracelet designs which I plan to use to create an item out of the aligator teeth I took from Bolivia. We met amazing people from all across the globe as well as right next door.

After lake titicaca we headed south of La Paz by train to Uyuni where we entered the Salar de Uyuni which is a salt desert the size of lake titicaca (imagine being in a desert where instead of sand every single kernal you see is made of salt). We stayed for one amazing sunseted swept night and finally made our way down to the Bolivia-Argentina border at 2:30 am on the train. Nothing but desert and cactus for miles on both sides of the border and after 9 hours on the bus (1 hour to navigate along a highway that had burst open with mud, rainwater, and rocks after a heavy thunderstorm, we thought we were in safe developed Argentina!) we arrived in the city of Salta where we are right now. Tonight we head for Cordoba on a 12 hour bus and then try to make our way down to Mendoza over the weekend!
We wish everybody love and hope you enjoy our Traveling Tricks!
Nic and Ric

NEW PICS!

HEY EVERYBODY!

There´s new pictures on our shutterfly link! We´ve been at a house in La Paz for the past 4 days so we´ve been taking advantage of the computer and the insane amount of time that shutterfly needs to download pictures. So now there are pictures up all the way up until the last city we were in. Lima, Valle de Colca, Cusco, Machu Picchu, hangin out with awesome kids in different countries, Brazil, long bus rides in Bolivia, animals of the Bolivian jungle (monkeys, tropical birds, alligators, and anacondas oh my!) Enjoy!

WHOA! we need to catch up

So, sorry about the last message being a little crazy in the order of events. I didn´t notice on the blog that the last entry was in Chile!

So we did spend two weeks in Peru after flying from Santiago to Lima on October 15th. we spent about 4 days in Lima. Then we headed to Arequipa on 14 hour bus ride south to visit with Ricardo´s dad and see the Colca Valley which has condors and a 4000 meter altitude. 3 days later we were off to Cuzco where we stayed with Ricardo´s best friend, Narda´s family. We bought a program for a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu. Then we went to Puerto Maldonado in Northeast Peru in the jungle where we stayed for a night and then headed north to Brazil! We stayed with a Brazilian family who were living in Bolivia and then headed to Riberalta the next day where we are right now in Norther eastern Bolivia. In 45 min we head on another 12 hour bus south where we will be camping in a national park (Shout out to Charles Howard- Mckinney!). Hope all is well and there should be new pics up in 4 days! Love, Nick and Ric

Change of Plans!

So initially we were going to go to the Amazon in Peru but seeing as we want to spend a good 2 weeks in Bolivia we´ve decided to head up to Brazil! Makes sense right? Well we*re heading up there and then down to Bolivia! Just thought I'd send a quick note! All is well and extremely hot in Puerto Maldonado! Nick