Puerto Natales, Chile

After a one night stay in El Calafate, we boarded a bus for a 5 hour trip to Puerto Natales, Chile. El Calafate and Puerto Natales are towns considered to be in “Patagonia,” which are southern provinces in both Argentina and Chile. Since we were crossing the border from one Patagonia to another, we had to make our way through customs in both countries, which was rather uneventful -- at least on the way into Chile.

So, our Patagonian bus ride was pretty amazing, somewhat magical in fact. I felt like we had just made a lunar landing -- the countryside was dry, vast, nearly-treeless for most of the trip, but full of giant creatures whose presence in such a landscape seemed surreal. First, there were the guanacos, large relatives of the llama and alpaca. How these large omnivores live in a place void of any real vegetation is a mystery. Of course, I did see some dried up carcasses far from the road, rib bones bleached pearly white by the hot sun, and realized that the environment can even bring the hearty guanacos to their knees.

Aside from the guanacos, there are the rheas, large birds in the ostrich family. Very cool to see such large birds running wild in this moonscape. Eventually, the landscape sprouted trees, and the vegetation became greener, signaling the ground received more water on the Chilean side.

After a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived in the lovely town of Puerto Natales, the stop before Torres del Paine National Park. Jenny and I came to realize that the bus companies are in cahoots with businesses in El Calafate and Puerto Natales: the bus schedules make it impossible to get from El Calafate in Argentina to the park entrance in Chile in one day, though the entire trip would be a mere 7 hours. Instead, one has to spend the night in El Calafate, take a bus the next day to Puerto Natales in Chile, spend the night in Puerto Natales, and finally get on another bus to the park. This same fate will befall the unsuspecting traveler upon their return from the park: another night in Puerto Natales followed by a second night in El Calafate. Despite this fact, never shall I utter a complaint about spending more than one night in the lovely, quaint, end-of-the-world town of Puerto Natales. The town is surrounded on three sides by saltwater and farther in the distance, scenic, snow-capped mountains. There is a boardwalk along the waterfront where a birder can enjoy shorebirds and a photographer can snap some beautiful pictures. And, of course, the food is phenomenal. Patagonia is a big sheep herding area, so it’s no surprise that I feasted on the best lamb of my life in this little town.

The only challenging thing about Puerto Natales was trying to figure out the monetary system. We came from Argentina, where 1 US dollar is equivalent to 3.4 Argentine pesos. In Chile, they work in thousands, so one US dollar was equivalent to 615 Chilean pesos, while 5 US dollars are over 3000 Chilean pesos. Of course, we came from Argentina, so 1 Argentine peso equals 177 Chilean pesos. Yes, it was a bit of a mess, and Jenny astutely pointed out that “we should have bought that little calculator on the first day,” referring to a small, cheap calculator that a street boy tried to sell us in Mendoza. Note to self: buy the calculator when you decide to travel in and out of 4 countries in 2 weeks.

Now, some pictures of my favorite little Patagonian town:


Chile welcomes us.


A photo of a building showing our latitudinal coordinates.


Photo of a beautiful, but fire-gutted lighthouse.


We didn't get any good photos of live guanacos and rheas, so these murals will have to do. The first picture shows the guanacos and rheas, the second photo depicts a native hunting guanacos after horses were introduced by the Spanish, and the last photo shows me doing a spirit dance with the natives.




Statue of a Giant sloth, which apparently roamed these parts years ago along with the Sabre-toothed tiger.



First is a photo of the local skate park and BMX kids followed by a picture of me watching the little punks on their bikes.



Two pictures of cormorants on an old pier followed by a photo of me birding on the boardwalk.





Rocks and reeds. Can you smell the ocean?


Me sitting on a giant thumb. I can't remember the artist who did this, but he also did a similar hand in Uruguay, which I will post in a later entry.



A woman taking out the trash in Puerto Natales -- the fireman has the trash bin on his back.


The church across from the main plaza followed by a photo of a side street.


Me kissing Darwin.


Jenny was extremely embarrassed of her white shoes that scream "I'm a gringo." I was obliged to digitally document the moment.


Jenny after changing her shoes.



Rubbing elbows with my kind -- last night's dinner being distributed to street dogs.

Passing through El Calafate, Argentina

After two days in Mendoza, we flew to El Calafate, a town in the far south of Argentina. I won’t spend much time on El Calafate as the town serves more as a “jumping off point” for other places rather than a destination in-and-of-itself, but I figured I’d post a few pictures since we had to pass through this town on the way to and from Paine National Park.

El Calafate is named after a purplish-blue berry from the area which makes a delicious jam and an even better gelato! Here are some rather uninspiring photos from El Calafate.

A picture of what appears to be a dead calafate bush.

Me eating Tit's "the flavor of Patagonia" ice cream! ((This is when you want to tell them not to name their business "Tit," but then the English-speakers would miss great photo ops)). The flavor of my tit's: calafate.



Next, two pictures of the town and surrounding mountains.



A cute photo of Jenny getting ready to leave El Calafate on a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile.

Wheelchairs and wine in Mendoza

Jenny and I met at the Miami airport on 4 January, 2009 and headed south to Argentina. Here I must digress. While trying to walk to the gate to meet Jenny (she was coming from California and I was already in Florida), I had some sort of random leg / knee problem requiring me to get carted around in a wheelchair for the first time ever. One might think that a wheelchair is easy to come by in an airport, but apparently you must request one in advance, and if you haven’t, well, there’s no such thing as “my leg just suddenly started hurting and I can’t walk on it.” In fact, one attendant asked me if I was really in enough pain to actually require a wheelchair. (!). Finally, after nearly 30 minutes of waiting by the first class check-in desk (and being told by one employee that I needed to check in with my “appropriate class” – do I really look that dirty?!), I finally got a wheelchair dude to take me to my gate.

Thus, one wheelchair ride later, Jenny and I flew to Argentina and arrived on the afternoon of the 5 January. We spent our first two days in Mendoza at the base of the Andes Mountains. Mendoza is the wine province of Argentina, so we made a point to go wine tasting. I’m a fan of the “tinto” wines (the reds), and in Mendoza, the most famous tintos are the Malbecs. Some pictures from our wine tasting expoits:

First, proof that we have indeed arrived in Argentina.

Next, the wine adventures begin. Jenny walking amongst the barrels of booze, me guzzling -- I didn't know we were supposed to sip -- and a photo I took of the winemen at work.

Wine bottles, a buzzed Kimberly leaving the winery, but not before skipping the bottle and going right for the barrel.

That evening, we continued our wine tasting at a local venue.

Map of Southern South America

Let's start with some geography before I dive into my January travels with Jenny. Below is a map of southern South America (hint, you should be able to enlarge the map by clicking on it).

The Andes Mountains run along the border between Chile, to the west of the mountains, and Argentina to the east. My "home base" for the next several months is Mendoza, which lies at the base of the eastern slope of the Andes in Argentina falling roughly between Santiago (the capital of Chile) and Buenos Aires (the capital of Argentina). You can see Mendoza on the map. In the very far south of mainland Argentina, you can see the town of El Calafate. Jenny and I visited El Calafate on our way to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Paine National Park is marked by a triangle at the southern end of Chile. Finally, going back up north to Buenos Aires, Jenny and I got on a ferry that took us to Uruguay for some beach time. In the next several posts I talk about our trip to all of these amazing spots. Enjoy!

Florida for the holidays

Mom and Pop were kind enough to host me for 2 weeks at their "every day is Saturday" home in Florida. Ah, retirement: lots of sun, lots of margaritas, lots of laughs. The following are a few photos from my time in Florida. The first is a photo of Pop's pair of Sandhill cranes. They arrive daily to feed in the backyard. Next, a picture of Pop hiking in the nature reserve. Finally, a photo of mom and me before dinner at the club.

Thanksgiving in the Northwest

So, my southbound summer included a brief cold spell when I headed north to Seattle in mid-November. Five weeks and a few misadventures later, I had to say chau to my outlaw and I moved on to Florida to spend the holidays with mom and pop. But first, some photos from my trip with Jesse to Trout Creek in Oregon. The first is Jesse reading the guidebook -- gotta love those white socks --, the next is a photo of the wall of crack climbing I couldn't manage, and lastly, a photo of us.





The next two pictures are from dusk at Smith Rock in Oregon. The rock, followed by a wise youngster.