South America '07

Well I finished up school on the 13th and flew down to Patagonia the next morning for a week of hiking in Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. Things worked out great because Aldo and Paola from the exchange program wanted to go and we had about the same schedule. We decided to do the pretty standard ¨W¨ hike that highlites most of the more famous parts of the park.

We started hiking together on Sunday into the first part of the W; a hike into a valley that allows you to reach the 3 towers from which the park gets its name.

Lots of waterfalls and stuff like that so my Dad would love it. This one´s for you:

Lots of colorful flowers too and since purple is your color Mom, I thought you would like this one:

While I´m at it I´ll throw in some horses for you too. You can rent them and ride all around the park.

It was about a 3 hour hike into the valley before we came to the rock field that you have to climb to get ot the mirador. About an hour later after scrambling up and over boulders we reached this incredible place.

These are the towers that seem to be shown in all of the guidebooks and brochures. We got lucky and had a clear shot at them and the emerald green lake below for a couple of hours before heading back. Not bad for our first day; we all felt pretty good and the weather was awesome.

One of the cool things about this park is that you can drink the water straight from the streams that run down the mountains. It tastes awesome and it means that you don´t have to carry a ton with you.

The entire time we stayed in Refugios which are basically hostels or a kind of rustic hotel. We didn´t feel like carrying all of the gear needed for camping. This turned out to be a good thing I think because we barely lasted the week as it was.

The second day was going to be our longest so we headed out early and walked along Lago Nordenskjold for about 11km before leaving our backpacks at the refugio there and continuing.

Before this trip I thought that people from Italy were supposed to have good fashion sense. The thing is that Andy and I have witnessed fashion disasters on many occasions on this trip and it seems like it is always an Italian. If you read Andy´s blog you saw this train-wreck. Italian.

Here´s another one for you. Aldo has those nice pants where you can zip off the legs and turn them into shorts. Aldo, you need to take the legs off man. Italiano.

So then Paola decides that the coyote fur attachment thing on her jacket is taking up too much space and made me carry it for a while. Italiana.

I feel fortunate that I didn´t get attacked from behind by a Puma or a member of PETA.

Another pic of Lago Nord...

So we left our backpacks at the Cuernos refugio and headed up into the Valle Frances. We were determined to make it all of the way up and back before sunset because a guide heard us talking in the morning and told us that we would never make it. It was a 37 km day but we figured we could do it.

The first stop in the Valle was this mountain with glaciers on each side. As the sun came out they were melting and falling off of the mountain. The sounds were incredible and were like a combination of a thunderstorm and fireworks.

Once we got to the top we were all about dead but very happy to make it. The mirador was in the middle of a valley with huge peaks on all sides.

It was cold so Paola needed the Coyote attachment back.

After the hike back we were all exhausted. I think it took us about 13 hours to cover the full distance but it was worth it to head back into the refugio and see the guide there with a puzzled look on her face. That´s another cool thing about the park. It is so far south that in the summer there is daylight until about 10:30 so you can hike for as long as your legs will take you.

The next day was a short one. Just a 5 hour hike to refugio Paine Grande on Lago Pehoé. I don´t think we could have done much more because we were still wrecked from the day before.

The moon was bright that night so I fooled around with my camera and tried to take pics in the dark.

The next day was going to be our last in the park so we got up about 5AM and headed out to see the glacier on lago grey. About an hour into our hike the sun came up and the views were awesome.

At about 8 or so we got to glacier grey, had a bit to eat and soaked in the views. I have never seen a glacier before this trip and this one was huge so it was a pretty awesome sight for me.

Huge chunks of ice break off and float away and accumulate at the other side of the lake because the wind is pretty strong.

We got back to Lago Pehoé in time for the ferry that takes you out of the park and got to snap a couple of last shots. All in all a hell of a great week. Lots of awesome sights and I think we did over 100km of hiking.

After getting back into town Aldo, Paola and I split up to continue with our trips separately. Definitely tough to say goodbye; they are great friends and we had a lot of fun over the last few months!

I continued down to Punta Arenas and had a day before my flight back to Santiago so I had to go visit the Penguins. What can I say, I really like them and there are about 120,000 living on an island across the Straight of Magellan. So I took a boat out there and had a look.

This post is way to long as it is and there is not really much to say about the penguins. There were a lot of them and they were funny to watch.

You lookin´at me?

I am in Quito, Ecuador right now and in about 3 hours I will be heading back to the States. So I guess that is about it; fun trip and lots of great experiences. I got my grades a couple of days ago and I got the same average as I did at OSU. So I guess that means that I graduate and now I have to start looking for a new job. hmmm.

In about an hour I am going to take what I hope to be my last exam ever. Last week was the final week of classes for me and everything went pretty well. I had to give a presentation in each of my classes and nobody laughed at me so I think I did ok and didn´t offend anyone with my Spanish. This week was just exams though so I have had a lot of time to prepare for my trip to Patagonia which starts tomorrow. I should have been studying but my exams were all open book so no big problems there.

Also Monika, Brigette and I decided to check out Cajon Del Maipo last weekend which turned out to be a big surprise. When we got there we were blown away by the scenery and the fact that it is so close to Santiago. We decided to have a go at camping so Brigitte could get ready for her trip through Torres Del Paine in a tent. I am going to the same places as her but not going to camp because it seems like a bad idea. It is constantly near freezing at night and the wind and rain during the day make camping seem pretty useless.

So anyway, we started the three hour hike to the glacier and here is the view as we made our way up.

The view backward to this mountain was pretty cool too. Someone told us that it was formed during a huge volcanic eruption and the yellow color is from all of the minerals.

After a short hike to within 2km of the peak we stopped and camped next to an alpine lake. I kept my fingers crossed because I bought the tent at a hardware store for $20. It didn´t let us down though even when the wind kicked up. I think there were a total of about 20 people in the valley and most camped near us in a group. It was a pretty cool place actually, some people had music going and we met some local eco-tourism guides that told us a lot about the place.

In the morning we got up and headed further up the trail to the glacier.

I had never seen a glacier up close and this one was pretty cool. There were two or three underground rivers coming out from unerneath it and there were rocks sliding down everywhere. But one side was pretty safe and we got up close and took a picture from inside one of the tubes where the water was coming out.

It was really cool to find a place like this so close to the city. I think if I lived here permanently I would be going out that way pretty often.

I talked to Andy yesterday and he made it home from Argentina safely. It was strange to talk about the end of the trip but it is definitely here. I fly down south tomorrow and then home for christmas on the 23rd. But I think I am ready to be home so the timing is about right. I think the next update will be from home so... I hope everyone has a great Christmas and I will probably get to see most of you soon.

Last week was pretty cool because Drew and Heidi came to visit all the way from Ohio. It has been pretty nice on this trip when I have been able to see familiar faces and the timing was good this time because it was Thanksgiving.

They got in on Saturday and I showed them around Santiago for a while but we were pretty anxious to get out of the city. So Sunday we headed down to Pucon in the lakes district to get into some outdoor adventures. Pucon is a cool town with just about every outdoor sport imaginable. It’s located in an area full of active volcanos, lakes, rivers and national parks.

We decided to head out to the Huerquehue national park on Monday for a good hike into the mountains and forests. This is the view of Volcan Villarrica from the park.

We hiked for about 3 hours and got up past the snow line at 3500 feet and to some of the alpine lakes.

The next day we took it easy in the morning and went fishing in the afternoon on the river that runs by the town. I forgot how relaxing fishing can be.

We were trying to catch trout and perch and Heidi got the best of us guys. She got five or so, I got three and I think Drew was shut out. My biggest was this 30 pounder…

After about 4 hours on the river we got back to the lake in town in time to catch an awesome sunset.

It is a pretty popular thing with tourists to climb the volcano so Drew and I decided to give it a try. Heidi was the smart one and opted out for a horseback ride turned Spanish lesson. We decided to go with an outfitter who has snowboards for rent so we could get down in style after the hike. This involved carrying about 50lbs of stuff to the top which made it a bit harder. Most people slide down on their butts but we thought that it would be a shame to let all that snow and vertical go to waste. A pic of Drew before the big hike:

After all was said and done it took us about 5 hours of hiking to get to the top. Here is the view.

The inside of the crater was just kind of smoky and gray so the pictures didn’t turn out very well and we didn’t spend too much time up there because of the fumes. What we were really pumped about was the ride down though so we changed boots, strapped on the board and hit it. In total we rode 5000ft of vertical which was incredible because the most I have ever skied before was about 4500. The trip down was definitely the highlight. A couple of pics:

The next day was Thanksgiving and we felt a bit sore from the hike so we hit some hot springs; another thing that Pucon is known for. It is pretty cool what they did with this one; they built the pools right into the ravine that the river cut into the mountain.

After the springs we headed south towards Puerto Varas which is supposed to be the next Pucon. Lots of stuff to do there as well but we only had one night and a half day before we had to return to Santiago. So we got up early in the morning Friday and headed towards Volcan Osorno, another perfect snowcapped cone. The views were just as amazing there as in Pucon.

Drew missed them all.

So we drove on to Lago Todos Los Santos and went hiking for a couple of hours before heading to the airport. It was pretty funny, when we checked in at the park entrance there was a really friendly dog that followed us in. The ranger said he likes Gringos. So we hiked for a couple of hours and this dog never left our side.

A couple more pics from the area.

Drew and Heidi, thanks for making it all the way down here! I had a great time and I hope the same goes for you. I look forward to seeing everyone again when I get home in a few weeks. Only three more weeks of school, then its Patagonia for a week, then Ill go back to Minnesota for Christmas.

Last week I only had class on Tuesday so I went to Buenos Aires on Wednesday to check out the town and meet up with Andy. He was already in Argentina but was down in Patagonia so I was excited to see how it went. I´ll be headed down there after my classes finish in December.

I definitely liked the city a lot for a few reasons. The food was great, the nightlife was better than Santiago and the ¨gente¨ were beautiful. Everyone says that it is a lot like being in Europe and I guess thats pretty accurate. The thing is that it is more festive of an atmosphere and people seemed to be more laid back than in Europe. One of the things that was funny was the schedule everyone is on over there. It is pretty normal to hit dinner at about midnight, grab drinks afterwards and hit the dance clubs until the sun comes up. I have been in places where you can do this if you want to but never anywhere where it is the norm. We were eating a steak at 1AM when the hostess of our restaurant put out the sign for happy hour. 1-3AM half off drinks. Nice.

I am no expert on architecture but I think the buildings showed the heavy Italian influence that the city has.




I´m also not a big fan of art museums but I like sculptures and old stuff like this. A guy in the hostel told me that I should check out their national art museum and it was free so... I couldn´t understand the label that described what this was but I thought it was pretty cool.

I had been hoping to check out a fútbol match while I was in S. America and there is no better place than Buenos Aires for this. We got tickets to see River Plate vs. Independiente which was for first place in their national league. This stadium hosted the World cup in the 70´s.

The whole experience was pretty cool because it is all about keeping the peace. They have the visiting fans go in separately from the home fans by blocking off streets specially for them. Then when the game is over we had to sit there for 20 minutes until every last person was out of the visiting section. Then they waited another 10 minutes to allow them to escape. Finally like a half hour after the game ended we were allowed to leave.

These pictures are from the team´s website because I didn´t want to bring my camera to the game. I am not sure what I was expecting but everyone had made it out to be this harrowing experience. In the end there were no fights or riots or anything like that. I would say that the average OSU/Michigan game is far more like a war zone.

Definitely a cool experience but I have to say that it didn´t compare to a good college football game. I really don´t think anything can, and I am sad because I can´t go this year.

Its kind of sad to think of the end of my trip coming but it is not far off. Andy and I hung out for the last time on this trip too which is a bummer. He is going to hang out around there for a while and leave for the States on Dec 12 or so. It has been a an awesome trip though and we got to meet up and do some pretty cool stuff.

Now its back to studying and spanish classes.

Last weekend I had the chance to visit some national parks near Santiago and do some hiking. I met a cool Austrian girl named Brigitte in my spanish class who told me about a bunch of places near the city that I didn´t know of. We decided to head out for a couple of hours of hiking on Friday. It turned out to be a lot of fun and the scenery was pretty nice considering how close it is to the city.

The first place we checked out is called Rio Clarillo and its only about a half hour from the southern-most metro stop in Santiago.

After a few hours of hiking we came back to Santiago for a couple of beers and ran into this guy. One thing that kills me about the kids here is that the high-school dudes like to grow out their mustaches; I think it must be to look older.

So the next day we met up really early with some of Brigitte´s friends to head out to a park thats a couple of hours by bus from Santiago. It is called Parque National La Campana and it is a pretty cool place because there is a palm-tree forest. In order to get there we had to take a bus but that dropped us off atleast 20km from the entrance to the park so we had to try and hitch a ride with some locals. I expected my first South American hitchhiking story to involve trucks and chickens but a really nice old man in his brand new BMW picked us up and took us right there...

This is Brigitte; she was cracking me up because she kept calling my iPod a Ghetto-Blaster. I guess that is pretty standard vocabulary in Austria.

This bush/tree thing was pretty strange I thought... Also, it is really hard to see but Cerro Aconcagua is in the background. It is the America´s highest mountain at about 23,000 feet.

Mom, you would have loved it here; there were a few horses just walking free in the park and a few people riding too.

After about 8 hours of hiking we made it to the other side of the park and caught a bus home; completely exhausted. Definitely a good trip worth the effort though.

This week should be pretty cool becuase I only have class tomorrow then I am headed to Buenos Aires to meet up with Andy for a week. It will be my first time in Argentina and I am excited because I hear it is a lot of fun and a lot cheaper than Chile.