Lake Guiterrez trek

After our arrival in Bariloche and spending the night on the city beach in our mini tent, we needed some serious relaxing time.  I tell you it was a little stressful-worrisome-scary-cooold setting up our tent at midnight on some public beach where we were probably not allowed to camp in the first place... BUT we made it through the night, though the next morning we awoke and it was raining and we noticed a private beach sign do not enter (in espanol of course) we packed up camp faster then you could imagine.  We still werent sure at this point where we were headed, well we had some idea from a travellers blog we had previously, speaking of lake guiterrez! So.. we started walking and walking and walking, then we found cafe pueblo where we sat for probably an hour and a hour... flipping Mike Greens lucky coin he gave us trying to decide whether we should stay in Bariloche or head north to warmer weather.  Well, greeners coin said head north, but we questioned the coins ruling over our travels and ultimately decided to stay in Bariloche. 

         The next several hours were spent searching for 1) el supermercado 2) msr gas refill tank 3) numero 50 bus terminal y 4) a store with pots and possibly pans.  Thankfully by the grace of the all mighty...we found all of them! yay, actually I lied, we didnt get our MSR gas refilled, although we did find a store with the gas tanks but for some reason or another all of them were empty...hmmm...  but anywho we caught bus 50 and rode it about 20 minutes south of Bariloche, the bus dropped us off at a dirt in the middle of nowhere, nowhere being Nahuel Huapi National Park of San Carlos de Bariloche! The road sort of did a fork and we werent quite sure exactly which of the right or left to go, so me and my wonderful sense of direction chose the lefter route... which after a 2 km hike up a dirt road, lead us to the wonderful entrance of Nahuel Huapi national park, and so our actual trek began.  The andes es muuy bonita, and reminds me so much of hiking in the great northwest minus the butt loads of bamboo, soo bizzare there was so much bamboo everywhere which I was not expecting at all.  Dominic and I did about 8 km of hiking when we came to a sign that pointed us to "Frey" which was another 6 km or "Playa Munoz" only 800 meters away! yay! so we chose playa munoz, a) because it was a beach, hence the playa and b) we looked to where the Frey would take us and it was at the snowy top of the mountain, and camping in the snow didnt sound too appealing to either of us.  The 800 meters to playa munoz felt like it took forever, and it was steep downhill leg of the trip and by this time my legs were super wobbly... but we finally made it and it was oh so wonderful!! and we were the only people at this little oasis (though we didnt realize it was quite bigger then we thought).  We spent several days camping out and relaxing here, cooking our food over a campfire, we made several tasty meals mostly potatos and sausage and pasta and sausage (yes I ate argentinian sausage and it was super dank) and lots and lots of bread and cheese (side note to our parents, we have been living off bread and cheese this entire trip so were expecting mad tasty Christmas meals upon our return...heh.) Lake Guiterrez was amazing, though it seemed crazy to think that we were in the middle of the Andes mountains in Patagonia of Argentina. We spent alot of our time hiking around, collecting fire wood, building fires (mostly Dom) reading, and knitting, and it was oh so relaxing. though cold.  After several days when we figured we could go camp somewhere warmer we hit the trail yet again and headed back to Bariloche.  For some reason or another the hike back didnt take as long as it did to get to playa munoz, though the trail had become a mini river after a day of rain, and well I slipped on a mud patch and fell face first down into the massive mud puddle, mud my mouth, nose, hair, my entire foot black with mud, clothes covered in mud, and my arm somehow got caught and twisted under my bag and i couldnt move, so dom being the wonderful man that he is picked me up from my backpack.  It was quite horrible, and I hurt my foot pretty bad  (thats a prayer request for me right now!! healing in my foot so we can continue to hike and what not!! gracias!) But besides my fall we made it back to town safely otherwise.  That night we stayed at the backpackers hostel of bariloche and met-chilled with wonderful people from all over, drank some whiskey, dominic made me a yummy dinner and we hit the hay early.  At that point in time we were not to sure where we were headed next, we were thinking Santa Rosa, but Juan at the hostel referred to Santa Rosa as a "nasty littlte town" although I dont think its that little, we decided we would skip on Santa Rosa.  He did make a suggestion of Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast, we did some research and it sounded wonderful, supposedly there is alot of whale watching and penguins on the beaches! ... SO here we are, we hopped on a bus that day (an over night bus) and made it to Puerto Madryn! Were hoping to do some more camping on the beach here, catch some sights of whales and maybe even run into a penguin or two!! eeek. penguins! sweet haha. anywho I suppose I should cut myself off at this point! Chao Amigos!!

Backpacking Through Patagonia.

So we left the blueberry farm in search for something new and exciting, maybe hot springs maybe a beach somewhere, anywhere but that barn in puerto montt would do fine. We escaped in mid day lite and hopped a bus for Bariloche we were expecting an overnight bus ride into Argentina and in the morning we would plan what to do next... to our supprise the bus ride was shorter then anticipated, the bus driver woke us up at about 9 PM in bariloche with a couple ciggerettes, no cash, and no clue which way to start walking. After pacing around the empty bus terminal for about 20 min we decided to start hoofing it and quickly became hopefull when we saw lights near by the station... it looked like a safe place to camp for the night. As we got closer to the lights and barb wire fences we soon found out that a prison in a foriegn country is no place for two travelers to camp, so we picked up the pace and kept moving. We were not alone however, a couple of stray dogs kept us company untill we found a private beach down town where we decided to camp out until daylight when we could try and head to the mountains... the thought of being out of the barn and being on the road again let us sleep easy.

When it rains it pours...

Well, this farm hasn't turned out to be the greatest farm we hoped it be... Dominic and I are both ILL,  the owners have been harboring us away in thier partical board built barn, no heat, no lights, and rats or maybe even coons have come in and eaten our only good food!! Its hard to appreciate being here when we slave away all day on this farm, then are sent out into the freezing cold and dark barn after work. Agh. I and Dom, dont really feel like we have been ourselves, lately, well for the past 3 or so days, all we have been doing is bitchin and moanin, but I mean who wouldnt!! I cant deny that Puerto Montt is a beautiful city, and we have come to looove Paola the swiss girl! But this is our vacation trip and it seems so unfair to be miserable here at this farm, slaving away for a family who is treating us so horribly!!... and then Dominic arose this morning with a brilliant plan...                                                                                                                                                         so i woke up this morning and it was a little different then the past mornings i have woken up in the barn. it was cold, dark, wet, and i hawked up  loogies and blew my nose all over the place. but this is no different then any other morning in this hell hole, the only difference was i asked brit why the hell we are  staying here and we both were puzzled. the bottom line is were sick of bitchin and being sick and slaving ourselves away to inconsiderate people...SOO were planning an escape from this blueberry slave camp and going to find some hot springs in san martin de los andes... stay tuned.

ARGENTINA HERE WE COME!!

blueberries, the beach, chicai...Puerto Montt!!!

OMG.. we loooove it here, were on a  20 acre blueberry farm...i made that number up because it feels like 20 acres hehe, thats on the beach  with an amazing family and a girl from switzerland!  We have get fresh eggs, milk, bread, and cheese daily...not the cheese but we could if we ate enough of it I suppose...  Puerto Montt reminds us alot of home, North Bend that is, the climate and landscape is the exact same, which is a refreshing reminder of  how beautiful our home is...Im in a tower right now lookiing out at the Andes Mountains, and two huge volcanoes that lie in Patagonia. This place is beautiful and we are soo thankful to have found it on the woofing list.  omg. totes amazing. there is so much more I want to say but my  internet time is limited! So we will fill you in soon about the work we are doing here, plus our mini adventures... we are living in a barn though, it gets cold at night but waking up to the Andes and the Ocean  daily keeps my mind off that part heh. Chao Amigos !

Santiago!!

What an amazing city was Santiago, or so we thought for the 24 hours we  were there... We hadnt planned on stopping in Santiago but  little did we know last weekend was a holiday weekend and bus lines were sold out everywhere!  We stayed at a fricken sweet hostel, so many people from all over the world!!     We met some folks from Europe, the States, South Africa and South America...  we had arrived early Friday morning, checkin in and our room was yet to be ready so we decided to hit the ciitty!! Elvis had told us there was a huge statue of jesus... or so he thought... up on a hill over looking Santiago, after being on a bus for 34 hours...yes 34... we were totes for a hike... and this hike  ended up being wayy harder then i thought, I   got poison ivy, but Dominic  fixed it quick with some aloe vera! thank jesus for aloe vera, oh and the statue was definitly not jesus, it was a women... virgen Mary haha...oh Elvis!     



                                                                                    (Cut out brits Head in this one haha Sorry Brit)

We didnt spend much time at the top of the mountain, we were both mucho hambre ...aka very hungry ... so we set on foot for some good chilean food, after being sick of eating seriously chips, cookies and hamburgers for days.blah. We  stumbled upon a sweet little market area that was so far out of the tourist trap and ate at a shanky lookin place, but weve heard that hole in the wall places are totes stelar! and it was! but im so confused as to what chilean food actually consists of, we had lentils and rice... hmmmm. but it was good none the less and the first real meal we had had in days!  we spent the rest of day wandering the city, we met several strangers so  eager to speak English which was refreshing and at night our hostel hosted a barbeque! Again we indulged on what didnt seem to be Chilean food, more like american barbeque food, but hey cannt complain plus they served free wine...and man let us tell you the wine goes down waaay to wonderful here hehe. A bunch  of people went out dancing that night but Dominic and I had to get up around  5 am to catch a bus so we hit the hay early... 6 am the next morning we hopped on another 16 hour bus ride south to Puerto Montt!

Serious Bussen

          We just arrived at a lively and welcoming hostel in Santiago, they are feeding us breakfast now cafe con leche and toast with cheese. We could not be more content and happy!! so great! I am a little sad that we are leaving at 6 AM for Puerto Montt but all the locals say it is muy Bonita, a rainy port city that they say is compareable to SEATTLE!!! haha we will be right at home. Since we dont have much time in Santiago ( my favorite city so far, more public transit and less dirty looks then Lima) we are gonna shower and hoof it looking for unique agriculture and a place for lunch before we get on another bus. It will be good to stretch our legs after having put in over 40 hours on busses traveling further and further south. I know 40 hours sounds bad, missing our first bus sounds worse, and having the bus we got on break down in a desert that looked like the moon sounds miserable... But we have been enjoying every minute of our journey and have been kept safe by the wonderfull people that seem to be god sent.  

Crossing the boarder from Peru was super sketch, after jamming us onto an old bus (dominic and I being the only two white folk) we proceeded on driving 40 minutes to the Chilean and Peruvian boarder... ill just say, because I was literally unable to understand, muchas (heh) drug dogs and mulitple bag checks and scans, we had a close call when we thought we had lost our Peruvian tourist card, but luciky I had stashed them in our little safety pouch...amen for the safety pouch!!  Everyone that we met along the way who spoke english, or lack there of, continued to tell Us ¨Trust No One¨ which isn´t the most reassuring thing to hear repeatedly when travelling in a country where the language barrier is immense! BUT.. Carlos Fischer saved our lives! (not literally, but pretty much) he was in his fifties or so and totes took us under his wing! I loved him, he paid for part of ticket to Santiago, bought us cafe con leche, bummed us cigs and made sure we also knew what was going on.  I think he might be rich? but eh who knows, when we arrived in Santiago he paid for a mini trolly for our luggage to be brought to the Tur Bus station from the internacional station... what a guy heh. He helped us get our next set of tickets to Puerto Montt then kissed our cheeks (not doms just mine now that I recall, lucky me hehe) and said Chao! Muchas Gracias Carlos, forever you will be in our hearts!  I didnt think that bus after bus, hour after hour after hour could be so tolerable... although I am little nutrient deprived (we seriously would starve if we didnt eat meat... to many hamburguesas y papas fritas ...blah) so Elvis (haha the name of the guy running our hostel) recomended some local markets and danky places to eat and drink some cervesa and chilean wine!! woot woot! Cant wait to explore Santiago friends and cant wait to see what this journey has to come! Chao!!

Pisco in Peru

We made it to Peru!

The last couple days in Chicago were totes the best though the two of us experienced anxiety like never before..well sort of.  But were in!! We couldnt possibly feel th way we did two days ago from here on out... however I am doubting that thought in our minds a tiny tiny bit.

Our entire travel time yesterday flew by (hehe)... from Chicago to Houston the ride was quick, we sat next to a man named Chris, he was nice but I started to think he thought I was hitting on him or something?  I always feel challenged to speak to people sitting next to me on the plane but his wife was peepin at me so turned to Dom and we both passed out.  We didnt have much of a lay over, about 50 minutes in Houston and boy Texans are different.  The flight from Houston to Lima was full and the man next to us (Mike as we later came to know) was huuuuge, not like fat huge just a massive man, he was forced to sit spread eagle the entire flight and this man made Dom look super small.  Wwe became friends though, sort of, he gave us some advice on Peru and helped me on the bookworm game I was playing because neither dominics or my tv worked for movies! sad news...

We got in at about 10:30 Pm, its nice because there is no real time change so no jet lag. even though me and brit were practicing our spanish on the way over and purchased a little handy translator, we were a little overwhelemed by how fast and how much spanish was being thrown at us by taxi drivers and custom officers. we got into a little black car that luckily dropped us off at our hostel no problemo, and felt like we needed to see a little bit of this foriegn city... pisco sours! and a pulled chicken sandwich that brit ate most of haha. we are rested and getting ready to get on a bus today headed for tacna... StAY TUNed folKs.