Santa Cruz Trek

We arrived safely in Huaraz, Peru and began speaking with excursion companies. There happens to be about 600 of these companies, and it became obvious that tourists come here for adventure. We chose a company that seemed safe and legitimate, paid our money, and set the details to leave at 6:00 the next morning.

We met the other people on our tour: Martin, a German student who spoke English and Spanish, and Sophie & Jan, a French couple who spoke neither English nor Spanish. We piled into a bus with other Peruvian travelers and started our 5-hour journey to the trailhead. The bus hung to roads on the sides of cliffs and took 32 consecutive switch-backs. All the while, Ashley was thinking, ¨whose bright idea was it to put a road on this mountain at all?¨ After lunch, our guide hired an arriero (donkey driver) and two burros (donkeys) and a horse to carry our gear.


We passed through a couple of tiny ¨towns¨ and saw houses with thatched roofs, chickens, pigs, burros, skinny dogs, and small children taking care of themselves and eachother while their parents worked the fields. Then the first torrential downpour started. When planning this trip, we didn´t realize that we would be in Huaraz for the beginning of rainy season. And oh, does it rain. After a few hours, we set up camp in the rain and dried off in the cooking tent. Our guide, Edwin, made an incredible, hot dinner over a double burner campstove with ingredients carried in on the burros. We went to bed praying for the rain to stop.

We woke to cloudy but dry skies the next morning and set off on one of the hardest hiking days of our lives. We had no idea how much the high altitude would affect our physical abilities. We climbed to a 15,500-foot pass (higher than either of us had ever been before). There was at least one hour when we were absolutely pathetic--it was very hard to breathe and think clearly at this altitude. But we made it though the pass and rested at the top (our German and French friends are in the photo at the pass) with a view of the entire Santa Cruz valley.


It was all downhill from there and the weather began to clear up. Roberto (our arriero) set up camp for us in a beautiful valley. We rested and dried everything out while Edwin cooked us another delicious dinner. This is the view from our tent.

The next two days we were very lucky and only had afternoon showers after camp was set up. The hiking was all downhill and we had plenty of good food. Each morning and night, we all ate together in the cooking tent and it was fun to practice Spanish with Edwin, Roberto, and our other new friends. When the clouds cleared in the mornings, we got incredible views of the Cordillera Blanca, the second highest mountain range in the world (next to the Himalayas). Here are some of our favorite pictures.


It is not easy to recognize from this picture, but this is the mountain from the Paramount Pictures logo.




Now we are going to take a few Spanish classes in Huaraz and plan one more trek here before we leave for Cusco and the Inca Trail. We both miss you all and can`t wait to see you in a few weeks at Christmas.

--Clint & Ashley

We Got Shook

(Our friend Jonathan Cort created the term ¨to get shook.¨ If you got shook, then you had your world rocked--in a bad way.)

We Got Shook #1

... so that critical decision to visit Uspallata sent us into a bit of a tailspin. I was legitimately cranky when we arrived (hungry, sleepy, had to pee, sore throat, waah waah waah) and we couldn`t find any information on hiking or backpacking. After lunch, we found out that the treks are an hour away and you have to go with an expensive guide. Our plan was foiled! The town was tiny and a bit sad, so we thought, ¨no harm done. We`ll just take the first bus back to Mendoza in the morning.¨ Our flight out of Mendoza was two days later, anyway.

Next stop: the bus station, where the ticket saleswoman told us that there were no buses leaving the next day. We panicked because there are typically five each day. She said something that we didn`t understand and then said that she didn`t know when the next bus would be leaving. We have heard about bus strikes a lot down here and my heart sank. Clint said, ¨I don`t want to believe it yet, we`ll go back and ask again in the morning.¨But I spent all night with visions of having to hitch-hike through BF-Argentina. Thank goodness, Clint was right. The next morning the same girl said, ¨no problema¨and booked us on the first bus. We still don`t know what she had been talking about the night before and are just thankful that either she was wrong or we misunderstood her.

We Got Shook #2

Between Mendoza and Lima, we had an overnight layover in Santiago, Chile. We planned to leave the airport, find a hostel, sleep, and come back to the airport for a 7 am flight. We went to get our luggage (which we had checked to Santiago for the night) and found out that Chile charges an entry tax (only to Americans, Canadians, Australians, and Mexicans) of $131 USD! Just to get our bags, leave the airport for 10 hours, and check back in! Then they charge us another $30 USD to leave the country again. Between fees, a hostel, and taxis, this night`s stay in Santiago would have cost us $500. We couldnt stomach spending so much for a night`s sleep, and I didn`t want to pay those taxes on principle--man, I was mad that Chile separates out four countries to rob every time they want to visit.

So we checked our bags the rest of the way to Lima and scouted out the most comfy place to rest in the airport. We used a couple Ambien that we had left (thank God and thank my mother for those) and slept on a bench in an airport Ruby Tuesday`s. After the 7am flight to Lima, we caught a cab to a bus terminal and took an eight-hour bus to Huaraz, Peru. It was so wonderful when we finally arrived and slept in a bed and took a shower. Ah, the small pleasures of long-term travel. I`m not sure what it will feel like to be back home with food in a cabinet and a bed and shower that you don`t have to shop for every few days.

The Moral of ¨We Got Shook¨

Clint made an analogy about these experiences: anyone can steer the ship when the seas are calm. It`s nice to know we made it. As exhausted, filthy, and miserable as we were for a day or so during these experiences, I am thankful that I had Clint as my partner. And now we are well fed, rested, and getting ready to embark on the next adventure: trekking in the Cordillera Blanca for four days.

Mendoza, Wine Country

Clint and Ashley blogging together again today...

We went on a big hotel/hostel hunt when we arrived to Mendoza after a 14-hour bus ride, visiting about 10 places that were either too full, too expensive, or didn`t have private rooms. Exhausted, we gave up and started walking to our ¨backup¨ hotel. Then Clint spotted the perfect hostel--it had a private room available for us, was very affordable, and was one block away from a great street in town. Hooray!

We took a day to explore the city and loved it. The weather was great and the city has very wide sidewalks filled with restaurant tables. It seems that people are always outside dining and drinking. All the streets are tree-lined and there are clean parks with fountains about every four blocks. Later, we learned the reason why this city is so spacious and green. A huge earthquake left Mendoza in ruins in 1861 and they rebuilt strategically, betting that there would be another earthquake in Mendoza`s future. So, the sidewalks are wide to keep falling rubble out of the streets and the parks are meant as refuges. Whatever the reason, though, it is a great city.


Then we did the famous bikes & wines tour through Mendoza`s wine country. We rented bicycles from a guy called ¨Mr. Hugo¨and rode a short 18km circuit with about six wineries along the way. Clint was very funny on this excursion. We had the best time on a terrace overlooking a vineyard at the first winery and we both loved the wine.


Then Clint quickly gulped down the wine at the second place. By the time we got to the third winery, he had to nap on a bench while I toured and tasted. He was so sleepy and pitiful, and I was ready to head back with him. But once we got back on the bikes he was all peppy again--so we carried on our merry way.



At the end of the day, we had toured four wineries, done a liquor tasting, and enjoyed a last glass of wine with Mr. Hugo.

Then we made the critical decision to take a bus to the town of Uspallata to go hiking and backpacking...

What`s New? Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires was interesting. Not our favorite part of the trip because of some uncontrollable circumstances, but we still had great experiences here.

The Good:

* BsAs is incredibly cheap compared to Patagonia. We got to live little pieces of the high-life on a backpacker`s budget in BsAs.

* We had date night at La Cabrera, one of the most recommended steak restaurants in Buenos Aires. They even gave us champagne while we waited for a table. It was fun to get a little dressed up and enjoy a fancy dinner.

* Our private apartment in Palermo gave us Clint & Ashley space again for a whole week. It was so luxurious to not share a kitchen, bathroom, or dining room with other backpackers or families. The apartment also had a private rooftop patio, which was fantastic on sunny days.

* We spent an evening with Complejo Tango. This tango show picked us up from our apartment, served us a bottle of wine and dessert, and gave us a brief tango class. For the actual show, we had a table right next to the stage so we were feet away from the high kicks, costumes, lifts, everything.

* Recoleta Cemetery was fascinating. Clint could not, for the life of him, figure out how a cemetery could possibly be on everyone`s top 10 lists of things to do in BsAs. But we both understood the moment we stepped foot inside. They say that it is cheaper to live your entire life extravagantly than to be buried in Recoleta Cemetery. It is like a small city of mausoleums, many of which look more like miniature cathedrals than burial sites.

* I had a couple of nice solo excursions to Ashley-ish places that would have caused Clint a bit of pain. My favorites were the Evita Museum (complete with many of her old dresses, shoes, and hats... man, that woman could dress) and the Belgrano craft market (where I had to practice serious self-control).

The Bad:

Clint got a nasty head-cold, it rained a lot, a few of the attractions I wanted to see on Ashley-excursions were closed for renovations, and we had to spend quite a bit of time dealing with travelocity over the next leg of our travels. Nothing huge, just small dampers on the visit.

The Ugly:

Buenos Aires has a few disenchanting features: piles of dog poop everywhere on the sidewalks, sidewalks in various stages of repair and disrepair (aside: Really, these sidewalks are landmines. I saw an old lady accidentally step in a giant pile of wet cement and ruin her old-lady shoe), intense smog, and some pretty bad hecklers (another aside: The only time we have felt threatened on this entire trip was in La Boca--a tourist trap in a poor part of BsAs. I can only explain the locals` reactions to us stepping off the bus in terms of a cartoon: their eyes started spinning slot-machine-style and landed squarely on two dollar-signs. They followed on our heels, whispering scam ideas to one another and trying to sell us beer, Maradona jerseys, photographs, anything until we got back on the bus to our apartment. We only got half-scammed into taking really cheesy photos with tango dancers.)

Now we are in Mendoza, resting after another long bus trip. We are thrilled to be here and to begin discovering the land of Argentine wine!

Parque Nacional los Glaciares

Our last two stops in Patagonia were El Calafate and El Chaltèn, both to visit the Parque Nacional los Glaciares. It was quite a schlep to get there--nearly to the end of the world--but well worth it.

El Calafate is a small-ish tourist town just outside the national park and near Glacier Perito Moreno. Out of 300 glaciers in the national park, Perito Moreno is one of two that are still advancing. There are tons of tour options, including a couple of ice treks, but we did the most low-key tour and saved our ice trek for El Chaltèn.

Perito Moreno was absolutely beautiful and I had never seen anything like it. The white of the glacier was shot-through with some of the most gorgous blue hues and the jagged ice formations at the front were 20 stories high. It is 5 km. wide and that put it into perspective for me--a 5-k race wide.

We had three hours on the balconies that overlook the front of the glacier and it only takes 45 minutes to walk the circuit, so Clint and I eventually took a coffee break at the snack bar. Afterwards, we went back for one last look and the balconies. All of a sudden, a chunk of ice the size of a 6-story building broke and crashed into the lake. An older Argentine couple was standing next to us and we all saw every second of it, even feeling the ground shake beneath us. After savoring the moment, the Argentine man turned to us and said, ¨¡Spectacular!¨ My thought exactly.

El Chaltèn is an even smaller town (with a year-round population of 500) that is actually in the national park. It is in a glacial valley at the base of Cerros Torre and Fitz Roy--two dramatic rock mountains that draw climbers from around the world.

We spent four days hiking all through the park, seeing stunning views as the clouds cleared from Fitz Roy in the afternoons.

One mirador about four hours into the park really took our breath away. It overlooked a small glacier, its glacial lake, and Fitz Roy. As exhausted as we were when we got back to our hostel that night, we knew that we had just been on one of the best hikes of our lives.

The next day we went on an ice trek that included 21 miles of hiking, a zip-line river crossing, walking on Glacier Torre with crampons, and doing a small ice climb. We did not get great views because the weather did not cooperate, but it didn`t matter because we were on such an adventure. Thank goodness for Clint, who took especially good care of me and reminded me to go as slowly as I wanted on the more dangerous parts of the trail.

A couple of days later, we left El Chaltèn for Buenos Aires, a city of 13 million. It has been interesting to go from a town without a single bank to a city with 48 barrios (neighborhoods). Oh, and how`s this for a small world? We met a nice couple our age in the tiny El Calafate airport--who live in Greenville, South Carolina. Then they had the seats directly behind us on the plane.

Hasta luego de Buenos Aires... we will write about our big-city experiences soon.

Top Five Argentine Food Groups

I must do a top five list in honor of my HippoFriends (a tradition inspired by the movie High Fidelity). Without further ado, the top five Argentine food groups:

1) Mayonaise (mayonesa): It is a table condiment, sometimes even over and above salt and pepper. There is an entire section for it at the grocery store. Our host family`s son ate it with every meal, even in his lentil soup. They serve it on burritos instead of sour cream at ¨Mexican restaurants.¨ Enough said.

2) Sweets (dulces): Sweets are on every corner, in every store. The preferred ways of piping sugar into the bloodstream are by way of chocolate, pastries, dulce de leche (a carmel spread), ice cream, and alfajores (a glorified moonpie that Argentines can`t imagine living without).

3) Ham & Cheese (jamon y queso): It`s hard to get away from ham & cheese here. There are ham & cheese pizzas, ham & cheese croissants (media lunas), ham & cheese toast, ham & cheese flavored crackers and potato chips, and, of course, ham & cheese sandwiches. In fact, you can`t get any other kind of sandwich without looking really hard. If you like turkey & cheese sandwiches, you´re plain ol`out of luck.

4) Steak (bife, lomo, asado): The steak in Argentina is famous around the world, and now I understand why. It is truly incredible and melts in your mouth, even at the dodgy-ist looking restaurants and bars. I think that one of the Argentine secrets to cooking the perfect steak is an amazing ¨chimichurri¨sauce, which they douse the steak in before, during, and after cooking it.

5) Potatoes (papas): Potatoes are the only commonly served vegetable around. Potatoes are fried, baked, mashed... prepared all the usual ways. But green veggies are nowhere to be found on restaurant menus.

Puerto Madryn

Ashley and I said goodbye to Bariloche and headed East across Argentina to the beach town of Puerto Madryn. We had no idea we would be there for the best time of year to see wildlife. And that seemed to be the theme of this city, Wildlife. We found a good hostel in town and dumped our bags after a 14 hour bus ride and then decided to take a walk on the beach. After a few minutes Ashley looked up and said ¨look, Flamingos¨ and sure enough those pink birds from the 80s were there on the beach. I was not used to seeing them without sunglasses and zig zag paterns on strech pants, but they do exist in real life.

After getting settled in town we booked a tour of Punto Tombo, a penguin colony visit that included a dolphin viewing excurison. The commodore dophins are the smallest and fastest in the world with a large white mark covering most of their body (the rest of the body is black). They loved to play with the boat and gave the crowd a good show. The dolphin came right up to the side of the boat and got close enough to blow water on our faces.

The penguin colony was a great experience. They are not scared of humans at all and we could get really close. The magellin peguins are really small and walk really funny. After seeing them swim it´s easy to tell they are built for water much more than for land. The colony hosts over a million penguins and couples return to the same nest to lay their eggs every year. It´s amazing they can remember the same nest in a massive landcape of nests. This particular peguin seemed to be pointing to his house for us.

The next adventure was to the Peninsula Valdez, which is a wildlife preserve and the breeding grounds of southern right whales. We were incredibly luckly because we were able to see whales all day and probably saw a total of 30 whales with their calves, all in all. Our tour was a lot of fun and certainly action packed. We rode about 15 minutes out of town and pulled over to beach to see a mother with her calf (the first photo). Later we borded a vessel into the bay and saw a ton of whales. Two main highlights were a rare white calf and an extremely close encounter that took our breath away. We happened to be on the right side of the boat at the right time and saw the enormous mammal start to rise right under us. The whale was so close that we could almost touch it. My heart raced and it was truly a once in a lifetime memory. We did not get great pictures because we were so captivated by these creatures and did not want to see it all through the camera lens.

Elephant seals are fat lazy animals that like to have sex. They don´t really do anything and look funny when they try to move. Not much else to say. The llama looking thing is a guanaca which is common in Patagonia.

In total we saw seals, dolphins, whales, flamingos, guancos, wild Patagonian hares, armadillos, and an ostrich-like bird in just 4 days. To cap it off we had beers at a beach bar on our last day and saw two more whales breaching in the near distance. Next was a 23 hour bus ride south to El Calafate for glacier trekking and jagged mountain hiking. More to come soon.