In case you were wondering, we are alive!!

Sorry to bail on everyone, but it turned out in the end that we just didn't like blogging that much. And so we stopped, just cut it off completely, and then haven't told the masses that we've been back home for almost two months! I use the word "home" loosely here, since all we have is that storage unit in Fort Collins, but we've been making our way across the country and stopping in to visit friends and family whenver we can. In June, we spent 3 weeks in New York with my sister Michelle, mostly in Manhattan, but also a few days on the beach on Fire Island and a few in the Adirondacks. We spent a great 9 days with my parents in Greensboro, NC before stopping in to say hello to the folks back in the Fort, and then moved on to Nevada. We went swimming and climbing and spent good times with Kellen's family in Reno and Donner Lake for a couple of weeks, and now we're on our way to Teton-Yellowstone to do a little work for a change. Officially, we are looking for jobs and a good place to live. Very officially, we are happy and having a great summer together and with friends and family. Very very officially, we are done with our blog. Please send an email if you'd like to get in touch! And thanks for checking out our photos along the way!

Love, Monique

Many weeks later, and much further north...

People are constantly looking at us like we´re crazy for travelling in late fall, but it definitely has its perks in areas that get overrun by tourists during the summer season. First, we get to feel like we´re doing something unique, even though we may really just be doing it in colder weather. Second, it´s peaceful and natural, and new places to us feel like special discoveries. During our few days in Pucon, Chile, we visited Parque Nacional Huerquehue, a popular summer spot completely void of visitors during our stay. At the lower elevations, we caught the height of autumn color, and higher up a hike through the Chilean Auraucaria forest. The trip ends far from Pucon on a hillside blessed with meadows from fires set by settlers 100 years ago, old ranches, and undeveloped hot springs that nobody seems to venture to at the end of April...

A visit with the Nelsons

A taste of dark beer, finally! The Kuntzman brewery in Valdivia, Chile.

Although we´ve moved a long way again from the photos below, tonight I document for you our 10 day vacation with Kellen´s parents, Valerie and Steve. We toured Puerto Montt, Chile and Bariloche, Argentina, connecting the two cities with a boat tour across the Andes, soaked in the hot springs of Chile´s Parque Nacional Puyehue, hiked in the Andean hills, and ate lots of substandard food together. Basically, it was a great trip, and Kellen and I were thankful to have them come and remind us of the joys of vacationing. Since their arrival, and continuing after their departure, we´ve been spending the extra cash to travel on first class busses and stay in nice places with gardens and privacy, a welcome addition to our low budget travels. Thanks for your company, Val and Steve!

Exploring the tunnels below a defunct Valdivia brewery turned University modern art museum. Steve seemed a little turned off by the tunnel mold.

Cleaning up and feeding the enormous sea lions after the Valdivia fish market.

View from Cerro Catedral, a Bariloche ski resort.





Val and Steve crossing the Andes, and a perfect view of Argentina´s Monte Tronedor.

Lago Argentina on our lake crossing tour.

Approaching the docks in Puerto Montt.

Downtown Puerto Montt on a rare sunny day.

Pictures

Hello out there in computer land. I´ve been scrolling through some pictures on the computer here in Puerto Montt. My original intention was to write an incredibly in depth account of where we have been since our last post and where we are heading in the next week and a half. Alas, the combination of someone watching a TV show with lots eery music and horrifying screams (apparently satan is possessing people) a foot away from my desk and a bit of wine after dinner has stolen any ounce of concentration that I once posessed. The result, a selection of pictures from Parque NacionalTorres del Paine and PN Los Glaciares. Enjoy.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

Monique getting her first taste of the Beech (Nothofagus) forests (Day 1)

Checking out the scenery on our way to Campamento Seron (Day 1)

Mo walking through an establishing forest on the terminal moraine near the Los Perros Glacier. (Day 3)

Interesting glacier near Paso John Gardner. (Day 5)

Near Paso John Gardner looking back toward Campamento Los Perros. (Day 5)

Glacier Grey over Paso John Gardner. (Day 5)

Glacier Grey over Paso John Gardner. (Day 5)

Mo near the lakeshore camp of Albergue Grey. (Day 7)

The east shore of Lago Grey, fed by Glacier Grey. (Day 7)

Lago Nordenskjold (Day 8)

Torres del Paine at Sunrise, a mountaineers dream! (Day 10)
Also our first cloudless morning. Que Suerte!

Parque Nacional los Glaciares

Lone Tree under beautiful, however, blustery conditions.

No purification needed! Collecting water with a rare, clear view of Fitz Roy and Poincenot.

Time for tea, Campamento Poincenot

Monte Fitz Roy.

A peek from the bus as we left Chalten. Cerro Torre (center, snowy) cleared just in time for our departure. Note to future visitors: Request seats in the front of a bus that arrives during the day.

Alojamientos--only the best

We´ve reached about the halfway point of our trip, and it´s a time of change for us. I think the fast paced travel is over, and we´re going to start spending a bit more time in some selected cities. The main goal after leaving Los Glaciares National Park was to make our way north to meet Kellen´s parents. Thankfully, that meant getting off track of everyone else, and passing some time in Chile. We travelled a bit on the infamous Ruta 40, Argentina´s unpaved Patagonian highway (Patagonia is brown when you can´t see the Andes, a more dusty and consistent brown than either Nevada or Colorado), then managed to finagle some charming accommodations for the trip:

I wouldn´t consider Mo or I particularly choosey when it comes to accomodations, but squishy second-floor bathroom floors (solved at one place by a piece of plywood infront of the sink), low doorways that seem to have their sights set on my skull, and hospedaje owners that don´t seem to remember that they´re running hotels leave a little bit to be desired. Overall, the free camping north of El Chalten with its array of semi-permanent tarp stuctures, was the finest lodging we had for a while, followed by the backyard camping we enjoyed in Coyhaique. Featured above are 1. Bus 2. El Campamento Municipal in Los Antigous, AR, complete with a white stucco fireplace and hot showers, and near a panaderia with the best Alfajores we´ve had yet! 3. Hospedaje Don Luis en Chilo Chico, CL. (note the concrete doorway behind the tree, classy touch!) 4. Hospedaje Las Piedras del Indio in Coyhaique... think what you will 5. The Coyhaique ¨campground¨ with makeshift greatroom and kitchen. We spent two nights here in celebration of the complete shutting down of town for three days for the Easter Holiday. There was, however, a cool three legged dog -the best animals always have three legs, not four- and with no way of moving any further north, we cooked a fine curry for Easter dinner.

In Puerto Montt we sprung for 4 nights at a really comfortable room in a hostel with friendly travelers, friendly owners, and homemade jam. So far we´ve enjoyed two days with Kellen´s folks, a day checkingout the artisan fair and fish market in Puerto Montt, and a day crossing the lakes from Puerto Montt to Bariloche, Argentina. They managed to bring sunshine with them, so we had amazing views of the Andes from the boats yesterday, and hope for more days of sunshine ahead as we spend some time in the Bariloche area.

Los Torres y Fitz Roy

Well, no, this isn´t our photo, but I have about 4 minutes to let you know that indeed, Kellen and I were there, dreaming at the base of the Cuernos del Paine, and during our 10 days in Torres del Paine national park in Chile, we saw many more amazing views. We´ve been part of this tourist circuit by accident for the past two weeks, turns out we´re not the only mid-twenties travellers in this world, and just about every young person from Holland and Isreal is out exploring the same areas as we are, taking the same buses as we are. So as we´ve travelled from big park to big park, we´ve been part of this little cohort of people, and gotten to know some faces and names. It was a little disheartening, briefly, but we´ve come to realize that travelling with good people in really cool places is pretty special.
We moved on from tourist central Puerto Natales in Chile, and thru the Estes Park-like El Calafate (though with better food) in Argentina, and found happiness in El Chalten, AR. Its a very small town, and you can walk to the National Park trails from the free campground at the north end of town, or the panaderia at the south end of town, or anywhere else, or you can gaze at the amazing views of Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy from the street corner if you don´t feel like moving. We did a one night backpack to check out the glaciers and peaks, then enjoyed lots of medialunas in the morning, and finally got out and did some climbing this morning, taking the easiest hitchiking trip imaginable 7km up the road to a newly developed climbing area just out of town. Guys were setting bolts on new routes while one of their sons played with a tonka trunk at the base of the rock all afternoon, and the rock-god locals were all really friendly as we tried to learn strange words like bolt and flake.
We´re making our way north along the border of Chile and Argentina right now, headed toward Puerto Montt to meet up with Kellen´s mom and dad for 10 days. Though without a specific plan on how to get there, we have busses and ferries and hiking and climbing in our future. Though we were a little spent with all the tourist activity in the past couple of weeks, we got to see the sights you´ve got to see down here, and El Chalten has revitalized us.
Off to the tent now, we´ve got a 9am bus north tomorrow.

Just checking in...

Well, the internet is cheap, but the internet is slow, and the inspiration just hasn´t hit fully yet to get in the posting habit. But there is still hope, and I thought I´d just post a couple of photos to show you our smiling faces (above, outside Win´s house and a very cool downtown sculpture, Buenos Aires. )
We passed a couple of days in Rio Gallegos holed up with nasty colds, but finally we´ve recovered, and we still managed to get down to see the penuinos at Cabo Virgenes (thousands of them, literally! and some cool birds along the way). We´re in Puerto Natales right now, and headed in to Torres del Paine tomorrow morning. Whew, it will be amazing, and Kellen and I are both excited to get out and get some bonafide exercise after lots of travel and rest.