After a week in the Atacama Desert, I caught a bus back into Argentina to spend some time in the Andean northwest. The bus trip was relatively uneventful except for some minor altitude sickness and the discomfort of having to sit next to an incredibly racist Argentine police officer. Smiling, he actually asked me what I thought of 9-11. I just stared back at him in disbelief and told him he should travel more. He then launched into a barrage of how awful the Brits were after learning that the guy sitting across the aisle was from the Malvinas Islands. [View Full Entry]

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The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is an experience of a lifetime. Not only it the driest desert on earth, receiving an average of 14 mm a year (although last year only 4 mm, which contrasts interestingly to the 4 m that Parque Pumalín receives on the Aisén penisula down south), but it's packed full of amazing outdoor activities including geysers, hot springs, flamingo-filled lakes, salt flats, salt mountains, giant sand dunes, and various archeological sites. Some of the highlights of my week there included: Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos - This reserve is located in the Atacama sa [View Full Entry]

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On March 10th my lovely parents popped into Puerto Montt for two weeks of traveling through the Lakes District of Chile and Argentina. For me this meant two weeks of staying in rooms with my own bathroom and eating something other than empanadas de loco and fried salmón with papas fritas. We started our travels with a few days on the island of Chiloé to visit both historic wooden churches and Magellanic penguins. Chiloé defies the stereotype that Chile is too much like the States (a common declaration by Argentines, mind you). It's remoteness has preserved shanty fishing villages of [View Full Entry]

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After parting ways with David, who headed north to hike Volcán Lanín, I ended up heading toward Cochamó Valley, which is fast becoming a mecca for climbers. The valley is known as the Yosemite of South America for it´s granite batholiths that rim it´s edges. Because it remains icefree for much of the year, it´s gaining popularily among international climbers, partially to the hard work of Daniel and Silvina, a Nevada-Argentine pair who own a refugio in the heart of the valley. On the second day up there I day hiked up a recently constructed trail for better views. While lunching [View Full Entry]

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After resting up in Chaitén and eating amazing seafood like the local marisco stew called "paila marina", David and I headed into Pumalín, the world´s largest a private nature park open to the public. The park was founded Douglas Thompkins (who also started Esprit and North Face) to protect the temperate patagonian rainforest and it´s enormous alerce trees. It is open to the public, who only must pay a nominal fee for staying in beautiful campgrounds, most of which have covered sites for tent camping. This is because the key to healthy alerce trees is rain, and lots of it--about 4 [View Full Entry]

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At this point in my travels, getting around by public transport became difficult, so I ended up relying almost exclusively on hitching. Actually getting from Los Alerces across the border to the Chilean town of Futaleufú proved to be an adventure that involved a total of seven cars for a trip that wasn´t more than 85 km. I rode across the physical border in the back of a pickup truck, which didn´t seem to raise any suspicions. Some of you may have heard of Futaleufú because of its world famous whitewater with class IV and V rapids. Although I hadn´t come [View Full Entry]

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Continuing farther south from El Bolsón, David and I spent the next few nights in Parque Nacional Los Alerces near the town of Esquél. The park was created to protect the coniferous Fitzroya cupresoides, a gigantic redwood like tree found in the temperate rainforests of this region of the patagonia. Although we were car camping, we lucked out with a beautiful spot on a winding river that connects two the park´s lakes. Just outside of the park we also visited a Welsh settlement called Trevelin and treated ourselves to a traditional Welsh tea, complete with scones (humorously prono [View Full Entry]

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Given that the mountains around Bariloche were snowed in, I decided to head south to the town of El Bolsón ("the handbag"), named so because it sits at only 200 m elevation surrounded by lush mountain ranges. This town became sort of a hippy haven starting in the 60s and is now famous for its microbrews, ice cream and chocolate. I couldn´t have been happier... After resting a bit at a hostel outside of town, a group of us (Kati from Germany, Oscár from Buenos Aires, and David from San Diego) headed up into the mountains for a 3 day hike. [View Full Entry]

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After four days in the car on the infamous Ruta 40, I was itching to get back into the mountains and decided to do the 5 day Nahuel Huapi Traverse, connecting 4 refuges in the mountains outside of Bariloche. On the first day I hiked up to Refugio Frey, which is well known to climbers around the world. The refugio was located on the edge of a very shallow alpine lake that reached up to mid shins, making the act of bathing an interesting sight I will not further describe. I pitched my tent and enjoyed the company of an 18 [View Full Entry]

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Visiting this UNESCO World Heritage site was a highlight of the trip (see Route 40 for more description). The drawings are mostly of the outline of hands, and of the 800 some hands, only 40 are of right hands (meaning they were painted using the left hand). The drawing also include hunting scenes of guanaco, guanaco and women giving birth, armadillos, and maps. They used iron oxides for the red, gypsum and clay for the white, manganese oxides for black, and copper for green color. [View Full Entry]

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