Fearless D

Francesco had been in Rome for a week and hadn't called his grandfather, which meant he was in deep if he didn't go visit him quick. His father rained guilt upon his head when he learned no call had yet been made, and more guilt was rained into his ear when he finally did make that call. It seems the Catholics will always take advantage of a tortured conscience when they can, and being that it had been seven years since Francesco had been in Italy, the family had a lot of ammo. (Yet I found it a little hypocritical of his father to admonish his son when he had a much larger skeleton in the closet. Turns out Francesco's dad had been married to a lady for SIX YEARS and never told anyone!) So two ... read more

And those of you who know me well are saying "ROME??? Danielle's in ROME?" I know, I know. I've said I'll go to Europe either if the opportunity presents itself, or when I'm old. And boy, did the opportunity present itself (I'm not old yet). It has come in the form of Francesco, Chelsie's Italian boyfriend, and I happen to be one of the lucky friends who was invited along! So here I am, hanging out in Francesco's brother's girlfriend's apartment (she happens to be away for the month) with somebody's wireless internet overlooking the Vatican. It's pretty sweet. As I was fully aware of when I arrived, I know nothing about this place. I'm only running off of preconcieved notions on what Rome is like. In my brain, Rome looks like lots of old old ... read more

The three of us headed off with the intention of driving to the end of the world in the cheapest car we could possibly rent: a white Fiat Fire, bare to the bone with no radio or back seat head rests. After an interesting spat with the rental lady (giving us a whole new perspective on the phrase “hot Argentine temper”) Todd, Jack and I quickly aborted from Bariloche, and headed south to Esquel. We all had a general idea as of where we were going, but I had done little research on Route 40 and Todd showed up last minute who knew less than I did about Patagonia. Jack was the man with the Lonely Planet guide and had his own destination goals in mind, which included pristine rivers for fly-fishing, and locating the ... read more

Ooh, I know, I've been awful. Once the car was rented, we spent the majority of our time camping or on the road, leaving little (or no) time for journal updates. I will say that having the freedom of a car really enriched my experience in Argentina and Chile, so props to Jack for talking me into it. I will fill in the month and a half void with our adventures. That is a promise, and will give me something to focus on while I acclimate to the land of luxury, where fleas are scarce and toilet paper is flushed. Ciao!... read more

So I´m in Chile now. Met up with a fellow named Jack in El Bolson about a week and a half ago, and we decided to rent a car and drive to Ushuaia. Yeah, you read correctly. We´re driving through Patagonia to the end of the world. Todd came down and met us in Bariloche, we rented a tiny Fiat for cheap and headed south. Route 40 is notorious for it´s slow-going dirt road (ripios...new vocab) and they weren´t joking! But the car is in good condition. Only has 2,000 kilometers on it, so we´ll break it in with an extra 6,000. Jack is a fly fishing extrordinaire, so he knows all the beautiful places to stop. We spent a few nights in Parque National de Alceres (Argentina), and that was nothing short of incredible. The ... read more

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One very cool thing that I forgot to mention was that we got to see comet McNaught while camping. Apparently, it is the brightest comet in the southern hemisphere in 30 years. It could be seen streaking across the sky right after sunset low on the horizon, so by the time it got really dark it was already gone. But we could still see it very well. Diego thought there was some kind of fire in the distance. We missed the brightest point by a few days, but it was so cool. Don´t get to see that too often. Tobias was delighted, since his hobby as a kid was astronomy. Funny thing is, the first night we met, we had this ongoing debate between which planet was Mercury and which was Venus. Nobody else on the ... read more