kingfisher
Ted Joined: September 10th 2006
Logged in: March 17th 2009
Logged in: March 17th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Puerto Madryn Argentina
Everywhere I went, I found dogs on roofs.... --- Don't miss the video!... read more
our canoe trip
By early March I had hit the wall on the independent travel thing. I was ready for a break. And I still had a few weeks before I was due to meet my parents in Brazil for a tour to the watery and wonderous Pantanal. So I just chilled in Buenos Aires, catching up on my reading, running, and attending some yoga classes (in Spanish!). I also had to get my visa for Brazil. Meeting up with M & D in Sao Paulo, we set off for Caiman Lodge at the SE corner of the vast Pantanal. For those who have never heard of this place, the Pantanal is a similar environment to the Everglades but much larger - about ten times larger! The Pantanal is the largest freshwater wetland on earth and harbors many ... read more
start of the trail along Lago Desierto
Our bicycle travels continued along the Carretera Austral, starting in El Chalten, Argentina and ending in Coyhaique (Tobias) and Futaleufu, Chile (Ted), with lots of side adventures along the way (see map). From El Chalten, we biked north to Lago Desierto, from where a 32 km-long trail/jeep track leads to the Chilean border and a ferry across Lago O'Higgins. Most cyclists following this route opt for a second ferry ride across Lago Desierto and travel the route over 2 days. But on our journey the Lago Desierto ferry was broken down, and we only had a day. So we loaded all our gear into our packs and pushed our bikes for 8 h along a winding, muddy trail to the border, then rode another 2 h down to Lago O'Higgins. Along the way, two broken bike ... read more
wind maelstrom fronting Glacier Viedma
Back in Buenos Aires, I met up with my Swiss trekking buddy Tobias (who I befriended in Bolivia while studying Spanish). Tobias and I headed for the best bike shop we could find (Panaglia Bikes) where the friendly and helpful Carlos Soto set us up with two steel-framed mountain bikes, racks, and panniers. We headed south by bus to Rio Gallegos in deepest Patagonia, with a plan emerging enroute to bike to Torres del Paine in Chile for some trekking, then recross into Argentina, biking up Ruta 40 to El Calafate and onto El Chalten for more trekking at Los Glaciares NP (see map). Our on-the-go trip prep went pretty smoothly with only a few minor snafus. One was trying but failing repeatedly to get any Chilean currency before we arrived at the rudimentary Cerro Castillo ... read more
off-trailin´ it behind Mt Leñas
TED: Travelling by an overnight, piss-soaked bus from Sucre to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, I caught a flight to Buenos Aires to meet Matia. After a week and half of final papers and exams, Matia was dizzy and drugged with schoolthoughts and easily captivated by BA architecture, monster mangoes, frenzied feeding carp, and a foreign meat-centered cuisine. We visited the wonderful Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires, found a great vegetarian restaurant, but quickly soured on the city-life. We made for El Bolson in the Argentine Lake District, working for a week on a bio-intensive, organic farm called CIESA run by the charismatic Fernando Pia and a close cadre of interns. After a week of working and learning about the bio-intensive method alongside Fernando, and... read more
December 2nd 2006
colorful Puno dancers 1
Since my last blog post I have traveled from Arequipa to Puno, Peru, and then onto La Paz and Sucre, Bolivia (see map). Over the last 4 weeks I have been in Sucre studying Spanish. Fall rains in the Andes highlands have put a stop to much of my backcountry wandering, but I have had some fun urban adventures, met some new friends, learned a little Spanish, and managed a short trek in the Cordillera de Los Frailes just west of Sucre. I arrived in Puno just in time for All Souls Day - sort of like our Memorial Day, only more colorful and festive. On this day, much of the populace heads to their local cemetery to honor, decorate, and bless their ancestors´ gravesites. But there is also music, food, and much socializing. At the ... read more
Paracas shore
Hopping a series of overnight buses, I have been making my bleary-eyed way down the south coast of Peru: Pisco, Paracas, Ica, Nazca, Arequipa, and into the Colca Canyon region. Just yesterday, I returned to Arequipa from a 4-day Colca Canyon-to-Valley of the Volcanoes trek. In Pisco, I tepidly signed up for a Paracas Nat Park/Islas Ballestas tour. I am not normally a big tour fan, since it seems like I am often disappointed. But lacking my own boat, and with ground transport to Paracas NP pretty scarce, I really had no choice. This time I was not disappointed. Paracas NP and Islas Ballestas support a rich coastal ecosystem, driven by the Humboldt Current and coastal upwelling, and harboring one of the densest concentrations of seabirds in the world. So, so many birds - I have ... read more
Puya raimondii
When I first heard about the Cordillera Blanca - Peru´s trekking and climbing mecca - I envisioned lycra-clad sport climbers and gear-laden gringo backpackers swarming mountain trails...mountains fading with beauty from overuse. After an incredible 8-day Cordillera Blanca circuit trek, I can say I was mostly wrong - but not completely! I wanted a solo journey, and with recent reports of armed thugs in the nearby Cordillera Huayhuash I thought the Cordillera Blanca (CB) would be a nicer option. I hitched a combi to Catac, walked up to Laguna Quesquecocha past an otherwordly Puya raimondii grove, and over a nice starter pass (at Laguna Acococha, 4600m). After a first cold, sleepless night with some altitude-related headaches, I continued up the Quebrada Raria and over a ... read more
start of SV-Leimebamba trek
OK, a confession: on that last trek I lacked a good topo map. But it really wasn´t that big of a deal since I had GPS, only got lost a couple of times, asked for lots of directions, and was traveling through a well-settled area... Besides, there are other gringos down here doing crazier things...read on. From Cajamarca I caught a local bus to Celendin, and promptly missed the twice-weekly bus to Leimebamba. Frustrated but determined, I hired a car to take me almost half way there with plans to walk the rest. After negotiating for some time, I managed to move the price down from s/200 to s/150 (about $50 US). I probably could have moved him lower but I was grumpy and constipated and wanted to make some miles. Four dusty hours later, I ... read more
El petroleo y gas naturale
Arriving in Lima on Sep 19, I set out to gather what supplies I needed and then to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible, heading for northern Peru. Lima is noisy, polluted, big, and sprawling. And it is daunting to find your way around without getting mugged. You learn to ration your time walking the streets, as all the noise and exhaust fumes make you fatigued and disoreinted in a few short hours. For nine months of the year, Lima is enveloped in a damp ´´garua´´ fog (not unlike San Francisco summers), melding with the street-level smog to produce a thick, cold, toxic haze. Although it is only 12 degrees south of the equator you wouldn´t know it. I gathered my topo maps from the military mapping service (available nowhere else but ... read more
