- amazing food, cheaper everything, people that speak Spanish so you can actually understand it -

Returning to Chile today has somewhat pronounced these feelings. After a brief term in Argentina it’s like arriving at school from summer vacation to find that you have been held back from the 5th grade and will be repeating the 4th. The taste of an advanced way of life is still fresh in my mouth, though the bland churaso I had for dinner is slowly taking over. How can a hundred kilometers make such a difference? I should have mused more in this medium on the delights of being in Argentina while I was there so as to support my current argument.

Nevertheless — I’m still in Patagonia and there is actually little to complain about. The mate is the same (it comes from Argentina). I’m surrounded by beauty in all directions and I will be in Torres del Paine in a day or two. In any case, another border crossing back into another type of paradise (Argentina) is not far away.

El Chalten is the hip mountain town in Patagonia. People come from all over the world to climb here. Some find it so abundant in everything they want out of life that they just end up hangning around. Hanging around – that´s essentially what I´ve been doing over that last couple days. It´s tempting to stay, but I´ve got other things to see / other places to hang around, so I´m going to move on soon.

This is all just to say that things are good here…

SNAPSHOT – This is where I was stranded on Argentina´s Routa 40

The reasons for this useful snippet of advice are very simple and I will convey them to you now.

a. The southern desert in Argentina is very big.
b. Nobody drives in the desert.

To say the least it´s been an interesting few days. I´ve spent a lot of time waiting around recently and in turn I´ve also spent a lot of time contemplating whether or not to regret putting myself in a recent predicament (somewhat knowingly). Having reached a safe and comfortable destination this morning, I´m now quite happy with my last couple of days of “type II fun“.

A quick synopsis of the last few days…

Hitched rides from Coyhaique to Puerto Ibañez where I visited the farm of a friend of a friend. Pto. Ibañez is a tiny town, so I needed to wait two days for the ferry to Chile Chico. From Chile Chico I was able to hitch rides across the Argentinian border to Perito Moreno, then all the way south to a gas station in the middle of nowhere. That was the end of the road for the next day and a half.

I basically read a book, drank coffee, and did my best to chat with locals while waiting for a ride south. Finally, last night at around 9 PM a bus showed up with 1 open seat and I wisely decided to hop on and pay the fare. The only problem, which I (and subsequently the conductor) quickly realized, was that I had spent many more pesos than expected on cafes con leches, queso, and empanadas at the gas station during my two day residency there. I was able to come up with 15 more pesos from an Israeli friend whom I had met while hitchhiking in Chile and who happened to be on the bus, but I was still 5 short of the fare. With some additional luck and charm (achieved no doubt with the language skills I acquired from 2 days at a gas station in the middle of the desert in Argentina) I was allowed to stay on til the next stop, El Chalten.

El Chalten, Argentina – look it up. This place is magnificent.

P.S. – One additional snippet of advice to add to the list.

c. Always be friendly to Israeli hitchhiking companions. They make awesome friends and tend show up in the middle of nowhere.

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Just over a week ago, my co-students and instructors returned from a little over a month in one of the harshest environments the earth has to offer. We had departed the NOLS headquarters in Coyhaique, Chile January 8th and traveled 8 hours south by bus to our drop-off point, far away from any significant points of civilization, ferried two days later across a vast glacial lake to the foot of an enormous icefall, and for the next 30 days or so we were entirely self-sufficient. We traveled with all the gear and food needed to live without human (or any other) contact for the duration of the trip.

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Our objective was to travel a general route north and west into the mountains, onto glacier, and eventually onto Chile´s Northern Ice Field where we would hopefully attempt climbing surrounding peaks.

Traveling in this manner in the Andes can be very technical and difficult for so many reasons, the least of which is the amount of gear and food you need to survive for a month. Every time we moved camps during our ascent we were required to make two trips. First, our cache of food and supplies needed to be moved. This was the harder of the two moves initially because of the size of our food rations at the beginning of the trip. Each of the nylon potato sacks that we carried our food in weighed about 60 pounds. As one of the stronger members of the group I often found myself carrying 2 bags in my pack for the cache moves. That´ll get you into shape real fast. I was imagining moves getting perpetually easier as we ate all the food that we carried, but I was continually disappointed at the weight of my pack. At some point in the middle of the trip, the combination of increased group strength and diminished food weight won and we were able to make moves in one trip. The combination of carrying all of our food and gear at once made these the hardest moves. Throughout the trip my body found itself continually challenged to use the strength it had gained from previous moves to carry heavier loads. My pack was also challenged to hold the volume and weight as it increased along the way. I´m glad to report that we both made it through alright.

The largest challenge of doing anything in the Andes, like any mountains, is the weather. On this trip, more than any experience I´ve had in my life so far, the weather had the final say on everything. Where you went, when you went, how you felt, what you saw (everything!) was up to the weather to an extent I have never experienced. On this particular course we encountered particularly poor weather that ended up limiting us from accomplishing a good portion of our elevation gain and climbing goals. I counted no more than 4 total days of optimal weather over the month we spent there, all of which were followed by what seemed like more severe storms than we had been through previously.

In the end, we spent about 2 and a half weeks camped on snow, either on glacier or higher at 2 separate camps. We used our only semi-decent days to scout for our next camp or perform a move (all of which were in less than optimal weather). Most of that time was spent getting slammed by consecutive storms with, rain, wind, and snow in a perimeter camp, our first on the glacier. Tents were buried and multiple poles broke during two separate nights in particularly bad storms, one on the way up and another on the way down. In between our time at the glacier camp, we lived on a ridge above, which was too windy to even attempt living in tents. We dug into snow caves immediately on arrival. In the 7 days we lived there, we had only one opportunity to leave camp to explore higher, which we used to summit a small nearby peak as a group.

My descriptions of the trip may sound like complaint, but I honestly look back now with pride and fondness for the trip and having survived such an ordeal. Not only that, it was so much fun! I´ve taken away skills that I never thought I would have the chance to learn and I think I just may have a new hobby. I know I will be looking for opportunities to perfect what I have just started to learn once I get home. The only thing stopping me at this point in the severe lack of glaciers in the vicinity of New York City.

Photos, musings, more details on a month in the Chilean Andes may have to wait til I come across more proper technology.  Besides, I´m on to the equally exciting journey of being a stranger with limited language skills in a foreign place.  I could easily argue that this is more fun and intimmidating than broken tent poles in a buried tent with 70 MPH gusts on an exposed glacier.

Please forgive typos…Ciao!

Margie actually found and called this place in Santiago for me yesterday that was able to replace a small part in the power supply for my camera. I still had to navigate to a distant residential area of the city to find the place, but they expedited the job for me. I was able to grab my camera, take a bus and metro to pick up my gear from the hostel, find the subaway and bus to the airport, and just barely make my flight to Coyhaique. Brilliant!

Thanks Marge. I owe you one.

I´m in Coyhaique today in southern Chile. Everything they say about Patagonia is true. This has got to be one of the most beautiful, pristine places on earth. Look it up. Now that I have a camera, I´ll be able to take my own photos of this paradise.

My mountaineering class starts tomorrow so, I probably won´t have a chance to write for a while. Starting 7AM it´s all mountains and glaciers for a little over a month. Looking forward to it.

My Spanish is definitely getting better. This is encouraging since it’s only been a few days. Each time I have a successful interaction I’m inspired to learn more.

I’ve always been fascinated when I travel to see travelers from non English-speaking countries commuicate in a mutual language (usually English). I’m finding myself in that position now because a lot of the travelers I’ve met speak little or no English. Our mutual language is Spanish.

I had dinner the other night with a French couple who had been traveling South America for about 4 months now. Their English was good, but for the sake of my learning we decided to speak in Spanish and I was surprised that I was able to get by (though clumsily). It was hard, but encouraging. Oh, and I now have friends in Bordeaux.

Computer time limited. This post will be short.

Some Notes / Observations for the last few days

• French fries go with everything here. So does a fried egg. Therefore fried egg on top of fries = the ultimate in culinary accomplishments.
• The average Chillean goes nuts for obscure songs by dated rock bands (i.e. Deep Purple, AC/DC, Jesus Jones, Bruce Hornsby).
• Valparaiso is definitely a port city, not a beach town.
• Bus seat assignments are taken very seriously. Sit in your assigned seat!