Glaciers, jagged peaks, hitchhiking and lots of crackers....

Man, it is hard to keep up with this blog!....

where to begin?....

after my last entry, i spent 5 days or so in Ushuaia. hiked to some glaciers. stayed with a super amazing woman, Marina and her beautiful 5 year old son Tomas. They were so hospitable. Made me feel right at home. did a little boating, hiking day tour with Marina´s company which was very cool. got to see my first penguins! cute little guys.


Glacier overlooking Ushuaia.


Met some great Brits, Ant and Lisa.



Penguin tour









penguin redneck. nice kelp stain.


"hold it right there buster!".... "i didn´t do it, i swear!"




Another crazy Canadian! this water was cold. southern most swim... check.


from there i started the journey north with the first stop taking me into Chile. the south of Chile was great. did some amazing couchsurfing, met some great Chileans, climbed some amazing mountains...

i decided to buy a tent in Chile so that i could hit the Torres Del Paine park (home of the Torres Del Paine peaks (likely the most famous mountains in South America). However, the Patagonian mountains are known for their unpredictable weather and heavy winds and this tent was not exactly top notch... $40 and only one layer.. seriously! it was super small and light though! and now i had a house whenever i needed one - even if it wouldn´t necesarily keep me dry. that is what garbage bags are for!

so i arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile at 8 pm, booked my bus ticket for 7 am the next morning to the park and hit the streets to prepared for 6 days in the mountains... i didn´t even have a stove! but i found one, along with a pot that i rented. a young guy at the hostel gave me a foamie and lent me a fly for my tent. quick trip throught the supermarket and i was ready. ready enough anyway.

what an amazing experience in this park. i covered over 100 km in the 5 and a bit days. over 20 km on day 3. met some great people along the way. ate a ton of rice and pasta. and the sites... wow! hopefully the pictures give it justice... on night number 4 we arrived at the camp at the base of the Torres Del Paine peaks (i was hiking with Chris from Atlanta at this stage - great guy!). it was raining.. hard. at is was bloody cold.... we finally took refuge in our tents and hoped for a decent morning to catch the sunrise on the peaks (a very steep one hour hike from camp)... no dice. the morning was wet and cold.... some people still went for it but we knew there was no point. lucky for us we had enough food to stay another night and so we did.... and as fate would have it, the skies cleared, we got up nice and early, heated up some hot water for tea on the peaks and started treking... it was incredible! this really is a rarity to catch the peaks in these conditions. very very lucky!


fresh face.... day 1 of my epic ( i love that word) 6 day trek through Torre Del Paine national park in southern Chile. Considered by many to be South America´s top park... truly amazing!


my first ice bergs...... breaking off of Glacier Grey...


Glacier Grey at sunset....




Crazy rock formations. weird trees...


these suckers are amazing! they eat rock for lunch... and dinner...


yet another glacier swim.... this one was beautiful. 8:30 pm. in the middle of a trek with all of our gear to the next camp.... couldn´t help myself. people really do think i am crazy. they are probably right.


Sunrise on the Torres (means towers)






i did what is called "The W". if you can see the darker green bit that kind of forms a W around the glaciers and mountain peaks in the middle of this picture.. that is the trek i did. so sweet!


after the park, i jumped on a bus back into Argentina and up to El Calafate, home of the most famous glacier in S.A. Perito Mareno glacier. mad mad chunk of ice! so massive. so close. and moving/growing so much! up to 2 meters per day! massive chunks would fall off and make the most incredible bangs. one of the most incredible sites i have ever seen.







from there i was off to El Chalten, the base town for the other well known park in S.A. Los Glaciers National park and home of the Fitz Roy mountains. this was an incredible 4 days of hiking and camping. i met some wonderful people from the states who are studying in Buenos Aires and we all hung out for the whole trip. so much fun. and like the other park, this area is known for very harsh weather, rain, hard winds... generally very rough conditions. We had sun for 4 straight days, saw the most amazing display of stars and caught the Fitz Roy peak at sunrise in perfect conditions 2 straight days! i am really starting to wonder how much good luck a guy can have in one lifetime......


Anna, Patrick and Ryan. Great crew!


Now i can die happy!




Fitz Roy at sunrise.










The view from our campsite... not bad. such an artist!


yet another glacier....


beautiful.


it has been so nice to spend time in the mountains, doing some treking, breathing fresh air and seeing some really amazing things. i have seen more glaciers in the past 2 weeks than i have my entire life. and they are not your average glaciers! the mountains here are prety bizarre too. so jagged. no trees. most of the peaks are pure granite. powerful to see up close and personal.

but after nearly 2 weeks in the mountains, i was ready for some down time... the natural next stop on the tourist circuit is Bariloche but i decided to skip it and head to Mendoza..... looked into a bus ticket... no buses for 3 days. pretty expensive... well i guess this was my time to do a bit of hitchhiking..... of course this decides to happen when i am trying to travel over 3000 km of some of the most remote areas of south america! the road up the west side of the country is famously known for its ruggedness (route 40) and for Che Guevara´s travels but not good for hitching so i grabbed a bus to Rio Gallegos (check the map!). it is basically the last city before the straight of magellan.... at this stage i was still with my american friends and they are jumping on a bus back up to Buenos Aires... but the travelling spirit in Anna was too strong and she decided to skip the 3 day of classes and hit the road with me. so cool! wow, what a trip we had the most amazing luck. our first ride took us nearly 800 km in about 6 hours! plus he gave us empanadas! (delicious pastries stuffed with beef). maybe i will post the entire hitching sinopsis later but the summary is. by 9 am on day 4 we had arrived in Mendoza. about 3500 km in less than 4 days! incredible. so many hilarious experiences. wonderful wacky truck drivers. road closures due to striking farmers, sleeping in cow fields under full moons.... the kicker was on our last ride. they picked us up at 8 pm (pitch black out), there were 2 guys in the truck so we piled onto the bed behind their seats. they drove for 4 hours or so (not talking to us at all - which was a nice break from the other guys that talked our ears off!). then we stopped, they got out, jumped in the trailer of salt they were pulling and went to sleep! no kidding. we were sleeping in their bed and they jump onto the salt and sleep. too bizarre. then at 4:30 am they get up, jump back in the cab, and start cruising. laughing and joking.... by 9 am we were on the side of the highway, 12 blocks from the city center of Mendoza. amazing!

was out of memory for the hitching so here are the few pics.... wacky times!

Not the fastest ride we hitched but it was an experience... Thanks Gustavo!


Another funny ride. Gotta love those Argentine men..... Sergio helped us out big time.


Had a whole lot of this......


yet another major route intersection blocked off by the striking farmers... had to sit at this one for an hour before they would let us continue on our way..... luckily there was an asado (bbq) so we sat back, had a beer and some meat..... very interesting.


mmm mmmm mmmm. roadside asado!


these guys were hilarious! bunch of truckers and farmers in the middle of nowhere......


Love this pic Anna!


Walter. Super nice guy. took us far... slow and steady!


we have been in Mendoza for a couple days. it is wonderful. we are staying with a wonderful family (friends of my Mom´s) who have a beautiful apartment right down town. So lucky. it is hot hot, the wine is cheap, out clothes (and bodies) are finally clean.... life is good!

love to you all,

Joel