Santiago, Vina, and San Pedro

After about 4 months we are saying goodbye to one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I want to reiterate what Andy said in his last post. We have been so incredibly lucky to live, work, and backpack in a place the BBC makes documentaries about. Planet Earth actually spends about 5-10 minutes describing the cycle of life of the puma and guanaco who call "our backyard" home.  This place attracts people from all over the world and we were fortunate enough to experience it on our own, with worldly guests, and with new friends.  Thanks to everyone at the hotel for the good times and amazing experience.

Me, Kineret, Natalia, Alejandra on the last day

Coco, the pastry chef, Me, and Pamela, head of the cleaning staff/my looming teacher

We have migrated north to the warmer weather of Santiago and Vina del Mar. We stayed with my friends Sarah and Sebastian for about a week and rediscovered cooking, vegetables, proper exercise, and dominos (the game).  I finally showed Andy all of my favorite hang outs from my study abroad days that I have talked about for the past 4 years.

Pepo, the famous Chilean cartoonist, exhibit in the National Library

View from Cerro Santa Lucia in Santiago

 
We ventured out to Vina del Mar to visit Agustin, one of our good friends at the hotel.  He was a waiter turned part of the maintenance staff after the hotel discovered his college degree would contribute more to that area.  He spent two full days showing us around the beach, museums, shopping at the mall for his mother's day gift (he bought her a very stylish plaid shirt), and searching for a proper sushi restaurant.  Too bad all the sushi in South America has large glob of cream cheese.  No matter how you order it...sushi, rolls, you name it, it has a large slab of good ol' Philadelphia.

We made a stop in Easter Island to see the Moai...j/k  this one of the Moai that has made it to the mainland in Vina del Mar.

On the beach!!!

Two-headed lamb born in Chile and preserved in the Natural History Museum in Vina del Mar

We introduced Andy to one of Chile's infamous drinks called Terremotos which literally means earthquake. This wine, rum, and pineapple sherbet concoction packs a punch.  The bar we were at played videos of 90s rock songs and our female exchange student neighbors belted out the lyrics to every song while intoxicated Chilean men drooled over them. Got to love Wednesday night pitchers of Terremotos!

Enjoying Terremotos by the pitcher :)

We said goodbye to Sarah and Sebastian and headed to the North of Chile, San Pedro de Atacama, the worlds driest desert in world.  The small town maintains dirt roads, for tourists sake, and one story adobe buildings.  San Pedro draws travelers for it's unique desert landscapes, impressive rock formations, crystal clear star gazing, and the musical police. Yes, musical police.  On our way to the Valle de la Luna, we stumbled across a 25 member band of uniformed police men and women playing classic rock songs in the main plaza in town. They put on quite a show.  Our hostel was also a restaurant and bar and to save energy they made solar panels to heat pots of water.  Andy was interested in the design and sat for an hour with the owner talking about how to construct one.  We toured the city and the sites on dirt bikes and prepared for our Uyuni Salt Flat Tour.  Next stop...Bolivia!

Valle de la Luna in San Pedro

Heating solar panels at our hostel

Se fue mi computadora

Well well, here I am again. My computer broke about a month ago, but thanks to the genius of a friend I am now again connected online. A ton has happened since we last talked, Kelly and I went to Argentina and spent several days in Argentina's youngest but assuredly most exhilarating town's El Chalten.

This is where the logo for Patagonia brand clothing comes from a mountain range including El Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. These magnificent peaks tower over a tiny little burg that is quickly becoming more and more popular and world renowned for its excellent rock climbing. Kelly and I went with the intention of making some monster hikes and we got our money's worth. Two full days of great hiking and unforgettable scenery. We were met with some wild weather that really tested our mettle but stood strong in the face of torrential downpours, voracious winds, and biting snows. Needless to say we were happy with our decision to supplant our backpacking urges with the wiser and quite economical decision to stay at a hostel.

We returned from El Chalten to visit Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate, another Argentinian Patagonian city. Here we were able to visit on of the worlds few remaining growing glaciers. Because of its growth it is a great spot to hang out and see calving icebergs. We only caught a few small breaks which was a bit disappointing but it was still quite a sight to behold.

We also around this time decided to take up the hotel's offer to stay on for the final month of the season as full time guides. This allowed me to get some more much needed practice with my Spanish and the both of us some final moments in our favorite places in the park.

This also allowed us to stick around for the final asado (lamb BBQ Patagonian Style) with all of our new friends.

It was sad to leave such an amazing place where we both grew immensely (not just because of the poor dietary choices) and were able to take advantage of such a world class opportunity. We made some true friends and met some amazing people along the way. We send our deepest thanks to Sarah Thornton and Chris Purcell for making this happen, of course to all of our friends at the hotel who helped us along the way, all of the amazing guests we had the windfall of guiding for, and lastly the Chilean people.