Building an Arc and Bringing Bum Dogs

This is an older post from right before Navidad that I forgot to publish...

It's still raining! We have had about 15 days in a row of rain. Not constant all day rain, but we don't leave the place without a goretex jacket. The weather changes so quickly too, one minute I'm about to have a heat stroke the next I'm complaining that I didn't bring enough layers. Bariloche would be a horrible place to go through menopause...from what I hear.
As we walked back from attempting some rock climbing, which ended up inside pullin on plaztek, Ryan wished aloud that a bum dog would follow us home as a rent-a-pet. The bum dogs down here are really good looking dogs. (I can't believe I'm saying this.) they are healthy looking, they don't beg, they don't get all up in your business and somehow they know how to poop in inconspicuous places. They tend to travel in groups.
So we begin our 5k walk back to the Green House. (best hostel ever btw.) All of a sudden, there are two dogs walking with us. One was a German Shepard mix and the other one looked like a chubby version of Rasta. (he even had a faint peace sign on his forehead.) we named them Rosco y Brutus respectively. We grew fond of Rosco over the next 3.5k, Brutus was somewhat of a loose cannon. He'd just randomly jump at oncoming traffic barking hysterically with one ear up and one down. Then trot away...no big deal. We each had at least five heart attacks in that time.
Right around kilometer 4 a guy stopped us and told us that Rosco (Fico) was his neighbors dog and had been missing for five days.  Apparently they're not too attached to their dogs here. He had no idea who Brutus was. Brutus continued his kamikaze car chase game and we went back to the Green House.
The next day, on the way back from the supermercado, who should follow me home but the dog formerly known as Fico. No joke! He even stayed the night out in the rain! He was really attached to us and our hostel guy was not to psyched on that. So we had to ditch him back in town. It was heartbreaking, but we knew in the end it would be better this way. He would make a new family amongst the other bum dogs, or hopefully just find his original people again.
At least it was some good entertainment for a rainy day.

On the Road

It's been a bit since the last post, so this may be a long one, here goes...

The day after Christmas was absolutely beautiful weather, so we went back int the mountains. This time would only be a few days so our packs were quite a bit lighter. We gotta few pitches in that day as the days provide plenty of light this time of year! Next day was pretty big. We hiked out pretty far to a beautiful formation and climbed a nice long route. The rock quality was stellar and all the pitches were really great. To top it off, another beautiful day. Yes!

On the approach we crossed over all these little waterfalls that come directly from the snow melt. It is the clearest, best tasting water I've ever seen. It's so refreshing and energizing!

The next day, my birthday, I awoke to a perfect bluebird day. It was Colorado blue skies for the first time since we've been here. Sick, I knew it was going to be a great day for a birthday challenge. Ryan is a saint for belaying me all 28 pitches. He did get a few good ones in too, however I'm super grateful he was up for the challenge. It was suns out guns out all day! It was just the way I love to spend a day.

We had to make the bus from the base area at 8pm, which meant we had to leave no later than 6 to bang out the 10km hike. Doesn't seem like much, but after a big day, we were super worked. Luckily all we had to do the next day was sit. For 28hrs we were on a bus. Ew. Luckily the busses here are a few steps up from the trashy greyhound. It's even better than most airlines. The seats recline enough to get a few real winks of sleep in. They show movie after movie for 16 hrs straight. They're in English too, but with Spanish sub titles so it felt like we were getting a Spanish lesson.

Now we are in El Calafate for the night and will head to El Chalten tomorrow morning. It's a very small town where the Fitz Roy range is. This place is notoriously some of the best quality if rock climbing on our planet. Of course that does not go without cost...also some of the worst weather. People have spent months down here and climbed zilch. So we are prepared to just go see the beautiful mountains and not having high expectations of the weather. There's still plenty to do and see, if the weather allows we will get to climb some of those gorgeous rocks! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Happy old year. Thanks 2012 for all the lessons we learned. Looking forward very much to a year full of peace, health, joy and an abundance of love.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day today! We are taking it very easy as we celebrated last night and into Christmas morning argentine style. We had a huge asado, lots of meat (which I didnt eat ) and I made some big apple pies. Then we danced for hours. It was a blast!

So we are a little tired today. On the agenda; movies, maybe a polar bear club jump in the lake, more delicious food, nap. In no particular order. Tomorrow we will go up into the mountains for a few days so we need to get all of our stuff ready for that. We got good weather for Christmas ;) so were going to take advantage of it for the next week!

We send our love to all of our family and friends! We hope you are enjoying every part of your day and wish that Santa was good to everyone. Love and light all ways! Merry Chrismas.

Not the End of the World!

So we have really become quite fond of this little city. We walk around a lot. Yesterday was an exceptional urban trekking day. It started when we left our hostel yesterday and walked to the bus stop (1k). We were going to make a quick stop at the supermarket to grab snacks for the day before catching the 50 bus (or was it the 51?) to....ummm. Shoot, well hopefully we will just see our new friends on the bus when we get on and if they're not on it then its got to be the next one.

First, there's no such thing as a 'quick' stop at the supermercado. Everyone in there moves at the speed of slug, especially the cashiers. So my over caffinated, under rested, time crunched internal reaction was ugly. We did need the food for the day so I just got the bare necessities; water, apples, crackers then we booked it to the bus stop. Dangit! We missed one.

Our friends weren't on any of the next three. Wulp, we blew it.

Now what?
Let's go to that place that we kind of know about?
The one in walking distance?
Yes.
We don't have a book..
I think we can find it.

So we walked to kilometer1 where this dirt road should be on the right (4k). Check. Dirt road. Bonus,"Piedras Blancas" sign. So,we decided to walk up the road until we found rocks.  It climbed up a small summit so at the very least it would be a nice walk. It was indeed! Such perfect views of the lake, the mountains, the town. It really looks a lot like Seattle. We hadn't found any rocks but decided to continue. So close to the top, may as well,keep walking. Then all of a sudden, ROCKS! We made it! (4k) it turned out to be some great climbing too!

After a great afternoon of climbing, we went back to town for a bite to eat, groceries and a guide book. (5k) all the grocery stores were closed because some people rioted and organized a massive steeling spree from a store in town. It was on the national news. Argentine News Article (in Spanish).

There were lots of policia in town and the shops we're all boarded up because storefront owners were nervous people would break int their shops as well. No one was sure about what was going on and when the places were to open up.

We continued on our trek back to our lovely hostel (5k).  Luckily we had a small stash of veggies and bread at the hostel! Our friends moved up to our place and brought us a bottle of wine. Phew!  disaster narrowly averted.

So if you've been keeping track, 1+4+4+5+5=lots of urban hiking. Our feet are tired! The grocery stores opened up today with outrageously long lines, I'm talkin up the aisles. People were freaked out from the riots, it's Friday, Christmas is next week, and it was questionably the end of the world! (it's tomorrow here right now and the world exists so not to worry!)

We will continue to spin and buy groceries.

Happy solstice everyone!

Cold Rain and Snow

In case you were wondering, the answer is yes, the weather does get worse.

We went back up to the Refugio for another week. Most of the time up there was spent waiting for the weather to change. Which it really did not. We got up there just as the wind arrived. You really don't notice bad weather until the last kilometer of the hike up. So it was an enjoyable hike up. We just had food in our packs so we moved quickly. The wind didn't hit us until the last 100 meters of the 10 kilometer hike. Wow, it really hit this time though. I was literally leaning into the wind and it was completely supporting me. The night time was fairly windy and the next day was pretty poor weather. We got out and climbed a bit in the afternoon but it really wasn't too enjoyable. Luckily this time we brought a lot of food with so at least we ate well every night.

The next few days were more of the same. We just became pretty tolerant of poor weather. It was cold. You know the type of weather where you can't feel if your fingers are holding onto the rocks but you have an incredibly painful sensation in your fingertips so you assume it's a good hold. Well, a few of those days in a row will really break a girl. I did say more than once how "I only ever want to climb at Indian creek." turns out I'm somewhat of a fair weather climber... Last night rained. All. Night. Long. Then we woke up and it began to snow sideways, backwards huh? So we came back to Bariloche in the wettest hike ever reported in history.

Despite the suffering we did get some nice little day hikes in and the snow certainly made for some wonderful scenery.  Good thing we had such good company up there too.  There was a strong crew of hopeless fools waiting for a window to squeeze in another pitch before letting the truth of the matter become a reality.  We played plenty of card games and  laughed, a lot!

We are beginning to think of some warmer options for the next few weeks. If we anted cold and snow, we would be home skiing with all of you! There will be plenty of time for all of that when we return so for now, we are on a suns out buns out mission!

Peace love health all ways!

El Frey... The Reputation Holds True

We hiked in with humongous packs, they were heavy and I complained a lot. We brought a weeks worth of food, climbing gear, camping gear and lots of cold weather clothes as we heard the weather is finicky.  It's not measured I distance but instead by an hourly countdown. From the base of Cerro Catedral, the self proclaimed best ski area in south America, it's a 3hr 45 minute hike to the Refugio at Frey.

Once we got there the wind was ripping, dangit! Everything bad i heard about Patagonian climbing came back to me real quick. The wind, the cold and the bad weather.  I was really starting to doubt this all at that point.  We set up our tent in the wind..epic, made dinner and went to bed.

It snowed all nite.

We woke up and it was spitting snow, windy...really windy, and the clouds were low. Luckily I was worked from the hike so I was a little grateful for the bad weather.  We made breakfast and went into the Refugio to socialize a bit, but mostly to get out of the weather. The first person we see in there, Dan Escalante. We knew he was in the country but hadn't contacted him and really had no idea where he was...classic. It continued to snow in every direction all day. Double dangit. We hiked around in the evening when the sky cleared a bit and got pretty psyched to climb.

The next day we woke up to more wind and cold but more or less clear skies. So we went for it....brrrrr, easily the coldest rock climbing day I've ever had.  First pitch I my fingers felt like wood. The second pitch, the wind was ripping so hard that somehow it blew my sneakers, which were hanging from my harness, into the back of my head. On the third pitch all of the chalk in my chalk bag got blown into my eyes while I was waiting for a break in between gusts so I wouldn't get blown off the very sparsely bolted sandbagged route. The rock really is such high quality granite that despite the suffering it was hard to stop! We climbed a bit more then headed down to camp for some lunch.

It was not so bad down there. The area where the tents are set us is protected from the wind.  By now the sun had really started to warm up the rocks and there were plenty of daylight hours left so we went back for more.
There is an ultra classic line that greets you as you arrive at El Frey. Its the first formation you see as you walk up the trail and you can watch people climb it from sitting inside the Refugio. That was what we chose to climb. It really was great... Splitter line, amazing granite, bolted belay stations. The last pitch is a splitter half way through the face that ends up with one bolt to some hidden huge jugs.  You pull these positive heroic feeling moves right at the end of the route. Sick. Yes! Frey is awesome!

As you walk out to the other formations, it's crazy the way they all change according to your perspective. We would be climbing on one formation and look across and see some gorgeous line on another and so on. I kept feeling like we were at a playground just seeing all the attractions and hurrying around to play on all of them!

The weather kept getting better for the next 3 days. It actually got hot. We climbed some amazing quality routes. Everything seemed to be a little stiff and the sport climbs are super run out, keeps ya honest! The place is beautiful though, and the rock is divine. Everywhere you look is a photo op, I took lots. It's fully springtime there and the flowers are abundant and some quite different from the flowers in north America. We saw a mama duck and 5 little goslings in the laguna. The water is so clean you don't even need to treat it before drinking it.  The snow is melting still so there are these little waterfall streams everywhere. To top it off, it is light out until close to 10pm so there really is no such thing as an alpine start.

Today the weather turned so here we are in (San Carlos de) Bariloche about to start another chocolate mission!

 We wish lots of snow for you all up north! Powder it up!

Bariloche...the Chocolate Caoital of Sur America

We took a 17 hour bus ride down here from Mendoza, it's a huge country! I guess officially we are in Patagonia but just barely on the north end of it. There is a lake so big here that it looks like the ocean. The weather feels a lot like Seattle, just not as salty.

The chocolate here is awesome! There are at least ten chocolate factories in the main street, yes.  At least one factory per city block. Bariloche is the chocolate capital of South America, needless to say.

Yesterday we walked to town (5k) because we couldn't stand to be a another vehicle.  On the way there was this beater car partially driven off a cliff. One guy was in the driver seat and the other two were pushing it backwards. It was the passenger side front wheel that was off and the car was balancing on the axle. Que peligroso! So we helped to push, to no avail... Then we stepped away and they decided to try and push forward, Ryan and I thought this was a terrible idea as the wheel was completely off the cliff and this little 1991 total beater fiat wouldn't be able to drive with two wheels on plus the front axle. Miraculously they made it!! They all got in the car and drove away, not ever once showing any stress.

Today we will get all the stuff together because tomorrow we head to El Frey for 2 weeks for climbing!! Finally, as our fingertips are really starting to fall off now.

Mate and summer!

I went to a mate class the other night. I didn't know It was such a ceremony. I'll share a little about it...

First off, when we were at Los termas yesterday (a hot springs water park made from stones) everyone had their mate kits which consist of a thermos, a gourd, a bombilla, loose Yerba mate and sugar all in a travel case... Some of which are pretty baller looking. It's just part if what they bring on their picnics, or mid day break. Mate everywhere!!

So, whoever carries the case makes a mate the way they like it, then they drink a whole gourd full, then the add a little more Yerba, water, sugar(if desired) and pass it to the person on the right, when they have finished, they pass it back to the head person and they refill and repeat until everyone has had their fill. It's a special event for people and if someone invites you to their home to have mate, it means they think very highly of you.

The mate section at the grocery store is SICK! There's like 20 different kinds to choose from.

So as we were at Los termas, we were looking around at all the suckers getting sunburned, which was 90% of people as Argentinians have fair skin. We didn't notice how burnt we were til we got back to the hostel...oops. Feeling better today thanks to Julie's Singing Spring Botanicals first aide salve. (Great stuff!)

Well, off to find some lunch before everyone goes for siesta and the entire town shuts down for 3 hours!

For my health food store friends!

There is so much about Mendoza that is like a heaven to me... Mate is everywhere, really good red wine also everywhere, chocolate. I am very intimidated by the amount of meat people eat here. Its in everything, and if it isn't directly, then it's cooked in lard. Our waiter explained the soups today as the meat soup or the chicken soup...So, naturally I was concerned. I did a little hunting around yesterday... I did see one little tienda de health, it was the size of my closet in the dorms at western state college. It did, however have just what I needed, nuts and dried fruit! Who cares if you are in the neat capital of the entire southern hemisphere when you can find dried fruit and nuts!.

Which brings me to my next topic...all the lonely vegans, where do we go for lunch? I've actually found some bomb salads down here. Aside from just wine as an export, there is lots of exported olive and olive oil coming from here. So, bam! That's what I'll sustain off of! Plus, I love how south America has such a sweet tooth, chocolate stores on every street! (double bam!!)

As we were walking home last night we found an open air market. Yaaay! Now we're talking!  Tons of bulk herbs, grains (even the ones we eat!) plenty more dried fruit, chia seeds, nuts, fresh veggies and fruits.  Plus all your basics, neon striped mini dresses, brick oven fired pizza,  knock off chuck taylors, even a little stand with all your basic toiletries. Sweet, I'm going to survive, and I don't have to eat bisteka to do it!

To top it off, we did find two vegetarian restaurants today, they wee buffet style and loaded with great yummy things. Also, cherry season!! Mmmmhmmm, two cherry seasons in one year?!

I know the meat thing is of interest to a lot of you as well, so I will tell you that Ryan reports very positively on the subject. The cows did live a happy life, and the meat is cooked over a large wood fire.

Jet laged...

Ahhhh...from house to hostel, grand total travel time of...48hrs. Wow,and it certainly feels that way.  (while we were at dinner lat nigh, ryan fell asleep twice. One of those ti,es i was in the middle of tellingnhi a story.) We flew into Santiago as the sun was rising over the Andes.  Followed by another glorious layover, this time only four hours. Then we flew over the Andes into Argentina. Pretty breath taking. 

What's the weather like? I'm glad you ask! Glorious, it was hott yesterday ans stays comfortably warm at night. It's pretty dry here but the city has the similar irrigation system to gunnison's freshman ditch, so all the streets are lined with big trees, there always seems to be a nice breeze here as well. It poured rain turning into hail as we ate a luxurious lunch today. 

But, the best part of everything is the abundance of fine wine. We just got a very nice bottle for only $4.50.  We will not be skimping in that terrirory! We will be snow dancing for all of north America! Cheers

I'm in Miami b!+ch!

We new it was going to be a good day when the woman at the Hyatt told us last night that the 5am shuttle was full, but we could get on the 4:20. Ok! We had a send of dinner with family at the best  restraunt in Denver, the Watercourse.
Just waiting to leave the country now, hanging at MIA international terminal... Spectacular people watching! Plus a little drama when some guy ran away from security and the whole place around us was instructed not to move.
All is well now! We are super styked!  Appropriate theme music at this link. Im just passing time keeping my eyes peeled for celebs and power walking the d terminal...yesss.