Patagonia

Sorry it's been such a long time since we have last written. The majority if it since Pichilemu has been in the backcountry! We will do our best to catch you up to speed.
So after our Gato filled night in Pichilemu, we headed down to Puerto Montt.  There, we caught a four day/three night ferry to Puerto Natales (the gateway city to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine). The ferry took us through the patagonian fjords of western Chile. We got ideal weather and got to see a side of Patagonia that most people don't get to see since the only way to access it is by boat. The fjords are incredibly beautiful with lush forests, mountains and hanging glaciers on both sides. It was hard to do anything but sit on the deck and watch the scenery.
The boat dropped us off in the small town of Puerto Natales where we hurriedly prepped for our trip into Torres del Paine. We packed nine days of food for ten days and took off for the mountains. We had originally planned on hiking the whole circuit, something like 90 kilometers, but upon arrival learned that a portion of the loop was closed. We already had the food so we decided to just do as much as possible. We got to hike all over the park and much to our delight the pass opened on our 9th day so we ran up and over it to complete the circuit. All said and done we managed 106 miles, a bit more than we planned. Time to move on!
Soon after Torres del Paine we bussed to Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan. There we took in some of the more historical aspects of Patagonia as well as a sweet trip out to see the penguin colonies. From there it was time to head north running through El Calafate to watch house sized pieces of ice calve off of the glacier Perito Moreno and up to El Chalten at the base of Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The town itself sits in a beautiful river valley and acts as base camp for many mountaineering and climbing expeditions in the range. On Crystal's birthday we hiked in to the park and spent the afternoon sipping whiskey cocktails made with glacier ice while watching the clouds play peekaboo with Cerro Torre. Another day we hiked up to the base of Fitz Roy at 4am to watch the lightshow provided by the sunrise upon the towers.
After Fitz Roy, we caught a bus at 3:50 am to take a 25 hour ride to enter into our last Patagonian city/start of the Lakes District. A place called El Bolson. This place is known for three things: cervesas artesenal (microbrews), farms, and hippies. That being said, we are really enjoying our time here. It has been a while since we have been able to relax and do a whole lot of nothing. It's been a much needed break off our feet.
So that's where we are now and next stop will be Bariloche.
Our entire trip has been geared toward going south but now it's northward we go.
Until next time, Hasta luego!!


Again, sorry for the lack of photos. We promise to do a photo blog once we get home!!

Santiago to Puerto Montt

Hello all! Crystal and I are sitting here in a internet cafe in Puerto Montt, Chile a day before  getting on  a boat that will take us through the fijords of southern Chile to Puerta Natales and Patagonia! Chile has been pretty amazing so far. We spent a few days in Santiago to explore the city and meet up with a friend from Salt Lake that happened to be in the area. The city is a mix of modern skyscrapers and colonial architecture with a crazy tourist scene.
From there we took off for the coast and Chile´s surf capital, Pichilemu. Pichilemu is the  home of the surf break Punta del Lobos where pros come from all over in the winter to paddle into some of the huge southern swells that hit the point. We stayed a sweet hostel on a farm with a beachfront view and spent a few days relaxing and drowning in the surf. For the record, so far, Pichilmeu is home to the undisputed contender for the title of ¨Best Empanada.¨ Trust us, we have done our research. I for one, though, am holding out to crown a winner until Argentina however. We concluded our stay with a big BBQ, argentina style, thanks to our new friends Nico and Luis. The Gato (boxed wine) kinda clouds the night a bit but I´m sure it was a good time for everone involved.
Once we had a our fill of emapanadas and salt water we took off on an overnight bus to Pucon, a mountain town at the base of a volcano. There we escaped to nearby Parque Nacional Huerquehue where we hiked, swam in lakes and were tormented by huge acrobatic trout munching on bugs while we sat on the shore without rod nor reel. The park was a great rest from the tourist haven of Pucon.
And that brings us to Puerto Montt and what is hopefully the best and certainly most anticipated part of our voyage as we head south to the ruggedness of Patagonia. As of right now we are having a hard time loading photos but will try to get some us as soon as possible. We love you all and hope all is well wherever you are.

Hello to our friends!We are currently in Copacabana, Bolivia (and no, it´s not the Copacabana the song was written about...I was disappointed too).
For the last two weeks we have been in Peru and it has been a whirlwind!
We got off the plane at about midnight and decided to skip Lima and go straight to a beautiful historic town called Arequipa. Arequipa is known as the alpaca capital of the world and it´s backdrop is the volcano El Misti. After a fourteen hour bus ride we finally arrived to our first hostel! We spend our time there slowly acclimating to the elevation and the new world we had just entered. In Arequipa, we decided to take a wonderful cooking class where we got to learn how to make ceviche and pesca ala macho (bomb!).
After a couple days in Arequipa we were ready to head to Cuzco, the gateway to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. We spend our time there prepping for our trek and celebrate our 2 year anniversary!! After our mini adventure of finding a good backcountry pot and buying food at the local mercado we were ready to head out.
The classic trek that most people do to get to Machu Picchu is the Inca Trail. Unfortuately due to the volume of tourism, the Inca Trail is highly regulated and you need to do it on a guided tour which we decided against. Instead we opted to do the Salkantay Trail. An alternative route to Machu Picchu where no guide or permits are necessary. The trek entails four LONG days starting in the jungle of Mollapata, up and over a 15,000 ft. pass underneath the snowy peaks of Navado Salkantay, back into the rainforest of La Playa and the Sacred Valley. For this trek, most people still rent horses or a guide due to the intensity of the terrain. Out of about 50+ people starting the trek on the same day as us, there was only two others doing it unguided and unsupported. We later found out that the guides were highly doubting our ability to finish or even get past day one! It was a difficult trek with extreme ups and extreme downs (in terms of terrain, not our moods!). A major concern for us was the high probability of getting altitude sickness of some sort because we were going to be so high. Luckily, neither of us experienced anything besides small headaches and exhausted bodies. Did you guys know the uphill gets really...really... really hard at 15,000 ft?
We wrapped up the trek in Aguas Caliente which is the city below Machu Picchu. We woke up at 4 AM the next day to catch the earliest bus up, hoping to catch a glimpse of Machu Picchu without many people. After taking pictures at the classic viewpoint of MP we headed up for a 2,000 ft. climb to the summit of Machu Picchu Mountain where we could see a large portion of the route we had just walked.
Even though it´s been a few days since we finished, our bodies are still aching from the trek. Our bodies were craving for rest from the difficult trek but we needed to continue on our journey to our next country-Bolivia!



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So due to technical difficulties, it looks like we´re not going to be able to post pictures on the blog.. SORRY! And also becuase of this, we´ve postponed posting this Peru entry and now we are over and done with Bolivia and currently in Santiago, Chile!
It seems so quick and already we are feeling like we are pressed for time. Dang these countries are too big and beautiful...
Anyway, Bolivia was short and sweet. We went from Cuzco to Puno, Peru which is the border town to Bolivia. We thought we were going to stay in Puno but ended up not getting the best vibes there so we immediately hopped on another bus straight across the border to Copacabana, Bolivia. There we spent a few days hanging out by Lake Titicaca and walked across the Isla del Sol which was the birthplace of the sun and the Incas. We even tried our first Trucha (trout) from Lake Titicaca... Delicious! We really enjoyed Copacabana but the rest of South America calls so we got out of there and headed straight to Uyuni, Bolivia where we took a three day jeep tour across the Salar de Uyuni which is the larget salt flat in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni
Check out the wiki page.. haha 
This tour also took us to the border of Bolivia and Chile which is how we got here!(via a 24 hour bus from the border to Santiago. Yes, I said 24 hour bus)
And now, we slowly making our way down south to the Chilean part of South America.

Sorry to make this short but minutes on the computer is precious here.. We will write soon. We are both doing well and are healthy & happy. We have met and come across wonderful, kind people and are excited about our time in Patagonia. We will write soon! Much, much love.. tw & cl

Seattle, WA to San Diego, CA

The point of this blog is to keep our friends and loved ones in touch and informed about the adventures during our travels this fall and winter. Our journey began this September when Crystal flew from Los Angeles to Seattle to meet me after a grueling summer of being apart. Our time in Seattle included an incredible concert by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, one our favorite bands and some time spent with friends from Outward Bound. Great big thanks to the Julie/Joel residence for all of your hospitality!

After  summer spent in the mountains I was itching for the coast so we quickly jumped in trusty Floyd, the 23 year old Ford Ranger and caught a ferry for the Olympic Peninsula to visit Genny and Ned at their house out on Crescent Lake. The stay would not be complete without plenty of wine, kite flying and a day of watching salmon spawn in the recently freed, Elwa River. Watching the huge fish, visibly decaying while still alive, thrash up the river to build redds and lay eggs was certainly a highlight for all of us.

Next we embarked for Forks, WA and the Quileute reservation. Some of you may may be familiar with this area due to its propensity to attract vampire-crazed teenage girls, all searching for locals with sparkly skin or Native Americans with an unusual amount of body hair. Despite the obvious pandering to this crowd by local stores, the area is truly beautiful and made for a perfect place to spend a night camping on the beach and drinking wine. For the next week, we spent our time driving along the coast, camping on the beach, and gorging ourselves with smoked salmon and cheese from the Tillamook cheese factory. Along the way, we managed to drive the entire west coast, see friends along the way and spend time with family as we prepared for the main portion of our adventure together in South America.