Puerto Natales, Chile

We jumped back over the border into Chile, but it is more a fork in the road than a destination. Lewis, Joel and Phillip are off into the wild here in Torres del Paine National Park, I will head down
down
down
to the southernmost city on the continent: Ushuaia, Argentina. They’ll be meeting me there next week sometime.

DSC00328, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

But first, some pictures from El Calafate, Argentina, and its marvelous Glaciar Perito Moreno. We were able to actually save money renting a car to get to the glaciar… you can not imagine the unique independent joy that comes with driving a car when you haven’t in quite a long time. We watched this enormous, jagged ice field for hours as the sun set and the full moon rose. Its colors, shadows, and shapes change incessantly; it was hard to look away.

DSC00327, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

All the while, the light and temperature changes cause long groans and creaks that sound like some enormous tree swaying in the wind, its branches slowly being bent and snapped. Sometimes we could see the source of the sound, sometimes you had to imagine it. As the sunlight faded and the moon cast its unique light, more and more chunks burst off the sides and into Lake Argentina, again twisting our perception as we tried to match up size and sound.

DSC00357, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

We went out with a bang in El Calafate. We made a satisfying Thanksgiving, despite the lack of Turkey and pumpkin pie, and even had the opportunity to explain the historical and sentimental reasons for the holiday in Spanish over the meal. On our last night there, some kind friends made us more pizza than we could eat, and then we went on our big night out. There wasn’t a dance floor in the bar we hit, but we quickly took over the empty stage and danced to our hearts’ content to “Flashdance” and “Livin’ On a Prayer”… Sadly, I have no pictures, but it was a perfect night, in my memory. So why mess with that?

Pizza night with friends, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

morning study sleepyheads, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

Unless you didn’t notice: I added a few more photos to my last post, now that they are online. And if you were dying to read Joel’s article but do not read Spanish, Matt Crest was kind enough to post a translation (it was done by a computer, not a person, so it is pretty rough, but understandable!). You can find that link in the Comments section beneath the post.

Bogota, Colombia

Drizzle drizzle, originally uploaded by christysmirl.

After four days of wandering the older district of Bogota, La Candelaria, we are starting to get our bearings… we have our favorite bakery, a couple of hang out spots we like. We can get from one point to another without wandering too terribly far out of the way, there are fewer times that we try to stand discreetly and figure out where in the world we have ended up.

This city is amazing! It is culture and history, eccentricities and beauty side by side. I can´t believe I had never heard of it before I bought our tickets. Every street is brightly colored old building after another, with luscious green mountains framing the entire skyline. This is a student district, so every street is lined with crepe shops, cafes, clubs, libraries, street art (from graffiti to statues atop buildings to amazing stencil work). We went to an incredible library, the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, which has a quit courtyard we like to sit and read in, and a great gallery with one of the best exhibits either of us have seen (the highlight which was a 25´hammock over a bunch of sand that we were allowed to climb into).

It is refreshing to be in a place with so few tourists, though not entirely foreign to our culture. People stare and double-take unabashadly, and almost everyone humors us our Spanish attempts rather than giving us the easy way out and jumping into English. For a large city (8 million), almost everyone has been incredibly kind, curious, and patient. It´s also surprisingly clean–I´ve seen twice as many nasty stray dogs in Thailand or even France. You do have to watch for enormous holes in the street and taxis that don´t stop for anyone. Still undecided whether the enormous security, police, and army presence (muzzled rottweilers and all) is comforting or unnerving. A bit of both.

Our hostel is in this ancient house with wood floors and beamed ceilings, which makes it incredibly charming if not a little loud to walk around in. We have found our favorite lunch place with plantains and fresh lemonade, chicken and rice. Our days have been a smattering of trying to delve into Spanish so as not to further embarass ourselves on the streets, hanging out in fun squares and parks just reading and talking, trying new food, meeting friends in the hostel and watching pirated movies together, and deciding where to explore next within the city and after we leave here. At this point we will be here at least another 5 days or so, perhaps longer. We want to venture outside of Bogota to a little town called Suesca to climb and camp, and then we will probably gradually make our way out of Colombia. Our first stop in Ecuador will be 2-3 weeks working on an organic farm outside of Otavalo.

I do hope to tell you I´m perfectly healthy the next time we write. I´m just sick enough to be a bit weak and uncomfortable, but not so much that I can´t leave our room. Lewis takes incredibly good care of me, naturally, so I am pumped with liquids and meds and soup. It may be combination stomach issues and travel shock. I´m convinced there is no such thing as ´jet lag,´(flight and time change induced weariness), but simply the mental shock of taking in a hundred thousand new things an hour, and the physical weariness of so many hours walking. Regardless, we are here for enough days to relax and we have been indulging ourselves with sleep and food. It´s nice not to be in a hurry, to see as much or as little of this town as we´d like every day. We miss you, friends and family!