Cafayate

We stayed in San Marcos Sierras for a couple of days before heading north. Katja and I hitch-hiked over 500 km in two days to reach the small town of Cafayate. Cafayate sits in the middle of a desert valley, surrounded by huge mounains. We traveled through salt deserts, small towns filled with fields of sugar cane, and canyons that looked like jungles. It was absolutely beautiful! One night we stayed in Tafi del Valle, which is a quaint little mountain town that sits next to a huge lake. We bought some delicious cheese and salami to accompany the amazing wine from the area. I bought two bottles of the most incredible Malbec for only $12! Life in Argentina is very affordable, to say the least...especially when you hitch-hike. Now I know that some of you are thinking that I´m crazy, but it was totally safe with the two of us together. All of the people that picked us up were so kind, and we never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride. Go figure :)

So all is well in my world. The weather is turning a bit colder every day, but the sun still makes for beautiful days in Cafayate. I´m not sure of my plan, but I think I will head back towards Santiago de Chile in the next few days. Until next time...big hugs and lots of love to all!!!

On The Road

Last Thursday, my friend Miguel and I left Santiago de Chile via bus for the long journey to Cordoba. This is my first adventure to Argentina and riding in a bus through the Andes was quite exciting. It´s a bit difficult to sleep when the driver is passing semi trucks on blind curves over the mountain pass! Needless to say, I did not rest much on the trip to Mendoza. Besides the crazy driving, we spent four hours at the border waiting for the gaurds to search our bags. In the end, it took us about nine hours for the trip to Mendoza. The layover left us with seven hours to kill, so our new friend Nico invited us to stay at his house for the night. His family welcomed us for dinner and gave us warm beds to sleep for a few hours. The people that I meet continue to amaze me with their hospitality and generosity.

The next morning we caught the bus to Cordoba, which took us close to twelve hours. We quickly found a hostel in Cordoba and waited for my friend Katja to arrive from Cafayate. It is so great to see her and we spent hours catching up on our latest adventures. Cordoba is a beautiful city and we met some wonderful friends at the hostel. We all went out dancing together on Saturday night, so Sunday morning we were moving a bit slow. The group decided that it would be best to buy some cheese, bread, and salami so that we could spend the day picnicing in the mountians. So seven of us piled into the car for the trip to Carlos Paz, where we sat next to the river for the afternoon. The day was absolutely beautiful, filled with music and food and conversations with our new friends. We ended the evening with a huge bbq back at the hostel. We had fifteen people join us to celebrate the end to a wonderful weekend.

Monday morning we all bought bus tickets in different directions and said our farewells. Miguel traveled back to Santiago, while Katja and I headed north to a small village named San Marcos Sierras. It´s a lovely little village in the mountains that is filled with hippies. We decided to camp just outside out town, which ended up being a bad choice. While we were cooking dinner, a dog tore gigantic holes in my tent. Ugh! I tried to repair one with duct tape, but I ran out halfway through the job. Does anyone know if they sell duct tape down here? If not, somebody will have to mail me some so that I can finish the repair and continue using my tent :)

So here we are in San Marcos for the day. In the morning we will make our way towards a small town in the northern part of Argentina. Katja stayed in Cafayate for three days and loved it, so we will go back for a while to relax there. She will be flying back to Germany soon, but it´s so wonderful to be traveling with such a great friend. We are having an amazing time together!

Sending love and hugs to all!

Spirit of the People

I’m amazed at the spirit of the Chilean people, in both friends and complete strangers. The welcome I’ve received from my friends in Santiago is so generous that I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. For the moment, I’m staying with my friend Claudio in a suburb outside of Santiago. He has opened his home to me and introduced me to friends around the city. Their hearts and minds are open to helping me find my way in the city, as well as correcting the numerous mistakes I make when attempting to speak Spanish :) In strangers, I see the enormous amount of respect that Chilean’s have towards women and the elderly. On several different occasions, I’ve seen both children and adults give up their seat on the subway for a woman or an elderly person. However, there are also a few crazy people on the subway. Last night, for example, there was a man who was singing at the top of his lungs. He was singing the fight song for the national soccer team, but he switched the lyrics up so that the song was funny. The whole ordeal was quite amusing! A woman and I kept making eye contact, causing us to explode with laughter! By the time we exited the train, both of our eyes were filled with tears!

To elaborate more on the character of Chileans, the protest last week was truly amazing. Nearly 300 people gathered in Plaza Italia to sing, dance, play drums, and express their discontent over the new laws regarding seeds for local crops. I witnessed a unity between people who are not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. Even children attend the protest, carrying signs and dancing next to their parents.

Last Wednesday some friends and I traveled to Las Chilcas, a beautiful climbing area outside Santiago. I’ve experienced some pretty gnarly approaches to climbing areas over the years, but few compare to the approach to Las Chilcas. Navigating the buses and subways from Puente Alto to downtown Santiago can be exhausting when you’re carrying a large pack. The subway is usually as full as a can of sardines, so I was constantly bumping into people and excusing myself. Once we made it downtown, there was still another hour-long bus ride to Las Chilcas. The climbing area is well worth the journey though, as it's a playground for sport climbers. The conglomerate rock is solid, clean, and the routes are long. We climbed for three days, while camping in the garage of a local farmer. Again, a very generous family opened their home to us. The journey home was a bit easier, but equally as crowded. A very kind friend agreed to give us a ride back to the city in her car…her very compact car. It is quite possibly the smallest car I’ve ever ridden in, especially when you consider that we smashed six people and six huge backpacks in the vehicle. My knees were crammed into the seat in front of me, as I rested my head on the backpack that my companions held across their laps in the back seat. It was comical to say the least, although I found it to be a superior mode of transportation in comparison to the buses and subway :)

Other climbing adventures include attending a local competition in Santiago. Professional slack liners entertained the crowd and the public participated in a bouldering competition. Local climbers presented slide shows on climbing safety and nutrition for outdoor athletes. Raffle prizes included hats, quick draws, and new rope. There were no La Sportiva shoes given away in the raffle, although there were many Sportiva supporters in the comp. Even though Sportiva no longer employs me, I’m still proud to support and represent the best outdoor shoes available!

Tomorrow I will travel to Cordoba, Argentina to meet up with my friend Katja. She is a German woman that I met in January while trekking in Torres del Paine. She has spent the last seven months traveling around Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Needless to say, she is a huge source of inspiration and support for my own travels. I’m super psyched to reconnect with her and to visit the beautiful city of Cordoba. I'm unsure of how long I'll stay in Argentina, as I purchased a one-way bus ticket, but I'll be sure to write again when I return. Until then, I'm sending big hugs to all!!!

Another Day, Another Protest

The title says it all! Unfortunately the protest on Sunday was canceled because it was raining, but there is another reason to protest today. The farmers are protesting Monsanto; a worldwide corporation that produces genetically modified seeds for crops. In the past, the Chilean people had the choice to use seeds that were free and local. Recently, a law was passed that states Chilean farmers must buy the seeds for their crops from Monsanto, which means the seeds are now being imported from other countries. This poses many environmental problems for the region, on top of the obvious problem that Monsanto has it's hands in the pockets of the Chilean government. I am very excited to join my friends at the protest.

I'm sure that everyone has heard about the volcano that erupted in Chile. Puyehue Volcano is located about 800 km south of Santiago, so I a well out of harms way. However, my plans to visit Bariloche have changed a bit since the eruption. The ash floated over the Andes and landed in Argentina where my friend is living. I think I'll postpone that part of my adventure until everything settles down.

Learning to make my way around Santiago is pretty exciting! Moving around a city with over 6 million people can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm becoming more comfortable every day. The buses could use a little tender love and care, but the subway system is awesome and very user friendly. I still prefer to walk to bike whenever I can though.

My friends and I had plans to climb San Jose Volcano (5856 m) but I need to train a bit before an adventure that grand. Also, one of my friends is very sick so we are planning to rock climb and camp for a few days instead. Hopefully we will have time for San Jose Volcano before I head South to Patagonia.

Well, I'm off to the protest! Sending big hugs to all!

Santiago

I arrived in Santiago on Wednesday safely but two of my bags decided to stay behind in Michigan. The plane that took me from Detroit to Toronto was very small so all of the luggage didn't fit in the cargo area. Instead of making the trip to Toronto with me, my bags went from Detroit to Chicago to Miami and then finally to Santiago. Both of my bags were delivered to me at Claudio's house on Friday night at 11pm. Needless to say, I am so happy that all my belongings are back in my possession.

I have been very busy since I arrived in Santiago. Claudio and I went for a hike on Wednesday outside of Santiago, although the views of the city are very poor due to the smog. The smog is so terrible that the schools won't let the children practice sports some days. On Thursday we went down town to the market and met up with some friends for lunch. In the evening we went to a concert with live dancers and very traditional chilean music. It was beautiful! And today we went climbing at in Maipo Canyon with Miguel and Natalia. It was a wonderful day and I'm so happy to be out hiking and climbing again!

And tomorrow, I will attend my first protest in Chile! I'm very excited to support the people in protest of several dams that the government will be building in Chile. There is so much that I want to write about but my internet time is very limited. Hopefully I can share more tomorrow, including details from the protest. Until then, I hope all of my family and friends are doing well! Sending love and hugs to all!