The journal formerly known as ...Latin America

The 3 phases of living abroad

sobrea — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:55:00 GMT

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This week Sophia and I are celebrating our six month anniversary of living in Shanghai, China. Although we’ve out been of the U.S. for over a year, this is the first place that we’ve settled down and really started to experience these 3 phases.

I’m sure this is not an exhaustive list of phases I will go through but I believe that they may be the most important.

Phase 1: Honeymoon

Oohh…ahhhh…this is what I must have sounded like wandering around town those first few weeks. Everything was so interesting, I mean everything. I remember the first morning, I stepped out of the hotel and into a convenience store, I saw the craziest looking bottle of Mountain Dew, ever. It was a completely different shape than any soda bottle I’d ever seen before and Mountain dew was somehow written in Chinese characters. I hadn’t drunk a mountain in who knows how long but I had to have it.

A great example is the grocery store, for us this means Carrefour. Sophia and I were so blown away with this place that we were taking videos inside the store…loving every minute of it.

The metro (subway) was another great adventure for us…we got our metro cards, map and we were unstoppable, riding that sucker everywhere and so happy that we could get around so fast.

Phase 2: Frustration

I’m not sure when this happens exactly; I suppose it’s a gradual thing. For some reason many of the things that seemed so interested in the honeymoon phase were now frustrating because they weren’t the way I was used to them being back home. This led me to believe that I, single-handedly was responsible for changing these things and showing the world there’s a better way to accomplish specific tasks.

For example, that grocery store that was once so incredible is now full of annoyances like, why is there no ground beef or why are they playing loud music I can’t understand? Why won’t the checker just put my groceries in the bag rather next to the bag…speaking of…where is the bag boy? Why are they stocking the shelves during prime shopping time, shouldn’t this happen at night?

How about those metro trains I loved so much…every time you get to your stop, your thinking, why won’t the people just let me get off the train before they start boarding? Why is it so crowded everyday? Why don’t they crank up the air conditioning? Why does security always make me put my bag through the x-ray machine when no one else does it?

As for traffic, if you’re like me you grew up being taught that pedestrians have the right of way. Now you’re in China and it couldn’t be more different. The pecking order goes – Bus – Car – Scooter – bicycle – pedestrian…every time a car doesn’t stop for me I’m thinking they are personally trying to run me over!

Phase 3: Acceptance and enjoyment

I have gotten more enjoyment out of this phase than even the honeymoon phase. By accepting the culture and environment I now have allowed the positive benefits to have an effect on me. Of course I still hope to have a positive affect on my environment as well, but I am not dissapointed if I cannot change the things that once frustrated me.

I know that the grocery store will be crowded and that some older woman might run into me with her cart, that’s ok.

I know that the subway will be crowded…but hey, definitely beats walking!

As for the traffic, gotta look both ways before crossing the street…but you can’t take it personally if the taxi tries to run you over.

In this phase I’ve also really stepped up my efforts to speak the language and eat the local food. It’s always easier to order McDonalds delivery…but c’mon, I could do that in the States…well maybe not the delivery part.

If you have gone through something similar or maybe you’re going through it right now, I’d love to hear about it…leave a comment!

Brett Isis

Founder, Teaching Nomad.

My experience teaching in China...

sobrea — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:11:00 GMT

This blog is all about my experience teaching here in Shanghai, China. I’m sure living and teaching in Shanghai is a lot different than the experiences that others have teaching in smaller cities in China, because here we have so many of the Western conveniences here. It really is quite a diverse city. One minute you’ll be walking through the French Concession, surrounded by all Americans and Europeans and then as you travel into the next part of town and all you will see are Chinese people eating dumplings and chicken feet as a man peddles his load of 100 chairs behind his bike. It’s never boring here in China.

When I first thought about teaching in Asia, I never thought I would be working with such young kids. 2 out of my 8 classes are 3 year olds and the rest of them range from 5-11 years old. I have experience working with kids in the States, but I have never worked with 3 year old babies! It’s definitely different and took me some time to get used to them and figure out how to teach them. Seriously, a lot of these young classes start with at least one or two of the kids crying, but once the Hello song has been on for a few minutes they are usually all fine.

It is really helpful that I have a Chinese assistant trainer to help me with the classes, explaining things in Chinese when the kids are having trouble understanding and helping me with Chinese a little on the side. It’s also good to have an extra person around when one of the little 3 year old terrors needs to be restrained! I lucked out with my assistant trainer, Fiona, because we have a lot in common and get along really well.

The other big difference between teaching here and in the States is that there is a language barrier between the students and I. I’ll have kids come up to me and just chat away in Chinese, because they haven’t quite grasped the concept that I only understand English. The 3 year olds especially don’t understand and talk to me constantly. I’ve gotten to the point where I just nod my head and pretend to understand, because I think that’s all they are really looking for, anyway. Plus, the more Chinese I learn, the more I can understand. It’s cool to hear them say “pinguo” and to know that it means apple.

I really have a good time with the kids. They are so cute and very lovable. Even with the language barrier, I have developed really good relationships with my students. They are constantly drawing pictures for Fiona and I. Just the other day, one of my favorite students brought me a handful of some grass weeds that she picked just before class. They are so sweet! No matter what kind of day I’m having, it always makes me happy to see how happy they all are to see me and to be having another English class.

I’ve found that as time goes by, there are less and less behavior problems. I think it just takes some time for the students to understand what is expected by the new teacher. Not all of the problems have been solved, but it’s a work in progress. Pretty much all the students named Hao Hao are bad, ironically too, because that name means good in Chinese!

The schedule at my school is interesting, because our workload is super-light during the week, but the weekends are crazy. I can say for sure that I no longer look forward to Saturday and Sundays like I used to and Tuesday and Wednesdays are my new weekend. I have 2 teaching hours per day on Monday, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, I have 5 ½ teaching hours and 3 ½ on Sunday. My Sunday schedule also includes about 2 hours for the marketing demonstrations that I put on for prospective students.

Teaching and demonstrations are not the only responsibilities. We are also required to do a lot of parent feedback in the form of an online portal and through report cards issued every 6 weeks. We have about 2-3 hours of meeting to attend every week. My school actually makes lesson planning easier than it is for most schools. They already have really great pre-planned lessons for us to use, so this is definitely one thing we save a lot of time on! Obviously, the more creative you become in altering the lesson plans, then the more time it takes to prepare.

My school had the right idea when they set up the classrooms. They put the amazing white boards in every classroom. If you’re not familiar with this, it is a huge projector screen that the teachers and students can interact with. You can use it for all kinds of things. My school actually put together white board content lessons for each lesson that we teach. They include songs, games, storybooks and worksheets. Every one of them fun and engaging for the students.

Considering most of the teachers in the States work from 5-6 teaching hours per day, I feel like I have it pretty good here. Honestly though, I don’t know how they do it. I feel like teaching is one of the most exhausting jobs, especially when you are working with 3 year olds! After I finish on Saturdays and Sundays, I’m so tired. One thing teachers in the States do have better is holiday and vacation time. I only get 5 days paid vacation and we only get off 11 days for National holidays. The good thing is, you don’t have to wait for your vacations to take trips. Brett and I have taken two trips already to Huangshan and Hangzhou on my 2 day weekends.

Just like any other job, teaching English in China has it’s ups and downs, but it is for sure that I really love the teaching the kids and I’m enjoying being half way around the world and exploring all that it has to offer!

To learn more about opportunities to teach in China...check www.teachingnomad.com

Now I'm getting excited!

sobrea — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:25:00 GMT

Hello world!

I am so pumped to be writing today. This time it is for an entirely different reason. I have spent the last 4 days hardly leaving our little apartment…I know, can’t you see why I’m so excited? Reason being is I’ve been attached to my computer creating Sophia and I’s new company…Teaching Nomad!! Like the name? catchy I know. Just to make sure World Nomads doesn’t feel left out, I have applied to them for an affiliate account (BTW, we are now ranked as the #5 writer on World Nomads). Teaching Nomad is a teacher placement company focused on bringing quality teachers to quality schools right here in China. I guess you could say our niche is being focused solely on China. All the recruiters I have found are spread across many countries. We have so many reasons for putting this all together and many are related to our experiences in the short time we have been living here…so I’ll try to interweave them for you.

(picture from mountain biking trip I took last weekend...very cool, only crashed once)

I guess I didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived…I had been told that Shanghai had a well developed expat community but I never expected it to be SO well developed. I started looking around and I’m seeing Americans, Europeans and Australians all over the place. I believe it was our 3^rd day here and we found ourselves in an English language improve show in what I like to call “America town”. The place was packed full of all sorts of English speaking people, even Asian-Americans which gets even more confusing. It’s not actually called America town, it’s actually called the French Concession. If you go here, you won’t have to worry about ordering food in Chinese or whether or not the bartender will understand what kind of beer you want.

Then, as we meet more and more people (the Expats are super, super friendly) I discover that no one I meet is leaving. Everyone is either taking a new job with higher pay, moving to a different part of the country or getting promoted within their company. At this point I’m starting feel like it’s the 1920’s in America…you know, people looking for opportunity. I’m no economist but I don’t think the economic recession has affected people here the same way. The outlook from the locals I talk to is that it’s easy to get a job, the value of their house is going up and their children have a bright future ahead of them. Now wait, I’m not telling you to jump ship, every country/economy has its day and with hard work and some changes in America things will improve there as well. But back to China, I’ve been hearing on the news about how China can sustain their growth, it says they must shift their economy from one that relies on manufacturing and exports to one more like the US that relies on consumerism…I believe I read that the average Chinese family actually saves 6% of their income, while the average American family spends more than they make. To buy a house here, you have to put down a minimum of 20% (rare) to usually 50%. Hearing this information about the consumerism before we left, I was totally blown away to see how much shopping there is here! Absolutely incredible! In some parts of town, every block has 4-6 story mall on it. Block after block after block. Some malls are just electronics; right by our apartment is the Metro City mall, 5 stories of electronics and 1 story of a fitness center. Others are all clothes…and clothes are the deal here, quality manufacturing of Chinese brands and sold for cheap.

(One of Shanghai's malls. The largest mall in the city is 13floors & 250K sq.ft.)

Speaking of these Chinese brands, these guys copy anything and everything; they make copies of copied Iphones…seriously. You can buy software like windows 7, Office 2010, etc for 8RMB (6.5RMP = $1), games for the wii for 5RMB, blue ray movies in the case for 20RMB…it’s never ending…how about new North face coat for 150RMB? I’m not advocating the purchase of black market goods, but good luck trying to find the real thing? Not happening. The things you can find originals of are brand name electronics like real iphones, laptops, tv’s, etc and these are not a great deal, prices are fixed somehow and even though it’s all made here the prices are the same or even higher than you would pay in the US. Sometimes you can get a better deal on a computer primarily because it’s running a stolen copy of windows. Rumor has it that Hong Kong is the place to go for deals on these brand name electronics…something about no tax. I’ll keep you posted, my tourist visa will run out around mid April and I will have take an overnight trip to Hong Kong to renew it…maybe by then I can afford that new DSLR…hehehe.

So, back to the recruiting business, just in China, the English language industry generates over $2billion USD/year and growing rapidly…many schools are opening centers by the dozen and all need teachers. The teachers get paid more around here than many other positions (how’s that for strange)…I was offered a position as Sales manager for an Export company, they told me it would take at least a year and a half with the company to get to the income that Sophia makes as a teacher (classroom time of less than 20hrs/week). The average income of all people in Shanghai last year was 3,000RMB/month. Not including bonuses, airfare, insurance, etc…Sophia makes 14,800RMB/month. Granted, Disney is one of the higher paying schools, but many others are at the same level, close or even pay more. That means that teachers here are able to afford their own apartment, housekeeper, eating out and still save a portion of their check each month. They can use that money to pay off school loans, credit cards or build savings for the future. We met people while traveling in South America that in one year teaching abroad had saved $5K-$8K. So, if you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited and will continue working non-stop to make this happen…except for a short break to attend the Sinopec Formula 1 Grand Prix on April, 17^th which I just purchased a ticket to…sorry to all you American racing fans that have no access to the fastest cars in the world…I will make sure to take pictures…J

Feel free to check out the site for the new company www.teachingnomad.com any suggestions/criticisms are certainly welcome as are your referrals for anyone interested in this exciting industry.

Until next time…take care and Zi Jian (Mandarin for good-bye)

Brett

Photos: Home Sweet Home

sobrea — Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:30:00 GMT

Our new apartment!

Settling In For A While

sobrea — Sat, 5 Mar 2011 10:30:00 GMT

It has been quite a while since I’ve written anything on our blog so I figure that now that Brett is off mountain biking and I don’t have work for a few hours that now would be a good chance to get caught up. Everything has been a whirlwind ever since we left Brazil, flew to Texas for a week, then Colorado for another week and then finally ended up in Shanghai, China after almost 24 hours of travel time. We never had jobs while we were traveling Latin America and now that I do it makes it a little harder to find writing time!

When we first arrived in Shanghai we were picked up by my company, Disney, at the Pudong International airport and brought to our hotel. As we were driving through the city, we were welcomed by fireworks that were going off all over the place. Shanghai is different than any city I’ve ever seen because so many of the buildings are decorated by lights. The best view in the city is when you’re in the part of town called the Bund and looking across the river. Check out the picture below… You can see the Pearl Tower and the dinner boat passing by. Quite a cool scene!

When we arrived at the hotel, we found out that my training was going to start first thing the next morning! We woke up to a delicious Chinese buffet breakfast of bok choy, dumplings, pork and cabbage and mandarin oranges and then headed off with the trainer to set-up our bank accounts and cell phones. This was our first time to walk around the city because our plane had arrived so late the night before and it was cool to see the Chinese characters everywhere.

I did my teacher training with three guys: Scott, Dominic and Paul. Scott and Paul are from Chicago and Dominic is from Utah. Both Paul and Dominic had taught in Seoul Korea the previous year and Scott has already been teaching and managing schools in China for 6 years now. It turned out that Scott was training to take over for the manager at the school that I would be working at. After spending some time with him I realized he was going to be a really cool manager. He’s just a really nice, easy-going guy who is fun to go out with.

While living in California, I did a lot of one on one tutoring, but never with kids younger than 5 years old and now I’m training to teach kids as young as 3 years old! They are just babies and they’ve heard almost no English before coming to Disney, so when you talk to them they just stare at you like you’re some kind of alien and don’t really understand much of what you say. It’s a much different kind of teaching than what I’m used to and it also seems like it’s harder to form a bond with kids that can’t express much of what they are thinking to you because they can’t say it in English. I will be co-teaching with a Chinese girl named Fiona who will give the kids directions in Chinese and handle a lot of the discipline during class.

I’m taking over for a teacher named David who has been with Disney for 2 years now and most of his classes have older kids who understand a fair amount of English at this point. I’ve already started shadowing him at Xuijahui, the center where I will be working. Getting to meet the kids and finding out what they are like has been amazing. All of them are so cute and very sweet, excluding a couple of troublemakers. ; ) I start teaching on my own at the beginning of next week, so I’m getting really excited!

Since we’ve been here, Brett and I have met a lot of people through Disney. Just the other night we went out to an all you can eat and drink sushi and teppanyaki restaurant called Itsuki. I ordered plate after plate of sashimi and there was a cook grilling up food right in front of us the whole time. It was a little pricey at 150 rmb (about $23 per person) but if you stay there for over 3 hours like we did then you can probably get your money’s worth. : ) The all you can eat and drink special seems to be pretty popular in this city, because in the short week and a half that we’ve been here we went to Itsuki and an Indian place with the same special called Punjabi.

The food here in China is fantastic, minus a couple of times when I accidentally ordered dishes with chicken or duck organs. Dumplings are definitely one of the most common kinds of food. There are so many different kinds that I’m certain I still haven’t tried them all! A couple of my favorites are the soup dumplings that are steamed and the ones where they fry the bottoms and cover them with sesame seeds. My only problem with eating is that it is so messy when you use chopsticks as badly as I do. My jacket is filthy from the dumpling juice that gets all over it. The other night we were at a little hole in the wall restaurant and I was doing so badly with the chopsticks that one of the girls working there brought me a fork. I have no problem when it comes to eating sushi in the States, but picking up rice is a totally different story!

Most of our time here in China so far has been taken up with my job training and meeting with realtors to find an apartment. The process of finding an apartment is different than in the States because all of the apartments are individually owned, so you have to have a realtor show you around. I was really thankful that Brett was here and could go look at places while I was at training to help us get out of the hotel sooner. We ended up finding an English-speaking realtor, Kevin, on Craigslist. Right away we really liked him, but not so much the area of the apartments he was showing us at first. We told him that we wanted to live in the Xiujahui area by my work so 8 apartments later and 1 refused offer we found our apartment.

The building isn’t much to look at, but once you make it inside it’s pretty nice and the location is awesome. Only a 10 minute walk to work for me. The landlords are a really friendly couple who both know some English. The lady is a teacher at English First and her husband is a professor at the medical school. I’ve heard some stories about bad landlords and I feel very confident that we won’t run into any problems with these guys. They gave us a good price and brought us a new microwave and we packed our stuff and moved into our new place a few days later. Even though our apartment is lacking in some areas, like water pressure and kitchen size, it still feels really good for Brett and I to have our first place together!

The apartments here come furnished, but you are required to buy your own bedding, dishes, pots and pans. Luckily, our apartment is located a block away from Carrefour (the Walmart of China) and walking distance from Ikea. We spent one whole day going back and forth to Carrefour and cleaning the place up. The next day we made a big trip to Ikea where we got our bedding and lots of other random things. After getting all of our stuff set up, our place is really starting to feel like home. After roaming around for the last 7 months it feels good to be getting settled in for a while.

Photos: First week in Shanghai

sobrea — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:02:00 GMT

One adventure ends...another begins!

sobrea — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:16:00 GMT

Must have been 3 or 4 weeks since our last post. I think we really tried to push ourselves to the max during our transition time from South America to China…and make the most of it we did! I write to you today from our hotel room in the Changning district of Shanghai(pronounced Shunghi), China. We’ve had a whirlwind day of apartment shopping, now back to the hotel for the first lesson of Rosetta Stone for Mandarin Chinese…seriously gonna need to put the learning into overdrive, were lucky that Shanghai is more English friendly city (as for signs) than others in China, but regardless, very, very few people speak any English. But I’m going to stop there for China and leave that for the next blog.

In an effort to get caught up, I think I will take you from our last blog in Florianopolis, Brazil all the way here, but I’ll do it in expedited fashion as many of you were probably there for the U.S. part.

Our last city of the Latin American Expedition was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil…what a place to close it out! Truly an incredible, colorful, beautiful and vibrant city. We showed up into town winging it again with no where to stay…primarily because the hostals on-line were all so expensive we didn’t want to book one. Met a guy at the bus station who offered us a great deal on a room and free transportation, just the transport saved us some money, so we went for it. The place was pretty empty and definitely needed some repairs, but it worked. Staying there was a guy from Wisconsin (go packers!) who was writing his dissertation on Samba music. This translated into tagging along with him to Samba School practice one night. It was awesome! The Samba schools are Carnaval. Honestly, I didn’t know that Carnaval is primarily a Samba music competition, these “schools” are really just big bands made up of people from the neighborhoods, young, old, doesn’t matter. Originally, the schools were just a front for the big drug lords and the drug money sponsored all the activity. In an effort to clean it up the government started sponsoring the schools, based on which category they are in (like divisions for college sports) and how they finish in Carnaval determines how much money they get from the government each year. Long story short, we had the pleasure of watching a full rehearsal for about 3 hrs…very cool.

The overlooks and views in Rio are incredible…the whole landscape is unlike an city I’ve ever seen, green, lush, hilly with beautiful beaches all around, blue water and huge yachts cruising around small islands. You’ll really just have to look at the pictures. We hung at out Copacabana and drank Caiprihina’s (Drink made with Brazilian sugar cane rum) on Ipanema beach.

Yeh, I could live there. We had the pleasure of visiting one of the city’s newest Stadiums (built for the Pan American Games in 07’) and watch a great Futbol game between everyone in Rio’s favorite team, Flamenco vs. Vasco. We sat next to a group of guys that brought their instruments with them and just played and danced the entire time!

Eventually, that dreaded day arrived, the day that marked the completion of what was once just a dream for us. By the time we were on the American Airlines plane it felt like we were back in the States, people were speaking English, sales people were talking on cell phones about how their meetings in Brazil went. It sucked to be over. Although, we were very much excited to get to spend time with friends and family back home.

I had a few thoughts on the plane ride, probably nothing new, but things I may have written about while we were out there. Primarily, just how eye opening this trip was us…I know, everyone always says that anything is possible, but seriously, anything is possible! I wish this kind of experience on anyone and everyone, if only to see what other options there are out there for you. We met so many people living their dreams and yet I know that there are so many others that aren’t. I’m not even saying you have to go to Latin America to do it, obviously most people are going North to do it, but being an American down there certainly has its advantages. I guess I’m just saying that if you look around you will find many, many options for how to live your life and I hope that you’re enjoying the one you’re doing! Maybe you don’t believe me now, just go for a visit, doesn’t have to be 6 months, but at least one month is good, then you’ll see what I’m talking about. As for me, discovering all these new possibilities and personal potential is somewhat distracting, its like, do I want to start a business or should I be a backcountry snowboard guide in Chile? Decisions, decisions. I think I’ll stick with the business…but after a year in China, who knows what kind of business it will be.

So, plane lands in Austin, Tx…and whoosh…like a time machine we are back in reality, next thing I know I’m driving a car and using a cell phone. This at first is so amazing, but in a relatively short time, kinda becomes a drag. I find these tools allow us to get sooo much more done in a day, that at least for me I probably try to pack too much into a day and it can become overwhelming. At least it’s not dull I suppose. Anyway, Austin was great, 2 days in we went to the big Austin Carnaval celebration, one of the biggest outside of Brazil they say. It was a lot of fun, we went with Nick, Natalie & Timmy…we all dressed up in costume and so did the majority of the 3-5thousand people there. The music and dancing was just like the stuff we had just seen at that the Samba school rehearsal in Rio…how cool! We had to hit some of the famous Austin restaurants while we were there like “Juan in a million” famous for their breakfast tacos and “Trudys” , famous for Sophia for the stuffed Avocado…it is delicious! The big game day celebration was at a wing place called Pluckers, very cool, Heineken beers the size of a pitcher and shots of Jager for $4! Oh yeh, the wings were good too ;) We met up at Pluckers with Dan & Rebecca, Rebecca is Sophia’s cousin on her Dad’s side and Dan her husband…good people and good times! They have a sweet beer pong table painted to look the Miami University football field at their house, so you know we had to take a trip out there!

Much of our other time was spend moving everything out of Sophia’s storage unit, exciting stuff I know, I’ll spare you the details. After 7 days of Texas fun we were back to the airport and on a plane to beautiful Colorado! We arrived on a Thursday, spent time with the family and saw some friends but I was just amped for Saturday morning, when we (Brant, Kent & myself) were going ice-climbing for the first time! My mom hooked me up with a guy she used to work with named Micah and he generously volunteered to take us up and show us the ropes. What an amazing and confidence inspiring experience! The idea of this was as b-day present to Brant who is turning the big 30 in March, obviously I won’t be there so I wanted to do something while I was in town. That first ascent on the ice is a wild feeling, there you are being supported by nothing but 2 small spikes on the front of each of your boots and the 2 ice axes in your hands…takes a little getting used, but if you can just trust your equipment and trust the person holding your rope it is awesome! I can’t wait until our next climb and to see how this experience can translate into some real mountaineering opportunities!

The next day we had the “Brett & Sophia are stopping by Event” at my parents new house. It was great to see all the friends and family…some I hadn’t seen in a long long time. I’m glad that Sophia got a chance to spend time with those she already knew and meet so many more people that have been a part of my life. Speaking of parts of my life, the next day we did the Tour de Greeley, and I showed her all our old houses, schools and jobs…it was cool.

I’m sure I’m boring you now, so let’s skip ahead…Wednesday, 2/16, 7am…there we are at DIA saying goodbye to my parents, again, same backpacks on our backs, just now they are considerably more dirty. T-shirts have been exchanged for jackets and flip-flops for shoes...we stroll to the counter of United and the next journey begins…

Brett

Photos: Austin & Colorado

sobrea — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:03:00 GMT

Our 2 week visit home between Latin America & China

Photos: Rio de Janeiro

sobrea — Wed, 2 Feb 2011 08:42:00 GMT

I Think I Found My Second Home

sobrea — Tue, 1 Feb 2011 02:17:00 GMT

Stepping off the bus in Iguazu falls was like being back in Central America…we were back in the rainforest…hot and humid baby! We hauled our stuff about 10 blocks to a hostel named STOP, owned by the same people as PAX (where we stayed in Buenos Aires). Keep in mind that with a fresh tattoo on my shoulder, I’m now carrying the big backpack on one shoulder and the small backpack in my hand…good times. It was already late-ish, so that night we didn’t do much. Next morning it was on to the famous Iguazu falls. The falls are shared by Argentina & Brazil, mostly on the Argentine side with an amazing view from the Brazilian side. The pictures will do a lot more justice to this place than my descriptions, so check em’ out or click here to watch the video.

They just go on and on and on, I’ve never seen so many waterfalls, coming from all directions it seems. We were both really impressed! They have done an excellent job of building walkways and paths so you can see them from many different angles. In addition, there are a bunch of different tours you can take, some slow and steady, one where they literally drive you into a huge waterfall. We didn’t partake in the tours but it definitely looks fun. With all the people and these tours going on it sort of feels like you’re in a water or amusement park, everyone is soaked, either from the falls, the mist or the sweat and everyone is clamoring to get the best pictures.

We couldn’t stay for too long because we had to catch the bus to the town on the Brazilian side of falls (this way we could get a bus to Florianopolis the following day). So, a few hours later we arrived in Brazil. Pretty cool walking into the immigration office with our Brazilian visas we had gotten before leaving LA, felt like a lifetime ago and now we finally put them to work. No problems there and we were on our way. We grabbed a cab to the hotel we had reserved and turns out it wasn’t even in the town and taxi ride was bit expensive, we go to check in and the hotel can’t find our reservation (we had already paid a deposit on the travel website), now keep in mind that in Brazil they speak Portuguese, and although it may have similarities to Spanish, it is a totally different language! Talk about frustrating, trying to work out our reservation problem in language we don’t speak at all…rough. We got into the room and the next morning a woman who spoke some English was there to sort things out.

A few hours later and we on a bus to Florianopolis. This is an island connected by bridge on Brazils Atlantic coast, about a 15hr ride from Iguazu. We arrived early in the morning with no reservation and while checking out hostels on-line we were approached by guy trying to sell us on an apartamento (little apartment), this guy is also speaking Portuguese (funny thing is, if you ask any Brazilian if they speak Spanish, they all say some, but really they only know the words that are the same in Spanish…lol) anyway, the deal closer here was this guy will drive us to the apartamento for 5 “reals” (Brazilian money, 1 real = 1.7 dollars) each, that is cheaper than the city bus and it saves us an hour! He got us out to the island and after some checking around we went for the apartamento, it was awesome, we actually had our own little kitchen with a fridge, table, chairs…so nice.

As for the island, I fell in love instantly, this place has to be the most complete beach destination we’ve been to. For one thing, it’s an island, so there are like 20 different beaches on all sides, all offering their own advantages. The sand is white and water is clean, not warm, but clean. Most beaches we’ve been to either had good diving & snorkeling or surfing, but here they’ve got it all, surfing, kite surfing, diving, snorkeling, boating, volleyball, soccer, foot volley (like volleyball but played with soccer moves), plus, there is none of this no alcohol on the beach BS, they have bars and clubs on the sand plus guys with big drink carts that will mix you up anything you want. Looking for somewhere to spend a summer or a few years, this is the place! I just wish we could have stayed longer. We had such a good time just relaxing on the sand and in the apartment…of course because of the new tattoo, I couldn’t go in the water or get any sun on it, but oh well, I knew that was gonna happen…I was still lying on the beach, just with a shirt on ;)

We were in Florianopolis for 3 lovely nights and then headed back to the bus station for a 18hr, $125/per person ride to Rio de Janeiro…our last bus ride, crazy. And yes, the tickets as well as everything else cost a lot more here in Brazil, but what can you do. Rio is our last city before flying back to US, crazy.

Brett

Photos: Florianopolis

sobrea — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:04:00 GMT

Beautiful island off Brazil's Atlantic coast.

Photos: Iguazu falls

sobrea — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:50:00 GMT

Massive network of waterfalls on the Argentina - Brazil border

One Less Thief on the Streets...

sobrea — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:25:00 GMT

The last blog left off when we were walking around Puerto Madero. We were pretty tired and only had a little of time before our bus ride so it was hard for us to decide whether we should go to La Boca or not. Eventually we decided to just do it, so we caught a cab and headed to La Boca. This neighborhood is known for its colorful buildings and huge soccer stadium. It is a super touristy area with tango shows in front of every restaurant on Caminita.

Brett and I wanted to walk by the stadium so we turned off of the main street and headed away from the main tourist area. We passed the giant blue and yellow stadium and the next thing I knew I felt someone pulling our camera out of my hand. As soon as I realized what was going on, I screamed “no!” and tried to keep my hold on the camera. Next thing I knew, the camera fell to the ground and one of the four guys who were trying to rob us scrambled to pick it up. As soon as he got it, Brett surprised me by attacking him and fighting him to the ground. One of the guys punched Brett to help his friend get away and then they all made a run for it. Brett chased them down the street and was right behind them when he tripped on the sidewalk and fell to the ground. The worst part was he scratched his knee and his tattoo that he’d just gotten the day before. The guys got away and we were stunned. Brett had been so close to catching the little juvenile delinquents (age 19 we found out later). This was the first problem like this that we’ve had in 6 months of traveling and we were so bummed to lose our camera.

We were walking around in shock and looking for a place to sit down and calm down. Just minutes before we were talking about how cool it would be if we saw the kids walking around, we saw them again! We were walking in different directions on the same street! When we saw them we thought it was them but we weren’t sure so we started walking towards them to get a better look. The kids started looking nervous and turned around and started sprinting in the opposite direction. Brett turned to hand me his glasses and told me to wait there and that he was going to go after them. The boys had about a 50 foot head start, but I could tell that Brett was determined to get his hands on one of them. He was gone and a minute later I started wondering what I was still standing there for and started running down the street after them. I could see all of them ahead of me, but it wasn’t looking like I had a good chance of catching up so I started walking. Just when I stopped this old man in a CSI tank top and a big beer belly comes out of one of the shops and asks what’s going on. I let him know what the situation is and he starts running in the direction of Brett and the kids. I start running with him to let him know where to go. We turn the corner and all the people are up in arms out in the street. They tell me that Brett chased the robbers into the supermarket and they haven’t come out. CSI and I run over to find Brett, about 3 blocks away from where we first saw them, holding one of the kids in a choke hold right at the door of the store.

The kid was already looking a little beat up and Brett was yelling “call the police!” (in Spanish of course) while all the people in the packed store were standing at the checkout watching the whole scene in shock. We couldn’t see that the kid had the camera and were thinking that one of the other kids probably had it until we lifted up his shirt and there it was tucked into his pants! We definitely lucked out that Brett caught the one that actually had the camera, because the other 3 had run away. The kid was trying to get away so Brett brought him to the ground to get a better hold on him. The kid was yelling “he’s crazy, get him away from me!” and all of the sudden CSI starts shouting and kicking the kid in the stomach. Suddenly the police came running up and took over from there. They flipped the guy over and threw cuffs on him. The whole time he was yelling about how crazy Brett was.

A huge crowd had formed in the street to see what was going on. The cops asked if we could come into the police station to give a statement and of course we agreed. When we arrived we sat down next to another tourist who had also been robbed just an hour earlier and she told us that another robbed tourist had just left the station. Apparently it is really common for the teenage boys of La Boca to rob tourists and most of them get away with it. I think it’s pretty rare for the tourist to fight back and chase down the kids. Needless to say, I am very proud of my honey for getting our camera back and for being so tough. : )

While I was giving my statement to one of the cops, the boy’s mom came into the station screaming at the officers who had put her boy under arrest. I think it’s far too common for parents to defend their kids when they are obviously in the wrong and this was just another example of this ridiculous phenomenon. We had been in the station for about an hour and a half when we realized that if we didn’t leave soon then we would miss our bus for Puerto Iguazu. We asked the officers if they had any more questions and gave them our email in case they needed more information. We left and caught a cab first thing just because we knew it probably wasn’t safe for us to be cruising around the neighborhood with the other 3 kids still on the loose.

We made it back to our hostel to get a sandwich from our favorite little restaurant and picked up a bottle of wine for the bus. We grabbed our bags and jumped in a cab, but when we got to the bus station we got a bit of bad news. Our bus had been delayed and would be leaving six hours late! Instead of leaving at 9:30pm, we departed Buenos Aires at 3:30am happy that our only losses of the day were a chips sunglass lens, a cracked camera screen and Brett’s small injuries. It was a bummer that his tattoo got scratched, but he’s got a pretty good story to tell every time someone asks him what happened to it.

Fernet and Coke, Anyone?

sobrea — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Buenos Aires is one of the parts of the trip that I had been looking forward to the most, because I had such great memories of the city from the last time I visited. The last time I came to visit my friend Kim and we spent about a week in the city and another week traveling around through Northern Argentina. During that visit I got to know Pablo who I got to know even more when he came to Austin for ACL and then in LA when he was traveling through California.

The first night we didn’t get into town until around midnight because all the buses leaving Mar del Plata were booked up by the thousands of vacationers taking off after the weekend. We had reserved a room at Pax Hostel and were stoked when we arrived and found that our room had AC, a flatscreen/DVD combo and a terrace just steps outside the room. When the guy checking us in showed us our room, he was telling us about the features of the room and said, “and of course, a TV.” He thought it was nothing, but it’s pretty rare when we have a hostel with a TV. On top of all this, we wake up to an amazing breakfast that includes eggs, cereal, bread, and even a juice squeezer that you can use to make fresh orange juice!

One of the main things we wanted to do in Buenos Aires was get tattoos. Brett had been planning his tattoo for a while and wanted to get a big, flaming sun on his shoulder with the Chinese characters for life, love, family, prosperity and wisdom. I thought I’d decided to get the yellow rose of Texas on the top of my foot. Checking out a tattoo shop was definitely on the list for things we wanted to do, but first thing we did that morning was take the subway over to Palermo to go for a jog in one of the many beautiful parks. The first park we found was the botanical garden, so we strolled around for a while looking at the plants and all the stray cats that live there. It wasn’t the greatest place for jogging so we ask around and got pointed in the direction of a really nice park with trails and a pond in the middle. We had a nice jog, but it sure is hot in the middle of the day during the summer! Just after our run Brett started spotting posters for the Dakar rally and we realized that we missed it by one day! Brett was really bummed because he’s been wanting to see a race during our whole trip and it still has happened.

Later that night we had plans to have our first parrilla (amazing Argentine BBQ) at El Bagual’s, a place that Kim took me last time I was in BA. We invited the couple from New York, Gemma and Andy, that we met in Chile and Pablo. El Bagual’s isn’t the fanciest place, but the food and the atmosphere are awesome. Pablo showed up with his friend, Pablo and his brother, Max. I’d never met his brother before, but Brett and I had met Pablo because he was traveling with Pablo in California. We had some awesome beef, grilled provolone, blood sausage (I’m not a huge fan), salad and chimichurri sauce on everything. I’m definitely going to start making chimichurri sauce when Brett and I finally settle down somewhere. It was delicious. Afterwards we headed out to get some ice cream and in my opinion, the ice cream in Argentina is the best there is! Especially the flavors with dulce de leche, which is this super popular caramel-like stuff. After stuffing ourselves, the Pablos and Max took off since they had work in the morning and we went down the street for some Fernet and Coke with Gemma and Andy. For those of you who haven’t tried it, Fernet is a really popular liquor in Argentina that’s imported from Italy and the color and flavor is similar to Jagermeister.

After chatting with Pablo and one of the girls working at our hostel, we found out about a big group of tattoo shops in Bond Street Galleria. We showed up and we were surprised at how many shops there really were! We walked around and talked to artists at different shops and looked at portfolios of work they’ve done. Brett wanted a custom tattoo so we thought it would probably be pretty important to find an artist who could speak some English so he could explain what he wanted. We finally found a shop called Lucky Seven tattoo that we liked best. The artist sketched the tattoo on Brett’s shoulder and my foot so we could see what it would look like. I was really excited about the tattoo right after leaving the shop, but about 15 minutes later I knew I wouldn’t be able to go through with it. I kept imagining myself dressed up in a pair of heels and I just couldn’t put that imagine together with the rose tattoo on my foot showing through the straps of my heels. Brett was on his own for the appointment at Lucky Seven.

That night we met up with the Pablos again for some food and drinks. The first spot we went to was called Bar Unico in Palermo Hollywood. Afterwards, we went a few blocks to another really cool bar to end the night with some more Fernet and Coke. Pablo says that the herbs in Fernet are good for digestion. I like having a good excuse to drink it. : )

The next day it was pouring rain outside. Pablo knew that it was going to rain all day and recommended that we check out the Alto Palermo Mall. The mall was huge and really nice. It had one of the two Starbucks in the city and even though the coffee is more expensive then it is in the States, I had to get one. This was only the 2^nd Starbucks I’d had during the entire 6 months of our trip!

In the afternoon, when the rain cleared up we decided to walk over to the famous Recoleta cemetery, where you can find Evita’s tomb. We got lost on the way and instead found a little barber shop. I think this was meant to be, because Brett desperately needed a beard trim. His beard was like a fro sticking off of his face about 3 inches. During the cut, the barber started making fun of his haircut saying that it was really uneven and his Mohawk wasn’t centered. I let him know that I’d given him the haircut myself and he just kept laughing. Haha… Maybe I don’t have a future as a stylist?

We eventually made it to the cemetery and it was really interesting see all of the above ground buildings that housed the dead from so many of Buenos Aires’ wealthy families. Some of the buildings were really big and from the outside you could see up to ten tombs in each one. Most of the buildings even had stairs leading to a basement with even more storage area. Some of the buildings are in really good shape, but others are really run down with broken windows and dirt inside. Pablo told us that the upkeep is really expensive so some people just don’t want to pay and let them go. From the last time I visited the cemetery, I remembered all the random cats roaming around and nothing has changed, they are still all there!

It was our second to last day and the day for Brett to get his tattoo! Brett’s going to jump in now and tell about it…

As some of you may know, I have one tattoo already on my left calf and have been thinking about this new one on my right shoulder for quite some time. During this trip seemed like the perfect time to get it done. Also, turns out that tattoos are considerably cheaper in Argentina…the whole deal only cost about $150, for sketching and 3 ½ hrs of inking. I was certainly a bit nervous, seeing how it had been almost 10 years since my last one and I really wasn’t sure how much pain to expect. Usually when I’m nervous I like to talk, so it was really nice having Sophia there for most of it…the artist didn’t speak much English at all, so communication with him was limited to my Spanish, which is probably only a few hundred words. He sketched it out on my shoulder, we made a few changes, enlarged it a bit and added a couple things, but for the most part I didn’t have to change much, this guy had really nailed the look I was going for. So, the tattooing begins and it really wasn’t so bad, Sophia even said, “you are really making this look easy”. I suppose I was, there was really only 2 parts of it that were pretty painful. I see it as like a meditational exercise…you just try to block it out or almost mentally transport yourself to a different place. About 30minutes into it, we had been hearing this clicking sound coming from the other room, sounded like electricity, like if you just swung a bat at an electric fence…so we ask the artist, “que pasa in otro cuarto?” turns out, they do tattoo removal in the same place! How funny, right?! Here I am getting it put on and during that same time, 2 guys came through for removal! Sophia spoke with one of them afterward, he said it was really painful, just like a tattoo I suppose, some places on the body hurt more than others. About an hour and half in, after the outline was done, Sophia was getting bored and took off to go shopping for an hour or so…by the time she got back, it was starting to get more painful because the guy had gone over the same skin 2 and 3 times with the different colors, apparently I wasn’t making it look easy anymore, because within a few minutes I could see tears coming from her eyes! She was supposed to be being strong for me and now she’s crying…oh man…about 25 more minutes was all she take, between the pain and blood, she wasn’t having it and went downstairs to read her book. Probably better that way…another 30minutes or so and all done! I must say, it’s a pretty nice feeling when it’s over. The artist wrapped it in saran wrap (which I later read is not good for the skin) to keep the blood in…I was getting some interesting looks on the subway on the way back to the hostel. I suppose that’s about it so I’ll give back to Sophia to wrap things up. : )

It was our last night in town so we went to meet up with the Pablos and Max for some drinks in Palermo Hollywood again. Drinking in the bars in BA can get kind of expensive, so we came prepared with a Gatorade bottle full of Fernet. The bar they took us to was really nice with a big outdoor area in the back. It’s amazing what a difference it makes to know people in the places where you’re traveling. It was so fun to have these guys to hang out with and they were really nice to take us out every night even though it was during the week and they had to go to work in the morning. When Pablo was taking us home at night he would always give a mini city tour and show us some of the sites… Even more fun once you’ve had a few drinks!

Pablo and Max both work in Puerto Madero and told us that it would be a cool place to check out before catching our bus on the last day. In this area is a canal that comes off of the river and there are lots of bars and restaurants on the water. There is even a building with a giant tree growing inside of it! All and all, a really nice area. The most exciting experience of our trip so far happened before we caught our bus out of BA, but this blog is getting long so I’m going to save it for the next one and end here in Puerto Madero!

The C on the shower knob stands for Caliente!

sobrea — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:40:00 GMT

Hello world! Those of you following the last segment know that we have just finished reading about our amazing 5 day trek through Torres del Paine…what an amazing experience! Getting from there to our next destination of Puerto Madryn is a trek in itself, all the way on the Atlantic coast of Argentina and quite a way to the North…long story short, 3 days and 5 buses later we arrived to Puerto Piramides, the only town located on the Peninsula Valdes, just outside of Puerto Madryn. The peninsula and encompassed nature reserve is loaded with marine life. We got off the bus and walked about a quarter mile or so into the campground, which happened to be right next to the beach, maybe 50 yards away.

Turns out that the beach was the only attraction of this campground…the place was hot, sandy and had very little shade to speak of. It is really set up more for trailers and car-camping more than backpackers. Considering we aren’t able to carry things like chairs, firewood, a table, etc. Regardless, after all that traveling, taking another bus to find a different spot was out of the question, so we found the best spot we could and set up shop. That night wasn’t bad, besides having no where to sit, we were able to buy some firewood and grill up some steaks, chase that with a cold beer and we were ready for bed. Next morning however, not so good, the wind picked up big time and this place turned into a sand storm, so there we are, sitting in the sand, eating crunchy cereal (from sand in it) and we quickly determined it was time to find a hostel.

We headed out on a search only to discover that January is month when almost every Argentine person takes vacation…every decently priced place in town was full. And so, we were back on bus to the big city, Puerto Madryn to stay there. There are tour companies that you can use to see the animals on the peninsula, but we really like to do things on our own and so the next morning we rented a car and headed back to the peninsula. It was really amazing, for whatever reason this area attracts everything from penguins to blue whales depending on the time of year. The first spot we went to was closed but the second provided a great view of the basking Elephant seals, these suckers get a big as 15ft long, story goes that after spending months at sea collecting food for their young, they come to shore to molt and breed…looks to me like a bunch of people laying by the pool in Vegas after partying all night…these guys do almost nothing. But still cool to see them so close and in their natural habitat. The second spot was probably my favorite; here we came to a Penguin colony! I had thought that all Penguins live on the snow and ice, but not these guys, they live in dirt, digging nests near the low shrubs. Here is where the eggs hatch and we were there just in time to see many fluffy, baby penguins waddling around. They were so cute, about 2ft tall and not scared of us at all, at times it almost seemed like they were posing for camera (all this without anyone feeding them as well). Lastly was the Sea lions, while I’m sure that I’ve seen them in zoo at some point I didn’t realize the similarities with actual lions. The males have huge manes of hair around their head. Besides that, they are extremely aggressive, constantly barking and fighting with each other, with a close look you could see that almost all of them are bleeding at least a little…I guess this may have to do with mating season, but just a guess. This completed our tour of the peninsula, covering 260miles or so.

Next day, we were back on bus and headed north to Mar del Plata…probably the #1 beach vacation spot for Argentina. Mardel (as the locals call it) is home to 550 hotels, and in January, they are almost all full! The popular beaches are packed wall to wall with tents and towels while companies have areas with private beach booths that you can rent out to avoid someone putting their tent on top of your towel. But , there are many, many different beaches even right in town, so you can typically find whatever you’re looking for, crowded party scene, or the more laidback family scene where the local tea “Mate” replaces cerveza. This “Mate” by the way, had got to be by far, the most popular drink in Argentina, on some beaches, almost everyone would carry their own large thermos of hot water just to make sure they could continually replenish their glass. While on the subject, the Argentines love to smoke as well, I’ve never been to France, but I can’t imagine any country smokes more cigarettes than here. Even the “Prohibido Fumar” signs don’t really seem to enforced either, as we’ve seen people smoking anywhere and everywhere.

We spent 3 nights in Mardel, with the majority of that time just laying on beach and soaking in the rays, a nice change from the wind and cold of southern Patagonia. The hostel situation was tough, couldn’t find anywhere with 3 nights free, so we had to move on the second day, but it was a short walk. It was also nice getting a chance to speak with some locals, all the Argentines that speak English always ask, “where are you from?” Usually the hostels we stay in are full of backpackers from all over the world, but here, they were all Argentine, and were cooking up some mean BBQ (Parilla, pronounced “Parisha”) at night. Dinner is also done very late here, many locals don’t eat until 10, 11 or 12pm…not just the young people, but older folks and families with small children alike. It has taken some time, but I think we have adjusted to schedule. A couple nights ago, we found ourselves late for meeting friends at 11:30p, because we were still eating?! We went out to hit the clubs one night in Mardel and discovered that the clubs don’t get packed until 2am! Partying until the sun comes up is pretty normal, also, the drinking age is only 18 but no one is really checking ID’s anyway.

Mardel also has some nice casino’s…so when in rome, we hit up Casino Central, Sophia’s game is Roulette and I prefer Blackjack…believe it or not, we both came out ahead, about $50 each, always a nice feeling to leave a casino with more cash than you came in with!

Sophia is gonna pick it up from here as we head to Buenos Aires! Don’t miss the next installment when I get my new Tattoo!

Brett

Photos: Buenos Aires

sobrea — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:30:00 GMT

Photos: Mar Del Plata

sobrea — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:31:00 GMT

Big time beach destination on Argentina's Atlantic coast.

Photos: Peninsual Valdes - Reserva Faunistica

sobrea — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:23:00 GMT

Marine life nature reserve near Puerto Madryn on Argentina's Atlantic coast

Torres Del Paine - Our five day trek through Patagonia

sobrea — Sun, 9 Jan 2011 11:25:00 GMT

After El Chalten we headed to El Calafate to see Perito Moreno, the famous glacier in the area. We’d already gotten a recommendation from the couple we met in El Chalten who said that the best way to enjoy the glacier was with a bottle of wine and some snacks. The buses that run to the glacier drop you off and leave you there for 5 hours so you have plenty of time to hang out. You can move around to the different viewing platforms to watch the huge chunks of ice fall of the glacier. Every time a new piece of ice falls it sounds like thunder because the pieces are so massive and fall from so high. The size of the wave created when the ice falls in the water gives you an idea of how big the piece of ice is.

We spent one day in El Calafate just hanging out at the hostel so I could finish up some work for my TEFL-C certification. During the day we met 4 French girls who were also just hanging out at the hostel and cooking. Later in the evening they told us that they were street performers and they make money by dressing up like clowns and putting on shows! Next thing we knew, they were all in full costume and playing instruments. We had to get a picture with them…

For those of you who keep up with the blog, you know that we were planning to celebrate the New Year out on our 5 day trek through Torres del Paine. As usual we were running a few days behind schedule, so we didn’t make it out to the park in time. Instead we had our celebration in the little town right outside of Torres called Puerto Natales. The bars in this town don’t open until around 12:30/1, making it hard to have a traditional celebration right at midnight. We found a little restaurant where we had some salmon and Austral beers and got to watch the countdown on their flat screen TV. Once it was the New Year, the waiter came around with champagne and another traditional cocktail for everyone at the restaurant. It was not quite as impressive as last year’s celebration in LA’s Bonaventure Hotel, but it was nice. After the restaurant a few of the bars had finally opened up, so we stopped off at one dive bar playing 80’s music for a few more drinks and some dancing. It’s incredible how late people do simple things like dinner and going out, especially in Argentina. Dinner happens around 10/11 and then the party starts around 12/1.

We had saved New Year’s day to finish all of our little errands before our trek. Neither Brett nor I thought about the fact that most places are closed on holidays, so we were scrambling to find open shops to get groceries, propane and clean laundry. We still didn’t have anything that we could take with us for lunch and we didn’t want to have to buy groceries at refugios inside the park, because we knew how expensive it would be. As we walked through the city we came across about 15 little markets that were all closed and we were so happy when we finally came across a carniceria that was open. We got some bread and chorizo sausage to make sandwiches with. We bought 10 sausages for $3. A really good deal, but not the best sausage. I was so disappointed when we made sandwiches on the first day and realized how terrible the chorizo was, but on the second day they tasted much better! It’s amazing how hiking for 7 hours a day can change your appetite!

To get out to the trail, we had to take a 4 hour bus and a 30 minute catamaran ride to get to Refugio Grey. We chose to complete the W circuit going from West to East, so at about 1pm that afternoon we set out on the first stem of the W, up toward Glacier Grey. I want to clarify some details about this trek just so that everyone is clear about what this hike is all about. We carried our tent, entire food supply, stove, clothes, Brett’s water bottle full of Rum and my giant novel (the one that I never even got the chance to read) for 5 days. The whole hike is about 80 km in total. Needless to say, I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it all the way through day 5 without showering and just living in the wild. Being the good girlfriend that I am and a small bribe from Brett convinced me to take on the challenge. ;)

The first day we walked from 1pm to 7pm. We took a lot of breaks along the way because carrying a huge pack and walking all day gets tiring! A few kilometers in, the huge glacier and the lake that it created came into view. It was incredible! The lakes created by glaciers are the most unusual milky, light blue color. They get the white tint from the minerals from the glacier that are still suspended by the particles of water. Really, all over Patagonia we have seen the most incredibly colored bodies of water.

There is a refugio at the top of stem 1, but we’d decided to go a little further to the free campsite, Las Guardas, that sits on a cliff right above the glacier. As the day went on and I got tired of walking, I attempted to convince Brett that we should just stay at the refugio. He assured me that it would be worth it, so we kept on walking. The last stretch of trail between the refugio and our camp was the most difficult of the day. There was a lot of steep climbing and one small glacial stream to cross. We made it there just in time to be greeted by swarms of little flies, so we cooked dinner very carefully under the cover of our tent. After dinner we walked up to the mirador where we got a stretching view of the massive glacier. The up-close view of the glacier was worth the extra walking we had to do to get there!

On this hike we slept so much at night and woke up to stiff bodies. I’m used to exercise, but aside from this trip I’ve never walked so much in my entire life so my body felt it at the end of the day. Plus, it changes everything when you’re carrying weight on your back. My body was feeling much older than it is with all the aches and pains.

We set out the next day and ready to make it to the free campamento, Italiano, right at the start of stem 2. Day two went by much easier. We were walking faster and taking fewer breaks. If Brett would have been hiking on his own, he certainly could have made much better time. I take a lot more breaks and since I walk slower, he lets me walk in front just to be nice. We settled into a good rhythm and made it to Italiano pretty easily within 7 ½ hours. By the time we arrived, there were already a lot of tents set up but we found a nice, slightly secluded area to set up our tent. Our dinner menu on the hike was slightly limited as we only had pasta, but this too was delicious after a day of walking!

We attended an information session about the trek at Erratic Rock, one of the hostels in Puerto Natales. The talk was helpful and it was here that we were told that the 2^nd stem of the hike, Valle de Frances, is the jewel of the entire park. Because of this, we were extra excited as we stepped out on our third day. The first site that we came to was a glacier hanging from one of the mountains. This glacier, like Perito Moreno, had ice breaking off of it causing huge, thundering echoes throughout the entire valley. We chose a place for lunch with a good view of the glacier so we could see all the avalanche-like ice breaking off. As we went further, the famous granite towers came into view and we were surrounded on all sides by beauty.

The walk back down the Valley was downhill and quick. When we got back we pack up our stuff and headed to our next destination, Refugio Los Cuernos. The trail went right along the huge Lake Nordenskjöld. As we were about an 1 ½ out, the wind picked up and made it hard to walk straight without being blown to the side. This is when we plugged in our Ipods and powered through the last bit of trail.

The refugio was packed with tents! We walked and walked and couldn’t find anywhere to put our tent. After searching we were forced to lower our standards and found a plot of uneven ground right by the lake where the wind was the strongest. It was a struggle, but we got the tent set up and cooked up another delicious pasta dinner in the comfort of our tent.

Somehow Brett and I got on the schedule of starting our hikes relatively late in the morning. We usually got started by 11am and it was no different on the morning of the fourth day. Because we were camping in a refugio, there were showers so I decided to take advantage of it and shower off a little. It was nice, but we didn’t have shampoo so I had to save the hair washing for when we got back.

On the fourth day there were rivers to cross, but no bridges. Some people took off their boots and put on water shoes and some (like us) just went for it and jumped from rock to rock until we were on the other side. Along the way was a shortcut onto the 3^rd stem that we’d decided to take to prevent us from having to hike into the crowds of people near Hotel Las Torres. From the shortcut on, we were doing pretty steady climbing uphill for the rest of the day. By the end, my legs were shaky and Brett’s boots had rubbed pretty serious blisters into his feet. We were relieved when we showed up to the free Campamento Torres. This was definitely the nicest place we camped during the entire trek and only about an hour from the mirador of the granite towers.

People come to this site because it’s so close to the towers and if you get up at 4am then you can hike up in time for sunrise. On special days the sky and the towers both take on a pink color right when the sun hits them. We’d been planning for this the entire time, so we got up bright and early the following morning and packed up our stove and sleeping bags so we could relax once we got there and make breakfast. It was pitch black when we crept out of our tents and began the rock scramble up to the lookout. As it got lighter outside, we could see that the sky was full of clouds and there was a lot of wind. Despite this, we decided to continue on. There was a crowd when we arrived and most of nice places to sit were already taken, but the view of the granite towers and the lake below was incredible! I think the clouds that had settled on top of the towers made the whole scene look even more beautiful. We didn’t end up getting the clear day and the pink towers but it was definitely worth the climb and the battle against the wind to make it to the top. Brett and I found a boulder to sit on and boiled water for our coffee with difficulty. It took about 20 minutes to get hot water with all the wind, but we made it happen. Just as we’d mixed up our coffee, a big gust of wind picked up and knocked Brett’s coffee onto his pants. Shortly after, our bag of instant milk got blown down into the boulders and we decided that it would be best to wait until we got back to camp to cook up our oatmeal and another pot of coffee.

Knowing that it was our last day of hiking, I was encouraged to hike a little bit faster than usual. This and the fact that most of the last day was downhill, we got down to the bottom in only 3 hours. It felt so good to have finished this five day adventure! When we got back, we had two hours to kill before our bus came to pick us up, so Brett and I and the rest of the people who had just completed the trek sat around outside Hotel Las Torres relaxing and enjoying the feeling of sitting. Eventually we made it back to Puerto Natales and I don’t think I remember a time that I was so excited to take a shower. We celebrated our completion with lomitos (the delicious Chilean sandwich) and a couple of Austral beers. There at the diner, we took in the amazing feeling of accomplishing our 5 day trek.

Photos: Torres del Paine

sobrea — Sun, 2 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT

W Circuit - 5 day trek