Picture Freedom

Biking vineyard to vineyard in Mendoza

View from the hostel in Bariloche

El Chalten (home to Fitz Roy)

After our whale watching tour

Rocking the 80 onzies on our Torres Del Paine trek

(surprisingly the most helpful piece of clothing we could have brought)

Streets of Mendoza (most beautiful city yet)

Drinking mate with one of my many bus flings

(j/k)

Simple pleasures

Typical landscape of Patagonia (minus the towering horizon of mountains)

Trying to take a pic but inhibited by the 55mph winds

Fruit foraging in a mulberry tree

Lalia disappointed yet again by the typical Argentine bus lunch of 3 ham and cheese sandwiches

(bus cama however is a very different story... wine, good beef, great flics)

Glacier Moreno (outside of El Calafate)

You would think she would remember by now

Wind, wind, and more wind

Now we find ourselves near the end of the world after...

1. an unbelievable amount of bus rides, including a 36 hour one (try that in a normal bus for a heck of a back ache)
2. ¨chocolate hopping¨ we like to call it from fine chocolate to fine chocolate shop in Bariloche, displaying false curiosity in hopes of free samples (as any self-respecting street child would do)
3. eating enough fruit in days to last us a month (Chilean fruit is cheap and insanely good, whereas Argentine fruit is expensive and minimal)
4. some more ¨loving¨ from bus drivers and attendants... it is so very odd
5. the most astounding scenery i have ever seen... hands down
6. yarn and thirft store shopping with our Chilean host mom for our newly acquired and short lived hobby of crocheting
7. biking vineyard to vineyard and fruit foraging along the way in Mendoza
8. appreciating the beauty with which Argentines live their lives. it is a country where the world shuts down from 1-5 and every sunday, people savor the fine things in life like chocolate, wine and steak, mate is drank and only shared of course, family is always first, and sundays seem to beckon the city to the park with grandparents sipping mate and snacking on their packed picnic as their grandchildren play
9. wishing we were losing weight like normal travelors, not gaining... too many empanadas i suppose
10. wishing Chilean Spanish was not impossible to understand, and therefore resolved to be confused until we are back in Argentina
11. thankful for beds we don´t fear for bed bugs in, but severly missing the ghettoness for the third world
12. being blessed by people´s generosity
13. getting blown about (the wind here is outrageous!)
14. learning alot about love and it being a choice
15. and, saddened by the idea of a turkeyless thanksgiving

Huanchaco at sunset

(typical fishing boats)

Dinner with the Risconi´s

(Argentine missionaries in Peru)

Spanish classes in Quito


Shoot...more to come, technical difficulties

Recent Jaunts

1- After being stuck in Cusco waiting for riots to break on the road to Puno (Lake Titicaca), we made some arrangments for alternative transport. Truck driver Guido stuffed five gringos in his ride and we set out on backroads for 10 hours, stopping only for a little snack of sheep and potatoes and a couple of road blockades set by fierce and adament indigenous women.

2- Always ride the cheapest transport if you want to be a part of drug busts in the middle of the night.

3- Today, after a confused and hilarious exchange of broken Spanish, we helped our Chilean old lady friend sneak bras and underwear over the Chile/Argentina border.

4- And sadly, more to rack up our claims for travel insurance as we found ourselves cashless and camera-less after a bus ride to the border of Peru and Chile.

Marks of the Developed World

1- Bike paths
2- Art expos
3- The fashion mullet
4- Lack of potholes
5- Organized traffic (aka people stop for pedestrians)
6- Toilet seats
7- Mattress pads, fitted (& matching) sheets and legit pillows
8- Youth projects
9- Framed art vs. pasted gas station ads for decor
10- Asian tourists
11- Refridgerated meat
12- Skinny jeans & trendy dress
13- Less street dogs
14- Sadly, whiter skin
15- Less food for more money

Gringo Crepes for Sale!

"if you don´t know the lingo, buy a crepe from a gringo!"

This is indeed the slogan for our booming new business...Gringo Crepes.
Hilarious, but strangly and somewhat fitting perhaps...
This I suppose is what happens when your stuck in a tourist mecca for too long (still waiting for Lalias debit card to come) with no money but a wealth of ideas and just enough insanity.
Good news... we broke even and made a whole $.33!
Our dreams of funding our travels by selling crepes wherever we go were slightly dampened by the lack of monetary success upon first attempt but the dreaming continues... french toast perhaps?
Though the profits were lacking, the laughs however were not.

Morning Tea

We are not used to being spoiled like this...
A friendly knock at our tent and a welcome world with hand delivered tea every morning!
This is just one of the many delights of our last trek...the Salkantay Trek that took us to Machu Pichu.
We strongly debated going the cheap/quicker (though really not that cheap) route to the big destination but had to remind ourselves we are here to take in and enjoy, not check things off the good ol´list.
A hard bargained $160 got us an awesome group turned family for a week, surprisingly good Peruvian meals plus tea time (popcorn, cookies, and tea every afternoon), Edwin (our softspoken, very knowledgable, kind guide who reminds us of a little boy), awesome natural hot springs, tons of microclimates, 177 black fly bites on one leg (true!), and horses to carry our packs!
Machu Pichu was incredible... we kind of expected it to be cool but just what we´ve seen so many times in pictures, but it was unbelievable. Thank goodness too because the 1,000 step hike up was far from leisurly. The Incas are ridiculous... I´ve never been so intrigued by history or ruins for that matter- well worth the walk, the crowds, and our now lack of sleep due to uncontrolable itching!