go outside: February 2006

patagonia skies

little things in life make me happy.
like free internet in the hostel i'm at in puerto natales, chile.
weather is a little spotty. waiting it out before doing the 4-6 day 'w' trek in torres del paine.

i thought it might be important to know that patagonia has the most incredible skies. especially from late afternoon to sunset.
the clouds just seem to hover just above the vast, desolate plain. they are almost flat looking, with amber coated edges. the air is crisp and clear, the scrubbrush plains go on for miles and miles until hitting soaring andes peaks in the distance. when the sun sets, the clouds turn a brilliant burning orange color.
bus rides are great because watching the sky from your window is better than anything on your television.
a little tip. on bus rides in patagonia (if you're riding on the argentine side), always sit on the western side to watch the sunset. you also see incredible andes peaks such as fitzroy and torres del paine. the eastern side is not bad right at sunset when the clouds turn red and the air is clear for photos. even better if you can, sit on the roof on the bus. guaranteed 360 degree spectacular views. or maybe bike the entire route, although you might stop too much to take photos, and not get anywhere distance wise..adios

why i f*ng travel

travel is the best f- you that you can say to the world.
basically saying f- you, you're now living on my terms.
f- you to phone calls, to having to respond to calls, e-mails, faxes. f- you to deadlines, to having to live other people's terms, and basically saying you are now on my schedule.
it's quite greeedy really.
it's quite self-centered actualllly.
but if you think about it, i t i s n o t .
travel opens your eyes, opens your mind, opens your heart to everything. opens it to other people
to other cultures
to other possibilities that you may have never known.
if you think about it, it's the opposite of greed, and more of sharing yourself with the w o r l d.
we get so caught up with our everyday lives, or menial yet surmounting problems that we walk around jaded, or maybe overworked that we have no time to absorb our surroundings. w e w o r r y s o m u c h about the future that we forget to
((((live for 2day)))) just think what happens if a bunchofpeoplewalkaroundlikethis?
maybe this is a ssttrreettcchh. maybe this oversimplifies things. but for me, a simple thing like saying hello, i never do when i'm home. when away, i say hello to people on the street at least 30 times a day. WHY IS THAT??
but none of this answers why i travel.
i travel for the **experience** that's the only word i can think of to describes it. everything you read in books, everything you see on tv, everything you see in photographs, always pales in comparison to seeing it for real. all the opinions and stereotypes of people or cultures are always shattered when you meet them in person. so maybe that's why i travel? to understand the world better by meeting it in person and formulating my own opinion. and each time i meet it in person, it has always been a good **experience**..
now don't get me wrong. i'm realistic. all this is bullshit without the means to travel. 2 things we desire or want more of in life but can never seem to get both of at the same time, t i m e and m o n e y, are unfortunadknlately what's needed most of the time to travel. but this is achievable, even though the system is set up against this. you can cut costs while at home . . i mean
do you really need to buy
the latest
piece of
bullshit
that is going to go out of style in 4 months
and j u s t b a s i c a lly become l a n d f i l l ? ? ? ???
and if you need travel and need money, then hey? get a fucking job.
maybe i'm oversimplifying again, maybe i'm priveleged to have this opportunity (and yes i'm extremely greatful), but the basic gist is to follow your own path (courtesy of the dalai lama and your local buddhist association)

the system is set up for you not to folllowww you r own path. the system is set up for you to be a drone, a cog, in the system, the machine.

ssssooooooooooooooooooooo where the hell am i going with all this?
how the f would i know.
Q: i have yet to answer why i travel????
A: because it's there, that's why.

another load of crap written by yours truly while waiting for my damn bus to chile

perito moreno glacier

just visited the perito moreno glacier.
at 30 km long, 40 km wide, 150 meters high, and ice at the tip being 30 years old, this is one big piece of impressive ice. take a look at this photo to get a grasp of the size of this thing

here's another photo showing it slowly sliding down the mountain at 6 feet per day. you could fit whole cities on this thing.

also did a mini-icetrekking trip on the glacier. it was pretty laidback, and a tad bit touristy, but interesting nonetheless. guide taught us a lot about glaciers, about the continental ice shelf that runs along the argentine - chilean border on the andes, and about some of the other bigger glaciers in the area. there are about 300 or so glaciers in the area...i think that's the number he said? anyway, perito moreno, and a couple other glaciers are the only ones not receding like an aging dude's hairline. thanks to global warming and the car you are driving, the other glaciers are retreating. the one thing about this trek that is well worth the price of admission is the fact that at the end of the hike, towards the bottom of the ice where you end the hike, they set up a whiskey bar on the glacier for all to enjoy whiskey on the rocks with some 300 year old glacier ice. no fooling.

after that, while waiting for the boat to bring us back to the other side of the lake, we witnessed a chunk of ice crash creating a mini-tsunami. you are guaranteed to see some ice break off (sounds like an explosion), and hear it heave and ho, but this one was pretty big. it looked like this, and made one of the boats in the water go up and down by 600 feet....ok, that's an obscene exagerration, but it was a lot.

anyway, off to torres del paine in chile to do the famous 'w' trek. 4-5 days coming up without showering which means my underwear supply will last 1 week longer. werd.

Haiku to my cell phone revisited - Part II

go away cell phone
why won't you leave me alone
please please go away

and on the third day, thou shalt.......

....finally be able to hike fitzroy and cerro torre in el chalten, patagonia. had to sit around the hostel at el chalten for 2 days waiting for the hurricane like wind and rain to stop. we tried hiking early in the morning the first two days, but got spit out by rain and wind, and couldn't see the 2 main peaks of fitzroy and torre. we did manage to see glaciers and mountain lakes hiking to torre, but not much else. the first day, i had a raincoat on, but no rainpants. my legs were soaked from the pants, to the underwear, to the hairs on my massively muscular legs. i wised up and bought rainpants which came in real handy the next day.
finally on the third day, completely sunny skies and clear weather. we did the task of combining two hikes into one, making for a long 12 hour energy sucking day. but it was well worth it. once i get photos online, you can see hopefully, how massive and impressive monte fitzroy is, and the glaciers around cerro torre. in the meantime, here's a photo i found online of fitzroy here.
anyway, i'm in calafate now, and will be checking out the perito moreno glacier tomorrow which looks like this. it's constantly moving and crashing. then heading to torres del paine next.........chau

bumfuck patagonia

been stuck in los antiguos for the last 36 hours.
it's bumfuck patagonia.
everything is slow here including dial up internet.
people move slow, cars move slow. even the dogs are apathetic.
2 km from the chile border.
dusty, dead, ghost town.
nothing
absolutely nothing
totally nothing at all
to do here.
might kill someone before my bus finally arrives tomorrow morning for el chalten.

redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum

part of the adventure.......or is it?

had one of those hell van rides down the famed ripped patagonian road of ruta 40. it runs down the windswept patagonian isolated vast expanse of nothingness west side of argentina, parallel to the andes. ok, so i've been on enough of these hell rides to know to expect uncomfortable, cramped seats next to a smelly guy from somewhere else, no air conditioning, dusty dirt roads with dust going into the van, 12 hours trapped in claustrophobia, muscular atrophy, blazing hot ozone tearing sun, and even a flat tire to boot (and the replacement tire looked just as bad, bald, and flat as the original tire). but all of this is ok. i'm totally okay with this. it's what you'd expect as part of the adventure.
but what i didn't expect was to hear whitney fucking houston's bodyguard soundtrack blaring on the stereo.....why??!!???!? it's just so wrong. war's have started over whitney houston, especially the 'i'll always love you' nuclear disaster of a song. i can't believe the driver owned this cd...and actually, two nights before, they were playing the same cd in the hostel i was staying at in trevelin. i've lost so much respect for argentines.

ok driver, fine. if you're going to play whitney houston, then i'll be anti-social and not talk to others on the van, and listen to my mp3 player..............................awww bloody hell, i forgot to recharge my mp3 player back in trevelin.......great.......now she's singing 'i'mmmmmmm evvverrrryyyyy woommmaaaaaaaan, etc. etc.'
this has been the absolute low point of my travels.

black bottoms

have you ever worn flip-flops for around 45 days straight?
then you know the black bottom that develops from all the dirt accumulation. the cracks and crevices that trap infinite amounts of black dirt. dirt that is impossible to get out without the use of 20 grit sandpaper. the painful seismic tears that happen near the heals, before eventually becoming hardened calloused permanent valleys. the slow shredding of skin at the bottom of your feet that you leave as permanent personal deposits as a way of giving back to the locals - sort of reverse souvenirs.
that's what i've got right now.
i'm glad to be giving a little bit back to the wonderful local people of argentina who have given me so much.

Ruta 40 in Patagonia

the famous patagonian stretch of dirt road hugging the andes. ruta 40:
vast expanses of sagebrush plains
dramatic jutting peaks
hovering clouds you could almost touch
bright red auburn sunsets
bright blue crystal clear lakes
crashing, deafening, glaciers
burning hot ozone deteriorating sun
cold, starry starry nights
long summer days, cold harsh winters
wind blown, dusty, sleepy, little towns
dirt roads, 1960 ford pickup trucks
last frontier of butch cassidy and the sundance kid
bone jarring, crater-holed route 40
warm, welcoming faces
horse riding gauchos
la trochita - the old patagonian express
soaring condors
emptiness, nothingness, and introspection
everything and nothing at the same time

shitheads in action

preliminary outdoor round of shithead at la morada hostel in bariloche

finally some photos below

still in bariloche, and think i'm gonna leave tomorrow. i've just been very comfortable here in a beautiful mountain lake setting. have done a couple of treks up to refugios (cabins with dorms to sleep in - similar to colorado mountain huts if your familiar) cerro catedral and also one up to monte tronador, which was incredible. the refugio is between two glaciers with monte tronador in the background. i did those treks last week, and in the past two days, me and some folks in the hostel have played about 12 hours a day, the card game 'shithead'. i justify that since i did some big hikes last week, i can veg out for awhile. however, the card games are getting more and more intense, that i think it's a sign that i need to move on. anyway, i've got some photos of the trip, sans card games, of places i've visited in brazil and argentina below. hope you enjoy -------