Tuesday, January 17, 2012
One month traveling, so far so good!
Well, it´s officially been one month since we´ve been gone. CRAZY. Time has just flown by here, and we´ve been having a great time, of course. Here´s an update and a few comments, as usual internet is less than ideal here..so it´s hard to post all the pics. I´m sure we´ll figure out a better system, but we´re working out all the kinks.
So I´ve got to say that it´s been an interesting last few weeks. We started this adventure on a very EASY cruise ship in Antarctica. Everything included, we knew where we´d be staying every night. Ya know, the all-inclusive sort of thing. Then reality hit. We got off the ship in Ushuaia and BAMMMM. tons of people. No places to stay. Wind. Rain. Heavy Backpacks. Can you say rude awakening/tough transition??
Ushuaia, the southern-most city in Argentina was friggin expensive. The cheapest budget place that we could find was about $90/night. Yeah, not ideal since we're on a long trip, not this short "American" vacation sort of thing! The setting there was pretty awesome thought, a huge mountain range, glacier, and bay around the city...not too bad. We had another AMAZING lamb feast there. For some reason the lamb down here is just completely different than what we get at home. They barbecue it for like 8 hours, have a delicious chimichurri sauce (garlic and who know what else is in this delicious goodness), and make it some of the most amazing meat that you could ever have. I may be a convert from steak...weird I know...
After sitting on a cruise ship for 18 days, let´s just say that we weren´t exactly in the world´s best shape. If you´ve ever been on a cruise (I never had before this) you basically eat and drink until you pop. Oh, and for ours we got to get off twice a day - not every day - to check out cool penguins and stuff. Anyway, Lisa and I decided that we needed to get ourselves back into shape to start some of the infamous Patagonian hiking later...and decided to climb about 2000 feet straight up from sea level at the port to the glaciar. Yep. That´s how we roll. So this one day "trek" was 6 hours up and back. Ouch. Let´s just say sore was an understatement. It was just a precurser of what was to come...
The "end of the world" (fin del mundo) has a certain traveler cache. You can tell that people come down here just to say that they were at the southernmost point in the continent (it´s actually at Cape Horn, which we were lucky enough to visit!), but it makes no difference to most people.
As an aside - we did visit Tierra Del Fuego national park and the end of the highway that goes from Alaska to Ushuaia. Beautiful doesn´t describe it...
So we got sick of Ushuaia after 3 or 4 days (it was friggin cold and windy down there - one day we came in out of the sun to book a bus, then looked out the window to see it snowing outside. wtf. Needless to say, the weather is variable at best!), so we booked a bus up to Punta Arenas, Chile (there is no overland route directly north to the rest of Argentina!), which is a 12 hour bus-ferry-bus ordeal. Yep, good times sitting on a bus all day with NO stops. Are they insane? It´s like the opposite of the chicken buses in central america that stop on every corner! Luckily, the buses are incredibly comfortable..reclining seats...someone serving treats and coffee...but unfortunately not cheap.
A few takeaways for now...
1) it is NOT cheap down here. Basically US prices the entire way so far, which doesn´t fare well for a long trip
2) You MUST know spanish. Thanks Sra. Grigsby for all those vocabulary words in 9th grade!!
3) Traveling around is fun...but there has got to be more to it - we´re still looking for that great spot to volunteer, improve our spanish, and hang out for awhile
4) Cheap hotels are not that clean. Yep, big surprise.
5) LIFE IS GOOD. We´re excited about all this traveling and trying to figure it all out...next steps, etc.
Scott
So I´ve got to say that it´s been an interesting last few weeks. We started this adventure on a very EASY cruise ship in Antarctica. Everything included, we knew where we´d be staying every night. Ya know, the all-inclusive sort of thing. Then reality hit. We got off the ship in Ushuaia and BAMMMM. tons of people. No places to stay. Wind. Rain. Heavy Backpacks. Can you say rude awakening/tough transition??
Ushuaia, the southern-most city in Argentina was friggin expensive. The cheapest budget place that we could find was about $90/night. Yeah, not ideal since we're on a long trip, not this short "American" vacation sort of thing! The setting there was pretty awesome thought, a huge mountain range, glacier, and bay around the city...not too bad. We had another AMAZING lamb feast there. For some reason the lamb down here is just completely different than what we get at home. They barbecue it for like 8 hours, have a delicious chimichurri sauce (garlic and who know what else is in this delicious goodness), and make it some of the most amazing meat that you could ever have. I may be a convert from steak...weird I know...
After sitting on a cruise ship for 18 days, let´s just say that we weren´t exactly in the world´s best shape. If you´ve ever been on a cruise (I never had before this) you basically eat and drink until you pop. Oh, and for ours we got to get off twice a day - not every day - to check out cool penguins and stuff. Anyway, Lisa and I decided that we needed to get ourselves back into shape to start some of the infamous Patagonian hiking later...and decided to climb about 2000 feet straight up from sea level at the port to the glaciar. Yep. That´s how we roll. So this one day "trek" was 6 hours up and back. Ouch. Let´s just say sore was an understatement. It was just a precurser of what was to come...
The "end of the world" (fin del mundo) has a certain traveler cache. You can tell that people come down here just to say that they were at the southernmost point in the continent (it´s actually at Cape Horn, which we were lucky enough to visit!), but it makes no difference to most people.
As an aside - we did visit Tierra Del Fuego national park and the end of the highway that goes from Alaska to Ushuaia. Beautiful doesn´t describe it...
So we got sick of Ushuaia after 3 or 4 days (it was friggin cold and windy down there - one day we came in out of the sun to book a bus, then looked out the window to see it snowing outside. wtf. Needless to say, the weather is variable at best!), so we booked a bus up to Punta Arenas, Chile (there is no overland route directly north to the rest of Argentina!), which is a 12 hour bus-ferry-bus ordeal. Yep, good times sitting on a bus all day with NO stops. Are they insane? It´s like the opposite of the chicken buses in central america that stop on every corner! Luckily, the buses are incredibly comfortable..reclining seats...someone serving treats and coffee...but unfortunately not cheap.
A few takeaways for now...
1) it is NOT cheap down here. Basically US prices the entire way so far, which doesn´t fare well for a long trip
2) You MUST know spanish. Thanks Sra. Grigsby for all those vocabulary words in 9th grade!!
3) Traveling around is fun...but there has got to be more to it - we´re still looking for that great spot to volunteer, improve our spanish, and hang out for awhile
4) Cheap hotels are not that clean. Yep, big surprise.
5) LIFE IS GOOD. We´re excited about all this traveling and trying to figure it all out...next steps, etc.
Scott
Monday, January 9, 2012
Another take on Antarctica...
Should you be bored with our take on our Antarctica trip, you can check out my seeesssster in laws blog:
http://definitionofsanity.wordpress.com/
See ya in Ireland in September, Keith and Cheryl!
Enjoy!
http://definitionofsanity.wordpress.com/
See ya in Ireland in September, Keith and Cheryl!
Enjoy!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Tango!!
I am not sure if you have all heard of this amazing application but you should download it asap if you dont have it already. Its called TANGO and is basically a free app that you put on your phone that allows you to talk over the internet instead of using your minutes. So for us this means we can call you anywhere that we have a wi-fi connection without having to buy a phone card. We were able to use it to talk to Scotts parents and it works pretty well.
Hope everyone is enjoying 2012
Hope everyone is enjoying 2012
Tierra del Fuego
We have spent the last 4 days in Tierra del Fuego which is in Southern Argentina. We have been staying in Ushuaia--- the town itself is nothing to speak of but the beautiful mountains and glaciers are so beautiful. After 3 weeks of being on a boat, we were itching to hike a little... so that is what we have been doing. We went to Tierra del Fuego national park and also hiked to Glaciar Martial. (we will post pictures later on today...). Needless to say after 6 hours of hiking yesterday, we realized we are no where near ready to hike the W trail in Torres del Paine. I also learned that when you are hiking for an extended period of time it is best to empty out your backpack and only bring the neccessities... not 6 bottles of suntan lotion, hand warmers, reading glasses, a notebook, etc etc. my bad!
We plan to head to Punta Arenas, Chile tomorrow which is a little South of the Torres del Paine National Park. If any of you have seen, this park has recently had a major fire and most of the park is still closed- boo! We are hoping that it will open up next week so we can check it out. Otherwise we will be heading back to Argentina to hike in El Calafate.
The food has been pretty amazing here so far... last night we were to an all you can eat Parilla... basically all you can eat grilled lamb. I never thought I liked lamb until spending time down here. mmm. I dont think Scott said a single word during dinner...he is in heaven down here.
We plan to head to Punta Arenas, Chile tomorrow which is a little South of the Torres del Paine National Park. If any of you have seen, this park has recently had a major fire and most of the park is still closed- boo! We are hoping that it will open up next week so we can check it out. Otherwise we will be heading back to Argentina to hike in El Calafate.
The food has been pretty amazing here so far... last night we were to an all you can eat Parilla... basically all you can eat grilled lamb. I never thought I liked lamb until spending time down here. mmm. I dont think Scott said a single word during dinner...he is in heaven down here.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Last Continent
Happy New Years! It’s hard to believe that 2011 is already over… it seems like just yesterday that we were finishing off 2010 with our engagey-moon in Central America. This year has been a fantastic year – with the wedding (of course!) & the opportunity to spend so much time with all of our family and friends in celebration! It was really special for us to be a part of so many of our friend’s weddings as well! As much as 2011 was an amazing year, I am really looking forward to 2012 and to seeing where life takes us from here. It all seems a little crazy and unknown at the moment, but in some ways that just makes it more exciting.
We have spent the last four days exploring the last continent, Antarctica. This entire trip has been an unreal experience. The wildlife, the mountains, the ice… everything is virtually untouched and beautiful. We typically have been doing two landings per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon)- we have spent time in Paradise Bay, Deception Island, the South Shetland Islands, Pleneau Island, Halfmoon Island, Whalers Bay, Lemaire Channel, Cuerville, and Neko Harbour… just to name a few.
We have seen the most beautiful landscapes and interacted with amazing wildlife (penguins- chinstrap, gentoo, adelie, king; whales- killer whales/orcas, humpback, fin, southern right, minke; tons of seals – leopard, weddell, crabeater, fur, elephant; and lots of sea birds). We even saw Orca whales going in for a kill. Are you kidding me?!
All six of us are now officially members of the most exclusive polar bear club- the Whalers Bay Hot Tub Club. Don’t be fooled by the name, the water was not warm. Basically you strip down to your bikini on the wind blown, freezing cold shore and dive into the freezing water. As you get back on the shore there are hot puddles of water where you can splash warm water on your body. Good idea in theory, but practically it is way to windy and cold to stand there for more than 2 seconds. It was incredibly refreshing – something I need to do again… perhaps not ☺
On New Years Eve we actually stepped foot on the Antarctic Continent for the first time (as opposed to surrounding islands), hiked up a huge snow-clad mountain and tobogganed (aka sledded) down the mountain. It was soooo fun!!! I can see why penguins like to do this all day. We rang in the New Year with a midnight dip in the boat pool dressed as penguins, of course. It was a hilarious way to count down to 2012.
On our last landing on Antarctica, Scott and I spent some time just reflecting on life and our beautiful surroundings. It is amazing how quickly time flies when you are having such a great time, but at the same point it was really special to take a step back- to really take our surroundings in and realize just how lucky we are to live in such an amazing world and be able to travel to see this amazing continent. This continent is a must-visit, by the way. It is pristine, beautiful beyond words, and a whole different world. The wildlife is just unbelievable and the scenery is even more beautiful!
We’ll spend the next 2 days traveling through Drake Passage- so far it’s pretty calm, but we’re hoping to see the 40+ft waves. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
We have spent the last four days exploring the last continent, Antarctica. This entire trip has been an unreal experience. The wildlife, the mountains, the ice… everything is virtually untouched and beautiful. We typically have been doing two landings per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon)- we have spent time in Paradise Bay, Deception Island, the South Shetland Islands, Pleneau Island, Halfmoon Island, Whalers Bay, Lemaire Channel, Cuerville, and Neko Harbour… just to name a few.
We have seen the most beautiful landscapes and interacted with amazing wildlife (penguins- chinstrap, gentoo, adelie, king; whales- killer whales/orcas, humpback, fin, southern right, minke; tons of seals – leopard, weddell, crabeater, fur, elephant; and lots of sea birds). We even saw Orca whales going in for a kill. Are you kidding me?!
All six of us are now officially members of the most exclusive polar bear club- the Whalers Bay Hot Tub Club. Don’t be fooled by the name, the water was not warm. Basically you strip down to your bikini on the wind blown, freezing cold shore and dive into the freezing water. As you get back on the shore there are hot puddles of water where you can splash warm water on your body. Good idea in theory, but practically it is way to windy and cold to stand there for more than 2 seconds. It was incredibly refreshing – something I need to do again… perhaps not ☺
On New Years Eve we actually stepped foot on the Antarctic Continent for the first time (as opposed to surrounding islands), hiked up a huge snow-clad mountain and tobogganed (aka sledded) down the mountain. It was soooo fun!!! I can see why penguins like to do this all day. We rang in the New Year with a midnight dip in the boat pool dressed as penguins, of course. It was a hilarious way to count down to 2012.
On our last landing on Antarctica, Scott and I spent some time just reflecting on life and our beautiful surroundings. It is amazing how quickly time flies when you are having such a great time, but at the same point it was really special to take a step back- to really take our surroundings in and realize just how lucky we are to live in such an amazing world and be able to travel to see this amazing continent. This continent is a must-visit, by the way. It is pristine, beautiful beyond words, and a whole different world. The wildlife is just unbelievable and the scenery is even more beautiful!
We’ll spend the next 2 days traveling through Drake Passage- so far it’s pretty calm, but we’re hoping to see the 40+ft waves. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)