Farm Living

At the beginning of our tour of South America, we joined WWOOF Argentina with the triple intent of settling down in one area to get to know it, living with an Argentinian family (and benefitting from the cultural experience and language practice), and saving some mula. After reading bios online of different farms, we settled for LA CHACRA DE ZORRO, a small organic farm in El Bolsón. So, after a month of hiking, backpacking, and exploring nature in the southern tip of the continent, we made our way back north to begin our farming experience.

Farm life began with a BANG, or maybe it was more like a subtle plop followed by rigorous pounding, what am I describing?? The sound of a black sheep COLLAPSING onto the green lawn and then the delivery of CPR (including mouth to mouth, my friends!!!!) by our veterinarian hostess, Ines.  The dead sheep was then hoisted over Ines' shoulders and brought back to the house for a proper burial, cross covered grave included. The respect for life mixed with bouts of hilarity proceeded to be the theme for our weeklong stay. 

We were surprised to learn that 'our farm' was also the farm of 16 other backpackers. This meant the Argentinian lifestyle was slightly diluted by the presence of so many AWESOME foreigners, so we decided to cut our two weeks in half and just enjoy 7 days. 

Our time was filled with painting boards, picking apples, digging for potatoes, chopping gathered wild mushrooms, making juice, kneading bread, and--a majority of the time--CRACKING WALNUTS. The word on the farm was that they paid for our food with the nuts, and apparently we were eating a LOT OF FOOD because we were gathering, cracking, and peeling them ALL DAY, E'ERY DAY. 
We prided ourselves in REVOLUTIONIZING the nut gathering system, instead of passively picking them off the ground, we were proactive in creating an abundance of nuts to collect. We'd climb the trees and then SHAKE the limbs profusely until a maelstrom of nuts were plummeting to the ground. (This was all done in the back of the property, where the owners were less likely to notice the small amount of damage we were incurring on their trees.) Cracking the nuts was the most time consuming part of the process, and therefore most social. Sitting around wooden tables, next to the indoor open air fireplace, we heard stories of backpacking the Appalachian Trail, Ireland in the winter, and practiced French pronunciation ("BU-BLEH-BU-BLEH-BU-BLEH!! You hear zee deeferenzz??"). While conversing, we'd switch between English and Spanish depending on the fluency levels on the people present, using every opportunity to teach and learn by incorporating Spanish words. 

The end of our week was celebrated in style with an Argentinian barbecue, an ASADO! Arriving back at the farm after our morning off, we made our way to the bonfire with the required utensils: a mason jar for drinks and a steak knife. There we found 4 metal crosses stabbed into the dirt around the fire with flayed LAMB CARCASSES wired to each of them. On our sides the neighboring gauchos (who arrived ON HORSEBACK) turned rosy cheeks from the fire's heat and the wine-filled animal bladder they passed around. Meanwhile, we watched the meat smoke to perfection with grumbling stomachs. Soon (an hour=soon in tiempo Argentino), we were being handed hunks of bread, queuing to pick our preferred chunk of meat (and I mean hunks and chunks), and eating a cabbage salad with forks from a communal bowl. The food was delicious and plentiful, but before food coma fullness could set in, the fiesta picked up again and there was dancing and accordion playing to be had. This was 4pm, and the party continued until 4am. THEY GO HARD!! 

All in all, a fabulous week. Not the small time subsistence we were looking for, but nevertheless the friends we made and fun we had made for a bittersweet goodbye. But the beautiful Lake District of Argentina called, and I'm not one to ignore that sort of invitation.... so here we go, hitch hiking onward!!

PS sorry about the paucity of pictures, our photographer took a week off

Dead sheep #1

Dead Sheep #2

Some of our FRENCHIES gathered around 

The gauchos carving away... and yes that is a home knit sweater vest

Glaciers Part II: Fitz Roy

Hi all,

After some excellent glacier-gazing days in the southern part of Los Glaciares National Park, we moved to El Chaltén, a tiny town on the park’s northern edge to continue our trend of sweet hiking in the most BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS EVER! We spent four days exploring the park and enjoying incredible views of the epic granite monolith that is Mt. Fitz Roy. By far the awesomest of these days (and maybe even one of the awesomest days of our trip!) was the day that we hiked to the wildly turquoise glacial lake at the base of Fitz Roy itself. SO AWESOME. Nine hours, a 3,000 foot scree-scramble, and 4 apples later (we clearly did not realize the scope of our undertaking when packing our lunch...), we were thoroughly exhausted, sweaty, and EXTREMELY PLEASED with our day’s accomplishment. Instead of describing the wildly UNREAL scenery for the next 10 paragraphs (which I totally could), I’ll just include some pictures, which can speak for themselves (and are more fun to look at than a lot of typing anyway!).

Celebrating awesome-ness at Lago Torre

Lago Torre!

Too soon after an intense uphill slog...

...but the climb was definitely worth it! Hello, MONTE FITZ ROY!

Trees.

Post- Fitz Roy madness, we packed up for our grand move north to Farmland! And only two solid days on a bus later, we had arrived in an Eden of sheep, walnuts, jam, and 16 other young people from around the world intent on learning the ins and outs of subsistence living. More to come.

P.S. Our e-mail inboxes are always open in case anyone feels like telling us news. We would love to hear from any and all of you!

Argentina: Glaciers on Glaciers

Argentinian Planos

Perito Moreno

Smiles over Perito

Lookout!

34 KM LONG!!!

AWESOME glacial blues!!! 60 m high

Hello Again!
 Last you heard we had finished our trek in Torres del Paine and were heading east towards Argentina, and THAT WE DID!! Waking early we found our way onto a bus heading towards the boarder. For two hours we drove into the daylight through grassy plains, admiring the craggy mountain faces in the distance until we reached the Chile departure checkpoint. In a typical Megan/Jihelah fashion, we galloped across the border whooping with JOY AND REBELLION, before conforming into the back of the line to get our passports stamped (Question: Why do they always stamp ON TOP of other stamps when you have 20 blank pages??). Then journeyed through no-man's-land until we were stamped into Argentina. The views of plains and mountains continued, and in the late afternoon we arrived at the edge of an inlet of the Pacific in the small town of (invoke Machismo voice) El Calafate. A quick turnover of hostel locating, money exchanging, and post-lunch snacking left us with enough time to jump in a Carlos’s taxi and take the hour drive to Parque Nacional los Glaciares for sunset. Our evening destination was Perito Morena, a 34 km long by 5 km wide and 60-meter tall glacier. The stats we read before our visit primed us to imagine the enormity, but again the reality proved TOO GREAT for our imaginations!!! Following the wooden paths, we viewed the 5 km terminus of the glacier from multiple viewpoints, pausing to gaze in rapture at the iridescent blues of the frozen walls or to calculate the height of a given jagged ice spire. Peace-shattering booms resounded as room-sized ice boulders broke off of the glacier’s edge and crashed into the ocean 18-stories below. Startled—our conversation would stop as we listened to the ocean’s response as waves slapped the glacier back and whooshed into the cracks in the ice. Hours in a bus forgotten, we reveled in the dual sounds of the silence of frozen time and the thunderous force of the dynamic being. As the sun disappeared over the surrounding mountains, the glacial chill set in, herding us back to Carlos (and the Latin club sounds of Rigatón) for the drive back to El Calafate. From border crossing to glacier gazing, our hours continue to fill us with excitement and appreciation for this journey and the earth we’re exploring. Stay tuned, MONT FITZ ROY IS NEXT!!!!!!

Torres del Paine!

Our first day in Torres del Paine was marked with a long wait in a longer line of foreign park visitors in the tiny park entrance hut, followed by a short shuttle ride through EPIC scenery to the trail head (grimy window views were full of pampas plains, herds of fluffy, still-life guanacos (Alpacas), and jutting, rocky thumbs of mountains)! Our afternoon of hiking to our first camp was easy - though the steep uphills were painful on our sore legs (our boredom on the ferry resulted in an afternoon of countless deck lunges. Definitely a poor choice before a week of hiking loaded down with packs heavy with... oatmeal!) - and gloriously sunny! Many a nap and long lunch break was enjoyed in the grassy plains we were traversing on our way to the backside of the Torres range, which we would eventually circumnavigate on our 8 day “O” route!

We awoke well-rested after a peaceful night in the outdoors (the infamous rains/winds of Southern Patagonia had not yet been introduced to us) and ready to continue our circuit with a long day of hilly hiking through yet more pampas plains. Glaciers, mountains, and heavy clouds all loomed impressively in the distance, but our hours on the trail were yet again beautifully sunny and comfortably warm. A lunch of canned tuna and stale bread (our meal planning skills are not yet up to par... a brief lapse of judgement caused us to leave Puerto Natales without renting a stove... so our meals of bread, beans, and salami were enjoyed cold or not at all. Luckily we had many a snickers bar to tide over our hunger!) was followed by yet ANOTHER excellent afternoon nap in the sun! After which we enjoyed more hiking, more INCREDIBLE VIEWS, and just more general excellence!

Day 3 brought with it the first rain of our trip, but the damp air and our damp tent did little to dampen our spirits! The trails were still mysteriously (and very pleasantly) absent of other backpackers... so we continued our trek in our usual manner - laughing wildly, looking at waterfalls, and whooping with joy! The rain cleared up briefly for an afternoon of majestic peak gazing, but resumed it’s rhythmic pounding as soon as night fell. We awoke to much drenched gear (our used tent was not what you would call waterproof...), including one of Megan’s boots, which was somehow left outside of the tent. But after a morning of attempting to dry out equipment in front of a barrel fire in a yurt filled with other badasses from around the world (the median age of the other trekkers we met was approximately 60. We fit right in.), we decided to continue on with our biggest day yet (a pass crossing was on the itinerary) regardless of our thoroughly rain-soaked status. And our decision was not a mistake! The hiking that followed could only be described as THE BEST OF MY LIFE. The hours we spent chugging up and over a snowfilled/windpacked pass were rewarded with UNREAL views of the famous Glacier Grey, which we proceeded to hike along for a long afternoon of AWE. 14 miles, one 4,000 foot pass, and two deep ravine crossings (we had to carefully shimmy down and then back up hundred foot ladders precariously bolted to loose rock cliffs) later, we found ourselves at Refugio Grey (the first of the many lodges on the front side of the Torres mountains which cater to day hikers, making the popular 4-day “W” trek accessible to the wider world of those who prefer bunk rooms and prepared meals to wet tents and cold oatmeal!), thoroughly exhausted and slightly put out by the sheer numbers of other hikers at the lodge.

The next morning, under (thankfully) clearer skies, we proceeded to the Grand Paine Lodge, where we were planning on stopping for a brief lunch. The warm sun gave us a good place to dry out our drenched gear, and a public stove in the lodge allowed us to eat a hot meal... so instead of continuing on to the French Valley, where we were planning on making camp, we ended up just pitching our tent among dozens of others outside the lodge.

Our disappointment with the hordes of hikers we were suddenly encountering as we transitioned from the empty backside of the circuit to the bustling front side only grew as the crowds continued to swell – so instead of finishing up our trek by hiking the “W,” as we had originally planned, we instead took a rest day at Grand Paine Lodge (where the spectacular Cuernos Mountains shot up in stark relief to the sea-level elevation of the lodge, and the glassy surface of the glittering turquoise Lago Pehoe, on the banks of which the lodge was built, reflected every movement of the clouds), and then proceeded to hike what is referred to as the “tail of the Q.” It was a long day of hiking (we traversed the flat plains from the foot of the Cuernos, all along the edge of Lago Pehoe, and out to the administration building), filled with EVEN MORE breathtaking views, and the pleasant warmth of the sun.

Our time in Torres del Paine ended with a late evening bus back to Puerto Natales, where we spent a full day taking care of laundry (so many dirty socks!), returning our rented gear, and making plans for the next leg of our adventure: Argentina!

Preliminary views of Glacier Grey just after summiting the pass!

Glacier Grey

The view of Los Cuernos at Grand Paine Lodge

Trail nap.. Sleeping bags and all!

87 Kilometers later. BAD. ASS.

Final views

South America, PART 1: From Santiago to Patagonia!

Day 1 in Chile! Baños Morales

Glacial Lake = REST STOP!

Penguins in Ancud, Chiloé

Kindle action aboard the ferry

FERRY!

Sunset in Patagonia

CAPTAINS SEAT!!

After 6 world-spanning months of separation, Megan and I eagerly reunited in Santiago, Chile, ready for another three months of AWESOME adventure! True to our Pacific NW backgrounds, we began our journey with a day trip outside of the capital to hike to a glacier from the small town of Baños Morales. Besides the hours of outdoor exhilaration and blue skies, the day was filled with navigating public transportation, thoroughly burning our exposed skin in the Andean altitude, and sharing tales of three continents. The following day we made our way to the Museo Nacional, where we walked through pre-Columbian pottery and revved up our Spanish by reading the history-filled information boards. By day three, our jet lag was battled and we were ready head out of the city. Boarding a (14 hour!) southbound bus to Puerto Montt, we began the 3,000 km journey south towards our final destination of Puerto Natales—the launching pad for Torres del Paine National Park. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with the idea. Upon our arrival in Puerto Montt, we found the buses booked solid for the next 2+ weeks. So, we purchased ferry tickets instead. We had a week to explore the area before our ferry embarked, so we found our way to Chiloé, the peaceful island turned picturesque Chilean getaway.  We spent the week walking down long clouded beaches, visiting Humboldt and Magellan penguin colonies, making friends with motherly hospedaje (hostel) owners, and exploring the sleepy neighboring island Isla Lamuey. On March 1^st, 8 days into our South American travels, we boarded the ferry to Puerto Natales with about 200 other backpacking Chileans and foreigners. The four days were long on the small boat, filled with lots of reading, cafeteria-style meals, and bouts of nausea. However, slight discomforts and monotony were compensated with starlit nights, glacier sightings, ocean sunsets, sea bird watching, many a bobbing sea lion head, chats with the crew and captain, and animated conversations with other enthused Patagonian travelers. On day 4, we arrived in the mountain-rimmed Puerto Natales, where we used the remaining four hours of sunlight and our considerably built-up excitement and energy to purchase camping food (AKA oatmeal.. and more oatmeal!), rent gear, catch up with family, plan our trekking route, purchase bus tickets to the National Park, and pack. After which we COLLAPSED for a few hours of sleep before embarking at dawn on our longest solo backpacking trip to date in the epic wilderness of... TORRES DEL PAINE.
More to come! Jihelah and Megan 

Update: Nepal, Christmas, and la vita Italiana!

Hi guys!

Sorry for the extremely long radio absence... Life has been incredibly full and spectacularly AWESOME! The remainder of my time in Nepal was a lot of trekking (3 weeks, to be exact) to unbelievably HUGE mountains through tropical jungles, evergreen forests, rocky tundra, and finally barren glacial deserts. The stars, views, and wind chill were all unreal... Generally, just a really wild adventure! Then, we moved west to a tiny village called Ale Gau (in total, about 10 mud houses) where our Nepali instructor Amrit grew up. We spent 2 weeks teaching in the local school, harvesting rice, millet, and lentils with our homestay families, and observing and partaking in a lifestyle different from any I’d ever experienced. We did a lot of cool day hikes in the surrounding valley, watched some really stunning sunrises over the ever-looming Annapurna range, tried (and failed) to milk buffalo (we did drink a lot of fresh buff milk, though. Verdict = warm, creamy, and EXTREMELY DELICIOUS), and came to the unanimous conclusion that village life in rural Nepal is probably the greatest ever.

I was home for a month over Christmas eating cookies, skiing, and roadtripping through California with my sister, and then flew to Rome in January! I spent 5 weeks zigzagging my way all over Italy with my friend Chrissy from Nepal. Our approximate itinerary was Rome (art, architecture, lots and lots of RAIN. Who knew that the Mediterranean had winter?) Then.. Florence, followed by all the rest of Tuscany (lots of rolling hills and spectacular views and tasty, tasty paaasta!). Then, a long train North to the Dolomites and Turin (the birthplace of chocolate covered ice cream bars. Yes PLEASE!), then down south to Naples (Pompeii and PIZZA), and onto a ferry and over a smallish sea to Sicily! We spent two weeks on the island taking cooking classes from the hysterical woman who rented us our apartment (I can now make pistacchio pesto like a FIEND) and basking in the glorious and long-awaited sun! Chrissy flew back to the States in mid-February, and I spent a solo week hiking along the Amalfi Coast... which is incredibly touristy, but for very good reason. White sand beaches, tiny, colorful cottages hanging off of cliffs over sparkling turquoise water... kind of just really spectacular. Then, after a solid month plus of gastronomic adventuring (intermingled with cultural learning, of course!), I flew from Rome to Santiago, where I met Jihelah to begin the South American leg of our adventuring!

Woohoo!

Gap year RECAP!

Hello all!

I'm back to blog after an extended absence. The three months spent in China were filled with camels and new friends and loving home stay mothers. Beginning in Beijing, I spent a week familiarizing myself with my Where There Be Dragons group, reading about the country's recent history, and exploring the neighboring countryside including an unforgettable night on the Great Wall. The second week, our instructors shocked us with cross country plane tickets to Xin Jiang--the northwestern-most province of China. There we became acquainted with the Uighur language and culture in past Silk Road trading posts; journeyed up to see the 20,000 ft Pamir Mountains; then back down to negative altitude in the depressed Gobi Desert where we spent time in an ancient agricultural oasis in the middle of the world's second largest desert. Our next move was southeast towards cultural Tibet. Mosques’ 5x daily prayer calls were replaced with the sounds of prayer wheels turning and monks chanting mantras. I felt the strength of community when I joined a Tibetan family for a week of plowing fields, picking pears, and the endless task of cooking. Other beyond phenomenal moments/days of the first 6 weeks include 20+ hour train rides where my groupmates became family, a crammed camel market, millions of stars blinking down on a sacred lake, sunrises on red mountainsides, days of journaling in grasslands, laughing with maroon robed monks, and the group's impromptu a capella jams.

The second six weeks of China were more static in terms of travel, but not in challenges and growth. We arrived in Kunming, Yunnan where we entered 4-week home stays. The weeks were full of home cook meals, sibling entertainment and sometimes rivalry, family excursions, Mandarin language classes, researching the Mekong, and frequent afternoons lying in our favorite park Cui Hu. The month was interrupted by a trip to southwestern Yunnan's Ruili. There we explored our first jungle, taught English and art classes, and spoke and listened in a Burmese refugee camp. The end of our time together was spent in Gansu—the southeastern most province of China. There we celebrated our growth and friendship as a group and individually on the cloudy fishing island of Weizhou Dao.

Then my independent traveling began, not solo, but with my boyfriend Evan Gastman. The trip started with three weeks in Laos. There we used local water transportation to boat down the Nam Oh River in northeastern Laos. After three days of jungle covered mountains and karst landscapes we were spit out in the UNESCO world cultural site Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos. There, rural life was replaced with days wandering through French colonial streets and dozens of renovated grandiose wats. A night bus later, we toured multiple museums in Vientiane and then a longer night bus south to Pakse. On a three-day motorcycle tour of the Bolivan Plateau national park we learned that water (especially waterfalls with small half naked Laotian children) is the best escape from the 95-degree/85% humidity afternoons. We bused to our last stop in Laos, the 4,000 islands. The border between Laos and Cambodia is lost in small islands—inhabited and uninhabited—scattering the kilometers-wide spread of the Mekong. I felt like I’d found the edge of the world, where time and gravity whirl together and distort all Earthly laws of physics. From the 4,000 Islands we crossed the border into Cambodia and spent a day in a sweaty bus to Siem Reap. Days exploring the mind-boggling carvings and jungles of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were punctuated with intermittent history lessons from tuk tuk drivers, wikipedia, and the personal accounts of our happy hostel owner Bon. Phnom Penh brought the exploration killing fields and a jolting memoir accounting a childhood under the Khmer Rouge. But as horrifying as their recent history is, Cambodia’s landscape and people kept every day positive and illuminated the bright path into their future. Christmas was spent relaxing on an abandoned beach, and the New Year brought us to Thailand. The allotted week of beach time proved to be too much for our ambitious traveling spirits and soon we were exploring Kanchanaburi, a province bordering Burma rich in WWII history. Then came Chiang Mai in northern Thailand where isolation preserved ancient customs far into the 20^th century, perfect for becoming a 21^st century backpacker haven. Rounding out our trip was a week in Bangkok: in the King’s Palace, along the canals, in cooking school, enjoying the eclectic Atlanta hotel, in the hippie Westernized Khao San, and the ultra-modern sky rail and business/art sectors of the capital. On the 15^th Evan flew home to New York, and four days later I followed him back to the US. I spent the last week of January and the first three of February splitting my time between Mt. Hood, the bakery, visiting friends at University of Oregon, Macabee and Sarah visiting HR, and filling college applications. A trip to Boston nailed down my decision to transfer to that city for college and was topped off with a lovely visit with Aunt Anne, Uncle Jeremy, Emily, Eli, and Emma Rose. And then February 20^th had snuck up on me and it was time to meet Megarinski in Santiago. So now this incredibly long, yet brief account of my travels from September to February will come to a close as Megan and I embark on our long-awaited South American adventure. 

Staying safe and having fun,

Jihelah