Colombia...con mucho gusto!

Cayo Sombrero aka Lake Havascrew

We made our way safe and sound from Caracas to Tucacas via Maracay, Venezuela. Socialist propoganda, black marketed U.S. dollars, and inflated prices aside, Venezuela seemed much like any other third-world-esqe latin american country. That was until we found ourselves on Cayo Sombrero in Parque Nacional Morocoy...

We had befriended a group of three Californians traveling through Venezuela the previous day and had decided to pool our funds for a lancha (small boat) out to one of the supposedly more beautiful islands off the Venezuelan coast. While we knew it was popular among national tourists we had no idea what lay ahead.

When we arrived in the morning we were greeted by beautiful, palm shaded, crystal clear, tranquil waters. To top it all off, we thought we had found a part of the island that would remain mostly untouched for the day.

As the morning wore on, more and more wealthy Venezuelans pulled up in their boats. By noon, the beach which we thought would be our own little tropical paradise looked like "The Channel" at Lake Havasu...nobody was topless, but there were loads of beautiful latinas romping around in their g-strings accompanied by blasting regaetone.

We actually really enjoyed seeing how the more wealthy end of the spectrum lives. One of the Californians we had met was a medical student volunteering in Merida, Venezuela. To our surprise, he informed us that breast augmentations and nose jobs were the most common surgeries in Venezuela.

I guess after traveling on the lower end of the socio-economic scale for the last 6 months, it's easy to forget that there's always a more affluent side of the coin.

Venezuela...a la orden!

We flew from Santiago, Chile to Caracas, Venezuela via Lima, Peru. We ened up getting bumped from our connecting flight in Lima because a bird flew into the plane's engine. Good news - got to spend the night at the Sheraton all expenses paid and we both got a $300 voucher for Taca. On top of being spoiled for a day, we were able to fly first class from Lima to Caracas...WooHoo!

This is one way to keep people from parking here...

Valdivia, Chile

Gone Fishin'

The good thing about Pucón, Chile...a river runs through it. After a day of cycling through Pucón and it's surrounding area we decided to scratch a hike up to the crater of Volcan Villarica and take this opportunity to try our hand at fly fishing. Our guide warned us that it wouldn't be likely to catch any fish our first time out, but, nonetheless, we decided we wanted to give it a shot.

We woke up early and geared up in our waders...personally, I found this to be the most exciting part. Hugo, our guide, thought we would have a better chance at catching something while trolling down the river. He set us up to troll while we were enroute to the spots where we would actually fly fish. On the way to the first fly fishing spot I caught a baby arco iris trout. The day was off to a great start.

We stopped a little way down the river and Hugo instructed us on the proper form of fly fishing. Surprisingly, we caught on (no pun intended) pretty quickly. The nice part about fly fishing is that the motion of the pole and line while standing in the river is totally meditative...we weren't worried about whether or not we would catch a fish.

After a bit of practice, we hopped back in the boat and headed to another fly fishing spot. This time while enroute, Brandon caught a full size rainbow trout. What can we say...lady luck was on our side.

At our second stop, we fine tuned our fly fishing technique by using longer lines. Apparently, Brandon really had the hang of it because he reeled in ANOTHER full size trout. We didn't get a chance to figure out what kind of trout it was because it jumped off the hook right before we could get it in the net.

Total fish count for the morning...five. I think we've found another hobby.

We're going going, back back, to Chile Chile

We saw Harmony and Ryan off at the Mendoza airport hopped a bus to Santiago, Chile. From there, up to Valparaiso and then back down to Patagonia.

Tasting in Maipu

Finally, the Semana Santa (week before Easter) rush was over and we were able to make our way to Mendoza to see where all of this delicious wine was being produced. We ended up staying in a posada about 30 minutes outside of the city of Mendoza in a town called Maipu. This was a much welcomed change from busy Buenos Aires. The posada was a great find...14 hectacres owned by a helpful Belgium guy and his girlfriend, complete with a small vineyard, olive orchard, and guard dog named Tommy.

Our first full day in town, we decided to rent bicycles and taste at a few of the local family run wineries...by the way, there are tons! The ride was beautiful and each stop had something different to offer.

The first bodega (spanish for winery) showed us the old facilities from where they made wine back in the day.

The second bodega was a French owned and had been revived after 30 years of abandonment. The sommelier here was very educational and the wine was fantastic...apparently, the French have a knack for this kind of thing.

Our last tasting stop for the day was the Tapaus distillery. The actual building and facililty we absolutely gorgeous! It was interesting to see that no part of the grape goes unused. After the wineries are done with the skins and seeds, the distilleries used these parts to make their product...liquor. After the tour, we also were able to try a bit of grappa (a popular liquor down here) and some other flavored liquors.

After a full ride and an afternoon of wine and liquor, it was time to get some lunch. We cycled back towards our posada and had lunch at Domaine Du Mont. This was a beautiful colonial house just recently purchased by a Canadian family. The food was great and Harmony was finally able to get a taste of that purple drink.



While cycling was fun, we wanted to get our taste buds on more wines. Hence, we rented a car the second day so that we could cover more ground and visit more bodegas. We made an effort to taste at a couple of the larger wine producers in the area (i.e. Norton), but unforntunately reservations were required. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because instead of being herded around in a large group, we were able to visit more family run wineries and get spoiled with personalized tours and tastings. We were even able to help label and seal a couple bottles of wine at a small artisan winery. I think we all agreed that the smaller bodegas were much more beautiful and it was a pleasure to taste great wines at a ridiculously low price. To top it off most are only available in the region if not only sold from the bodega.

That evening we had an appointment to ride some horses with Cesar the gaucho. Once again, we hadn't had time to squeeze in food with tasting so we stopped by the market and grabbed some snacks and beer for a pre-horseride tailgate. Cesar turned out to be a great guy and we had a wonderful ride through wine vineyards and down a riverbed while watching the sunset. Not a bad way to finish up a great day!


The following day was to be our last with Harmony and Ryan. We decided we could all use a little R & R after a seriously jam-packed two weeks. A day at the Termas Cacheuta hit the spot. The facility was complete with massages, mud, lunch buffet, and thermal pools all situated in a canyon overlooking the beautiful Rio Mendoza.



It's going to be hard to get back on the backpacker trail after being spoiled with great food, wine, and especially great friends for the last two weeks.

The Matt & Erin Bodega

Mendoza, Argentina

Tango, Futbol, Steak, & Wine!

After two weeks exploring Patagonia, we found ourselves back in Buenos Aires with yet another great experience to look forward to. Our friends from home, Harmony and Ryan, were coming to travel with us for two full weeks...and when I say full, I mean FULL!

We started with three nights in Buenos Aires...not wasting a second of our time there. The morning Harmony and Ryan arrived they hit the ground running. We walked through the artist market in San Telmo, clicked some pictures of the revolutionary Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada (Argentina's version of the White House), feasted on empanadas, squeezed in a cat nap, and were off to try some of Argentina's famous steak and wine.

The following day we all decided there were two things we absolutely needed to see before leaving Buenos Aires...a tango show and a futbol game. Thinking we were on it...we bought a newspaper and found a tango show that would be taking place that night. After an afternoon of cashing traveler's checks, shopping, walking down the widest street in the world, and a celebratory St. Patrick's day beer on the sidewalk, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the show. Unfortunately, the place looked pretty closed up when we arrived. A man in the restaurant across the street let us know that the place was only open on the weekends...oops I guess we should've called.

We didn't give up that easily though. We stopped into a nearby hotel and asked what other options we had to see a tango show. Armed with a map and showtimes, we stopped for and headed over to Cafè Tortoni to see a show. I guess we didn't keep a very good eye on the clock because we didn't get there until almost midnight and the last show of the night was almost over. All the doorman could offer us was a flyer with a phone number and to try again tomorrow.

The next day, we decided not to take any risks so we found a website online that had all of the up-to-date tango show information in Buenos Aires. Being the cheapskates we are, we were pumped to find a free show at the Recoleta Cultural Center that evening. After another day of checking out Buenos Aires and the Evita Peron museum, we wondered into the cultural center about an hour prior to the show. The lady at the information desk confirmed there was a show that evening so we decided to kill some time with a cheese and meat "tabla" and a bottle (or two) of wine. We were stoked when we found out that in addition to snacks we had stumbled upon a DJ spinning a mix of tango and electronic music in the plaza.

We returned to the cultural center to, finally, get a glimpse of a tango show. When we walked into the room it looked a bit strange for tango. It was two women on stage singing accompanied by a solo accordian player. It quickly became apparent that the name of the musical group had the word "tango" in it and that's how they were able to advertise on the tango website.

We cut our losses and headed back to Cafe Tortoni hoping we could get into a show seeing as how we were planning on leaving Buenos Aires to head for Mendoza the next day. We were greeted by the same doorman we had talked to the night before. Unfortunately, his response was the same...all shows were full call the number on the card to make a reservation for the next night. Luckily, one of the managers heard our reaction to this (not pleased) and came over to let us know we could get on the standy by list in case of any cancellations.

We had yet another drink in the cafe while we waited and, luckily, there was a cancellation and we were FINALLY able to get into a tango show. It was totally worth it! It was probably extra cool to us because we'd been trying to find a tango show for two days. You can't come to Buenos Aires without seeing some tango.

The next morning we figured we would hop on a plane to Mendoza...without reservations. When we arrived to the airport we realized that the week before Easter is a HUGE vacation time for Latinos and all the flights to Mendoza or any town close were booked until Easter Sunday. After a short-lived plan to catch the ferry over to Uruguay for a few days...boats booked full as well...we rented a car and drove out to the coast...Pinamar to be exact.


The first day yeilded great weather and we were able to spend some time at the beach. The following days were a bit more chilly, but we considered ourselves lucky because Buenos Aires was being hit by horrible weather...tornado included. Even though the beach wasn't on our original itinerary, we ended up having a nice, relaxing time...eating, shopping, and drinking wine. Brandon and Ryan even tried their hands at parilla...the Argentina's form of BBQ.


We planned to come back to Buenos Aires on Easter Sunday because we still had to complete our second objective...to attend a futbol game and the majority of games take place on Sundays. We rolled back in to BA just in the nick of time. A Boca Juniors game was starting at 4pm and we had about two hours to find a room, get to the stadium, and buy tickets.

We had been warned by the information office that it wasn't in our best interest to buy the cheap tickets in the "popular" section because tourists tend to walk out of these areas with lighter pockets. The only problem was that when we arrived to the box office and, finally, made a decision as to where we wanted to sit, the "popular" section was our only option. The man at the ticket window ensured us that we would be fine so we took his word (with a small grain of salt) and went for it.

We were glad that things worked out the way they did. The "popular" section was great! With standing room only, the crowd was energetic, but not out of control...thank goodness Boca Juniors was winning. There was another "popular" section at the opposite end of the field which looked a bit more rowdy...band and banners included. The fans cheered and sang different chants the entire game.

The only part that got a little bit dicey was the end. We thought we would beat the crowd by leaving just before the end of the game. We made our way over to the exit tunnel to find that the cops weren't letting anybody out. Turns out, they were keeping all of the Bocas Juniors fans in the stadium until the opposing team's fans were gone. Reason being, the opposition was seated in the tier above us and had been spitting and throwing drinks on people the whole game. I guess the cops wanted to give them time to run :)

It was a bit unnerving while we waited for the police to open the gates because you never know how a locked-up crowd will react. We probably waited for about 45 minutes until our section was the last to be released from the stadium. Fortunately, everybody behaved and we exited smoothly.


Our first week in and around Buenos Aires with Harmony and Ryan was action packed.

Whoa...get out the way!

The Moreno Glacier...making waves.

Moreno Glacier

Our last stop in southern Patagonia was El Calafate and the Moreno Glacier.

Wonder what the world's biggest ice cube tray looks like? At 30 kilometers long, this glacier gives you a quick crash course in the sheer power of mother nature.

We watched from platforms across from the end of the glacier. At 5 kilometers across and an average on 60 meters above the water level (170 meters below) this ice field is among the only glaciers that in continually growing.

As we sat and watched, this movement was very obvious. The glacier creaked and moaned continuously. Every so often a relatively small chunk would fall off followed by the thunderous
crash when it hit the water. When I say small chunk, at least the size of a car or school bus.

We were in exactly the right place at the right time (camera ready) to witness, front and center, the fall of a massive chunck about the size of a high-rise building. Actually, it was almost like the demolition of a high-rise building...looked like it happened in slow motion, but with explosive force. We estimated the resulting shore pound was probaly 6-8 ft high.

Now, we kinda get the idea of how tsunami is formed.

Definitely understand how Torres del PAINe got its name

After Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, we took a bus up to Puerto Natales, Chile, via the Strait of Magellan (14 hours). From here, we planned to get back on the trail and backpack trough Torres del Paine National Park.

As you've read, all of the multiple day hikes we had done up to this point were guided AND we never had to carry EVERYTHING we needed. After assessing the situation in Puerto Natales, we decided it was time to give the whole ball of wax a shot. We rented camping gear (tent, sleeping bags, stove), shopped for the most filling yet lightest food possible, and decided to do the "W" trail in five days.

The morning we were to catch the bus to the national park we woke up to the unwelcomed sound of consistent rain. From the research we had done the previous day we had found out that like much of South America the weather in Torres del Paine can change like "that" ("that" being a snap of the fingers). We were hoping that this theory would work in our favor and yeild sun by the time we started hiking.

We arrived to the park about three hours later and the rain persisted. We waited for the catamaran that would take us to our starting point bracing ourselves for 5 days of wetness.

Miraculously, after the short half hour boat ride the rain stopped. We continued holding our breath for the first hour or so after it had stopped. Then, finally, the sun made its premier appearance for the day. AND the goodness didn't stop there...it continued to stay dry for the next two days!

In our first two days we hiked up and down the first line of the "W"...by the way, it's a cursive "W". In the first 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) we were introduced to spectacular views of glacier-covered mountains, iceberg filled turquoise lakes, and the seemingly neverending Glacier Grey. While the scenery was worth every step, we were wondering how our bodies were going to handle another three full days of walking...the dogs were barking.

The third day we were able to leave our big backpacks at camp while we hiked up the Valle Frances and back. While we were hiking up the valley we were lucky enough to see one big avalanche and few smaller avalanches...all from a safe distance. The absense of the extra weight was nice for a while, we still had to come back to pack up camp, put on our backs, and hit the trail for the next camp. Thankfully, we only had to walk 2 hours until we reached our goal for the day.
While setting up our tent we struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans from Colorado. Turns out, they got bored one day and decided it would be a good idea to hike from the equator in Ecuador to the end of South America...through the Andes mountain range. After 22 months of walking, they should be completing their stroll in about 2 months. They have a killer website...check it out...we've posted a link on the sidebar.

The fourth day we woke up to a steady rain, but luckily it was pretty light. We hiked from 9:30am to about 5pm when arrived in our last camp at the end of the "W". The selling point for making it this far was a 45 minute hike to see the actual Torres del Paine up close and personal for sunrise.

That night was freezing cold. We woke up at 6am to scramble up a bunch of boulders to see the sunrise reflect on the Torres. Unfortunately, on the way up it looked like the clouds would be too thick for the sun to break through.

Luckily, we were wrong. The clouds actually seemed to enhance the colors of the sunrise. For just about three minutes, the Torres del Paine glowed bright orange! Absolutely magnificent! I think we even briefly forgot how much our feet and legs were hurting for a second.

After the show ended, we were faced with the reality that we had to get ourselves back down the mountain. Fortunately, gravity was on our side and it only took us 2 hours.

Overall, we hiked roughly 90 kilometers (55.9 miles) in five days. We celebrated the successful finish of our first "real" backpacking experience with a few cold beers while laying in the grass at the bus stop.

Still aren't quite sure how it got the name Tierra del Fuego...in English, Land of Fire

We arrived in Ushuaia to the harsh realization that our skin had grown quite thin due to that last month and a half in tropical climates. We piled on almost every piece of clothing we owned and set out to get familiar with the "southernmost city in the world".

Our first day down south we checked out the town of Ushuaia and the surrounding Beagle Channel. It definitely had that "way out there" feeling. Ushuaia was initially founded as a penal colony...I'm guessing because any inmate would freeze to death or die of exposure if he attempted to escape.

The next day we decided we'd go for a hike the the nearby Parque National Tierra del Fuego. The weather was cooperative and we were able to enjoy a beautiful fall day at the end of the continent. This was a great warm up for both our legs and the camera for the upcoming 5 day hike in Torres del Paine, Chile.

Back in Argentina...Buenos Aires to be exact

After a great experience in Uruguay, we're back in Argentina. Same great country...fun new city. Thus far, Buenos Aires seems like a happening place...tango dancers, delicious food, a serious place for shopping. Tomorrow morning we fly down to Ushuaia to check out the end of the continent and Tierra del Fuego. But don't fear, we'll be back in BA in a couple weeks to see what else this city has to offer AND we'll be meeting up with our friends Harmony and Ryan.

Colonia del Sacramento

We cruised down the coast from Punta del Diablo hoping to find some more nice beaches. Unfortunately, the nice weather took a turn in the opposite direction. We passed through the beach towns of La Poloma and Punta del Este, but the rain and crappy weather continued. We decided to thrown in our beach towels and make our way to the city.

The city we ended up in, Colonia del Sacramento an old smugglers port, actually turned out to be a nice place to relax before crossing the Rio de Plata to the big city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Catching Up on our Rays and Rest in Punta del Diablo

From Montevideo, we made our way up to the northeast coast of Uruguay...a town called Punta del Diablo. It was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered...dirt roads, small cottages, great rock walking, and sprawling beaches. Believe it or not, the weather cooperated with us as well.

We found a bugalow just up the hill from the beach in a great little complex. We had a small kitchen where we cooked our own meals. This was great for two reasons...number one, we were able to get back within our budget. Number two, we knew the food would be cooked sanitarily so we could avoid another bout of food poisening.

We stayed for four nights and were blessed with great weather the first three days. We worked on our tans, explored the beaches, and finished our books.

On our second night, the owners (Mario and Leah) prepared a parilla (BBQ in Uruguay and Argentina) for some of their friends that were vacationing from Argentina and Montevideo. After we finished our dinner, we cruised over to chat and ended up being fed drinks and BBQ until about 2am. Not only was it a great time...it was a perfect opportunity to get our spanish back on track.

After lots of talk about the traditional drink, Yerba Mate, everyone decided we absolutely needed to give it a shot. So the next morning they welcomed us into the social world of mate and explained all of the ettiquite and traditions involved. It was great, instead of making you feel like a "poser" for drinking the traditionally Uruguayan and Argentine drink, they love the fact that you want to try out part of their culture. We both agree that Uruguayans are, by far, the most genuinely friendly people we've met along the way.

Even the owner's dog, Cookie, gave us a tour of the beach and, on our last day, saw us safely off on our bus to La Poloma.

Onto Uruguay

After taking a serious beating in Brazil...both our wallets and our bodies...we decided it was time to commence exploration of Uruguay. So far, seems mellow and we're back within our budget. Not to mention, it's really nice to be able to communicate a bit more extensively again.

S-S-S-Salvador aka Bahía

Our hotel was just across the street from Bahía's oldest fort, Forte de Santo Antônio de Barra. By the way, a very nice place to watch the sunset.

Just on the other side of the bay lies a cool-lookin' lighthouse. If you look closely, there's a cable line from the end of the point into the water. Both of us agreed this would make for a killer zip line!

The cultural center of Salvador is known as Pelourino (portuguese for whipping post). This area used to be a major center for trade in the north of Brazil...slave trade not excluded, hence the name. All that aside, it's an area of capoeira (a Brazilian form of martial arts), cobble stone streets, and beautiful, colorful colonial buildings.

The Real Amazon River

After parting ways with Kirk, we hopped a plane up to Manaus. According to people that we had met along the way, Manaus and its surrounding area were "not to be a missed". We jumped onto a bus to get from the airport into the center of town. As we came into the city Brandon and I both found ourselves wondering if we were in the right Manaus. Our first impression of Manaus was a dingy, ill-kept port city. We were hoping that we just hadn't hit the nice part. After we found a hotel and wandered a bit we came to the conclusion that the advice we were given was WAY OFF.

We shook off this let down and reminded ourselves that we had come to Manaus in order to hop on a boat and ride the length of the Amazon River. Four days from Manaus to Belem...the end of the Amazon. We headed down the the dock to see what our options were. Once again, not exactly what we expected.

Yes, we DID know that river travel was the primary mode of transportation in this region. Yes, we DID expect to buy a hammock space as our passage. No, we didn't know that we couldn't catch a boat to Belem until Wednesday...we would have to spend 3 days in the "lovely" city of Manaus. No, we weren't exactly prepared for the amount of people they smash onto these boats.

After speaking with a couple touts and captains we took an evening to evaluate our options. Long story short, we decided to catch a boat to Santarém (two days travel from Manaus) on what we determined to be one of the more seaworthy passenger vessels. Another contributing factor was that the boat to Santarém left Manaus the very next day. We thought we'd give river travel a two day trial run and decide how we would get ourselves out of the jungle from there...boat or plane.

When we bought our tickets at about 9am the 110 foot boat was relatively empty. We figured we should have plenty of room for our hammocks. When we returned two hours later ready to board, we witnessed a much different scene...the boat was PACKED! Full capacity...250 people. There weren't even two hammock hooks together. Keep in mind that the hooks are only about a foot apart. After we sized up our surrounding and settled in we thought that maybe two days was the better course of action.

Once under way, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of comfort. Even while constantly bumping into our neighbors, the oversized hammocks provided an illusion of sufficient personal space. The weather also held up pretty well. There were only a couple hard rain showers over the two days so we were able to stay dry.

We got plenty of rest and reading done in the two days to Santarém. Given that everybody's baggage is on deck, our maine concern was robbery, but we were able to walk away with all of our belongings. By the time we arrived to port we were thinking that another two days on a boat to Belem would actually be a nice way to relax.

From Santarém we decided to head to a small town called Altar do Ciao, but were postponed when I came down with the stomach flu. Not surprised considering the volume of people on the boat and that there was only one set of dishes at mealtime that was rinsed and wiped in between groups of twenty. Two days later I was able to make the short 1 hour bus trip, but was still feeling fragile.

Altar do Ciao ended up being a perfect place to recuperate. It's an Amazon tributary just west of Santarém. The coolest part of the town is a sandbar that separates a lake from the river. During the wet season the sandbar with its white sand beaches disappear. Luckily, there was still plenty of sand above the river level when we arrived.

For Valentine's day we found an abandoned hut on the sandbar and hung up our hammocks. Thank goodness we had some shade because the sun was INTENSE. We enjoyed the day reading and by the evening I was feeling much better.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped to catch a bite to eat...the first since I had come down with the flu. Nothing special, but it did the trick and it felt good to finally have food in my stomach.

Both Brandon and I woke up in the middle of the night with a solid case of food poisening...what luck? Given the state of our health we voted down two more days on a boat and hopped on a plane to Salvador on the north coast.

Sugar Loaf

Before saying goodbye to Kirk, we decided we should do one last touristy thing. End result, we joined the crowds and took a cable car up to the Pao de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf in english). We were fortunate enough to get a semi-decent weather hence intermittent views of Rio de Janeiro. There were even points when the clouds ducked down enough to see the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer peeking out from the top of his mountain.