Salamanca with Luke and Maca

We flew up from Patagonia to visit Luke and his fiance Maca at their home in Salamanca Chile. 

Salamanca is a small city of about 15,000 people, located about four hours north of Santiago. The climate and terrain felt strikingly like Southern California. It was foggy every morning and then broke into bright sunshine each afternoon. It never rains in the summer (or the spring and fall) and there are cacti and scrub bushes on the hillsides. 

Luke met Maca while studying abroad during his junior year at Middlebury, and has been living and working in Chile since our graduation three years ago. They both now work for the municipal government, and live in a small house at the edge of town. It is a pretty good setup.

It was great to catch up with an old friend, and to stay with locals rather than in anonymous hostels. We got to meet Maca's family, who cooked us a few amazing meals, and got a window into life in a small Chilean city. We generally took it pretty easy, and spent our days wandering around and taking it in. After a few days in Salamanca we trekked north up the coast for another four hours and spent a few days in the port city of Coquimbo. From there we went even further north, to an incredible beach town where we went on an ocean safari. See the pics below!

The four of us on a hilltop.

The dry hills above Salamanca.

Luke and I exploring a burned out bridge in the farmland outside of town.

Nellie and Maca's younger brother Benjamin, holding grapes that are used to make Pisco. It was awesome to see a vineyard with bunches of juicy grapes.

Nellie holding a "Tuna", which is a kind of cactus fruit. Benjamin convinced Nellie to pick it up and then took this photo of her, but failed to mention that the fruit is covered in tiny horrible spines. Nellie found dozens in her hand. Rascal!

Eating a dinner of Chilean fast food in Luke and Maca's house. Chileans put avocado and mayo on everything.  

Nellie and I above the harbor in Coquimbo.

Luke and I in the same spot.

Chilean breakfast is a bit lacking (just bread and jam), so Nellie and I tried to bring American-style breakfast sandwiches into their world. Unfortunately we were foiled by a near-total lack of quality ingredients. There was no bacon!

We saw a bunch of Guanacos in the desert on our way to the beach town. They are like llamas. Pretty weird looking.

Going into the water. It was cold!

Nellie was pumped to get a wet hug after :)

We went on an ocean safari and saw the most incredible wildlife. We saw a whale and a huge group of dolphins right up close. The dolphins were jumping and were so beautiful. There were also sea lions, penguins, and cormorants.

The whale's tail. It was bigger than our boat.

The dolphins. They were really fast.

Seafarers on a desert island.

Final sunset over the Pacific.

Torres Del Paine

Nellie and I left our Buenos Aires hostel for the airport at 3:30 in the morning, and somehow managed to go 14 straight hours without consuming any food, except for a bag of airplane cookies. A series of  last minute buses were really to blame. Needless to say, we were in a frantic hunger-stricken delirium when we arrived at Puerto Natales. Luckily we made it to a restaurant before collapsing.

We set out for the park at 7:30 am the next morning. We hiked a beautiful six-day/five-night circuit in Torres del Paine national park in southern Chile. The park feels like it's at the end of the world and is famous for its huge granite towers. We were fully decked out with waterproof gear, but miraculously managed to totally avoid rain, and even had a few bluebird days.

The park is an extremely popular hiking destination, and we arrived at the trailhead in a four bus caravan with 200 other hikers. To avoid some of the crowds we hiked the backside of the mountain range in addition to the the classic route on the front, making an 'O' shaped trek overall. The mileage is entirely impossible to say, since maps, the internet, and trail signs all disagree, but we're estimating 65-75 miles.

See below for the day by day breakdown. Note that you can click on a picture to zoom in. Some of them are really great full size.

Day 1
After a rainy bus ride to the park the skies broke just as we hit the trail. Nellie and I ended up hiking in shorts in the sunshine. It was a great start.

We knew that Nellie's co-worker was in the park at roughly the same time as us, but that's about it. Lo and behold, as we were setting up camp at our first campsite, IN STROLLS JUSTIN! It was incredible. We had a great dinner together, and the next morning, parted ways (we were trekking in opposite directions). Nellie is now two-for-two for random run-ins in Torres del Paine.

We had been warned that there were mice in the campsite and hung our food from a tree to protect it. But despite our efforts, we awoke to chewing noises outside of our tent in the middle of the night. THE MICE ATE OUR BACKPACKS!! They chewed the plastic tabs and the rubber tubes from our water sacks. I have no idea why they would chew non-edible plastic. They are pure evil. We vowed revenge.

Nellie and I at the start of the trek.

It had rained hard the night before we got to the park and the rivers were swollen.

Crazy blue lakes and blue skies! The blue color in the lakes is caused by the glacial silt in the water.

Nellie on a calm beach with clear water.

The towers, in all their glory.

Nellie and Justin!

Day 2
In 2011 there was a fire in the park caused by an illegal campfire, and we spent the entire second day hiking through a burned forest. It was a bit sad.

Toward the end of the day we reached the enormous Glacier Grey. We set up at a nice campsite near the glacier and each had a beer while watching icebergs float by on the glacial lake.

Pretty flowers in the burned forest.

The towers were looking more like Mordor with the mist.

Looking out at Glacier Grey. It drains from the icefield in the background, which is 220 miles long.

In front of Glacier Grey.

Standing guard at the campsite. Note the excellent rock placement.

Day 3
The third day dawned with disappointment: the mice had struck again. We had hung our food bag from a tree branch with a thin string, but a mouse had climbed up the tree, out the branch, and down the string, and had then proceeded to chew through our nice waterproof stuff sack to eat a few bites of cheese. Gah!

Leaving the campsite behind, we climbed higher and higher above Glacier Grey as we traversed John Gardner pass. It was a serious climb, but the views were great, and it was snowing lightly at the top of the pass. We arrived at the next campsite quite tired.

Nellie gazing out at the icefield.

Nellie and I at the top of John Gardner Pass.

Sliding down a snowfield at the top of the pass. Note the excellent "penguin-style" form: knees bent, chin high.

Day 4

We took a short fourth day and didn't hit the trail untill noon. The views were great and it was nice to have a lighter day on the trail.

Looking back at the pass in the morning sunshine :)

Perros Glacier tumbling into a small lake. I tried to scramble to touch the bottom but couldn't make it.

Lago Dickson, with more glaciers in the background. 

Our next campsite was right on the Lago Dickson.

Day 5
To squeeze the full circuit into six days we had to hike 20 miles on the fifth day. The terrain was gentle and the weather was nice, but we were definitely tired by the end of day. Much to our delight, there were fantastic hot showers at the campsite that night. They felt incredible.

The beginning of our long day...

Part of the route is on private farmland and therefore outside of the park. We're at the border here.

Huge hawks (southern crested caracaras) were patrolling a campsite looking for mice. They were totally unafraid of us and walked within ten or fifteen feet. It was awesome to see them up close.

Day 6
On our final day we left our backpacks at camp and climbed the valley to the base of the famous Torres towers. We had to start early so we could catch the bus back to town, and the sunrise was beautiful. The heavy crowds on the trails by lunchtime made us glad that we had started early, and that our trek had included the less-crowded backside of the circuit.

We had a nice sunrise.

Nellie with the famous towers. She has a very similar picture from four years ago.

Nellie was pumped to finish the Tabasco sauce!

Buenos Aires, Vamos!

We skipped one little detail on Friday, March 14, the day we met Sam and Dad/Jonathan in Banff, Alberta: we got engaged! Mike proposed on top of Tunnel Mountain, overlooking the city. It was beautiful and perfect. In celebration, we figured we'd go on a six week tour of South America! Conveniently, we already had plane tickets.

March 23-March 25. After a full evening, night, and morning of travel, we arrived in 75 degree and sunny Buenos Aires. What a welcomed change from deary and cold March in New England! We were champs and had a full day and night of exploring, despite sleeping on a plane the night before. I have to go on a tangent here briefly: it's quite an experience returning somewhere that used to be home, and feeling like a tourist. So many parts felt SO familiar; it was incredible. Street corners I knew I had walked on and stores I had passed every single day would just pop up in front of me. But at other times it was only disorienting jumbles of what should have been familiar but instead felt so foreign. I was excited to share a city that I love so much with Mike, but I hadn't anticipated how hard it would be not speaking Spanish very well anymore. It's especially difficult going back and forth between English and Spanish, in my head and out loud. I was pleased with my comprehension, but when I opened my mouth to speak, there were huge blanks where words used to be. It is slowly coming back, and it really is exciting having the opportunity to practice, but Dios! I spend a lot of time fretting over mis-speaks and slipping confidence.

On a positive note, the city smelled perfect. I was astonished at how familiar it smelled. Maybe it's a certain perfume or food, but I swear it radiates from the streets themselves. It just smells right. I loved it.

We stayed in Hostel Buenos Artes on the edge of Palermo. It was a perfect balance of funky/social and do-your-own-thang. It even had a great roof deck. Our room had bright pink walls and a big window that reminded us of our hostel in Prague.

Our three days had three themes, in no particular order: exploring my old stomping grounds, having Mike try every type of amazing Argentine food, and relaxing outside in the warmth. All involved lots of walking. In my opinion, we hit almost all the best places in the city.

1. We visited my apartment, my local restaurantes, and explored my barrio, Palermo. We bought my absolute favorite Guia T, which details all 464 bus lines in the city and happily zoomed around the city, utilizing the re convenient and new bus card, eliminating the frantic hoarding of coins. Given the ever-rising inflation rate, coins were practically useless anyways. We were champs and utilized the 'Blue Market' by bringing a few hundred in USD cash down and exchanging it on the street for 10.4:1 instead of the official 8:1. It felt like scalping tickets - everyone's doing it, but it's technically illegal. Just follow the calls of "cambio, cambio!" on Avenida Florida!

2. I'm pretty sure Mike got the full Argentine food experience. We had super panchos (somewhat longer than normal hot dogs with potato sticks on them). We had helado (soft delicious ice cream). We had empanadas multiple times. We had an extravagant steak dinner and cheap delicious Malbec wine. We had litros de Quilmes with bowls of maní. We had milanesa and pizza with the signature whole green olives atop. We had cafe cortado, agua con gas, and jamon crudo y queso for breakfast (unfortunately no one does breakfast like the USA...that's for sure). Last but certainly not least, we had choripan. Please see pictures of the glory below. We walked many miles for that choripan. But boy was it worth it. We did not have any mate, but Mike has tried that before. All in all, la comida was a total success. Sam and Tess, did I miss anything? The price was generally right as well.

3. The parks were in fine form while we were there, and we took full advantage. During the day we lounged beside palm trees and lakes. At night we ate and drank outside in the warm air. I think we'd both agree that our evening meals were the best part.

Parque de Palermo - note the palm trees

My favorite bus! We didn't ride it.

My apartment! I look cansada.

CHORI...

CHORI....

CHORIPAN!!!

This cost $1.80. I should also mention that for quite a while, Mike was walking down the street chanting, "cho-ri-pan, cho-ri-pan!" I think it lived up to his expectations.

Mike looking good while enjoying an empanada and some cerveza.