Mountains & Microwbrews III

So summer is here and it's been some time since I've been blogging because, well I should have better things to do in the summer, but here is a catch up of my travels so far. Picture postings will probably be delayed. After working a lot of trades in the late spring / early summer I have stockpiled enough to have a pretty entertaining summer. My truck basically will serve as a mobile recreation unit / hotel for my summer, equipped to carry 2 kayaks, two bikes, multiple rubbermaid tubs, and a canopy cover with a memory foam mattress. My first trip started off with a trip to the Bend, OR area, particularly Smith Rock State Park, a renowned rock climbing area. It was a last minute decision to go there, as I was originally planning on going to Banff, but due to bad weather forecasts decided to head south. None the less, Smith Rock has been on my list of places to go for quite some time now. I am traveling with Amanda, who will be my partner in crime for many of the trips this summer. We spent our first night in the town of Bend, a town strikingly similar to Coeur d' Alene. The rest of the time we spent camping and climbing at the State Park. It was pretty hot for climbing during mid day, but we had great weather the whole time. We also did some mountain biking. We of course sampled some of Oregon's finest and famous microwbrews, including a tour of the Deshutes Brewery.

Our next notable trip was a camping / climbing trip to Koocanusa Reservoir in Montana, a favorite childhood camping spot. The name may sound a little funny, as it was named after a combinatin of the Kootenai Indians, Canada, and USA, taking the first three letters of each to form the name. We went headed over with some friends from Coeur d' Alene, Dylan and Megan, and met up with Marcus and Lav at the campsite a day later. Being midweek, we basically had the entire camp we chose to stay at to ourselves. Dylan and Lav both brought their dogs that had a great time swimming in the lake and running around enjoying their freedom. Lav's dog Quinn even sprained his tail from swimming so much. We kayaked over to a giant sandy beach one of the evenings after rock climbing all day. We had a fire right on the beach. Marcus could only join us for an evening due to his 6-12 work schedule, but was a trooper and camped all night with us and headed off for work the next day. We had a couple days of great rock climbing on the cliffs that overlook the lake. I think I may have even made Lav poop in his pants a little bit, as one of the climbs feels like you are going to swing right into the lake resting 500 feet below the cliff when you let go. Amanda and Megan are both in summer school and had to run into the nearest town for a day to find some Wi-fi in order to post some information about their classes. Apparently life goes on outside of traveling and camping??? On our second to last day, a huge windstorm came through that blew sand just about everywhere you could imagine, and we had to chase a few camping items around the camp as well. All in all, weather was good and we all had a great time.

We chose to spend the 4th of July weekend hanging around Coeur d' Alene. We had a bbq at some friends house and watched the fireworks downtown on a buddy's boat. A nice relaxing four days off, as pretty much the rest of my summer while I'm not working will be spent on the go somewhere.

This brings me to my most recent trip, which I am currently on, as I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Canon Beach, Oregon. This annual trip I have named "Mountains and Microwbrews", as it's my third year in a row coming to the central cascades to climb mountains and sample microwbrews, among many other random things each year with no specific itinerary. We kicked it off by driving all the way to the base of Mt. Adams on our first night, after a brief burrito stop in Hood River, and a stop in Trout lake to obtain some climbing permits. We didn't get to the camp until 11pm that night and stayed the night in the truck. This is the first time Amanda has ever been on a climbing trip of the sort, and was full of excitement / anxiety. With weather looking good as forecasted, we headed up the next day to a high camp on the Crescent Glacier called The Lunch Counter. This part of the trip is a long, not overly exciting, slog up to the high camp with a pack loaded full of gear. Although becoming a bit tired and frustrated by the end of the day, Amanda made it up to our high camp like a champ. We did of course stop for many snack breaks along the way. At high camp the weather was good and we watched an awesome sunset while we prepared some dinner and gathered water for the next day. We set our tent up behind a protected rock shelter that was already built by previous climbers. After prepping the packs for the next days summit push we were off to sleep with the help of a few Benedryls to assure a good nights rest in a noisy wind blown tent. When morning came for us at 3:30 Am, we awoke to a perfectly clear night with no wind. We left camp about 4:30 after some breakfast and donning some crampons. The climb up the south spur route went really well, which is the standard route up the mountain. We kept a good pace and had great weather the whole time. Amanda was feeling top notch like the energizer bunny and I nearly had to chase her up the final stretch to the summit. With a clear view from the summit we had great shots of all the surrounding cascade volcanoes. We rested for a while on the roof of what's left of an old shack at the summit and then descended back to our base camp. The snow had softened up enough on the descent to allow for a lot of glissading (which for those unfamiliar with is sitting on your butt and sliding down the glacier in chutes that have already been slid down before by previous climbers, or creating your own route). Amanda got quite the kick out of this, as it's kind of like being on 2,000' long amusement park slide, and makes descending much quicker and more enjoyable than walking. After we packed up camp we descended all the way to the truck that same day. This makes for a really long day, which kind of made Amanda forget about all the prior fun she'd had and was basically ready to just kill me by the time we reached the truck. I'll leave some of the quotes out for those sensitive viewers out there, but you could imagine. None the less we were both happy to be back at the truck and she was quite proud of the accomplishment of summiting a 12,276 foot volcano. Fish and chips and an ice cold beer had never tasted so good as when we got into Hood River to relax for the night. We stayed at a local RV park for the night and messed around in Hood River watching wind surfers and kite boarders and resting our legs then next day. We were off to the backside of Mt. Hood the next day. We camped in the Timberline Lodge parking lot and made dinner on the back of the truck. Amanda was going to sit this one out and was happy to be in a warm sleeping bag when 3:00 rolled around and I had to get up to climb. I was planning on doing a ski descent of hood. I'd sworn to myself last year, while descending Mt. Hood down the Timberline ski resort watching skiers pass me doing 35 miles per hour as I wobbled down the run with crampons, that I would never climb the south side of Hood again without bringing skis. While packing skis and boots slowed me down a bit and added a lot of weight to a fast and light trip, it was well worth it. I left at 3:30 Am with clear skies and unusually warm weather, literally T-shirt and shorts weather. After an hour an a half of climbing I had reached the permanent snow line, and ditched the skis about 1,000 feet from the summit. This made the last stretch of the climb up the hogsback and the final pitch to the summit much faster. Once you reach top of the mountain you have to traverse a very narrow ledge with a lot of exposure on both sides in order to reach the true summit. I reached the summit at 7:30 (see picture) and spent a little time up there visiting with some climbers from Seattle. When I returned to where my skis were stached, the glacier was still icy on top and made for a slow ski decent to the top of the ski lift, but was much better than walking. Once I was on the groomed runs, it took me five minutes to ski down to the truck from the top of the lifts, what took me an hour and a half to walk up earlier this morning. It was a nice morale booster and I was feeling great! I got back to the truck at 9:30, making it an exact 6 hour round trip. We ate some bfast burritos at a tiny ski lodge at the bottom of the ski hill and went to hood river to meet my parents, who were coming over to the area for the weekend. We camped that night near the base of Hood, as my dad was looking for anywhere to get out of the blistering heat of Hood River. My mom was excited to try out a tent that she'd never used before. We made burgers and had a fire and a nice evening by the river. The next day we had booked a rafting trip down the White Salmon River with my parents. My mom was quite nervous about the whole event, as while she's probably read about it, has never been on such an adventure. I think my dad was just as nervous about having to wear a wetsuit, or as he refers to as a "one of those skin diving things". I think they both felt a little out of their element, but Amanda and I were much looking forward to the trip. After a big breakfast and much talk about how this may be my moms last meal just to help get rid of any pre-float butterflies, we were gearing up at the Wet Plantet headquarters who we'd booked with. We were floating in 6 man rafts plus a guide. We were joined by a mother / daughter party from Wisconsin. The river comes directly from some Mt. Adams Glacier run-off, so needless to say it's beautiful, milky, ice cold water. The stretch we were running was all class III to IV rapids, including a 12 foot (optional) waterfall drop of Husum Falls to top it off. Once we got the rafts in and had floated through our first few rapids, everyone was having a great time and all the nervous butterflies were gone. We rafted a beautiful stretch of river. When we got to Husum Falls, even my mom, who was timid to even set foot in the raft and was shaking so nervously she could hardly put her wetsuit on before the trip, was feeling stoked about running the falls. Our two guests opted to walk around the falls, which left my parents and Amanda to make the drop. We had a very comforting guide who went over a set of very clear instructions for dropping the falls. We set a perfect line and our drop went perfect! We were all pretty excited. So proud of ya ma! After the Falls was another set of rapids that is called Rodeo, noted for people sitting on the front of the raft trying to hang on while one hand is in the air as if to be riding a bull. My mom jumped up and was the first to volunteer to sit up on the bow to ride the bull. Who is this lady haha! We all had a great time rafting and had dinner at a brewery back in Hood River to celebrate. We camped in the same spot that night, but were all pretty tired, which made for a pretty uneventful night. Yesterday, after watching some skateboard championship racing down the streets of Hood River, and saying farewell to the folks, Amanda and I headed off towards Mt. St. Helens with a 2 o' clock Bungee Jumping trip planned. I had booked this when Amanda had made mention she's always wanted to bungee, and this was the closest place I found in the pacific northwest. She didn't want to talk about it all week until the day came, and I think she was ready to jump out of the truck at anytime on the way there. She went from exctited, to laughing, to nearly in tears before we even made it to the bridge. I'm sure it helped that I told her sometimes people lose all bodily functions on the way down : ) Nervous as could be, the time went quickly and before you know it she was standing on the platform, with no turning back, and was leaping into space. I was taking pictures so didn't watch most of the jump, but I knew she had gone because I heard a bloody murdurous scream for about 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure she was still screaming when the entire bungee had stopped bouncing at the bottom of the bridge. She came up quite proud and excited though! I jumped after Amanda, but being my second time going, didn't have quite the nervousness and had a really enjoyable jump. The high from the jump seemed to stick with Amanda the rest of the day, and she notified me every time we saw a bridge, .........or didn't see a bridge, that "I bungee jumped today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". It was awesome. We worked our way over to Canon Beach for the night on the coast. Today we are just relaxing and checking out the town with no schedule or itinerary in mind. More to come on Mtn's and Micros, stay tuned.

Baja Bliss

Back to life in Baja. A few days ago my cousin Marty rallied up all of us boys to help him dig out and push back an old buggy that he and his friend Danny had scrounged from one of the neighbors. It's an older buggy that's gonna require a lot of TLC to come back to life, but will undoubtedly be back on the streets when Marty and Danny get finished with it. It was pretty hard to turn down for Marty, who's hobby is fixing up both his own and other people's buggys in town. The seats were pretty well rotted out and the motor hasn't run for 2 years. He looked at it and laughs and says "oh man this thing is f*&%#@g UGLY", but has many plans to give it some appeal. I attached one photo of the buggy, but will have to include the rest of the photos for the blog when I get home, because this photo was the last picture my camera of 5 years took before it quit working. There's been nothing but constant eating going on around here, and we're all eating like kings. It seem like most of the day is spent trying to get over being stuffed from one meal so we can eat another one. We've had intentions of going into town for some wild Los Barriles nightlife, well okay it's really not that wild, but haven't made it for 3 nights in a row we've been so full and unmotivated after dinner. My cousin Doreen, who we call Reeny, was generous enough to loan us her SUV so we had some wheels to get around on. We checked out a little more of Los Barriles now that we were mobile. We spent a little bit of time at the Palmas resort, and went to a local spot called Verdugos to watch the fishing boats come in for the day and see what's been caught. Before the big fish fry Reeny invited us all up to her new casa for Margaritas. Reeny's got a beautiful new house on a nice property just on the other side of the oroyal from Marty's place. We prepared ourselves for the feast with some of Reeny's home made salsa and guacomole, and margaritas of course. The fish fry was everything we expected and more. We had a crowd of about 15 people or more all chowing down on the fish served up in a breaded, veracruz, or garlic style including rice, beans, tortillas, and a salad. None of us could move afterwards. Jordan and Mark did manage to make it into town for some Karaoke that night, but were the only ones. The next morning, Isabel, one of the locals and friend of the family came over to make us some authentic mexican huevos rancheros. Again, another meal that was absolutely to die for and we all stuffed ourselves silly. We went on a long buggy ride that day up to Pescadero, an oceanfront resort located about 20 miles up the coast from Los Barriles. We took 3 buggies, all packed with 3 to 4 people. We made stops at all the scenic points to wet our whistles with Pacifico from all the dust you digest on a typical Baja road. The ride took up the better half of a day, and when we got done, Reeny invited us all over for some delicious chicken pablano pasta. We were all full again and spent the rest of the night telling stories around the campfire outside her house. Duey, my cousin Greg, Marty, and Sharon all joined us. Greg rode his motorcycle down here from the states and is taking off tomorrow for the return trip, but will be stopping for a week or two of camping along the way.

Today was a pretty windy day in Baja, which is actually what it's somewhat known for, and the windsurfers and kite boarders that camp here were all flocking to the Sea of Cortez to catch some wind and waves. We hit the beach to watch, as both of the sports are relatively expensive to try out, and difficult to master in a few hours. It was a pretty mellow day for the crew in Baja. We went into town for dinner at a little place that has some good shrimp dishes. Jordan ordered 3 different entres for himself, and the waitress had to clarify with him just to be sure she was understanding his English. The town gets pretty quiet on Sundays and not much of anything was going on anywhere. Marty had a campfire and hot dog roast and invited a few of their freinds over for dinner. We joined them for S'mores. Tomorrow we will make our way to the airport in San Hose del Cabo to fly out tomorrow evening. Reeny and Marty have to run into Cabo to make a Costco run so we're gonna hitch a ride from them. That about wraps up a short but fun trip in the Baja California Sur. It's a place where everybody knows your name, everybody is friendly, and everybody makes you feel welcome. Hospitality is top notch and I'm sure they will be seeing some of our faces again in BCS. Thank you to all the family and friends down here that make this such a great place to stay, and as always, stay tuned for more adventures to come.

"you boys like Mexico? woooooo!"

The place...Baja California Sur of Mexico. The crowd.....myself, both my brothers Marcus and Jordan, and a friend of the family named Mark. We had actually been planning this trip for quite some time now, as the trip is Marcus and I's gift to Jordan for his high school graduation. We figured it's better than a card with some money it or something of the sort, and is a great way to put the travel bug in him and introduce him to some new culture. I flew down on friday with Jordan and Mark, and Marcus caught up with us last monday in Cabo San Lucas. I got to play dad for the weekend, or at least that's what it feels like when your a 27 year old chasing around two 18 year olds on their first trip to Mexico haha, with no pun intended. I was after all instructed by my mom to insure that all her children not only make it back home, but in one piece as well. It's actually been a pretty easy task, and if this is what you call babysitting then you can sign me up for it anyday. Our first day in Cabo, after clearing customs and the other red tape at the airport we caught a shuttle bus into town and got checked into the Hotel Mar de Cortez, a place I've stayed at every time I've been down. We went down to the bay our first night in town and found a nice place that makes sushi and fish tacos, and watched the rather disapointing Gonzaga vs UNC basketball game. Jordan learned the hard way that in Mexico you are supposed to negotiate for the price of, well almost everything, and got taken when he gladly paid 25 dollars to a vender for a straw cowboy hat that he probably could have gotten for less than 10. The city of Cabo was like a ghost town compared to its normal rowdy self. Ok, so maybe not a ghost town, but a noticable difference from many of the other times I have been down here. I would guess primarily due to the economic crunch and the recent troubles near the border that tends keep some people away.

Our second day in Cabo we went over to a beach know as The Office, which is basically a college spring break hangout. Jordan provided us with some entertainment when he got involved in a push up contest up on the main stage to show off the guns, but it turns out there were a few more people there with a few bigger guns. Particularly, the guy that won it, an ex Mexican Special Forces agent, that pulled out 50 more push ups after the last guy went down. That evening we checked out Cabo Wabo, a live music club that is owned by Sami Hagar.

The next day we decided to catch a water taxi out to Lover's Beach, which is where the famous rock arches are that everybody sees on postcards and advertisements. The beach is accessed primarly by water only, which makes it a little more secluded and relaxing than many of the other beaches around town. It's also got some incredible rock formations that I was drueling over, and really can't believe its not more of a developed area for rock climbing. I guess not everybody goes to the beach with rock climbing in mind huh? I brought out my climbing shoes and chalk, and did some very nice class 3 to 4 scrambling and some bouldering to kill most of a day while the boys got washed around in the surf.

Marcus came into town on Monday and we all went out and hit the best of Cabo's nightlife. Plenty of entertainment was to be had at the Giglin Marlin, a place that is famous for tying you up by your feet and hoisting you upside down like a fish as they give you a shot of tequilla and spin you around.

We rented a car on Tuesday and drove up the pacific coast to a beach I read about called Cerritos. It's supposed to be locals / hippie beach known for its good surfing and fish tacos. Once we got there we found out there had been some development since the information I read was posted, and it wasn't exactly a hippie hangout, as you will see by the picture of Jordan getting a massage on the beach, but it was still had a nice vibe and was nothing like cabo. Marcus and Jordan both rented surf boards and had their first go round at surfing. It proved to be quite challenging for both of them. We drove up to a little town called Todos Santos for dinner after spending most the day at Cerritos.

After some souvenier shopping and breakfast the next day we caught the bus up to Los Barriles from Cabo to stay with the family. The bus ride was kind of slow going because they had a lot of road construction going on and we were basically off-roading in a tour bus. Once we got into Los Barriles we hitched a ride out to my cousins' casa where we met up with most of the family and friends from down here. There has been a lot of developement since my last trip down here in 05' and there is even a little hotel accross from Marty and Sharon's place for those that are familiar with the area. We bbq'd some burgers and relaxed after the trip. We later went down to a place in town called Buzzards and played some pool with the locals.

My cousin Greg invited Jordan to go deep sea fishing with him as a graduation gift. At first I don't think he was too keen on the idea of waking up at 5 in the morning while on vacation to go fishing, but there were no regrets when the boat they went on came back in early because they had caught so many fish (1 big marlin and 9 dorados total). Jordan caught 3 of the dorados and got to test his arm strenght reeling em in. Tomorrow we are taking the fish to a place in town that cooks it up 3 different ways and serves it to you for 6 bucks a head. It's gonna be a feast! While Jordan was out catching tomorrow night's dinner, the rest of us went on a buggy ride through the baron baja land and down the beach to a little place that serves some of the best fish/shrimp/scallop tacos I've ever eaten. When we got back we all helped Sharon prepare some food for the enchillada dinner she was whipping up. To this day I've still never tasted a better enchillada, and I'm lucky enough that she makes them for me every time I come down. We had good intentions of going into town for some Karaoke tonight, which is the highlight of the nightlife in Los Barriles, but we were all so stuffed after dinner that we could hardly move. That's about all from Baja land so far....stay tuned.

Chao South America

The last few days I spent in the Vina del Mar area were somewhat uneventful, as my trip was winding down, and I was mentally preparing for the journey home. I visited the neighboring town of Valparaiso, which was quite the contrast to the somewhat modern Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is an old port town with colorful old Spanish buildings scattered throughout the city and hillsides. It seemed to be a little rough around the edges, but had a lot of character. I found a little bar there that offered 161 beers from around the world that drew my attention. I didn't have time to try all 161 of them sadly, but settled for a German beer on tap and a pizza. I was given a tour of the really old downtown fire station in Valparaiso by one of their firefighters that didn't speak any English. Not sure I understood everything that was explained to me, but I got the gist of it. Later that day there was a bunch of commotion along the road to the beach as some lady was screaming from the top of her lungs while running down the street chasing a man. Turned out he had snatched her purse back by the beach and was on the sprint with her in chase, but not exactly closing in. A few people caught on to what was going on and started in on the chase. He was headed towards a really busy street with a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, so although I'm not exactly sure how the chase turned out (although curious), I would imagine he'd end up being caught. My last day in Vina I just relaxed and enjoyed my time being in the sunshine and warm weather. Now I'm not much of a complainer, but I can say by the time my time was up in Chile, I was definitely tired of a few things: 1.) Car alarms.....everybody has them and they were always going off. 2.) Horns honking....as in impatient drivers stuck in any kind of traffic, not giving a warning honk, but laying on the horn in anger. 3.) Beggars....they were all over the place, and didn't even have anything creative to show. I mean common people, at least give me some kind of comical sign as to why you are so unfortunate, or show me a card trick, sell me a pack of chicklets, or give me some kind of reason that I should just hand over my money to you. 4.) Second hand smoke....everybody here smokes, which I don't have a problem with, but there was no getting away from it. You go to the beach, you're surrounded in smoke, a restaurant, internet cafes, hotels, sidewalks, you name it, it's smokey.

When I left Chile, I had to go back to Mendoza to get my luggage from my climbing expedition. It seemed almost like a waste because I had to take a bus from Chile to Mendoza, then get right back on a plane and fly from Mendoza back to Chile to go home. I took the night bus from Vina to Mendoza, which ended up taking about 8 1/2 hours, putting me in Mendoza at 6 am. Customs went much quicker leaving Chile than coming in. Just like that I was packing my stuff up at the hotel in Mendoza, taking a quick nap, and enjoying one last Argentine Steak dinner before I was again sitting at the airport. I had to sacrifice 3 of my MSR gas containers at the airport when they wouldn't let me check them as they were, because they had the smell of gas, and I couldn't fit them under the sinks in the bathroom to wash them out. All my flights went well. The view over Aconcagua (pic below) coming from Mendoza to Santiago was amazing, as we were flying just about level to the summit, and just to the south. I could identify all the landmarks that I'd recognized from the climb from the aerial view. The rest of the flight was, well as good as 26 hours worth of flying can be I guess. The final leg home was clear, and I could see all the cascade volcanoes (in picture below) really well. Throughout the trip I managed to successfully solo and summit Aconcagua, the first of the seven summits for me and tallest mountain in South America, visit 3 different countries on my 5th continent, leaving Africa and Antarctica yet to see, become familiar many more cultures and ways of life, and even make a few lifelong friends along the way. I'd have to chalk all that up to another exciting and complete travel adventure. I am now home and will be talking to many of you soon. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for many more.....Keith.

Viña del Mar

I´ve managed to stay put in Viña del Mar and will finish out my trip here. It´s a nice town and I´ve found plenty of things to do here. The manager of the hotel also cut me a deal if I stayed with them for the rest of my stay, so I took her up on it and haven´t had to move, which has actually been really nice staying in the same place for more than a day or two. The other day I was chatting it up with one of the local firefighters who was happy to practice his English and give me the low down on their fire department. He informed me that every city in the country of Chile is manned by volunteer fire complanies. The problem they have is lack of fudnding, and explained to me the purpose behind the raffle they were doing. He said the city government provides part of the funding for operating costs, the national government a part of it, and the rest of the money required for training, equipment, fuel, uniforms, etc. must be raised by the firefighters themselves. They are out beating the streets to raise money for this raffle for two months of the year during their busy tourist season. When I asked what the raffle prize was, he told me it was a car, that was not donated, but also purchased by the firefighters to raffle off. Many of their equipment and apparatus is out-dated due to this lack of funding, however their numbers for manning remains strong. We chatted it up for about an hour and he showed me all their equipment and trucks.

I took a bus ride up the coast to scout out some of the smaller towns along the coast and made it to a town called Concon. It´s well known for it´s many Pescado (fish) restaurants along the coast. I opted to try out some empinadas, another commonly eaten food down here, that is sort of like a pastie that they fill with just about anything you could imagine. There´s plenty to do along the coast. The coast is steep and rocky and scattered with little secluded sandy beaches and small resort towns along the way. Today I rented a bike and rode about 20 miles up the coast all the way to Concon, where I went the day before. It was nice being able to stop at every little beach along the way and at least take a few pictures. I ran into what may be the coolest house I´ve ever come across (see pic), and will someday live in a place like this! The bike ride was pretty cool with amazing views, but wasn´t so cool when chain started coming off the rear sprocket of my awsome bicycle every two minutes on the way back into town. Made for an interesting / frustrating ride home. I found a place that rents sea kayaks, and I think that will be on tomorrows agenda. There is a big Chilean Navy Base here, so there are plenty of naval ships in the port and fellas running around the beach doing p.t. The Chilean people seem to be a little less friendly than others that I have associated with, and appear somewhat unhappy, but that may just be because I don´t completely understand their culture, so I can´t really judge them. Other than that I´m just living up my last few days in town before I depart.

It´s Chile here!

Well not really chilly, like Idaho chilly, as you can tell by the pictures, but the country I have indeed made it to after one HELL of a bus ride! I left Cordoba at 10 pm and finally arrived in Santiago, Chile at 4 pm the next day. An 18 hour bus ride that included a flat tire on an inside dualy that had to be fixed, several stops in the middle of no-where for unknown reasons (I would assume a smoke break for the crew), several slow semi trucks on two lane mountain passes, and one hell of an inspection at the Chilean border. I´ve never been through customs that has taken such a long time. After standing in line for about an hour to go through Argentine migration, you then stood in line for another hour at chile customs, where there were two gentleman serving about 75 people. After that you went to the other side to take your bags out from under the bus and bring them inside for inspection while the bus itself was searched thoroughly. After the dog and the man with the rubber glove inspects you and your stuff, then the bus as a group can go back onto the bus. Tell you what, no slipping anything by those guys! What boggles me is that this is basically the only land crossing through the Andes between Mendoza and Santiago, two major cities, for miles. I can´t imagine it always being this slow. After the border, we then descended a pretty serious mountain pass into the Santiago Valley (see picture) that you ¨really¨wouldn´t want your breaks to go out on. The landscape around here in the valley much reminds me of the Los Angelas area...a smoggy valley from the big city with the backdrop of steep treeless mountains full of dry brush. Once we got into Santiago I decided to hotel it up for the night for a nice break from both hostels and buses. I found a nice little oasis for 15 dollars, nearly cheaper than hostels anyway, on a little cobblestone street that felt kind of like Europe. I hit the city by foot to get my bearings, check things out the rest of the day, and finally doing something active. I ate dinner at a Karaoke restaurant that was pretty entertaining watching Chilean folks rockin out to English music. The owner was real friendly, spoke excellent english, and referred me to a couple of places on the Chilean coast that may be nice to visit during my short stay. Like that I was out the next morning and on a two hour bus ride to Viña del Mar, my current location. I was lucky enough to sit next to the very large child that managed to spill soda all over himself and our seat on the trip. My time was pretty short lived in Santiago, but I am getting kind of burned out on the cities. I thought of treking up the little mountain in Santiago that has a big statue at the top of it, but the idea of getting out of the city and doing something active sounded much more appealing. I really like where I´m at, and I think I´ll be posting up here for the duration of my stay. From this town I can easily make day trips to a few other smaller towns up the coast that seem appealing. I can also catch a bus from here to Mendoza direct, avoiding having to go back into Santiago for a night. As for the town itself, it´s one of the poplular Chilean summer get aways. Plenty of high rise residential towers along the beach, but has a nice chilled out main street, and plenty of coast. There is a port town just south of here with old houses scattered all over the hillsides. I like the vibes of the place. There were a bunch of fireman (bomberos) on some of the street corners soliciting money via raffle tickets for some charrity or other cause I wasn´t really sure of (something like fill the boot I´m sure). Some things just don´t change no matter where you go, and I happily donated some of my money to the cause. I´ve been a little over budget today if you will, when somehow 30 dollars disappeared somewhere between the subway and a buying a muffin at a shop, and I mistakenly thought the attendant at the hotel said 18.00, as in U.S. dollars, but meant 18,000 Chilean Pesos, which is 30 USD. Still don´t really have anything to complain about, you can´t win them all. The currency can get a little tricky figuring out here in Chile, because 1 dollar is = to apx 600 Chilean Pesos. When you start adding them up the numbers can get pretty big for something that shouldn´t seem to cost so much. It´s weird spending 6,000 anything for a meal. The chilean culture definitely has a different feel to it than the other countries I´ve visited in S.A, and has some amazing food. Some of the people tend to show it here and look a little ¨less fit¨than the other countries as well haha. Speaking of cuisine, I´m off to indulge in it myself. Take care all....Keith.

Westward bound

NO, I was not eaten by a shark on my surfing outing, for those that have been waiting in suspense. I do however have to wait to post any pictures of me surfing so I can copy and paste myself onto another picture of someone actually standing up on the board. Actually, it turned out to be better than I thought it would, and actually mangaged to ¨kind of¨ stand up on the board a few times. Last time I tried surfing in New Zealand I was using a long board. This time I tried a little shorter board and seemed to be able to control it better. That and my Aussie friends said you have to get a short board cause it just looks cooler in the pictures, and that´s what I´m all about. La Paloma has an east and a west beach, and they say if the surf isn´t good on one side you just move to the other side, so.....there´s always surf. Most my time spent at La Paloma was spent on the beach either attempting to surf, riding bikes, running, or actually just relaxing. We all rented bikes and must have put about 30 miles on one day. We added a few more Australians to the gang when a friend of mine from Punta del Este named Josh, and two lady friends that Damien and Gerard met in Buenos Aires met up with us. Could be the title of a movie or something ¨5 Aussies and a Yank¨. There were times I had a bit of trouble completely understanding the aussie slang and quick speech. There was a parade that came though town while we were there that was kind of a pre-Carnival celebration, that included a bunch of bands and samba dancers. One night we went out to a night club, that was a huge compound on the beach made up of palm trees like a giant fort, or something you´d see on Pirates of the Caribbean, and doesn´t even open the doors and get going until 3 am. The hours kept here are crazy, but I´m growing quite a liking to a big nap in the afternoon and dinner about 10 or 11 o´clock. There are 4 food groups here: steak, pasta, cheese, and ice cream. No shortage of saturated fats for sure, but my body is enjoying the hardiness of the food in my attempt to put some weight back on. After La Paloma, we all kind of went separate ways, as Josh and Gerard headed up the coast on wildlife day tour, Damien was off to Iguazu Falls with the girls in Argentina, and I was headed west. My somewhat semi-final destination will be Chile, with the exception of going back to Mendoza to fly home. The trip from La Paloma to Santiago, Chile is 33 hours by bus (thank god for ipods and books), so I´m breaking it up into a 3 day jaunt, because well I´m not in a hurry, and I didn´t think my ¨arse¨could handle such a trip. Yesterday, I left from La Paloma, spent a day in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay (pic above), and then caught a night bus to Cordoba, which is in the middle of Argentina (pic below). I´m going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow here in Cordoba, then catch another night bus into Chile. The night buses are the way to go here. Most of the seating options either fully recline like a bed or at least partially recline, and have a leg rest that pops down from the seat in front of you. They usually serve dinner and breakfast as well. This way I´m not wasting a nice day crammed up in a bus traveling, and you sleep most of the way there so you save the cost of a nights accomodation (I know I´m cheap, but think about it, you have to get there one way or another). Buses are everywhere in South America, and by far the easiest means of transportation. Anyway, Cordoba is a university city, hosting several of the country´s different universities. It´s also well know for it´s music talent so I´ll be checking out some local venues.

Beaches of Uruguay

Howdy folks! It´s about time again that I fill you in on some updated travel info of my S.A. tour. I am currently in a little town called La Paloma on the Atlantic Coast in Uruguay. I last left off in Punta del Este. I spent a few days in PDE, which was really nice, however not really a backpackers destination, as it is rather resorty, and ¨relatively¨ spendy for the area. It is occupied primarily by wealthier locals and a few stray travelers. It was more of a Maui type vacation destination. During my time in PDE, however, I did meet a lot of interesting people that were looking to travel onwards. Some of us boys from the hostel headed down to the beach to play a game of ¨Aussie Rules¨, which is similair to rugby and played in Australia. The funny thing is that we had quite the mix of people including myself, who grew up playing American football, a couple of Australians, who grew up playing Aussie Rules, and a few local folk, who grew up playing soccer (football here). Made for quite the combination of kicks and throws, as I was the only person that could throw a spiral with the somewhat odd shaped ball, but had absolutely no idea how to accurately kick or ¨punch¨the ball to get it to its intended destination. None the less, a good time had by all. I met two guys that were staying at the hostel named Gerard and Damien from Australia. We seemed to get along pretty well after sharing a few stories and some cervecas, and had similair thoughts about our next destination. I am commonly referred to by them as ¨the Yank¨. I tagged up with the two of them and we left PDE on a three or four hour bus ride up the coast to a little place called Punta Diablo. From what we heard, this was a little surfing / fishing village with little to it but a beach and a few cabins or cabanyas as they are called here. There was a campground a few miles outside of town with cabins that we were planning on staying at, but after getting off the bus found there were no vacancies. We saddled up our backpacks and hit the hot dusty road in search of some accomodation. We found a place shortly down the road (see pic above) that seemed to work just fine with 3 beds, running water, a mini kitchen, and a bathroom.....werent really looking for much more and for 10 dollars a night we were convinced. Later that day we decided to make the trek into town, which turned out to be about a 2 plus mile jaunt that we must have walked 8 times during our stay there. Well we did manage to hitch a ride once but who´s counting. We found out once we got into town that we could have just as easily rode the bus all the way into town, and found a cabin basically on the beach for near the same price....you win some you lose some. We couldn´t lose though with a town like this. It was small, had a few great restaurants, an amazing beach (see pic), dirt roads, and super laid back. It´s what you really think of when you think of South America, or what I think of anyway. We were all thinking we should have skipped right over PDE and just headed for here. Turns out that it really wasn´t much of a fishing town but did carry the surf reputation. We spent most of the next day at the beach relaxing and doing some networking with a few other travelers. I introduced the aussies to some fish tacos (pic at table). Gerard, however, was a hero for the day when he saw a little kid getting sucked out by a riptide, and got the lifeguards attention to organize a rescue. We organized a barbeque (asado) for later that night at one of the cabins that a few other people were staying at with a big brick style barbeque. Putting a little ¨steak on the barbe¨if you will. We had a gathering of at least 5 or 6 different nationalities, and came complete with the local perro (dog) as the DJ (see picture). Quite the feast it was!. We all loved our time in Punta Diablo. Today we caught the bus to La Paloma, also a surf town, but a little bigger than Punta Diablo. We are staying at a hostel, as we didnt feel like putting to much time into looking for a cabin for the night. It´s a nice town with miles of beach, and pretty much one main drag that runs through town. It´s a little busier than Punta Diablo, but by no means is it big or crowded. I could easily spend the rest of my time right here, but there´s plenty of other things to see so I will try and keep my stay to the weekend. Tomorrow, surfing is on the agenda. For my aussie friends, that´s probably good news and a great time. For me, well that means it´s time to be thrown into the sand washing machine and tossed around all day, probably spending no more than a few seconds standing on the board, but a great time as well. See ya tomorrow!