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!

Buenos Aires....and so on

Still a day or two behind, but I'll catch you up from Buenos Aires. I took a night bus from Mendoza after staying a few days there, and much to my surprise, the long stinky bus ride that I anticipated was quite the contrary. While booking my seat from hostel I was staying at, I chose to go with a mid class seat....it's a bus, how fancy can it get. Much to my delight, for a few dollars more, I was cruising across the country in a Godfather type leather recliner style seat, secluded from the rest of the bus with about 10 other seats of that sort, kicking back watching a movie. Dinner and breakfast was served on the bus, and before I knew it I woke up from a 14 hour bus ride and was in Buenos Aires. Transportation, as I'm learning in South America, is nothing like what I'm used to in Asia and many other countries.

So Buenos Aires (first picture) is a big, fast paced, New York style city, electric if you will. I found it fascinating for a while, but like most big cities, I was tired of it after a few days and ready to see something a little more cultural and low key. You can only see so many cafes, shops, bars, and monuments until they all become the same, and the everyday grind of the city starts wearing on you. Funny enough, I'm sure some people could say the same of the mountains I guess (they're all the same etc...) depending on your upbringing. It's a city of steak and tango. I did watch a tango show done as a street performance. Wan't intrigued enough however to pay for an all night tango show. Anyway, I enjoyed some good food, and some nice sites while in the city. I have noticed a few trends since being here, as I will list. The food is not very spicy (all of Argentina and Uruguay really). You will find it difficult to find a place with spicy food or that even carries any kind of hot sauce or seasoning....sometimes pepper is hard to come by. Another being that these people are very affectionate towards each other. No lack of PDA here....love is in the air (public display of affection for the unknowing). Men and women greet each other and say goodbye by kissing on the cheek, and men will also kiss other men if they are close friends. YOU yield to vehicles, they do not yield to pedestrians! Most servers at restaurants, in fact all that I´ve encountered so far, are men. And last, but not least, EVERYBODY smokes.....yum!

After my stay in Buenos Aires, I took a ferry /bus combo that brought me to my current location in Punta Del Este, Uruguay (picture above). It's a beach resort area on the atlantic. It's much more laid back here than Buenos Aires, which is a nice break, and the weather is incredible. The town sits on a small peninsula that is only a couple of blocks wide, with breaking coast on both sides. I may have to give surfing another shot while I'm here. I met a pretty cool guy from Australia yesterday that may be able to show me the ropes on a surfboard. The area is a little resorty, but still manages to keep a laid back feeling to it. It´s kind of like Sherman Ave on a busy summer day, but with the coast on both sides. I am planing on being here for at least a couple of days. I´ve got a route planned out for running every day along the boardwalk, that includes a fitness area at the end of it, much like that of Coeur d´Alene Lake Drives, where a little crossfit action will be taking place....my desperate attempt to help gain some much needed weight back. I've got a hostel (view from window of in last picture) thats a block away from the beach....The end.

Take care at home....Keith

Aconcagua Summary

Now that it's said and done, and I've had a little time to reflect on the primary purpose of this trip, I wanted to write a brief disclosing about the mountain. Aconcagua was one of the biggest challenges, both phyically and mentally I have met yet. The mountain itself is dominated by weather, as are most high altitude environments, but particularly Aconcagua. It catches a lot of weather being blown in off the coast due to it's proximity, that makes a bad combination with the altitude. Somewhat predictable storms came through almost everyday in a certain pattern. In the earlier part of my trip, the summit was clear every day until about 11 or noon, and then all hell seemed to be breaking loose up there, which would have made for a difficult descent for anybody up there at that time. Luckily this trend seemed to change a day before I was ready to summit, making for a crystal clear, yet exceptionally windy mind you, summit day. Wind. Wind. Wind. I have never been so happy as to be OUT of the wind. I'm not talking about that summer breeze that cools you off. I'm talking about the kind of wind that if you aren't prepared to adjust your balance when it shifts, will straight up lay you over. The kind that makes sleeping in a tent nearly torturous. The kind that blows sand in your face when there's sand, and snow when there's snow. The kind that is really annoying when it doesn't stop for 10 days straight. There's two temperatures on Aconcagua....hot....and really cold, with almost no in between. If the wind isn't blowing and the sun is out, it makes for a pleasant day, as long as you don't have to work in it, and have plenty of sunscreen on. However, Aconcagua is a big mountain, and this is the weather you can only expect while playing within it's boundaries, and part of what makes it fun and challenging. That said, you can be in great shape, have acclimated well, and be healthy, but the mountain is still king when it comes to deciding who summits and who doesn't. My last mild complaint would have to come from eating freeze dried meals. Barf.....if I have to eat another one of them anytime soon. Now don't get me wrong, Mountain House freeze dried meals are as tasty as they come for their sort, but when your apetite is minimal, and you are eating them everyday, they sometimes can be quite difficult to choke down.

The Aconcagua park is well run by the Argentine National Park Service. They have a climber accountability program, a waste management program, a minimal impact program, and a search and rescue program, all well run and implimented. I was very happy to pay the cost of the permit after seeing what the funds go towards. It's basically your insurance policy on the mountain. The park was very clean, with minimal garbage and human waste left around, particularly considering the amount of impact the park recieves, and the lack of places to hide it due to lack of glaciers, trees, etc...

I've grown a slight distaste for big group comercial expeditions after this trip. Several times I was camped next to them, and they seemed to be exceptionally loud at all hours of the day or night, with little regard for other climbers in the area. It was often times difficlt passing them on steep or narrow trails when their pace was much slower than other climbers, and they were sometimes hesitant to let you pass. They tended to carry an arrogance with them belonging to such a group, particularly the guides. After observing some of their tactics on the mountain and while climbing, I think I would have a difficult time being apart of such an event. I personally would prefer to keep it to a couple of friends or solo, however I do understand that for some people that may not be an option, so I´ll keep an open mind.

In closing, I would highly recommend Aconcagua to anybody looking for such a challenge. The training I did before hand had definitely paid off, and made being there a pleasurable experience. The final count on my weight loss when I got back down was slightly over 10 pounds. A pound a day.....not bad if you're seeking that sort of thing, which in my case I am definitely NOT! I had great timing with the weather and acclimating, making for an exceptionally quick round trip outing. Now I'm left with plenty of time to explore some of the depths of South America.

(The pictures from top to bottom: Exiting the Aconcagua Park, my tent at Camp Canada, Camp Nido Condores, Goodnight Camp Canada, and Hotel Refugio)