Animals of Patagonia

We are now back from our travels in Chile and Argentina, but there are still a few more stories to tell about that trip. I am not sure if we will get to it before we get on the trail mid-month, but we do have some animal pics to share. Lou and I love seeing animals and spend a great deal of time looking for them whenever we are out and about. This trip was great for animal viewing. We didn't get pics of all of them, you all know wildlife encounters are unpredictable, but we do have a few good ones.
Starting off in Torres. We saw condors here and guanaco's and Nandu (or Rhea) which are all awesome but hard to photograph. We did capture some parrots hanging out just below a windy pass. We did not expect to see these colorful birds this far south. They were very chatty and loud about it.
This bumble bee was not in the best shape. We did see loads of healthy ones buzzing around flowers. The orange color was brilliant.
Lou was always finding new catepillars on him or his backpack. He found several of this kind. Hard to tell it is an insect and not a stick until it moves.

Now to Parque nacional los glaciares. The bird in the tree is called a Cara cara. They have red faces and really flat heads. They were all over the place.
Our last day of hiking in the park was a little drizzly but it brought out the amphibians. This sapo was hoping across the trail as we passed a set of lakes, real cute.
I adore frogs and toads. If this whole marine biology thing doesnt work out maybe I'll open up a store and call it EL SAPO MAS GUAPO. It is a fun phrase to say.
This catepillar had a lot of attitude, and was very curious about the camera. Every time I got close to take his picture he lifted up his front half to investigate.
In Torres we saw female Magellanic wood peckers in some nasty weather. In Glacier we got to see a lot more of them. They are pretty big and the males are easy to pick out because of their bright red heads. They have a distictive call that allowed us to distinguish them from other birds even when we couldn't see them. The yellow eye is also diagnostic.


Loco Parque Tantauco. Sorry to say we did not photograph the leeches for those of you that were hoping for that one. First the most famous critter we caught on film is the Rana de Darwin. We looked for many days for this one and were shoked when we saw our first and discovered it was about 1/5 the size we had been looking for. In the many swamps we crossed we started to notice gazzilions of small tadpoles too. The plants in the photo below with red fringes are carnivorous. There is one in the top right of the photo and a few jsut to the left of the frogs front leg. Also check out the nose on this rana, very pointy.

We saw every major animal group in Tantauco, fish, mammals, loads of birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles! This lizard was quite colorful. We also saw the pudu in Tantauco, no photos due to their flighty nature. The trail was covered in their footprints as well as sign from both the fox and wild cat that live in Souther Chiloe. Before we could get any good photos of the many birds we saw in the park the camera battery died, which was unfortunate because one of the species was curious to a falt and more than once hopped up on our shoes.
Last, and the biggest, the Andean Condor. We saw our fair share of these birds at pretty close range during our last hike in Aconcagua park (more on that trip later). When you hike up to altitude in the Andeas the Condors are right there to greet you. I tried to get a better photo, we definately saw many much closer than this, but somehow they managed to sneak up on us over and over again. Carried by the thermals they are constantly moving. We were continually impressed with how long we could watch them and never see them flap their wings. In fact, I don't remember seeing any of the many condors we saw flap their wings once.
We went by the coast while we were visiting my Chilean family. We made a stop to buy some shellfish empanadas and sitting in front of the store was this line of pelicans. Pelicans might be my most favorite bird. They are goofy and awkward, but when they take flight over the water incredible elegant, I love that.
So, now we are back in the states and in the Portland until mid-monthish. We are going over maps and fine tuning a few gear items after our experiences in Patagonia. I will do my best to keep the blog updated as we hike across the divide. We are excited to get on the trail and looking forward to having some of our friends join us during the journey.

Loco Parque Tantauco

Well jasmine and I finally have a crazy travel story of our own. Most of our trip so far has been predictable. I don´t want to down play it. It has been awesome with great people, great hikes, and fun traveling but there has not been to much that took major mental adjusting. We just got back from an 8 day adventure in the woods of isla chiloe. The trip started by gathering information on the park we intended to enter and realizing that it was going to be an extended trip and cost some mula. To solve the mula problem we decided to tack another day and a half on the trip and hike to the park from a cross roads that we could catch a taxi to instead of pay for 4x4 transportation. Let me tell you what, 8 days of food is no insignificant thing and once again we gained a lot of good experience for the upcoming summer on the cdt. Our packs were plenty heavy and certainly did not have too much food.

After an entire day of planning, buying food, and packing we were off. The taxi had to stop 4 kilometers short of our intended drop off point because of the quality of the road. We were not impressed with the taxi guy because we felt sure that a taxi driver in some of the other countries we have traveled in would have certainly tried to navigate the large ditch that stopped us and we certainly felt as though the Jetta in its hay day would have rallied right through. Regardless being left in the middle of a road made us excited because the remoteness was obvious but not so excited since it was already 5pm and we had 6 km to go to camp. Owell, off we go. We found camp just as the sun was setting the jasmine managed to get rather freaked because of a spooky cow call as the last rays of sunlight slipped away coupled with the discovery of a gargantuan cricket on her arm. Seriously, I have never heard a cow make the noise we heard and the cricket was the size of a mouse.

Here is a picture of the first vaca salvaje that I have ever witnessed. Jasmine was skeptical but I felt aboslutley sure that this was in fact truely a wild cow. The ominous call heard later that night only strengthened these feelings.

This was one of the main reasons that we went on this trek. To spot the shy and endangered pudu. The worlds smallest deer. This is one of the bigger tracks that we found next to jasmine´s shoe for scale. We did have the luck of running across one later in the day which was very exciting. They weigh around 35 pounds, the size of a miniature australian shepard.

The next day we hiked the remaining 18km to the park and were lucky enough to spot a pudu, the worlds smallest deer. We had great weather, made good time, enjoyed phenomenol camp facilities and did an extra 5k loop. We expected the 5k loop to take about an hour but it actually took 2. Little did we know what it was forshadowing the days to come. The next 6 days of hiking were filled with the most demanding trails we have ever done that did not inlude a summit of any kind. We were repeatedly shocked when confronted with slippery log bridges over 20 ft drainages, mud walls with ropes to aid in climbing or sometimes just roots to grab onto, flooded bogs that left no choice but to trudge through them, and jungle gym type root and tree walking over rivers. Some days it poored rain and others were full of brilliant blue skies.

This is a picture from our first day of hiking on single track in the park and was nothing compared to what was to come although we did not know that and marvalled at the craziness of the trail.

The trail did indeed get crazier as you can see here and in the following pictures. We could not figure out if this was the old trail that had flooded or if it was the intention of the trail builders that you scamble through trees and roots on the side while hanging over the water.


This was one of the easier obstacles that we came across. It is a natural bridge across a large creek and had surprisingly firm footing with solid holds for the hands.


On one of the more sunny days of our trip we came across one of our most challenging puddles. There was no way around and very limited solid ground on either side which forced me to adopt this splits technique. Good thing I have been working on my flexibility.

We came across this wild combo of slick log followed by unclimbable wall without the aid of a rope on our wettest day of hiking. The picture does not do it justice unfortunatley but from our experience the trails generally provided the absolute minimum to aid backpack laiden people in passage and the rope was definatley a necessity.

This was another close to verticle section of trail that we had to navigate. We were thankful for the trees and roots.

Can you see the trail. Be assured that there is a trail marker in this picture on the far side of the bog and I am standing on the trail on the other side as I take this picture. This was the worst obstacle we were presented with. After many minutes of searching for reasonable passage through this bog we realized there was none. I opted for the "run as fast as you can through it" approach and made it with out falling but was not pleased to discover that I sank nearly up to my knees. Jasmine can be seen to the far right of the picture sensibly staying out of the mud but not the water. We concluded that this was where we contracted the majority of the leaches we got making the return trip through the bog less fun.

Everywhere we went it was wet, wet, wet. Water came from the sky. water came from the plants. water came from the ground. Tent style camping in such conditions would have been uncomfortable to say the least. The saving grace of the park are the lavish wood refugios stationed throughout the park that are stocked with wood. The highlights of the week included lots of bird species, a rare frog sighting, Lou got 4 leaches (it was not a fun thing to realize that leaches were living in the mud that we were slogging through every day), extra food left behind by other hikers, and cozy nights by the fire.
The awesome rufugios built by the park that allowed us to dry everything in the evening and enjoy a warm fire and comfortable, dry sleeping.

Our metabolizms really got roaring durring this week and we did not have a crumb of food left when we rolled into the small fishing village of 100 people on the other side of the park. The only access to the village is by boat and it exists with no tethers to the national utility grid of water, electricity, or phone. We soon discovered upon arrival that our ferry was delayed by at least one day which sent us into a worried search for food. The local store (barely a shack) did not really having anything to offer. The people were very nice though and a plendid local couple provided us with a hearty dinner and upon touring the parks horticultural buildings we recieved two heads of lettuce and two tomotoes. Fresh produce, talk about a treat!

We were pleased to see the ferry arrive the next afternoon and even more pleased to hear that it would be leaving at 3 for the 6 hour trip back to Quellon instead of waiting until morning. The ferry ride passed quickly as Lou played cards and was soon noticed by some enthusiastic locals who wanted to learn how to play pocker. I had serious difficulty even figuring out that the excited fellow wanted to learn pocker let alone teach him how but, as usual, jasmine was able to facilitate and we taught them both 5 card stud and texas holdem. Once we arrived in quellon we b-lined it for a pizzeria. When the pizza arrived jasmine and I agreed that it was smaller than advertised and after finishing it proceeded to the next dinner for a second dinner. Our bellies full, we enjoyed a good nights rest and the next day continued to restore our fat supplies by splitting a liter of ice cream, a bag of doritos, crab dinner, and lots and lots of bread.

We are off for our final two weeks in chile and who knows what is in store. Wine country is still to come.

Coyhaique & the Best Hostel Ever

We spent Easter weekend in Coyhaique, Chile. We hadn´t planned on it, but the country comes to a crawl on this holiday weekend and there were no buses going any where. None the less we had a great time. We arrived very late and were very hungry when we got off the bus Friday. First priority, get food. We were on our way to eat when a lady approached us offering a place to stay. She was very persistent, but our stomachs demanded we mind them before sorting out where to stay for the night. We got directions to her hostel and after eating went to find it. The directions were easy enough to follow and we found ourselves under a sign that read "The best hostel ever. Will make you feel like home only better" It was written in english and hebrew. The sign was there, the house was white as she had said, but the walk way was dark and we weren´t sure any one was home. When we reached the door no one anwsered, but it was open and I passed into an entry way. I knocked on the second door. At this point I was really hoping the sign was indeed for this house. To my relief the women we had met on the street came to the door and showed us our room. It was run down, but comfortable. The next morning we met Yolanda, the owner. A lovely lady and she set about making us breakfast. This turned out to be the best breakfast either of us have had since we left the states. She made eggs! There was homemade jams of several flavors, all fabulous, and homemade Aji. Yolanda told us her life story, kept the food coming and was tickled pink watching Lou eat. She had me take this picture, he has one breakfast sandwich with Aji, cheese, avocado and egg, and another of opposite gusto covered in sweet jams. Since we had the whole weekend we decided to explore the local park. Yolanda let us leave our extra gear at her place and we walk out the door towards the park to hike the loop and camp Saturday night. We got a little turned around trying to find the park entrance but made it into camp just before sunset. The next morning we hiked up to the summit within the park. Nothing grand, but nice views. The tree line ended abruptly before the final slope to the summit where there was even a little snow to hike in. Coyhaique is visible below, with snowcapped Andean peaks surrounding. The ridge was sunny and windless we took advantage and had a healthy lunch break. On the way down Lou tried to take a short cut around a false summit. Since I am not as sure footed as Lou I opted to go the designate route despite having to climb again. Turns out Lou´s shortcut wasn´t short after all, I easily got up and down before he reconnected with the trail to get this pic. No matter Lou still felt a winner, this Mountain goat does enjoy challenges from time to time. .We returned to The Best Hostel Ever that night and enjoyed another fabulous breakfast before getting on the bus Monday morning. We are very excited to try to make Yolanda´s Aji ourselves, she happily offered us the recipe. Without a doubt this is the place to stay if you are even in this corner of the world. We even bought some of Yolanda´s jam to have with our morning bread for the remainder of our travels. It is just as good today as it was the first time we had it. Below I am standing with Yolanda in front of the wood stove she uses to make all her jams (she also has two gas stoves for guests to cook meals on as they please). The jars we are holding are Aji, one of which she gifted to us before leaving. Very Yummy stuff with just about anything.

El Chalten

El Chalten is a very small town that provides access to the Argentina side of southern patagonia. It sits between the confluence of two rivers and a dramatic line of granite peaks. You can´t see the peaks in this photo because of the typical cloud cover on the left of the photo. This picture was taken on our last day in town. You can walk from your hostel onto the trails of Argentinas Glacier national park and we did just that.

We arrived in town late in the evening and stumbled into the only open camping we could find. The next morning it was clear and calm.
Lou and I both think their are many advantages to traveling during the shoulder seasons one of the big ones is there are less people to deal with. Our first day in Chalten we realized one of the pitfalls of traveling in the shoulder season, with less people the transportion can be spotty. We had planned to explore the park from Chalten for a few days and then hike\ferry our way back into Chile. To our disappointment the ferry would not be running again until April 10th and although we much liked the feel of Chalten two weeks was a bit much to spend there. So we reformulated a plan, packed our back packs and headed into the park for a few days. As I mentioned the first day was an incredible day, clear skies and great views of Fitz Roy and the surrounding ridgeline.

Here we are, all smiles, at our first good lookout. It was a great place for lunch. Did I mention there was no wind?! We hiked up to the glacial lake near the base of Fitz Roy and pondered how one would approach this granite spire to make an atempt for the summit. We were both stumped, it would be one hell of an approach.

Louie´s mom has a rock collection from all the places she has visited, and some from the adventures of others too. Lou found a rock for her at the glacial lake at Fitz Roys base. Since you aren´t allowed to take things from the park we took this picture for you Joan. Here is a rock memory from Argentinan Patagonia.

Second day in the park was again a fabulous sunny day without wind. We were really enjoying the calm weather after all the wind of Torres del Paine. We hiked all morning without seeing another person. The trail followed a river as it meandered to a wide valley surrounded by ice capped ridges.

In the afternoon we took a side hike\scramble up to another glacial lake. The boulders we crawled over and under were incredibly large. It was great fun. On the way up we were buzzed by an Andean Condor. They are second in wingspan only to the Wandering Albatross. Having seen them high in the sky so many times it was fabulous to get an upclose view of one.

Arriving at the lake Lou had to get a hold of some ice. We had seen so much that was out of reach over the last two weeks he was determined to get some this time.

Although this piece was to big to pick up he did break off a smaller one.

On our way down we ran into a group of Aussies that seemed to need assistance finding their way through the boulder field. A few moments later it became clear that they were fine, but a women who didn´t speak any english was just behind them and very distraught. Lou and I knew just who they were talking about. We had met here on the trail an hour earlier and had had a short conversation. Turns out she had gotten lost in the boulders and walked in a circle. This had made her very scared. We reassured her that she could walk with us and we´d show her the way out. She also was very upset that she could not physically make the scramble over the boulders to see the lake. We assured her she had already seen very similar lakes on her other hikes in the park.

All in all another great day. Enjoyed a trail all to ourselves, great wildlife sightings more on the later, and a rescue.

The next day we woke up to rain and wind. Time to go. We started the hike out. It was sunny by lunch and we took the time to dry out the tent before making the final decent into town.

Torres del Paine

We spent 8 days in Torres del Paine and each of them was different than the one before. We hiked in all sorts of weather from calm and sunny to rain and rainbows to wind that knocks you over. There was even snow and ice. The scenery was incredible. The first 4 days we hiked the ´W´ with Amy. Amy and I met last year on the boat, she works full time for AMLR which it the NOAA branch that awards the contracts I have gotten the past two years. Day one was an incredible sunny day with no wind. We hiked up to the towers in shorts and tshirts.

Sorry this picture is sideways, but you get the gist. Here we are at the lookout for the towers on the first day. The tower on the far left is the tallest of the three although it does not appear that way from this angle. Over the rest of the trip we realized how rare a windless day in Torres is.. This is an example of the trail maps they had along the way. We really enjoyed them for two reasons, they are nice to look at and they also were surprisingly accurate in their representation of the topography. On day two the winds were so strong in places that Amy and I were both stopped from moving forward on several occasions and knocked over once too. We spent most of the day along a lake. THe wind was whipping up lake water into such a thick mist that there was a rainbow over it for most of the day. The portion of the rainbow on the lake would grow and shrink with the wind gusts.

On the third day we hiked up another valley in hopes of more spectacular views. Half way up I had lost hope that we would be able to see much since the fog and rain only seemed to be building. We did see some hanging glaciers and shadows of high granite peaks. After 2 hours of climbing we reached the view point. At first the ridge tops were covered in thick mist, but slowly the sun broke through and the wind moved the mist over the peaks. We got really lucky with our timing and enjoyed another glorious vantage of the peaks of Torres del Paine. On the way down we had another bit of luck. Lou spotted two wood peckers working away at the trees. They were quite interesting and fairly large. Once we were back in town we found a bird guide and id the birds as Magellanic wood peckers which are apparently a bird that many people travel down here to see. Amy had to return to San Diego after completing the W so Lou and I finished the circuit on our own. This was a great trip to try out our new gear for the CDT. We are both really happy with our new back packs and sleeping system we have. This is the first back packing experience either of us has had the didn´t leave us with bruised hip bones and sore shoulders. Even at the begining of the trip when we had 8 days of food we were able to hike comfortably. One last photo of the trip. As I mentioned we hiked in all kinds of weather and all types of terrain, but only once did we have to surrender the trail to the wild. I just couldn´t get myself to walk over this large spider, so we walked around. I am so very glad I never saw one on my backpack, in my shoe, or crawling on the tent. We did see two others on the trail over the last two days of the hike. We are heading to El Chalten in Argentina tomorrow for more backpacking.

Dog Mushing

The awesome opportunities continue to land in my lap here in Homer, AK. I got the chance to run a dog team last week and I took it. I did not know what to expect in the least and found out that there is a lot more to it than I thought. Aside from all of the logistics of harnesses, lines, brakes, etc. there is also all of the dog training and upkeep which is extremely extensive. The pic below gives a small glimpse into the logistical side of it all. This dog kennel houses 19 dogs, each with its own house. Our hosts, Jillian and Rich, own the dogs and live in a cabin that is 15x10 ft. They chop through ice to access a stream that runs a few yards from their cabin in order to provide water for themselves and their dogs. Simply stated, they live a unique life style.
Their business name is Spitfire Kennels and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a good sled dog experience.

As you can see it was a blustery day. The yard was extremely loud as we readied the team and headed out of the yard but once the dogs had settled into there steady lope it was amazingly quiet and blissful. The only noise was the panting of the dogs and the whistle of the sled rails. Dog mushing as a means of travel is extremely relaxing and therapeutic compared to its cousin, the snow machine. The two most fun parts was the acceleration as we started from a stop and the excitement emanating from the dogs. They unmistakably loved the snow and to run.

I ran a five dog team and we covered about 10 miles an hour which I was told was a speed the dogs could carry for hours depending on snow conditions and terrain. I had a great time and would recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to try it.

Wind and Rain

Some of the other things that I have been up to is nurturing the green hippy in me. To be fair, I suppose that I am helping to nurture the green hippy in Bill since it was his idea and his house. The picture below shows the rain catchment system that I put in. The winery is too far out of town to be connecting to the city water and sewer so they have a cistern. This means they pay to have all of their water trucked in and costs some serious cash. Way more than the measly 20 dollar payments jasmine and I made in california.

So here is how this works. The most polluted water that comes off of your roof is in the first few gallons. Once the first shot of water has washed off all of the sand, bacteria, and organic matter the water is reasonably clean. The gutters for the entire house are designed to funnel all of the roof water to the down spout shown in the picture. From there the water drops through a 1/8 in. screen and then through a mosquito screen. After that it drops into the first of the two large 4 in. horizontal pipes which has a float valve in it (plastic balls that are buoyant and are pushed to the top of the pipe where the seat into a fitting and seal the flow of water off). Next the second diverter fills up and then the rest of the water overflows into the tank. There is a small hole in the bottom of the horizontal tubes to allow the water to drain over time. But fear not, nothing is left to waste. The water that drains from the diverters as well as any overflow from the cistern is channeled into the creek and koi pond setting that is in the back yard. That is what the plastic tubing and 3" piping that can be seen in the bottom of the picture is for. Once I got done plumbing up the rain collector assembly the wind picked up and I turned around to notice this...

The windmill was installed this past summer and was whipping around. It produced about 10 kW that day which is respectable but not enough to run the house, winery, and sweets. Pretty cool stuff huh? Bill and Dorothy are getting the home and business pretty dialed in. Regrettably the wind mill does not receive enough wind to make a large difference in their power bill but they sure are doing a great job of leading by example. Maybe this summer they will go solar?

Now even when it is windy or rainy we have a good reason to be happy around here. Isn't that a great thing.