March 23rd to 24th Nasca, Peru

This will probably be the last post of my South American trip since I am flying back to Austin tomorrow night. I don´t expect to be doing much in Lima, so unless something unexpected happens, this will wrap it up.

Yesterday I arrived in Nasca, Peru to put the final check in the box on this trip. My last ¨must do¨ item was to sandboard the Peruvian dunes. And Nasca is home to the tallest sand dune in the world. So after getting rebuffed yesterday due to road construction, I managed to book a private lesson this morning departing at 3 am.

We hiked until sunrise and then hiked another hour. Then finally at about 8 am, we hit the slopes for some pretty sick sandboarding.

This afternoon, I´m catching my bus to Lima and checking into my hostel for my last night in South America.

I´ll be back in Austin Thursday morning and plan to spend the weekend relaxing and eating Mexican food.

Thanks to everyone who followed along. I hope you enjoyed the blog. Until the next adventure.

Scott

March 21st to 22nd-El Misti Volcano, Peru

At 8am I met the 2 guides and 4 other climbers that I would be attempting my El Misti summit with. We headed to the trailhead at 10,000 feet and started our climb toward base camp with all our tents and other camping gear.

We reached base camp (14,500´) at about 4pm, and the guides immediately starting preparing dinner. It would be an early night as we would wake up at 1 am and start our climbing at 2 am using our headlamps. They do this to give everyone the best chance of making the summit and returning to camp before sunset.

We lost one of our group and one of the guides at about 4am and 16,000 feet due to altitude sickness. I was feeling the affects already as well. I had just arrived from sea level 3 days prior which is really not enough time to acclimate.

So we pressed on and watched an amazing sunrise over the volcano, complete with the shadow of the volcano along the horizon. See the pic.

By 8 am we reached the lip of the crater at 18,500´ and then made the final push to the summit (19,100´) by just before 9 am. After a few high fives and some pics, we skied our way down the volcanic ash chute back to base camp. 6 hours to summit. 40 minutes of fantastic descent.

March 19th-Arequipa, Peru

Spent today touring around Arequipa and also decided to book a guide to attempt to ascend El Misti tomorrow. El Misti is the Volcano outside of Arequipa. At 19,100´ it´s taller than any mountain in the US except for Mckinley in Alaska.

I also took a tour of a famous convent here in town and saw how the nuns lived here for the past 400 years.

March 18th Arequipa, Peru

Arrived in Arequipa last night a little later than planned. Hit 3 checkpoints on the bus route and on every single one, something was confiscated by the police. Fortunately none of it was mine.

The last time it happened one of the ladies who was about to lose a bag full of clothes actually got into a physical confrontation with the police. Not smart. Anyway, no pics, decided not to get involved.

So I arrived at my hostel which is very nice and close to the center of town. Got a private room for about $6 US and the hotel has a nice rooftop patio with great views of El Misti. The volcano outside of town.

March 16-17th Santiago to Arica

Arrived in Arica this afternoon. Last town in Chile. Tomorrow morning I catch my bus across the border and then into Arequipa, Peru.


The 28 hour bus ride was uneventful. Fortunately i had the full folddown seat so i spent most of the trip catching up on sleep. The once i hit Arica, I checked into my hostel and went for a run along the beach at sunset. Nice finish to the day.

March 15th-Santiago

So last night i drank too much and stayed out too late with some friends from Costa Rica. Then spent the day running around the city to catch some of the sights. Santiago is a pretty impressive city. Very modern, about 6 million people, and a bit smogy. But overall a pretty nice city.

Although i´ve seen about all i need. I´m ready to catch the bus tomorrow morning to Arica, which is on the Chile-Peru Border.

Hopefully I can get an excursion into the mountains so I can get a good run in. I´m starting to get a good running base in place which is good as I´m on the waiting list for the Pikes Peak Marathon and the NYC Marathon. So might one to be ready in case i get selected.

March 14th Valdivia to Santiago, Chile

Caught the night bus to Santiago Chile. Ponied up the extra $10 for the executive service. Which basically means the seats fold completely flat. Very nice for the night bus.

Was woken up at 8 am when one of the bus guys nudged me as we rolled into the terminal. So i hoped up to grab my bags. Jerked the the earplugs out of my ears (with the attached string) and realized that something just wasn´t right.

I realized one of the earplugs had broken off inside my ear. So i had half an earplug jammed deeper into my head than i thought was possible.

So my first hour in Santiago was spent trying to remove the earplug with various objects including the tweezers and toothpic from my pocket knife. An hour later, I could hear again and the earplug was free.

So after that, I took the Santiago subway to my hostel and got situated for a couple days of touring around town.

March 13 Bariloche, Argentina to Valdivia, Chile

So i bid farewell to Bariloche today and caught the bus to Valdivia. About an 8 hour ride with great views as I crossed over to the west side of the Andes.

hit valdivia at about 10 pm and checked into the hostel which had a pet duck and rabbit. And also, $5 hot rock massages. Which I scheduled immediately.

Woke up early in the morning and went for a run down by campus. They have a river that bisects town. They also have a pretty large rowing team, as the river was filled with sculls in the morning.

Spent the rest of the day running around town. Picking up bus tickets. And playing arcarde games.

March 8th-March13th Still in Bariloche Argentina

So today (13th) I leave Bariloche after 2 great weeks. I´ll miss it. Definitely a highlight of the trip. The past week has been filled with more amazing views, hikes, runs, and rides around the islands on a motorized bicycle. Very cool.

Stopped by a cemetary at the base of the mountain where some people who died climbing are buried.

snapped a couple of pics of the hostel, and then caught a tango show.

This afternoon I´m catching the bus to Valdivia, Chile. And then Saturday night I plan to catch the overnight bus to Santiago Chile.

Then I´ll catch up with some friends I met in Bolivia who live in Santiago. And by midweek catch the bus north to Arequipa, Peru.

Only 13 more days in my trip. I fly back to Austin on the 25th of March from Lima, Peru.

Starting to crave margaritas and mexican food. See everyone soon.

February 28th-March 7th Bariloche, Argentina

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but after 2 months of travel I seem to have gotten myself stuck in a town. Bariloche, Argentina is like a cross between Colorado and British Columbia, but with more lakes. It´s summer here right now and it´s absolutely gorgeous. It´s also home to the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere. So it´s got me thinking about a future trip to check that out.

Also the town was mostly settled by the Swiss, so with the mountains and architecture, you feel like you´re in the Alps rather than the Andes.

Anyway, the point is, I can´t seem to leave. Sally flew back to Austin yesterday (stupid work) and I´m probably going to do 4 or 5 more days here before moving on to Chile.

Tomorrow I´m renting a motobike, which is a standard mountain bike with a small gas weed eater motor and drive wheel on it. Should have some good pics from that.

February 27th Bariloche Argentina

So today we booked a ride out to El Tronador. A Volcano 2 hours from town that has a glacier on top. The hike was pretty challenging. About 3 hours up and about half that down. The views were spectacular. And we grabbed some wine for the trip back to town. Then spent the evening at the casino playing some blackjack and then off for a nice cut of Argentine beef before bed.

February 25th and 26th Mendoza to Bariloche Argentina

Today, we hit some of the plazas in town and ran around the park. Then we packed our bags and caught the night bus to Bariloche. 17 hours, but we got front row top, so the view was excellent. Unfortunately, the view is even better than the one the driver has down below, so we were able to tell when he should and shouldn´t pass other cars with much more accuracy than he.

But we made it safely, so no harm, no foul.

We arrived in Bariloche in the afternoon and checked into a very cool hostel. It has a great view of the lake and eggs and coffeee for breakfast. Awesome.

We spent the afternoon checking out the town and hitting a church that has amazing stained glass.

February 24th Mendoza Argentina

We caught a bus this morning to the base of Aconcagua. The tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere and the tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas. 22,850 ft.

We had more steak and more wine and met some trekkers that just finished the climb. It took them 10 days to climb it and 4 to get back down. So we decided to pass.

The ride up the canyon was gorgeous and relaxing, at least until Sally opened a 2 liter soda that had been rolling around under our feet. Have you seen those mentos videos? It was kindof like that.

After returning to Mendoza we called it an early night.

February 23rd Mendoza Argentina

We caught the night bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza and arrived early in the morning of the 23rd. The bus was great. A boutique service called Cata with flat folding seats and dinner and drinks served on the bus. Also a couple of movies in English. Sweet.

After dropping our bags at the hostel at about 8 30 am, we found that we could sign up for the bikes and wine tour that day, since pickup was 10 am. So we took a quick shower and by 11 am, we were pedaling through the wine country.

The tour was great. We hit 4 Bodegas (wineries) and a really great wine museum where they take you through the history of wine production in South America and show you how it is made today.

We rolled back into town late that night and went out to grab a Parilla dinner. Chorizo, steak, intestines (not good), etc. And of course, more wine.

February 18th-22nd Buenos Aires

I arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday morning and headed toward the hostel. It's actually a very nice hotel in the San Telmo neighborhood. Very clean and new. Just opened in November and had great ratings on Hostelworld.

It's kindof a simple Scandanavian design. And the coffee was good. Which is a first in South America.

So for the first two days, I explored around a bit and got a couple of runs in at the nature preserve which is only about a mile from the hotel and borders the coast. Very nice running area.

On Thursday night I was out way too late, and then had to get up early to hit the airport to pick up Sally. A rough morning for sure. This town parties way too late. Typical is dinner at 11 or 12 o'clock. And the clubs finally get jumping about 3 or 4 in the morning. Most mornings we see the revelers rolling in while we are having breakfast at 8am.

So Friday we took it easy. I was hungover and Sally was jetlagged and tired from all her Dell work she had to complete prior to leaving.

But Saturday was beautiful. Cool breeze, party sunny, terrific. We spent the day exploring the parks and famous cemetary in the Recoleta district.

That night we celebrated my birthday with a great Asado (Argentine BBQ) and some birthday flan for desert. And of course, way too much wine. Which is redicuously cheap here.

So today, we will tour around a bit more and then we are catching the night bus to Mendoza to hit the wine country for a couple of days.

February 15th-17th Iguazu Falls

Caught a bus (24 hours) from Salta to Iguazu Falls on the Argentine, Brazil, Paraguay Border. Theres a spot where you can stand in Argentina and see both Brazil and Paraguay.

The falls or Cataratas as they are called, are billed as the largest falls in the world. I have to admit, they were pretty spectacular.

On the 17th, I´ll head to Buenos Aires and then Sally will arrive on the 20th. So we´ll celebrate my birthday on the 22nd in BA.

Also, so many great shots of the Falls, so if you want to see more, go to my facebook page and look at the Iguazu folder.