Pumas, Avalanches, and Igloo Drinking

Patagonia, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina -

Tony started his long trek home this morning (10,000km) and I have a few hours until I start making my way north and to some warmth (hopefully)!

But first, I've got to update you on the week that was.   This place is awesome.  Can't be beat for scenery and middle-of-nowhereness.

Luckily, the notoriously fickle weather down here cooperated for the most part, allowing for an amazing experience.  (and some great photo and video opportunities)!

Of course the journey was also filled with fantastic meats (Patagonian Lamb, Beef Goulash, Lomo) and wines and beers.  But we'll stick to the scenery for now.

It's almost impossible to convey through the photos just how beautiful or massive this place is.   But, we'll start with some videos and then photos and end with some silliness...

On our way up to this photo op, we saw Puma tracks around our trail.  YIKES!

We saw an Avalanche on our first day in El Chaltén, in the midst of an approximately 10 mile hike.

Tony and the 4x5...  I'm looking forward to seeing the prints of that bad boy!

Lago Desierto - you can't see it here, but it was a milky blue color.  The coloring comes from what is called "Glacial Flour".

Tony and the 4x5 on the way to Lago Desierto

And, on our last full day, we went back to the glacier!  Damn, is it awesome!  I've got tons more photos of the thing that I'll cruise through and post in a follow up or on Tumblr.

Buzzard Eagles getting the best view possible!

To cap it all off, we went to an igloo to celebrate our luck with the weather and to drink from glacier cups!

Thanks to Tony for making the long journey South.   It was a helluva adventure!!  (Also, a big thanks to him for doing all the driving!  I swear I'm going to learn how to drive a stick-shift before I set out on another adventure.)  Finally a big thanks to Beth, Tony's wife, for letting him come down and play.

The little beater that took us almost 1000km around Patagonia!

I have to say that Argentina was an amazing time and I'll miss the food for sure, but it's time to get warm.  I'm heading north of the equator for the first time in 3 months to meet up with my friend Jeff in Medellin and Bogota, Colombia.  We'll check in from there!

A Whale of a Time

After a couple more days of biking and driving around Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes, I have headed further south in Patagonia.

I must have upset the travel gods some how, because somehow avoiding a 24 hour bus ride turned into a 27 hour adventure that involved buses, planes, cars, sitting in an empty airport (seriously I was the only person for about an hour).

Needless to say it was a whale of a time.  But, I'm here, and now it's time for a new adventure.

My friend Tony got here yesterday and we had a day just roaming around looking for Glaciers.   More pics later, but we definitely found the big one!

He's a better photographer that me, so I'm excited not only for the company, but also some pro-quality images to put on a wall I may or may not have in the future.

We're off!

Happy Monday!

I know how you guys and gals love these posts, but maybe the fact that it is Pay Day for some will curb the grumpy email responses.

Undeterred, I'm sharing my day yesterday with you.

And if you couldn't guess from the first picture.  It was spent underwater. with the LOBOS MARINOS!

I've seen them swim at various aquariums before, but it doesn't really compare when they are nibbling on your head, hands, and trying to take your mask off.   I will say it is much warmer in the Aquarium environment though.  DAMN, was it cold! (water temp ~50 degrees)

Even with a 7mm shorty over a 7mm bib wetsuit, it was a bit cold!  Made me miss 85+ degree water of Indonesia!  (Munchkin - That's not my hat, so no comments)

I know I say this a lot, and you are all probably starting to get sick of it, but it was an amazing experience to play with them for 40 mins.  Just look at the below!

Oh, and we saw some of these guys too.  NBD. 

The Southern Right Whale (I was, actually, excited to see these guys because I only saw some fins in Australia.  These guys were super close to the boat I was able to really get an up close look!)

Munchkin and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Hat

I got an email from my one of my oldest friends last week saying only this:

1) I love your logo and kind of want a T-shirt. 
2) I hate your hat.

That is all. 

She really knows how to cut me deep after all this time.

Not this time though! Munchkin, I'm not sure how it could be possible for you to hate such an amazing thing.  But it's not going ANYWHERE!

Why?

Because it's an Amazing Technicolor Dream Hat!  And it's AWESOME!
(Plus, and not that it would change the decision either way, others have emailed agreeing.  For those wondering, it was purchased in the Witches Market in La Paz, Bolivia.  So, consider yourself lucky.  It could've been a dried Llama Fetus...)

In other news, I'll figure out with the Raechild what's possible for T-Shirts when I get back for all those that wish to have one...

Regarding My Beard Two...

The first post regarding my beard still is among the top 5 most viewed pages of all time.  Given the emails you've sent, I get the sense you're loving it again.  So, back by popular demand, a post regarding my beard. (we'll see if this one pushes its way into the top 5 as well!)

It may look like a 1000 dead wooly bear caterpillars, but it's fierceness gives it purpose in its 4 month of existence.

It is versatile, goes great with a lot of things, and is full of surprises.  For instance:

It goes great with mountains -

It is a good dancer - 

Dogs love it - 

Beer loves it -

People made of stone their respect: 

And flowers from space have chosen it to blossom from: 

I probably won't miss it much it when it is gone, but for now I'm going to enjoy it's splendor for a little while longer.

On that note, I'm off to trim him.  He's looking a little rough around the edges...

In other news, Jon and Jill have headed back to Boston.  Boo!

This was the picture I received this morning when I woke up:

"Oh boy..."

I'm not looking forward to that scenario in a few months, that's for sure. And I'm sorry you are going through it today.

But, if it is any consolation, it means the world to me that you both came down to share part of the adventure with me. Thanks for the Beer, Killers Oeuvre, Tinto, Mega Quesos, Carne, Overnight Buses, Snow, and general shenanigans.  It was a helluva adventure! (even if we did barely made it out of certain days alive.  Particularly that one with Fernet Branca...)

Wine Tasting Two - Biking Boogaloo

I've now gone wine tasting 3 times on this trip. Australia was only one Winery and despite being fun, it didn't get it's own post. We're back on the posts though after really doing it up here in Argentina.

The scene of the crimes was Mendoza and we took in the local wineries by bike:

The views were fantastic, but the biking and tastings were the best part...

We went to a few wineries and a Beer Garden. We sampled Malbecs, Torrentes, Cabernet and Syrahs at most of them.

Familia Di Tommaso Winery - One of the oldest wineries in the area.

The old fermenters made of brick and mortar are now decommissioned, but used for storing bottles. The original lights we covered with dried squash.

Tempus Alba:

Mevi:

And finally a beer garden, of course:

It was a great and delicious day. We even got a police escort home as the sun was setting, but not because we were doing anything wrong. That's just what they do in Mendoza apparently.

Jill Cracks...

It only took a week and a half, but Jill finally had enough of us...

Extreme(ish) Adventures in Mendoza

After a day of Wine tasting (still to be posted), we needed to get our physical activity faces on, so we went into the mountains to bike and zipline, and generally do some silly things. 

This mountain lake was the scene of our crimes:

Jon got really excited to be there and started breakdancing... 

Then we all got a little crazy...

But things did settle down...

The cousins soak in the Andes, before flying high over the lake!

A video of one of the lines can be seen here.