I’m sitting here in an adorable, trendy café in Ancud, a city at the northern tip of the island of Chiloe, looking up the territorial limit of Patagonia. There’s no actual definition but it seems that I’m currently right about there: Wikipedia tells me the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia is usually agreed to be the Reloncavi Estuary, which is about level with where I am. The map on Wikipedia doesn’t include Chiloe as part of Patagonia but let’s just fudge that and say that I’m still in Patagonia; today is my last day.

After Puyuhuapi I kept heading north, hitchhiking up to another little town called La Junta, then straight west to a very small, fairly isolated port town called Raul Marin Balmaceda. The drive out to Raul Marin Balmaceda runs along a river through a few farms and mostly untouched, densely green hills. It’s gorgeous. In Raul Marin I spent a couple of days relaxing, strolling along the many kilometers of sandy beach, and watching black and white dolphins play around right next to the pier. It was quiet and relaxing, and good to disconnect; the town only has one restaurant that has wifi, so I was left with my own largely mundane thoughts. Thinking is exhausting. From Raul Marin I caught a ferry across the water and up to Quellon, the southernmost city on the island of Chiloe. The ride was about 9 hours with one stop, in the small island fishing town of Melinka, which I absolutely adored the sight of. The view as the ferry pulls up is a jumble of brightly colored houses staggered up the hill that rises away from the port, old fishing boats bobbing in the harbor in the foreground. Looking around there is only water and the untouched islands that make up the rest of the archipelago. I’m not sure what the town itself is like but it makes for an absolutely stunning postcard.

Now I’ve spent the past few days here in Chiloe, and it’s been a downright metropolitan experience after the small towns I’ve come from. A quick search online tells me the population of Quellon is a little more than 20,000, and Castro and Ancud both have a little more than 40,000 inhabitants. Absolutely gigantic compared to where I’ve been. I unfortunately haven’t had time to explore and get to the national parks here since I’m working my way up to Santiago fairly quickly but I’ve strolled around and enjoyed the change of scenery. Colorful houses seem to be a theme out here, with all different shades of bright yellows, greens, pinks, blues, and more all thrown together. There is a beautiful yellow church with purple accents dominating the central square in Castro. Gardening also seems like a common activity – most houses have beautiful collections of rose bushes, bright orange flowers, gardenias, and lots of others. I’ve been stopped in my tracks on the sidewalk by the overpowering smell of roses more than once – absurdly corny but true. My understanding is that Chiloe is getting to be well known for its gastronomy and for sustainable practices related to it. I don’t know much about all that, but I know it’s an island so seafood is the way to go. Yesterday, in particular, I ate extraordinarily well. For lunch I went to Mar y Canela, a trendy little restaurant in a Palafito (old wooden houses built on stilts in the bay) in Castro. I had a dozen fresh oysters to start, and then an absolutely delicious piece of fish in a pesto and tomato sauce, topped with perfectly cooked octopus, and then with a plate of clams and crazy giant dinosaur mussels on the side, and a mini spinach omelet. It was a ton of food, and I surely suffered, but don’t worry people – I powered through and enjoyed every bite. Then, for dinner here in Ancud, I had a great local stout to drink alongside a delicious piece of trout in a hollandaise type sauce, with asparagus and corn on the side. Rough life…

So now, after a couple of good coffees and a salad, I’m going to stroll around here a little bit and then catch a bus up to Puerto Montt, where I’ll sit around, hopefully watch some soccer, grab some dinner, and then head to the bus station at 10pm to get on my overnight bus to Santiago. There are a few different classes of busses here in Chile so I plunked down the extra $4-5 for the one where the chairs are soft, wide, and lie almost all the way down, essentially converting into an actual bed. So I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep and to wake up refreshed and ready to go in Santiago tomorrow.

I’ve had a really good time down here in Patagonia. The landscapes and hiking are as spectacular as advertised, the people are friendly, and the towns are adorable. I’ve gotten to see all kinds of birds, foxes, dolphins, guanacos, and an impressive population of stray dogs with surprisingly clean and luscious fur. The food was fairly unimpressive for a while but there were a few delicious stews mixed in there and the recent seafood binge has been delightful. My usual unfriendly demeanor has kept me from making many friends but I have made a few, and I’ve had some nice casual conversations along the way as well. I’ve also gotten a wonderful dose of adorable grandma time – most of the lodging in the small towns is just rooms in people’s houses, and those people are usually adorable grandmas, so I’ve had some nice chats and been taken care of along the way. Just like anywhere there have been tradeoffs and I’ve had to miss out on tons of things I would have liked to do and places I would have liked to go, but I’ve gotten around and seen some great sights. I’d love to come back sometime to see more of the Argentinean side, go whale watching, hike more, and see what else the region has to offer. A change of pace now will be good though – I’m excited to get to the big city and see what Santiago has to offer, and then to take a travel break in New York with Liv for a little more than a week. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do after that when I return to Santiago and have decided it’s time to do some volunteering. There are tons of farms and hostels that want people to work there, which I might try, but ideally I’d like to do something that’s helping a little more. Teaching is the obvious thing that comes to mind, so I’ll be looking into that, but I’ve also seen some volunteer programs at wildlife centers that seem like they would be very cool. We’ll see what I find!

New roommate

Spot the dolphin

Spot the dolphin

Hard to see but there is a giant flock of pelicans in this picture

Just some guys with a carcass on the ferry

Melinka. So cute.

So many flowers!

Palafitos in Castro

Oysters!

It was soooooo good

The title of this post comes from the town of Chile Chico, where I crossed from Argentina into Chile and started heading north. It also works because for the past week I’ve just been making my way from one very small town to another. Clever! Anyway, I’m really enjoying it! I’m feeling much better, with just a little bit of a lingering cough, so that helps a lot. As obnoxious as it is for a tourist to complain about a place being too touristy, that’s a little bit of how I was feeling in El Calafate and El Chalten. Here, on the other hand, the tiny towns have a fair few signs for “hospedaje”s and “cabanas” but they feel just a little bit less garish, more rustic, cuter. You see fewer roving packs of backpackers. There aren’t as many excursion and tourism agencies. So there’s a little bit less to do, but it’s all just adorable, and nestled amongst some breathtaking scenery, and I’m finding that I like that just a tad more (plus, again, really can’t overstate the positive effect of feeling better).

From Chile Chico I took a bus around Lago General Carrerra to the truly tiny town of Puerto Tranquilo, which is notable because it’s the access point to the marble caves. These are beautiful rock formations that have been carved over time by the lake, forming tunnels, grottos, and other beautiful shapes. The texture of the rock is really interesting – I would have thought that it would be worn smooth, but instead it has a texture like tiny waves. No idea why that is…. Continuing north from Puerto Tranquilo can be a little bit complicated since there’s no way to reserve a bus. You have to just show up in the morning and hope that a bus passes through with a spot for you, which is no kind of guarantee, as the guys I met who had to spend an extra night can attest to. I got lucky though; the first bus arrived to a swarm of backpackers hoping to get on, to which the driver said that there were no spots at all. He went to the little café and had his coffee and sandwich, relaxed, etc…, and the crowd dispersed. After 20 minutes or so he came back ready to head out again, and it just so happened that we were still standing around next to the bus, because, hell, we didn’t have anywhere else to go. When he was loading up again I asked if there was room (for three no less!) and he said yes, so my new friends and I were off. From there I went to Coyhaique, which is something of a regional hub. I was a little embarrassed at how much I enjoyed being somewhere that resembles a miniscule city as opposed to just a tiny town – actual grocery store, real pharmacy, things like that. It wasn’t that I had some important shopping to do but more just a change of scenery. And it’s really a very cute miniscule city – surrounded by mountains, still very small and quiet, with a beautiful central square. From Coyhaique I hopped a bus to the tiny town of Puerto Cisnes, and from there to my current tiny town, Puyuhuapi, which is known for its hot springs and its proximity to Queulat National Park.

I’ve really enjoyed the last few bus rides. The scenery changed very gradually but at some point I realized that it had truly transformed from the windswept plains and severe, towering peaks further south to a deep, lush greenery covering smoother, rounder mountains. The density of vegetation is fairly astonishing considering how far south I still am, but a wizened old Chilean man was telling me just this evening that the area apparently gets an average of 3.5 meters of rain per year, so that might explain it. The sides of the road are overgrown with this remarkable plant whose stalk is apparently similar to rhubarb (or maybe it just is rhubarb) and which grows as just one single gigantic leaf – the biggest ones I’ve seen must have been 3.5 or 4 feet wide. It’s a truly impressive picture to see dozens of them all growing together, covering up the base of a cliff right next to the road.

Today I went down to the hot springs, 6 kilometers south of town. I took the only bus available (a minivan) at 9:30 so I got there around 10 and there was not a soul around. I was expecting natural hot springs but it’s actually a set of pools set into a wooden boardwalk. The background is fantastic though, right next to an ocean channel, with deep green mountains rising up on the island on the other side. I spent a little less than two hours boiling in the pool, with a quick dip in the cold ocean in between, and then had a nice relaxing walk back to town. Tomorrow I’m on the road again – I’m going to try my luck hitchhiking, heading north to a place called La Junta before hopefully turning west and catching a ride out to what is apparently another very very small port town called Raul Marin Balmaceda. There isn’t much traffic along this road so fingers crossed. After that the plan is to hopefully catch a ferry to Quellon, on the island of Chiloe, and then head north through the island (with some tasty seafood along the way) to Puerto Montt. From there, depending on timing, I might check out Puerto Varas, a stone’s throw away, or just head straight to Santiago. There are a few other places I’d like to check out between Puerto Montt and Santiago (notably Pucon, which looks unreal, dominated by one of Chile’s most active volcanoes) but I’m not sure I’ll have time so I might just have to leave that for later. We’ll see what happens!

Puyuhuapi at sunset

Puyuhuapi has a very quaint church

Hot springs with a view

Seriously, the leaves are huge

Leaving Argentina for a while (and a week since my last post) makes now a good time for an update. I’m currently hanging out in my hostel in El Chalten, waiting for the overnight bus that will leave me in Los Antiguos tomorrow morning. From there I’ll walk or hitchhike across the border to Chile Chico. After that I’m not exactly sure – Chile Chico is apparently a cute, tranquil town, and somewhere close are the marble caves, which look spectacular. I’ll be trying to make my way there and then just working my way north along the famous carretera austral, which is supposed to have tremendous scenery most of the way, hitchhiking or taking buses as I go.

This past week I’ve been in two towns in Argentina, El Calafate and El Chalten. They’re close to each other, and each sits next to a gigantic lake. I first spent two nights in El Calafate, which is a little bigger than El Chalten but still a small town. It has one main street with restaurants and bars, a nice walk along the lake (although the wind can be murder), and is mostly known for being the place from which to go see the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the most beautiful glaciers around. Unfortunately, through bad scheduling and general stupidity, I spent my day and a half there walking around the lake, checking out the town, and fighting with ATMs (more on that later), and did not, in fact, make it out to see the glacier. So that was pretty dumb, but I’ve looked at pictures, and hey, you can’t win ’em all. From El Calafate I caught a bus a few hours up to El Chalten, which is a tiny town nestled in the shadow of the famous Mt Fitzroy. The main attraction here is hiking – there are several good day hikes and a few camping opportunities right around here, and they all end up with various views of the dramatic mountains right outside of town.

My first day I took it easy and went for one of the shorter, flatter hikes. It was ok but the weather ended up cloudy and drizzly so when I got to the end you couldn’t see the mountains at all, which was a bummer. The next day, on the advice of some friends I met in Ushuaia, I went ice climbing (!), which was fantastic. We took a boat across Lake Viedma to the Viedma glacier, where the first task was learning to walk with crampons. I’m no crampon expert but these were serious, murderous crampons, and it took a little getting used to, although after a while I felt pretty comfortable with them – they sure do give you grip on ice. After that we went to a kiddie wall and busted out the axes for our first lesson, before progressing to bigger and bigger walls. I had been a little bit afraid that we weren’t going to get to climb much since the refund policy (which was the first thing they talked to me about after I paid…) stated that they considered the activity complete if we did a single climb, but my misgivings turned out to be unfounded. The weather was gorgeous all day and we ended up getting in 2 or 3 climbs on each of 4 walls. I was more than satisfied, and really exhausted by the end. That night I was very, very tired and felt a little strange – I couldn’t decide if it was sunburn, dehydration, getting sick, or a little of everything.

The next day I hiked to the Laguna de Los Tres, which sits right up against Mt Fitzroy. It was a little cloudy in the morning and I was afraid it was going to be like my first hike, but by the afternoon the clouds were gone and I was treated to some really spectacular views. On the way back I was, again, extremely tired, and by the time I got back to the hostel I was totally exhausted and had a bit of a cough. So I think I caught something here in El Chalten, and I spent yesterday and today just sitting around the hostel resting. Yesterday I was still feeling very tired and headachey but today I feel a bit better, so hopefully that continues in spite of my overnight bus ride tonight. Either way I’ll be getting plenty of rest going forward and I’m sure I’ll be feeling better soon. So not to worry my dear, loving family – I proooobably will not die of some mutant super combination of Zika, Chikungunya, and Malaria. But seriously, I will be keeping a close eye on it and I’ll get myself checked out if things get worse. I’m pretty sure it’s just a quick flu though and I’ll be feeling normal in a few days.

My feelings about Patagonia thus far are mixed. On the one hand I’ve always been fascinated by the area and the landscapes truly are dramatic and beautiful. There are tons of outdoor activities (lots that I didn’t even try – 4 wheeling, kayaking, horseback riding) and the hiking is top notch. So for all of that it has really lived up to my expectations. What, in retrospect, I obviously should have realized beforehand is that an area this remote will also have its tradeoffs. Many of the towns don’t have a whole lot going on. Decent fruits and vegetables can be hard to get ahold of, and the food has been largely unremarkable, with the exception of some king crab in Ushuaia. There’s sort of a closed loop of tourism that goes Ushuaia – Torres del Paine – El Calafate – El Chalten, so you end up seeing a lot of the same people, or at least a lot of the same type of people, and it wasn’t really the type that I tend to connect with, so I mostly spent time by myself. And good lord, getting money in Argentina. Some of you may be familiar with the blue dollar, the alternative exchange rate that existed while the Argentinean government was artificially inflating the value of its currency. The new president (elected, I believe, only a month or two before I arrived) got rid of that and let the currency float, so the trick isn’t finding people to change money anymore, and going to ATMs isn’t a complete robbery. But it’s still really bad! The fees are some of the highest I’ve seen, about 6 bucks per transaction, but the transaction limit is the real crime – many ATMs only let you withdraw less than 70 dollars per transaction. So that’s a 10% fee, and it gets worse! It’s not at all uncommon for ATMs to simply be out of money, especially on weekends, so you end up hunting around town for one that still has money. And then, one particular network of ATMs has a bizarre problem – asking for too much money gets you a reply that you’re exceeding your limit, but then asking for an appropriate amount of money, one chosen from the options on the screen, gets you a message that you’ve entered an invalid amount. It’s not a huge deal but it’s an annoyance I hadn’t even thought about, and given that a lot of places in Argentina don’t take credit cards it’s enough to drive you insane.

Overall I’d have to say my quibbles are mostly small things adding up, and I’m very happy that I made it down here to see the end of the world, to backpack around for 8 days, and to see the wonderful landscapes. I’m ready to push on to a change of scenery but I wouldn’t hesitate to come back.

That’s about it for now! I’ll check back in soon, hopefully with some beautiful pictures of marble caves!

P.S. I’m posting this late because the entire town of El Chalten has internet on a satellite link, making it the slowest internet I have ever used. I could intermittently send messages on WhatsApp but loading webpages was out of the question. So I’m posting from Chile Chico and missing my deadline, but in my heart I’m still a winner.

I’m going to just keep linking to Google Photos albums since uploading everything on here is a slow process. I’ll also keep a page that has all the albums in one place if you feel like checking them all out.

Ushuaia

Torres del Paine

Alright, I’m back and alive, for real this time. Sorry about the joke post mom… I had originally planned to do the O circuit but after a terrible night with stomach cramps (whether from the giant pork ribs I had for dinner or just from anxiety I don’t know) I decided I couldn’t head out to the park on 1 hour of sleep and skipped the morning bus. At breakfast that morning I got the idea from a couple of fellow hostelers to head out in the afternoon and start the Q instead, which is the O circuit with a little extra part (get it?) that adds one night of camping after only about a 2 hour hike on the first day. So that’s what I did. I kept a brief journal while I was hiking of what I did and how I was feeling, and I figure that, along with loads of pictures, is about as good a way to talk about the trip as any. As a quick preface, it’s worth noting that this trip hit a couple of firsts for me – it was the first time I had gone backpacking longer than 4 days, and my first time backpacking solo. “Solo” is relative in Torres del Paine given that you constantly cross people on the trail and there are hundreds of people in every campsite, but I still planned alone and walked mostly alone, so I’m counting it. As you’ll see I had some pretty serious apprehensions about the trip. In retrospect they were pretty silly, especially since thousands and thousands of people complete the circuit of the park each year, but hey, it says “an idiot abroad” right there in the subtitle…

On to the journal! Pretty much all the place names are campsites along the way. You can look up a map if you want or just use your imagination, I’m pretty much always just talking about the next campsite.

Day 1:  Feb 13

The bus had some nice views but was generally uneventful. Had to transfer, which was lame because we waited a while, I was hoping to camp early. Drizzling the whole time. 1.5 hour walk to Las Carretas with David, Franco-German, super nice, and Kyle, Seattle anthropologist/sociologist. It was nice to have company, I was feeling very discouraged walking into the wind and drizzle. Got to camp around 7:30, set up tent, got water, made pasta. Feeling quite discouraged – strongly aware of my inexperience, cold, wet, ugh. But managed to pack up before nightfall, wind seems to be gone (!), and drizzle is very light, so who knows. Bon courage!

Day 2: Feb 14

Started out riding high – nice weather, had breakfast and packed up ok. First 2.5 hours across open fields, very windy. Trying to move fast, near the end of 2.5 hours get light cramps in quads. Uh-oh. It really is beautiful though, seeing the park from far away. Setting off again it’s more mountain and forest. Cramps come back quite bad, after a while I’m stopping every 10 minutes. During first part I was thinking I was too worried last night, I can definitely do the whole thing – now I’m having serious doubts about the hiking and the camping. Lots of just being alone with my thoughts means mood changes are fairly dramatic and it’s easy to start worrying. Tried to remind myself to just enjoy but I do wonder a bit if camping just isn’t my thing. Got into camp ok (had to walk doing butt-kicks for a while because of cramps), set up in a nice spot, had lunch, dozed, it’s only 4:30. So that’s nice. — Tried walking an hour and 15 minutes to mirador, weather getting worse and I’m exhausted so didn’t make it. Think I’ll try tomorrow and then just go to Cuernos. Would try Chileno but am very scared after cramping…

Day 3: Feb 15 (written Feb 16)

Slept in late, woke up thinking I might have a cold but turned out to just be cold night air. Path even just to Mirador Frances was closed so headed out close to 11. Very careful about pace, eating, and drinking. But feeling good. Got to Cuernos early feeling good so push on, try for Chileno and if I can’t do the last climb there’s always Las Torres. Beautiful weather, hot, shorts and t-shirt. Meet Walker, from Georgia, and Morgan, from Indiana. Walk the last part with them. Up to Chileno it gets exposed, crazy wind all day but this is worse, pissing down rain. Everything is soaked, have to walk over hill and across river from checkin to camp, find mediocre spot. Feeling low. But cooking area is warm and lively, people blaring music and dancing, go to bed feeling ok, surprisingly dry.

Day 4: Feb 16

Get up, unsure what to do. Weather looks bad again, torres all cloudy. Breakfast and hang around, decide to go up later. Ran into Mel (Aussie nurse I met in Ushuaia) last night, again today, we decide to head up to torres a little later. Sandwiches look huge but are 8k. I look covetous, she (very nice) says 6k, deal. Beautiful, heavy, wholegrain bread. Head up to torres with Adar, tall Israeli, and Jakob, Dutch physicist writing a scientific calculating program. Torres completely fogged in and it snows the whole way, but sure glad I went, saw cute foxes. Down, beer, then book it to Las Torres. Moment of elation going down – weather beautiful, feeling empowered, been managing to camp ok and regaining confidence in my legs. 10 minutes from camp it starts raining medium hard. Everything is wet and this campsite doesn’t even have an indoor cooking area. Also turns out the rice Erica gave me needs to simmer 20 minutes. Fuck. Make pasta in occasional drizzle, wolf it down, chill, now bed. Feeling medium but no doubts that I want to continue. Hopefully find some nice weather. Excited about hiking.

Day 5: Feb 17

Beautiful sleep ’til 9:45, almost 12 hours. Woke up to gorgeous weather, warm and sunny. Slow morning: tons of oatmeal, clothes out to dry, repack bag, chillin. Left at noon. Bag does in fact feel lighter. Weather was beautiful all day aside from one 10 minute wind and drizzle stretch. Feeling very thankful. Back was hurting a little, tops of shoulders now very tired. Got to Seron around 3:30, set up tent, ate, feeling good and relaxed. Tomorrow I want to go all the way to Los Perros, about 8-9 hours, a little more than 25km I think. We’ll see how I feel at Dickson but I do really want to. It’s only 5:40 now, very happy. Gonna eat more, chill, then get to bed so I can get up early.

Day 6: Feb 18

What a beautiful day. Up early, set out from Seron around 8. Nice weather but looked ominous ahead, turned out to be beautiful and sunny all day. Met Javier, nice Chilean guy, a little outside of camp, and ended up walking together all day. Beautiful, huge views of the valley, and as you keep going one new mountain appears after another. Saw the torres from behind (I think) and an awesome glacier, first far away and then right up close just outside of Los Perros. Long day. 8:20, plus 1.5 hour break for lunch in the hot sun at Dickson, which really is a gorgeous campsite. Glad we kept going though, would be super short to go Dickson -> Los Perros, and fuck the mosquitoes. From Dickson -> Perros the walk is beautiful, through forest, greenest part of the park. I am tired, legs and back sore. Tomorrow is the pass. Up, breakfast, limber up, and then just fucking go for it. Shooting to skip Paso and go straight to Grey because apparently Paso sucks, also that way it’ll be easy to get the early catamaran the next day. So, fuck it. Nothing left to do but do it. I’m tired but excited.

Day 7: Feb 19

Up and at ’em with Javier. Climb to the pass was hard but honestly not that hard. Beautiful though. Out of forest into field of rocks, glaciers in every direction. Hit the pass and it’s big and open and suddenly you see the ice field – incredible. Goes forever, disappears into clouds. Really is windy, but we got super lucky with weather – mostly sunny, and full rainbow over the ice field. Keep walking down and get new angles, stays beautiful. Through woods and to Paso. Couscous and soup for lunch and we’re off after 40 minutes. Stomach hurting and eventually throw up everything. Right ankle been hurting on side and front. Feel better after vomit but starting to feel weaker, very tired after a while. Cross 2 suspension bridges high up which is cool, eventually get to Grey. Very weak. Tent and doze, then wake up to throw up bunch of water and crackers I tried eating. Doze more, just got a pill for vomit from Chilean guy so we’ll see how that goes. Very thirsty. Think I’ll go wait for a shower, maybe just pass out.

Day 8: Feb 20 (written Feb 22)

Woke up feeling normal, thank god. Oatmeal for breakfast and set off early, give myself plenty of time to make the boat out even if I walk slowly. Walk is… meh. Very windy and drizzling most of the time, pissed at Patagonian weather, “why couldn’t it just be nice for my last stroll out of the park?”. Some nice views though and remind myself to enjoy it. Get down in a little less than 3 hours, very tired but feeling accomplished. Have the coffee and Fanta I was daydreaming about but unfortunately no sandwich. Catch boat and bus with no problem.

So, yeah. The whole experience was deeply satisfying. The views really are spectacular, with glaciers, mountains, and forest galore, and some of the most expansive vistas I’ve ever seen. It was definitely a challenge, and I’m (probably too) proud of myself for having stuck it out and done the whole thing. The hiking was hard and I was pretty damn sore and tired by the end, but in a great way. I didn’t get particularly lucky with the weather since it rained 5 or 6 of the days that I was there, but I didn’t really get unlucky either, and I got great weather to cross the pass, the highest and windiest point on the circuit, so I’d have to say I came out ahead. Overall, I’d highly recommend doing it.

I’m alive!

…hopefully. I’m still out in the park, this post showed up automatically through the wonders of technology. I said I’d post weekly didn’t I?

I’m going to keep it short tonight because I have to get up early tomorrow. I’m currently in Puerto Natales, Chile, after a great 4 days in Ushuaia. I hiked to an emerald lake, walked around a national park, cruised the Beagle channel, and met some great people. Yesterday was 14 hours on the bus and today I spent all day walking around shopping for food and renting gear because tomorrow I’m heading off to Torres del Paine national park, which is supposed to have some truly breathtaking scenery. There are a few different backpacking trips that people do in the park but I’ll be going for the O, which is a loop around the park that typically takes 8 days. The hiking itself is not supposed to be that bad but the weather is famously difficult, and the forecast for the next week looks… difficult (not to worry, there are park rangers managing everything and tons of people in the park, I won’t die). So yeah. I’m preparing myself for a few days of misery and hoping for some luck in between. Either way the views are going to be grand and I’ll have plenty of time for quiet contemplation. Sorry to keep it so short but I’ll need at least a day or two of nothing when I get back so I’ll be sure to write a full update with pictures then.

Just a quick note for my family and any of you poor souls whose lives are that devoid of entertainment: if you’d like to get an email whenever I add a new post you can click the “Follow” button in the very bottom right of the page (at least that’s where I think it should be…?) and put in your email address to follow my blog and send me rocketing towards a book deal and a new, glamorous life of travel writing. Or, at least, to get notified when I post and to give me, when I’m feeling lonely, a list of people to look at and whisper “They love me. They really love me!”.

❤ Phil

What would this blog be without photos? Eventually the plan is to actually post the photos on here, but internet in Cuba is expensive and slow and I don’t feel like figuring out how to upload them right now, so in the meantime I’ll just post links to Google Photos albums that y’all should hopefully be able to see. Some of the photos may not make much sense without the witty captions I have planned for them but, you know, use your imagination.

Colombia

Mexico

Cuba