It was a long travel day from San Cristobal in the Galápagos to San Luis Potosí in Mexico. We flew from San Cristobal to Guayaquil, then to Bogotá, then to Mexico City, where we had a crazy six hour layover spent navigating between the enormous airport terminals (thanks in large part to a broken tram). It was so worth it because when we got to San Luis, where Javi was born and where so much of his extended family lives, we got to hang out with some awesome people and were treated like ROYALTY! His cousins Fer and Luigi were so kind and put us up in their incredible home for most of our time there. The bed, towels, and bathroom rugs felt like clouds and every morning we were treated to delicious and healthy breakfasts.

Fer’s mom Lupita also hosted us when Fer had guests in town, where we were equally spoiled with amazing food and company. Most days and nights were spent either checking out the historical center of San Luis, or having the best food of our lives with family. Laura did ok with the Spanish, she could keep up until the end of the night when the drinks really started to kick in. A slow brain and fast foreign language is not a recipe for success. But, she was proud of having learned even just slightly more Spanish in the ten months they’d spent in Spanish speaking countries, and she got to use it a lot in Mexico.

At some point it was time to give Javi’s family a hosting break, so we rented a car for a week and drove through La Huasteca, a large region of Mexico full of nature adventures and ecotourism. We visited all the region’s classic sites – Puente de Dios in Tamasopo; a chill sesh in the river waterfalls of Micos; a couple of nights in Aquismón; rafting to the Tamul waterfall, an early morning at the Cave of Swallows watching millions of birds fly out of their cave for their daily commute; and of course a stop at Edward James’s surrealist jungle garden in Xilitla. It was so fun! There were certainly a lot of tourists, mostly from Mexico, but we were able to find pockets of solitude in each place and avoided the really crowded areas just fine.

We returned to San Luis relaxed yet invigorated for our last bit of travel. After another week of family time, we decided to head to the Puerto Vallarta area, namely Sayulita and San Pancho, the sleepy fishing village where we got married. We weren’t planning on going to the coast originally, but Laura had been hired back at her old law firm to do contract work remotely during their busy season. She had a couple of weeks of hard work ahead of her, and what better place to do it than the beach! We figured Laura would be more relaxed and Javi could surf and enjoy the beach while she worked, as opposed to staying in a busy city. And we could visit San Pancho as an extra special treat. We found cheap flights and a great Airbnb in Sayulita with fast wifi, and took to the skies yet again. It was a great decision. Laura got all her work done, Javi got plenty of beach time, and we hung out in San Pancho for the first time since the wedding. It was glorious, and so were the sunset cocktails. But damn it was HOT! Good thing Laura had air conditioning while she was working!

When the beach trip was over, we flew straight from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City to wait for Laura’s family to arrive for their week long visit. We stayed in the amazing Casa Decu in the Condesa neighborhood for two nights. Then Laura’s parents arrived and we moved to our INCREDIBLE Airbnb apartment next door to Casa Decu. We spent the first couple of days walking around the  neighborhood and catching up with the folks. We also visited the interesting Museo Soumaya, a random but cool collection of all kinds of different art. Then Laura’s sister and brother in law – Maggie and Winston – arrived and we got down to business and did some proper eating and touristing.

The first day with everyone we ate at the fantastic Contra Mar for lunch and visited the Rivera murals at the gorgeous Palacio de Bellas Artes. The next day we ate at El Cardenal for breakfast and did the hop on hop off bus tour to the Basilica, through the Historic Center, and past the huge Chapultapec park (although the park was closed that day so we couldn’t walk around inside). That night we dined at the famous Quintonil, which was really nice, had interesting dishes and impeccable service but was not insanely delicious. Bright and early the next morning we started our Teotihuacan & Alcolman tour with Context Tours, which was pricey but worth it (our guide Alejandro was amazing). We topped off the day with dinner at Amaya, a yummy Italian type place (giving Laura’s dad a break from Mexican food).

Another day we started early at the Museo Nacional de Antropología, which was super impressive and we were really glad we hopped on an hourly tour. After that we went on our Chilango 101 Taco Tour in Roma Norte and Condesa with Eat Mexico.  It was  delicious, pretty authentic, and our tour guides were great. The tortilla factory was especially cool.

For our last day we had booked a tour of Xochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo Museum with Mexico Tour Freelance through Tripadvisor. It was a long day but really fun, and our guide was extremely knowledgeable. The boat ride in Xochimilco was relaxing, it was too early for the party crowds. And the quick visits to the Olympic stadium and the University campus were neat. Finally the Frida Kahlo museum was emotional and beautiful, especially for Laura who is a big fan of her art. That night we watched Salma Hayek’s film Frida and relaxed in the apartment.

Maggie and Winston left the next day and the rest of the crew made one last tour stop at the Chapultapec Castle, which was stunning. Then we all flew back to Chattanooga the next day. Overall, Mexico was so amazing for so many reasons, and of course especially because it’s Javi’s birthplace and where a lot of his family lives. Mexico City itself was a really special trip, and we are grateful we got to share it with family. There were definitely tough moments where a few of us got sick (curse you Montezuma!), and Maggie had a bit of a tough time because she was on crutches (and sometimes a wheelchair) and the city streets aren’t what you would call ADA compliant. BUT we are really happy that we finally got to explore this city we have been hearing so much about. Even Javi had never spent quality time there, so it was a long time coming. And it was an awesome way to end the adventure.

. . . this was the end, the last part of our trip. Well, technically we still won’t be settling down anywhere QUITE yet, but for us, it was really the close of this particular (almost) two-year adventure. Laura has already started working, and being back in the U.S. feels like the end of an amazing chapter in our lives. As it should…. closure is good. It feels overwhelming to say this is the end, but it’s all about just moving forward on to the next phase of life. We have lots of future adventures in our back pocket, which we will continue to write about on here. Originally this blog was just meant for this trip, but it has been fun writing and keeping a record for ourselves and those who might be interested in our travels or even just general travel info.

We plan to do one or two last posts for this adventure, including some of our favorite places and activities, and an overall look at what this “trip” of a lifetime meant to us.

Thanks for reading!

Viva Mexico!!!

What can we say? We both agree that visiting the Galápagos Islands was our favorite part of this whole trip. That is saying a lot. Overall it was just so incredibly abundant with beautiful landscapes, curious wildlife, and lots of activities to choose from. But let’s back up.

It had been a long time dream of Laura’s to visit the Galápagos Islands. See, Laura has been obsessed with all things turtle since forever. When she was a wee lass, she dreamt of seeing the giant tortoises with their wrinkly skin and insanely long necks. She doesn’t really remember how she found out about the Galápagos, but she did write a story in the third or fourth grade that was based in an archipelago very similar to the Galápagos, and so she took lots of inspiration from the place even at a young age.  And Javi had always been intrigued by the ecological and historical significance of the Galápagos, which was of course where Darwin began developing his theory of evolution. So, it was inevitable that if we were in Ecuador we would have to make the trip.

At first it seemed daunting to plan a trip there. The initial research was enough to scare anyone off, with ads and websites screaming at us that we needed to spend thousands of dollars on an 8-day luxury boat trip or we wouldn’t be able to “really see” the islands. As we peeled away those layers of misinformation, we realized we could easily just buy a flight from mainland Ecuador and figure it out as we went along. We didn’t even have to set foot on a boat if we didn’t want to. We decided on doing 11 days and flying in to the island of San Cristobal because, based on our research, there was a lot to do on the island that didn’t require a lot of money. Santa Cruz island was the other option for flying into, but our research told us it was a bit more crowded and had fewer hikes. So we thought we would spend most of the time on San Cristobal and then take a round trip boat ferry to Santa Cruz for a few days. It turned out that either island would have been fine to fly into, as they both had lots of fun (free or fancy) stuff to do.

Our good friend Josh also decided to join us for about 8 days of the trip since he was already doing his own vagabonding in South America. Before he arrived, we found a nice little private room at a hostel and spent the first few days on our own walking around the fairly populated town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (the capital of the Galápagos) and taking it all in. There are several beaches in town and it has a special kind of island vibe. Literally everywhere you go there is some kind of wildlife, mostly sea lions, birds, and marine iguanas, just walking or flying around being themselves. Note to self: sea lions are extremely entertaining. There are also nice hikes outside of town and an interpretive center where we spent some time learning about the Galápagos’ super intriguing history (full of colonization, sordid love affairs, and prison inmates).

One day we took a day trip to the San Cristobal highlands to check out some lava caves, remote beaches, and a semi-captive breeding  facility for giant tortoises. It was cool to see them in their natural habitat, albeit in an enclosed space. But you couldn’t tell it was enclosed, and seeing the little baby tortoises in the breeding area was adorable. From what we understand, there are fewer tortoises in the wild on San Cristobal than other islands, but they do exist. We wanted a guarantee so we went to the facility.

Another day we watched marine iguanas swimming off of Punta Carola and went snorkeling in Tijeretas Bay, where there were so many sea turtles we lost count and the sea lions got right up in our faces. It was magical. And of course we finished off our days with cocktails or beer at one of the (surprisingly) many boardwalk bars and restaurants in the area.

Josh arrived a few days in and the next day we did a big diving trip to Kicker Rock, a spot that is famous for sharks and other wildlife. It delivered. It was the most beautiful day and we saw huge hammerheads, black tipped sharks, rays, sea turtles, tons of amazing fish, and other neat stuff. We were so thankful that we had done the scuba certification course back on the mainland. This was our first post-course dive, and if we thought we were ruined by the huge manta ray on our course dive, then we don’t even know what to think about our time at Kicker Rock. We have been so lucky in just four dives.

The day after our dive at Kicker Rock we took a two-hour ferry boat to Santa Cruz island. To say “ferry” is a massive overstatement. It is a small boat that fits maybe 20-25 people and it zips across a very rough ocean. Several people got sick on both trips we took; it was definitely a difficult ride and probably the only negative part of the trip. But it was necessary to get to Santa Cruz unless we wanted to pay a lot of money to fly (it was $35 per boat ride).

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in San Cristobal was definitely a big town (considering the remoteness of the islands) with restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. But it was generally pretty relaxed and didn’t feel overrun with tourists. And when we got out of town to the highlands it was very quiet. Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz was also a big town with way more tourists both in town and at the attractions outside of town. But it didn’t bother us, we had a great time! We even heard some live music. And the town was actually great for finding activities. If someone wants to get the best last minute deals for liveaboard experiences or even day trips, Puerto Ayora is probably the better option to fly into. But we had a laid back approach to the whole trip, so we were glad we spent more time on San Cristobal.

One day in Santa Cruz we did a full day snorkeling trip to the Daphne Islands, where we swam with a ton of black-tipped sharks, sea lions, sea turtles, and of course fish. And we saw some amazing birds including the infamous blue footed boobies. Another day in Santa Cruz we caught a ride to Tortuga Bay, which was absolutely breathtaking. Javi and Josh waded out and did some snorkeling and Laura stayed onshore and watched cute baby sharks and rays gliding along the shallow surf. Again, magic. We also visited an area in the highlands full of HUGE tortoises, bigger than on San Cristobal. This was definitely a highlight of the whole trip.

Josh pondered staying on the islands and grabbing a last minute deal for a diving liveaboard, but decided against it in the end. It is true that there are so many other islands in the archipelago that you can’t see unless you take a liveaboard. There are restrictions on tourists just boating out on their own to these places, and liveaboards have specific schedules so officials can better manage the sustainability of the tourism industry. But a liveaboard just wasn’t in the cards for us. At a minimum, we’d be paying $4k -$5k together for only a few days, let alone a longer 5 or 8 day trip. We were glad we did it the way we did. We had more freedom to decide our own schedule and could take as many day trips as we wanted. We hope in the future we can go back and do a diving liveboard to visit the more remote islands.

Or we could even go back and fly into Santa Cruz and spend all our time on the huge Isabella island, which is way less populated and still accessible to non-liveaboard folks. We didn’t realize when we were planning that Isabella was such a great option, but you can only access it by ferry boat from Santa Cruz, not San Cristobal. So we simply didn’t have enough time this round.

We will definitely be back, though. The Galápagos was unimaginably beautiful and unexpected yet everything we wanted. It is so surreal being surrounded by such natural abundance. And we got to share it with a dear friend we hadn’t seen in far too long, so it was extra special catching-up time. We felt so much gratitude the whole time, and had a ton of fun enjoying nature and laughing and watching funny animals.  After saying goodbye to Josh, we set off for our last stop on this crazy whirlwind: MEXICO!

Galapagos

After we (reluctantly) left Olón, we headed for the highlands of Ecuador with our friends Sam and Eva. They love the city of Cuenca so we all rode the bus there via Guayaquil for a long weekend of tour bus rides, craft beer, and extremely tasty “chancho hornado” aka roast pork. The ride there was pretty magical. We didn’t realize how green and lush the highlands were, a major difference from the coast. We also saw a lot more of the indigenous community members in that region, who are easy to spot with their traditional colorful skirts and fedora-looking hats. Although we obviously loved being on the beach, Cuenca was a welcome change because of its Spanish style streets and plazas, great restaurant options, and actual good beer (as opposed to the usual bland Pilsener). Being in a city again was fun, and we had a great time riding around on the city tour bus and getting some fantastic views of the whole area. The Pumapungo museum, with its cultural and archaeological history and huge “garden” of Incan ruins, was a real highlight. Other favorites included the local market where they sell fresh and DELICIOUS pork meals, the Plaza de las Flores where flower vendors sell their colorful and wonderful-smelling wares, and an unexpected electro dance party at the cathedral, complete with psychedelic lighting design covering the building’s entire facade. Plus we found a good bar to watch the World Cup. It was a great time in a beautiful city.

When it was time to move on, we parted ways with Sam and Eva. They had treated us so well for our two months on the coast, we were sad to say goodbye but excited for the next moves. When they were off, we stayed in Cuenca an extra night and then took a bus to Riobamba, which is an Andean valley town situated next to the Chimborazo volcano. The bus ride was even more incredible than the one to Cuenca. The views were insane and the hills and valleys super green. Riobamba is a neat town with outdoor stuff to do, but we were only there for a stopover. We walked around town and enjoyed the views for an evening, but returned to the bus station the next morning for our planned trip to Baños.

However, fate (and our fear of the cold) would have different plans for us. As we were sitting in the bus station, Javi happened to look at the weather for Baños, which we hadn’t even considered. It was going to be raining and freezing (literally 32 degrees) all week long. Shit. Not exactly the kind of weather to experience hikes and waterfalls. Our bus was leaving in 10 minutes, so we made a last minute decision to change our bus tickets to Quito. We hadn’t planned much for Baños and had been really excited to see it, given all the amazing things we’d heard. But hell no, we weren’t going to freeze our asses off. It was already starting to get cold in Cuenca and Riobamba, and we didn’t love it, so sorry Baños… maybe next time. We decided we would go to Quito and book an Amazon tour instead. Much warmer. Plus we had wanted to visit the Amazon, and didn’t think we’d have time after Baños. We were so glad we made that decision because the Amazon tour was incredible.

We got to Quito and found a little hostel in the backpacker/tourist area of Mariscal. We posted up for a couple of days while checking out the neighborhood and making an obligatory visit to the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, a funny little tourist monument and town built along the equator back in the late 70s/early 80s (which we found out isn’t exactly on the equator – oops). After a bit more touristing, we started looking for an Amazon tour and found a 4 day tour at Nicky Lodge in Cuyabeno Reserve. We chose Cuyabeno over Yasuni because it was more affordable and felt a little more off the beaten path. Plus the reserve contains a flooded forest, or the Igapo region of the Amazon basin, and we thought it would be fun to ride around in canoes looking for plants and wildlife. It took a while to get there – an overnight bus to get to Nueva Loja, also known as Lago Agrio, then the lodge’s shuttle about two hours to the Cuyabeno Bridge, then we hopped into the motorized canoes and took a 5 hour trip down the river to the lodge. Granted, it took five hours because we were seeing so much amazing wildlife. It probably would have only taken a couple of hours if we weren’t sightseeing. So it definitely felt like you were IN the jungle. Maybe not, like, un-contacted tribes deep, but deep enough that it felt like we were worlds away from what we knew. One thing to note about visiting this part of the Amazon is that it has to be this way. It’s protected and you generally can’t just go exploring the Reserve on your own; you need to be connected to a camping group or lodge and get taken down the river. We saw SO MUCH. We kept a pretty good list of all the species we saw. Out of the 10 types on monkeys in the area, we saw 9, plus a ton of other animals, so we got very lucky. Here is a partial list:

Monkeys: Miller’s saki monkey, squirrel monkey (so many of these) , yellow handed titi monkey, woolly monkey (with a baby attached), red howler monkey (also with a baby attached), capuchin monkey, black-mantled tamarin monkey, night monkey, and pygmy marmoset (the smallest monkey in the world!)

Birds and bats: oropendola, macaw, great potoo, tiger heron, long nosed bat, Amazon kingfisher, anhinga bird, white-throated toucan, capped heron, black vulture, double tufted kite, yellow rampant cacique, slate-colored hawk, green-backed trogon, black-tailed, trogon, blue-crowned trogon, hoatzin (aka stinky turkey), bat falcon, fishing bat, many-banded aracari

Other species: black snake, anaconda, two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, pink river dolphin, kinkajou, blue morpho butterfly, ceiba tree

In addition to all the wildlife there was a pretty neat human element to the trip.  On one afternoon the camp took canoes downriver to meet a Siona indigenous community.  “Mama Aurora”, the matriarch of the community, showed us how to make yucca “bread” and we were fed a delicious meal while hearing about life in an indigenous village. It was nice and felt much more authentic than one of the “meet the shaman” trips we saw on so many other Amazon tours. We actually learned a skill and contributed to the community by making a lot of extra bread flour for them to use (they definitely put us to work!). We understand that all of these community visits, regardless of what the activity is, are important because the tour groups all make a donation to the community. But it was important to us not to feel like we were visiting a human zoo that was there for our entertainment. We spent real time with Mama Aurora and her family, hung out with them, cooked with them.  All in all, we were thrilled by the trip to Cuyabeno and were so glad we sprung for it. Our guide Diego made all the difference, he was so incredible at spotting interesting animals. We actually got pretty good at it ourselves towards the end. After capping off our last night with an absolutely epic sunset over Laguna Grande, we were happily awed and satisfied by our jungle adventure. We then headed back to Quito for a few days while we caught up on some trip planning and laundry. Our next stop would be in literal paradise, so we needed clean clothes and to soak in a bit of mainland amenities before heading out on our next adventure.

Highlands and Amazon

A couple weeks after we landed in Ecuador we decided to settle into a little tropical life for a couple of months.  We found a small but comfortable apartment and plunked down the first month’s worth of rent.  It wasn’t difficult to embrace the slowed down tempo of life in the tiny Ecuadorian beach town of Olón.  While the roosters crowing at all hours of the night sometimes made it difficult to get a good nights sleep, we usually woke up early, had a small breakfast, performed various grounding techniques to start the day off right and then went about our daily to-do’s.  And just what could possibly be on our “to-do” list you might ask?  Well believe it or not the time really does fly when you’re in a town like this.

Along with her yoga, Spanish classes, and volunteering, Laura was working on an idea for a novel so she spent time doing background research and honing her fiction skills by writing short stories. Javi did a fair bit of meditating, surfing, and working on some long overdue maps he’d been wanting to make, while at the same time learning his way around some new open-source mapping software. We spent the rest of our free time on the beach or at home perfecting our pico de gallo recipes (pineapple, mango, you name it). On the nights we didn’t want to cook, we took a two minute walk into “town” and munched on some empanadas at our fave Argentinian spot, or had shrimp and piña coladas on the beach. Or, if we craved a movie night we wandered over to Sam and Eva’s and got spoiled by their awesome screen setup and her mom’s amazing cooking. If we felt like getting out, we spent some fun nights in nearby Montañita where the party never stops. Anytime one of us or our friends wanted to blow off some steam we all hopped in a 5 minute cab for $1.50 and enjoyed some fruity cocktails and, often times, a musical assault on our ears. One especially adventurous night we even rode bikes there in the middle of the night with a neighbor (probably not a good idea in hindsight). Mostly, though, we stayed home and cooked the usual – rice, beans, and pico de gallo, and just generally chilled out with some beers talking or reading.  It was a simple yet highly gratifying and life-affirming existence that was over all too soon, and one which we’d very much like to repeat in the future.

We explored other nearby coastal towns too like Salinas (a bigger town with “high rise vacation condo on the beach” vibes), or Puerto Lopez (with “hop on a tourist boat to a cool island” vibes). However, the MAJOR highlight towards the end of our beach life was visiting Ayangue for a few days to take a PADI Open Water certification class. We both got Open Water certifications and on our very first day of open water diving we had a special visit from a 20-foot manta ray! Our instructor was beside himself with excitement, as the manta rays don’t usually hang out in the spot where we were training. Not gonna lie, it was super surreal and a little frightening to get photobombed by such a massive creature, but after a few moments of observing this gentle sea monster we got somewhat used to it. It hung out with us and the underwater Jesus statue we were clinging to for 15-20 minutes! Apparently it liked the fact that the bubbles from our respirators scared off some annoying remoras. We were a little afraid that we had gotten too spoiled and that our standards would be set too high, but later we’d find out that there’s always something amazing and new to see underwater (more on that later).

Getting scuba certified was something Javi had wanted to do for years, and for Laura it was a strong lesson in facing fears. Both of us were super stoked to have this experience and learn a new skill we could take with us on future trips. Certainly not a bad way to end our time on the Ecuadorian coast. After what ended up being a two month stay it was tough to say goodbye to Olón but we knew we’d be back someday. Plus it was time to mosey on and explore the rest of the amazing diversity this relatively small country has packed into it.  Given that US passport holders only get 90 days worth of visiting, we had a lot left to explore in the month we had remaining. The rest of our mindblowing Ecuadorian adventures are up next.

Tropical Living

It has been two weeks since our arrival in Ecuador and already Chile and our past adventures seem (again) like a lifetime away. We flew into the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, and spent a fun day touristing around and visiting the iguana park and Malecon area. Then we headed straight for the town of Olon. The change in landscape, air and water temperature, demeanor of people and pace of life in this little beach town are wholly different from our (also incredible) experiences in Chile. We’ve found ourselves looking around across the tops of jungly hills, marvelling in the cotton candy sunsets, staring out across the jade colored sea, and wondering if we’re living in a dream. (Spoiler: We are)  

Laura has a friend from high school that married a wonderful Ecuadorian woman and made Ecuador home some years ago. Sam and Eva live in Olon with their two dogs Finney & Rauer.  They live a pretty idyllic life and were gracious enough to share it with us for our first ten days or so here. A short walk from the beach, a quiet town full of friendly people, a beautiful house and pleasant neighbors. And BEST OF ALL – MANGOS FALLING FROM THE SKY! One author of this blog whose name starts with J was especially excited about the fact that Sam and Eva have a mango tree that would drop more mangos (literally) than we could eat. Mango salsa, mango pico de gallo, mango flavored “caña” (the Ecuadorian equivalent of cachaça) and a steady diet of fresh mangos every day.  

Those first few days were spent relishing the sun, sand, surf and cervezas. Two happy little clams in paradise. Laura also got settled into Spanish classes and her volunteer gig at a day program for toddlers, both through the awesome local organization Outdoor Ecuador. It quickly became evident that we were in no rush to leave Olon so we started looking for a place of our own and eventually found a little apartment on the other side of town. A whole five minutes walk away from Sam and Eva’s place.  So for now we’re going to enjoy actually staying in one place for an extended period of time. We managed to stay in SIXTY-FIVE different places during our time in Chile! An average of moving every two days. Needless to say it’s really nice to not to have to pack bags or strike camp and head someplace new.

At some point our goal is to visit the Galapagos, the Amazon, and maybe some Andes villages if possible. But for now, we are staying put for at least a month. We probably won’t update here until we have something other than idyllic sunsets and mango salsa to post about.

‘Til then!

Ecuador Part 1

While of course we’ve been loving all the lakes, glaciers, lush green landscapes and all that good stuff, in the back of our minds we’ve been super excited to check out Norte Chico and the Atacama Desert. We kept hearing people talk about La Serena, Elqui Valley, the northern coast, and how amazing the desert looks. Laura is a desert lover, and Javi had heard the waves would be epic in the north, so there was something for everyone. Once we’d reunited we decided to visit Viña del Mar and Valparaiso (aka Valpo) before going north, since Laura hadn’t seen either. We loved both cities, and of course the layers and colors of Valpo that everyone talks about were really awesome in person. That city has a lot going on, and reminded us so much of San Francisco, it was wild. Coastal city, crazy hills everywhere, street art, a diverse mix of regular locals, hipster transplants, and tourists, gentrification, grittiness, good restaurants. . .  the list of similarities goes on and on.  We spent the day walking around, checking out the street art and good views. After eating some unbelievable wheat empanadas and homemade ají salsa at a small shop, we headed north out of town towards Maitencillo.

We spent a couple of nights in a cabaña in Maitencillo, right next to the beach. Laura needed to ease back into camping after the luxury of Chattanooga. We had some solid sunsets and beach walks, which provided a beautiful backdrop to our reconnection. Two and half weeks is a long time to be apart when you’ve basically spent every waking moment together for 18 months! But we survived, and actually it was great to do our own things for a while and then share our adventures. We were happy to reunite, though, and excited to see more of Chile.

After Maintencillo, we headed to the La Serena area, which we had heard so much about. As we drove, the scenery became more and more rugged, arid and sparsely vegetated.  It was awesome to watch the scenery outside our windows slowly morph into a desert.  Eventually, we found a great camping spot between La Serena and the large town neighboring to the south, Coquimbo. We had our own private bathroom, a first while camping! We walked along the beach in front the campsite, then visited the lighthouse and old town of La Serena. It is the second oldest city in Chile, after Santiago, and it definitely felt like we were walking around a town in Spain. We really liked the feel and vibe of the place, although we only strolled around for half a day.

Soon we headed inland to Elqui Valley. We had heard that it was a place of spiritual importance and alien mysticism, with excellent stargazing. And it is a famous pisco-making area. We were obviously sold. As we drove through the valley we were definitely struck by the beauty of the sloping mountainsides and the green lushness of the valley floor. We stopped near Vicuña to taste some local brews at Guayacán brewery. After a delicious flight and a brief tour of the brew process, we went into town to book a night of stargazing at the Observatorio Mamalluca. There are several public and private observatories in the area, but we chose Mamalluca because it had great reviews and good potential for wild camping nearby, even though it’s a bit more touristy. After an afternoon of more driving around the valley and visiting cute towns like Pisco Elqui, we returned to Vicuña around 8 PM and followed a caravan of folks up the mountain to the observatory. It was a great night! We got an interesting intro video about the relative size of planets and stars , including the earth, sun, and moon. Then we broke off into groups and went back and forth between the main enormous telescope and the smaller ones outside. It was a bright half moon, but we still saw a lot. With our guide, we observed and discussed clusters, twin stars, super-novas and of course lots of constellations, including the southern cross. That was cool because we had been talking about wanting to see the southern cross since our stargazing nights in the Sahara. We also got to take breathtaking photos of the moon by holding our cameras and phones up to the actual telescope. Wild! It was almost midnight by the time we finished, so we just drove a little ways down the mountain and crashed out in a random roadside spot. Laura had some weird alien dreams, so that was pretty cool. The next day we started heading out of the valley, but not before a tour and tasting at Capel, the largest pisco distillery in the world. And somehow it has still maintained it’s cooperative status! It was a lovely property and neat tour.

Thoroughly satisfied with  our visit to Elqui, we came back to La Serena for a night, then continued further north, snaking along the smaller coastal roads, instead of the major highway a little further inland called Ruta 5 (part of the Panamerican Highway). We hit Punto de Choros and set up at a cute campsite in the small village. The next morning we were stoked for a boat trip out to the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. It was a gorgeous day out on the water! We saw a ton of Fin whales, which were HUGE. We stopped first at the smaller island, Isla Damas, where we were actually able to get out of the boat and walk on the trails managed by CONAF (the Chilean parks agency). It was a short but beautiful spin around the tiny island, and then back to the boat. Then we headed over to the main island, Isla Choros, where we did see a few (adorable) penguins, but mostly a ton of petrels and cormorants, and of course pelicans and gulls. We couldn’t get off the boat but we rode around the perimeter and saw even more amazing wildlife like sunning sea lions and even a couple of sea otters! On the way back, we saw more Fin whales, and a humongous flock of petrels (we think) flying along in the same direction as the boat. We were mesmerized by how the flock would separate, then come together, and sometimes strings of a few birds would sail up into the sky and return to the flock. It was one of our favorite moments during a very special day.

Driving into Choros, we had started to really feel like we were OUT HERE. The landscape was more desert, less populated, and more remote. Leaving Choros, it just got better and better. One night we posted up at a stunning cliffside free camping spot at Playa Blanca in Puerto Viejo. Another night we spent in a cabaña at the mind blowing Bahía Inglesa, the “Caribbean of Chile” as they say, due to crystal clear waters and white sand beaches. The day after that we went more inland, and posted up in the middle of nowhere in the desert. It was GLORIOUS. We watched the sunset, and the full moon rise over the mountains, we listened to music and also to the deafening silence, we cooked a great dinner, we did some stargazing and dancing. And drank wine of course. Even a little curious desert fox stopped by to join the party. It was a highlight of our time in Chile.

Nothing could top that really, but we almost did with a night of free camping in the completely unreal Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar. We had been in total awe of our driving views as we headed north, but this was truly like being on another planet. Open desert, mountains, big crazy rocks everywhere, and epic beaches. This would be the most northern point we would visit in Chile, and it was the perfect place to honor our entire trip and start making our way back to Santiago to make arrangements for our next destination. We didn’t rush things on the way back down, and camped along the way, checking out beaches as always. Playa Hippie was a particular favorite.

In Santiago, we actually pretended to be tourists for a couple of days, finally! The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino was a particular highlight. Incredible history and art from up to 6,000 years ago! It was very well curated and organized, and featured pottery and art from not only Chile but all over the Americas. We finally had some “terremotos” at the infamous La Piojera, a fun dive-type place with a good mix of locals and tourists watching soccer games and getting wasted. These things are seriously dangerous with a strong mix of fernet, grenadine, white wine, and a float of pineapple ice cream. Good times. We also climbed San Cristobal, a huge hill in the middle of the city with an enormous Virgin Mary statue at the top. It was a nice hike and a peaceful atmosphere around the statue. All in all, it was a solid send-off.

So, as crazy as it seems to us, this is our last Chile post. We have been here now over four months. The longest stay in any country on this trip by far. A while back we had planned to leave earlier and take the car to places like Bolivia and Peru, but a number of factors led us to stick to Chile. Not least of which is that it’s a big beautiful country with so much to do. This was a nature explosion, nature on a “symphonic scale” as our guidebook says. We certainly visited a lot of beautiful natural places and remote locations in Europe and Morocco, but it was also a LOT of cities, villages, museums, and culture. Chile provided such a graceful opportunity to really reconnect with nature longer term. We are so grateful and thankful that we got to experience this country so deeply. Thank you CHILE!!!!

On a side note, we sold Condorito in Santiago, which is sad but necessary, as our next spot is too far to drive and we’d have to bring Condorito back to Chile to sell it according to the laws here. So we figured it’s best to just end the road trip here. It’s been real, road. Now back to backpacking life (only with a lot more stuff, including a surfboard).

Next stop: ECUADOR!

Norte Chico / So Long Chile

Back in December, Laura’s family started plotting a scheme to fly her to her hometown of Chattanooga to surprise her sister Jen for Jen’s 40th birthday. Since we missed Christmas in Chattanooga, this would be a great opportunity for her to reconnect with family. Laura’s dad kindly offered to fly her roundtrip to Atlanta then back to Chile after a couple of weeks, which clinched the deal. Javi would stay behind for his own adventure with some family in Argentina and then back to the Chilean coast to look for surf. Lo and behold, it turned out Laura’s good friend Lizzie was also going to be getting married around that time, which made it an even sweeter interlude. Knowing this trip would happen the first of March, we of course had to plan around it. It worked out perfectly with Festival Nomade and rolling around the lakes and coast afterward, then making our way back to Santiago for the flight. The plan was for Laura to do her trip, and Javi would do his own thing, and then when Laura returned we would go north to the desert.

From Laura

My trip home was awesome and BUSY. Jen’s birthday weekend was a blast, complete with parties, family, friends, and a trip to the spa. The weekdays were spent hanging with family and doing a bit of work for dad, who is also a lawyer. It felt good to work my brain on some of his cases. It was fun to be with him in his office and be back in the legal research game for a while. And of course it didn’t hurt to make a few extra bucks to bring back with me. Evenings were spent hanging out with friends and family, especially my parents and sisters Claire and Jen and their boys; Denson, Jake, and Aaron. The boys and I had it all – sleepovers, slug chases, green pancakes for St. Patty’s day, and barely any breakdowns. During the middle weekend (I was there 2 1/2 weeks total), I had more family time and then went to Asheville for a short visit with a good friend Emmalee and her adorable family. After that, another week with some work for dad and hanging with Jake who got sick for a few days. I also had a lot of fun catching up with extended family who wanted to hear about our trip. Then the last weekend was Lizzie and Rush’s wedding extravaganza, which was so amazing. I got to see my good friend Kirby who lives in New York, and meet her CUTE baby daughter Poppy.  And then suddenly it was over! Back on a plane to reunite with my love and get back to adventuring.

From Javi

The morning after Laura left for the US I myself boarded a bus from Santiago to Mendoza, Argentina.  The timing of Laura’s trip worked out really well for a number of reasons.  Firstly we were nearing the end of our 90 day visas in Chile and they can be renewed by leaving the country.  Secondly, my cousin Fernanda and her husband Luigi were going to be in Mendoza at the same time!  What a lucky coincidence!  I boarded the double decker bus from the southern bus terminal at 9:00 A.M. and settled in for the show.  The ride from Santiago is really beautiful and viewing it from the comfort of my second story bus seat was a treat.  Bus rides certainly have changed since the days that my family and I would travel for the summer from TX to Mexico.  My seat was essentially a giant Lay-Z-Boy with a HD Panoramic Ultra Wide Screen showing the landscape of the Rio Juncal river valley.  The bus went up and over the Andes, stopped for an hour to deal with Argentinian immigration, then made its way down the Argentinian side of the Andes toward Mendoza.

Mendoza itself proved to be a neat little city and I happened to be there during the weekend of their wine harvest festival.  It’s known for its Malbecs and thanks to the graciousness of Fer & Luigi I managed to sample some AMAZING vino and delicious eats at Bodega Lagarde.  It was great to catch up with family and really exciting to hear all the changes that Fer & Luigi have been up to.  The next day their tour group departed and I did a bit of exploring of the city of my own, which is really pleasant; full of great plazas and tree-lined streets.  The next morning it was back on the bus for the show to Santiago.  All in all it was a pretty quick roundtrip but worth every second.

Once back in Santiago I picked up Condorito and headed straight for the ocean. I spent the next two weeks bopping around the coastline, as far north as “Pichidangui” and back as far south as Pichilemu. I ended up meeting a crazy Australian paramedic that was on his own South American adventure and spent a nice few days in a town called Puertecillo surfing and talking story. He wasn’t as pleasant to look at as Laura but it made for nice company seeing as how I’d been mostly on my own since seeing my family.  Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Santiago and pick up the wife. The time apart seemed at times to drag on forever but it’s true what they say, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” and it was great to have her back in my arms, and her passenger/copilot seat once again.

Paths Diverged

Puerto Rio Tranquilo is a tiny and windy little outdoorsy town on a beautiful lake with mountains, rivers, and glaciers surrounding it. This was to be our southernmost stop in Patagonia (this time around at least) and so we took full advantage. We got a sweet cabaña, tasted the local craft brews and delicacies (i.e. fries with meat, onions, and an egg), and… let’s see what else, oh we walked around on a GLACIER.

Glacier Exploradores was a highlight of our time in Chile, and actually our whole trip. It’s definitely up there with walking across Spain and riding a dromedary in the Sahara desert. It was an investment to be sure, paying much more than our daily budget, but we knew it would be worth it. And it was. We got up super early at our cabaña after a good night’s rest to join our small group. A family of four from Argentina were the only other folks in our tour with El Puesto Expediciones, so it was nice and intimate. We took a shuttle to the trailhead, where our guide Hoka met us.  Hoka was super sweet from the beginning, and greeted us all with warm hugs. We got our gear together – crampons, gators, helmets, and backpacks – and headed straight up through a lovely wooded area. Hoka was very knowledgable about the local flora and fauna, and helped us identify some of the birds we had been seeing in the area. We got to the top of the public trail and had our first glimpse of the glacier.

Amazing! So vast and sooooo cold looking. After taking it all in for a bit, we moved past the public viewing area into the area restricted to permit holders. It was a scramble down a rocky hill (the “moraine” or debris field the glacier leaves as it moves) and over the “dirty ice” area. But slowly and surely as we walked, we started to notice we were walking on blue ice. It was super surreal. Finally Hoka said it was time for the crampons so we strapped on those weird spikey shoes and moved on to the really icey part, where all those epic Instagram photos are made. It is almost indescribable, walking on ice. Especially when you are surrounded by it as far as you can see. The pictures never really do it justice, and we were just so stoked the whole time that we invested in this experience. The Argentinian family was great, Hoka was great, the scenery was amazing, and we were happy. One of the most insane moments of our entire trip so far was when we could literally feel the ice cracking and opening up below us and shaking the ground we were standing on. Hoka called it “el Latigazo del Diablo” or the “Devil’s whiplash.” Hoka couldn’t hide her excitement that we were lucky enough to have experienced it twice in one tour and we were in awe of our good fortune. Overall it took about two hours from the trailhead to get to the ice, then about two hours on the ice, then two hours back so six hours total, plus a few hours for vehicle travel to and from the trailhead. A long day but unforgettable. That night we slept really well, especially after a couple of draft beers and a plate of “chorrillana” which as far as we can tell is the Chilean entry for a Man vs. Food show.

After The Glacier it was time to head back north. This actually took such little time compared to heading south it was kind of hilarious. We stopped at a few favorite spots we visited on the way down, including a campsite where a Spanish host and his wife run an organic farm and give lessons on etiquette for drinking mate tea Gaucho style (Argentinian/Chilean cowboys). Javi was thrilled to learn authentic caffeination techniques . After that we headed back to La Junta and then Raul Marin Balmaceda. This time around we actually spent some time in Raul Marin and witnessed the absolutely magical beach and scenery there. To be sure, it is a tiny town with not much going on, but the beach that starts at a lake and then winds around to the ocean with a snowcapped volcano and surrounding mountains as a backdrop… man. Too good.  We had one of the best beach walks of our life that day, and then crashed out in a parking lot happy and exhausted.

We then hopped on the long ferry to Chaiten, where we then crashed in yet another parking lot and then immediately hopped on another long ferry up to the part of the Carretera we hadn’t driven before. It was nice to check this area out after skipping it before. Hornopiren is a small gateway town to Pumalin and the only way south on the Carretera from Puerto Montt. It requires ferries on both ends but it is a quaint little town with lots of outdoorsy stuff happening. We walked around and checked out a local gastronomy festival. As with the first gastronomy festival we attended in Chiloé, we happily noshed on beers, sopapillas, and empanadas.

After Hornopiren, we headed straight for Purranque near Osorno to work out logistics for our next adventure – Festival Nomade. We had bought tickets for this week-long electronic music festival back in December and had been basically planning our road trip around it. It took place on a beach in a gorgeous bay in an area called Manquemapu, which is located on indigenous Mapuche land. The community of people living there have been opening their doors to visitors for a while and have maintained a good relationship with the Nomade crew for several years. We were so excited to visit this special land and hear some good music. We couldn’t drive there because the road was too rough, so we found a place to stash Condorito in Purranque and hopped on a little bus to start our crazy journey to the festival. The bus dropped a group of us off in the middle of nowhere (it couldn’t go any further on the unpaved road) on a freezing day, where we then left our backpacks in an enormous wet pile and stuffed ourselves into the back of some 4×4 pickups provided by the festival. As we flew down insanely bumpy and steep dirt roads, we weren’t sure if we would ever come back again. We realized we are most definitely in a South American festy situation because this would never happen in the states. Too much liability. But we were having a blast. We got dropped off yet again in a random field where we were given our wristbands then proceeded to hike along the coast for another two hours. The hike was beautiful but again caused us to question our survivability as we were traversing rocky cliffs and had to go in small bursts of people to avoid the crashing waves from a rising tide. Somehow we made it to the site. We were stoked! When our backpacks eventually arrived several hours later we set up our cheap-o tent that was already broken on its first use (you get what you pay for), and then proceeded to have the time of our lives. We met amazing people, we danced the night away next to the ocean, we hung out with pigs and cows, we drank lots of beer. A perfect week at a charmingly imperfect festival.

After Nomade, we hit the Lakes District for a while. Laura especially was excited for this since she loves lakes. We had a special Valentines Day at a gorgeous B&B called Zapato Amarillo, where we had a backyard view of Volcano Osorno. After that we took an amazing drive around Lago Ranco on a warm blue sky day and had a picnic at a fantastic “mirador” or lookout. Laura was very pleased. Then we visited Pucón, a fun little outdoor town that is definitely touristy but also very charming, complete with a marina and looming volcano. And also yummy craft beer which we obviously helped ourselves to.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t allow for a summiting of the volcano, so that particular adventure will have to wait.  Still, we did manage to have an excellent hike in a surreal moon-like setting next to a volcano at Parque Nacional Conguillío. Despite it being “summer” in Chile, we had been hounded by foul weather on and off since we’d started on the Carretera and the Lakes District was no different.  When the storms got bad, we said screw it, and even though we had planned on visiting more parks in the area we buckled into Condorito and hightailed it right back to the coast, which the interweb told us was much sunnier.

We scooted back through Concepción and hit some of our favorite beach spots we saw on the way down to Patagonia. We took care of some car stuff too – in Chile everyone has to get their car checked to ensure it’s road worthy every February so we did our auto-owning duty. Then we made our way back up towards central Chile. As were were heading north, some Nomade friends we’d kept in touch with convinced us to attend another weekend-long electronic festival near Valparaiso. It didn’t require much convincing. It was a blast seeing our festy friends again and partying it up at the beautiful Playa Las Docas. We were sad to leave after reconnecting with everyone; what a treat to have actual friends again. But we were also exhausted so we headed back to Santiago to decompress in an AirBnB for a few days. Although we told ourselves we would do more touristing in Santiago, we ended up just doing more car stuff, cooking, internetting, and catching up with folks back home. Just what the doctor ordered.

Plus we needed to rest; the next phase of our adventure to Northern Chile would soon begin.

THE ROAD NORTH

According to our borrowed Chile guidebook (thanks Catalina!), the Carretera Austral “rank[s] among the world’s ultimate road trips”. Our impression of it when we decided to take it on was that we were in for difficult roads and beautiful scenery. The roads turned out to be somehow better AND worse than we thought. And true to its reputation, the scenery both surprised and humbled us. Before starting the Carretera, however, we needed to make our way down there. On the way south we discovered a whole world of incredible non-Patagonia coastal scenery that we weren’t expecting. Our journey began by taking coastal roads south through Pichilemu (back to our old stomping grounds for a quick visit), Bucalemu, Constitución, Concepción, and finally to Valdivia. Then we crossed over through Osorno and on to Puerto Montt, the gateway to Patagonia.

We were amazed at how much the Chilean coast reminded us of California – but perhaps 50 years ago before so much of it succumbed to overdevelopment. There were beautiful rural farms, rocky coastlines, untouched wetlands, empty beaches, and some good surf spots for Javi. We camped in Condorito all along the way, and of course stopped every now and then for a delicious Pisco Sour. By the time we got to Valdivia, we were ready for a hearty meal out and we were so stoked to find that this university town had an awesome craft beer scene and a lot of great restaurants, many of them German-influenced. So we hunkered down at El Growler with some IPAs and the best Reuben sandwich and fries we’ve had in recent memory. It was a decadent and welcome outing. By the time we got to Puerto Montt, we had already experienced some tough roads and wanted to get Condorito checked out and purchase a roof rack, so we didn’t see much of the town but just ran around doing car stuff. We got him checked out (a-ok!), got some new tires, and were back on the road.

With the help of our nifty guidebook we decided to head down the island of Chiloé then cross over to the Carretera, instead of starting the Carretera from Puerto Montt where it actually begins. We are so happy we did because Chiloé is a really beautiful and unique place. It reminded us a lot of rural Ireland, with green rolling hills, pastoral landscapes, and lots of sheep and cows. To get to Chiloé, we took the first of what would be many (SO MANY) ferry rides with Condorito. We met some California folks on the way and free camped with them at a spot we found using the very helpful iOverlander app. It was fun to hang with some fellow travelers and hear their stories and advice as they’d been traveling for quite a while, driving all the way from California through Central and South America. It was an absolutely gorgeous beach and we saw our first penguin, just swimming along as if no big deal.

As we made our way south we hit a few more tough roads (loose gravel and dirt, potholes, etc), but Condorito made it through and we became more confident about the Carretera. We camped for a couple of nights in the Parque Nacional on the island, and came upon a local food festival put on by the local indigenous community. We ate some delicious empanadas and sopapillas and continued south. In Quellon, we stopped by a coffee shop by the name of Isla Sandwich and had the best strawberry tart/pie thing that we’ve ever had. The coffee was excellent to boot.  Duly charged up, we swung by the ferry office to book a five hour ferry across to Chaitén and made our way to Parque Pumalín for a few days.

Entering Parque Pumalín  was an exciting journey, we had made it to Northern Patagonia and the Carretera! It was happening! Unfortunately, we also learned that a small portion of the Carretera had been wiped out by a terrible mudslide which devastated the town of Santa Lucia. It seems that Chile is used to these kinds of disasters (although obviously the tragic effect is never diminished) – mudslides, earthquakes, floods – and so the government had quickly set up a free seven hour ferry around the mudslide. We sorted out our ferry plans and then headed to Parque Pumalín for a few days of camping and hiking, and a view of our first glacier! Pumalín was started by the late great Doug Tomkins, who founded The NorthFace. His and his wife’s legacy is incredible; they have protected over 2 million acres of land in Chile, and (being Americans) have been able to do it in a way that respects the country’s pride in their own landscapes. We were impressed with the scenery in Pumalín and were surprised that it was so green, lush, and warm. The park was well maintained and the hiking trails were beautiful. We hiked through what felt like a magical fairy land past waterfalls, over rivers, up volcanoes, and down to pristine mountain lakes.

After Parque Pumalín we took our long (and free!) ferry down to a little fishing town called Raul Marin Balmaceda. The ferry ride was really interesting in comparison to the others we’ve taken on this trip given the fact that we were able to sleep in our truck.  While certainly more comfortable than an outside deck, the rocking and rolling of the ferry made for a truly surreal night of “car camping”. Once we arrived in Raul Marin we skipped the town entirely that first time around, but would discover on our way back up the Carretera that it is an absolutely breathtaking place (more on that later). After getting Condorito’s first tow up a hill from a helpful man in a truck (whoops!), we passed through La Junta and continued to make our way further south down the Carretera.

Parque Nacional Quelat was a memorable stop, with a great campsite and a gorgeous hike up to view a huge glacier hanging over a uniquely colored glacial lake that turns into a raging river, with gigantic waterfalls literally everywhere. Needless to say, our minds have just blown been this entire trip. We continued down, camping along the way and seeing a ton of rainbows, turquoise lakes, and snow capped mountains. Throw in dolphins, penguins, seals and otters, and the scenery is unreal.

The biggest town in the area is Coyhaique, and we stopped there to fix our brake lights and do some shopping and some internetting. Like Puerto Montt, we were so focused on doing chores that we didn’t get a good sense of the town, but we knew we would probably need to pass back through later. It’s a pretty town, though, with lots of backpackers and outdoor adventure stuff going on. We were anxious to move on to the Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo so we left town pretty quickly after everything got done. Cerro Castillo was a highlight for us because it was sort of our replacement for Torres del Paine, the big destination park in Southern Patagonia. Torres del Paine has that vast and mind boggling scenery that Patagonia is famous for, but it was too far south for us to reach. Cerro Castillo has some of that kind of scenery with tall jutting granite spires and is less crowded and much less expensive, albeit maybe not as mind boggling. It was plenty beautiful for us, though, and also set near a neat little dusty town of the same name. We did a bit of hiking and taking on the scenery, and capped it off with some “schop” or draft beers. It wasn’t without its excitement, though, as we needed to get a second tow up a very big, very steep, very gravel covered hill. We were driving to the hiking trail on an out-and-back road, and we knew this hill would be a problem the second we started going down it. When we got stuck on the way back, we were not surprised. As we begrudgingly started walking the very far walk towards town, another nice couple in a truck helped us out and saved us from a shitty situation. Thanks red truck couple!

As we were heading south on the Carretera enjoying ourselves, in the back of our minds we were also trying to figure out how we were going to get back up north. The roads weren’t as bad as we thought they were going to be (generally speaking), as a substantial percentage of it has been paved. However, the times when it was bad it was REALLY bad. We also had to take various ferries because of landslides or the road just plain being cut off by a river, lake, or bay. It’s a very rural part of Chile so it’s just part of the adventure. We were hoping to perhaps find another way back to Puerto Montt (and then on to Festival Nomade near Osorno). We considered taking a really, really long ferry from Aysen or Cisnes, or going through Argentina. Alas, we discovered the former had been booked for the next few weeks. And for the latter option through Argentina, we heard the roads weren’t any better and in some cases worse. Plus we didn’t have our car title yet, which is necessary for crossing an international border. Thus, we decided to head straight back up the Carretera and stop in a few of the places we missed.

That made Puerto Rio Tranquillo our last stop. And it turned out to be the most epic part of our time in Chile so far!

To be continued…

Chile Part 2