Gratitude for 365 Saturdays (His and Hers Perspectives)

I (Kenzi) could write a book on my thoughts from this year, but I’ll try to keep it *kind of* short. This year has been so hard in some ways and so easy in other ways, and inspired much growth, and much thought. There were stressful moments and incredibly relaxing times. And of course, it was the full spectrum of emotions: uncomfortable, confused, elated, frustrated, joyful, amazed, lonely, etc. We took approximately 10,000 photos (yikes) and a shameful number of them were selfies, but at least we never got a selfie stick!

Early in our year of selfies, Amsterdam

First of all, what is it like to travel with one's spouse? Well, I guess we're lucky because for us it was pretty easy. It was a bit of an adjustment to spending EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. together, but I think we both got really accustomed to it and are likely to go through withdrawals now that we've returned home. We've had countless hours of shared silence, countless mundane conversations, many thoughtful political and philosophical talks, hearty laughs, too many games of backgammon, and shared so many stories and memories from our pasts that probably never would have come up otherwise. For example, while hiking for a total of 18 days in Nepal, many random memories rose to the surface that I was able to share with Bill that I am confident would not have come up during our normal home life. Every time we moved to a new place, which was basically every few days, I liked to unpack and put things in their place. It was a way for me to feel at home. Bill didn't need such a crutch. One of us uses the best travel invention for organized people: packing cubes. One of us doesn't... I'll let you decide which.

Best travel invention: packing cubes!

Me after winning 5 backgammon games in a row, a miracle! - (Argentina). 

Watching each other react and process a variety of foreign interactions and experiences was enlightening and sometimes frustrating when we didn't agree on how to interpret something. We also got to hear each other fumble through foreign conversations, which is basically the height of comic relief. But truly, this year was an incredible gift for our marriage.

Traveling was good for our marriage. Talk about having lots of quality time! (Slovenia)

Secondly, managing health while traveling went pretty smoothly overall, especially for Bill. I have a sensitive body that sometimes overreacts to benign things. During our first 6-month chunk of travel, I had two week-long colds, and a bout of week-long traveler's diarrhea, thanks to late night Indian food. I also struggled with breathing while at high altitude in Nepal. This was all fairly normal, or at least to be expected. However, I felt a bit off for at least half of our time in South America due to a large variety of minor things: altitude sickness, several bouts of mild traveler's diarrhea, painful sinuses in the desert, random nausea, and migraines, among other things. But thankfully, we never had any major injuries or illnesses while traveling. No hospital visits, no sprained ankles or broken bones, and it was easy to get cheap prescription drugs while abroad. I experienced some unexpected anxiety during the fall, which was new and exciting in a very unpleasant way. It generally manifested as claustrophobia, which is pretty tough to manage as a tourist when you’re often crammed in trains, planes, buses, elevators, etc. But thankfully, it eased up after Nepal in October. I think I was just nervous about all that hiking in such a remote location, when I’ve never done anything like that before in my life. 

We did more hiking this year than I've done the rest of my life combined, about 30 days, an entire month of hiking. We hiked in Italy, Slovenia, Nepal, Laos, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. After a long day of hiking, I was often struck by just how far we could go just by walking on our own two feet. Our longest day was 19 miles. According to the pedometer on my phone, we walked 1880 miles this year, which is an average of about 5 miles a day. It has been so nice not to sit at a desk every day!

Feeling pretty proud at the end of 18 days of hiking in Nepal, probably the fittest I'll be in my adult life. 

I've often wondered if this year will have the effect of lengthening our lives (lots of exercise and great brain development from all the new experiences) or shortening them (more second hand smoke exposure, pollution, sun exposure, etc.). There were always annoying things like bug bites, random rashes, sunburns, etc with which we had to contend. We did not eat as healthy this year as we normally would, usually because of lack of access to healthy food, or exorbitant prices. We had more chips, soda, fries, and candy than we ever would at home (because they're always cheap and always available everywhere). Bill's a vegetarian, and the closest he probably came to tossing vegetarianism out the window for some delicious meat was the day we were on the catamaran in the San Blas islands and our fellow passengers bought a ton of fresh lobsters which were grilled to perfection by the crew. They were SO yummy and there was way too much. Yet, he resisted. Since I'm gluten free, there were often times I had to eat strange meals, but nothing that killed me. And there were plenty of times I accidentally got gluten, so I would feel kind of yucky for a few days, but nothing catastrophic. We were often dehydrated because you just never know when you're traveling when your next bathroom stop will be possible.

And that brings us to the topic of bathrooms. We've seen it all! We often had a rating system. Was it a sit-down or squat toilet? If sit-down, was there a toilet seat? Did it flush, or did you have to throw a bucket of water down the toilet? Was there toilet paper? Could you flush the paper or did you have to throw it in a trash bin? And in Nepal, was the ceiling of the outhouse covered in spiders? Was the ceiling so low that you had to squat before you even got on the squat toilet? We literally used so much hand sanitizer in Nepal that the skin on Bill's hands peeled off. I don’t believe anyone should have to pay to use a bathroom, but we did many times, and often we did so happily out of desperation. Believe me, we have seen it all. 

Parts of me really enjoyed the simple living: wearing the same clothes over and over, not wearing makeup very often, not having to wade through hundreds of emails every day. But the “princess" parts of me rose to the surface with an embarrassing vengeance. Turns out I have to wear earplugs and an eye mask to sleep in new places. Turns out I get a bit irritated when there is no toilet paper, no hand towel, no kitchen towel or paper towels, no soap, no trash can, etc. It really made me appreciate SO many of our daily comforts, including walkable sidewalks (it is not uncommon in other countries to trip regularly on uneven sidewalks, or have to dodge deep holes (6 ft deep!) in walkways).

This is a sidewalk from my walk here in CA last week. SO FLAT and perfect!

And now for the more thoughtful stuff:

Traveling in spite of fear is tricky, but so incredibly worth it. There's the man-made stuff to be afraid of like the Munich shooting and the bombing in Nice, France, and the coup in Turkey. And then there's the nature-inspired stuff to be afraid of like the earthquake in Italy, the earthquake in the Nepal, and the flooding in Santiago. We definitely had moments of anxiety when things around us just didn't feel quite right, or we were just plain confused about what was happening around us. Also, we both really wanted to go to Turkey but right when we were booking tickets, they were in the midst of their coup, so we didn't end up going. It was a big disappointment, so I guess we'll need to plan a trip at a later time. But generally speaking, we moved forward with our plans despite any fears or uncertainty, and our travel in the Middle East (Egypt, Isreal, and Jordan) was so rewarding and interesting. We are so happy that we went.

Making friends in the Middle East

I can't say enough good stuff about travel. We both traveled pretty extensively before this year-long extravaganza, so we were immune to some of the wide-eyed experiences one has on their first trip abroad. However, longer term travel allows some of those initial lessons to really sink in to your bones. I thought a lot about privilege this year: the privilege I have as a Westerner, as a tall person, as a married person, as a white person. There were some situations that were pretty uncomfortable for me, usually related to creature comforts, but I always knew that we would be leaving that uncomfortable place in a few days. I was constantly reminded that SO MANY people in our world don't have the option to leave. They are stuck in whatever uncomfortable, unclean, unjust, unfair situation for years, or even for life. What if I could never leave? How would my definition of comfort/hygiene/justice change? How would my perception of my own value and self-esteem change? 

I also cannot speak highly enough about the experience of being a minority. I believe so strongly that every American should travel abroad, but more importantly, every American ought to experience the discomfort of being the minority, the confusion of not understanding the native language, the stares of the locals, the feeling of being utterly lost in a foreign land. We relied heavily on the friendliness of strangers throughout the year, and I think that knowing what it feels like to be in the minority really softens ones heart toward immigrants and foreign visitors at home. Being in Muslim countries like Egypt, Jordan, and Malaysia was such a valuable and enlightening experience. I guess what I’m trying to say is that seeing other cultures makes you realize that there are many ways to live, all equally fine, each with pros and cons. Ours isn’t the only way.

Inside the absolutely stunning Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo

I think about women a lot. As they say, "women hold up half the sky". I have an even deeper respect for the ladies of the world having traveled this year. Women carry a heavy load, sometimes literally (and sometimes on their heads). I love seeing the variety of shapes and sizes, skin colors, eye colors, fashion expressions. The women of India in their brightly colored saris are basically walking pieces of art, simply gorgeous. One of the things I like about Muslim women wearing head scarves is that it’s easier to look into their eyes, fewer distractions. I love that Argentina requires quotas of women in their parliament. As women across the world slowly tip the scales of gender equality, as we've traveled, it's shone a light for me on the work yet to be done and the ways in which we're behind in America. 

Women carrying heavy loads up a steep section of the Poon Hill trek in Nepal (they are wearing flip flops).

A lady porter carrying a SUPER heavy load so that tourists only had to carry day packs (Nepal). 

Just because we've been out of the country doesn't mean that we haven't been affected by the US's current political situation. We have followed the news and had conversations ad nauseam with each other and foreigners about it. I will never forget our bewildered disbelief and my subsequent tears while we were in Vietnam during the election. However, being abroad has brought a bit of perspective. Being in countries like Egypt, Cambodia, and Colombia, and learning about their relatively recent histories which include things like revolutions, genocides, and armed conflicts, I really gained an appreciation for the stability of the US. We talked with a number of people in different countries whose primary word to describe their government was corruption. Corruption, corruption, corruption. While our US government is not free of corruption, it's not the first thing that comes to mind. We have a reasonable, if imperfect judicial system. We have a balance of powers. We have freedom of speech. Citizens can vote. So in spite of our recent election which seems to have brought out the worst of everyone (including me), I still believe that we do a lot of things right, that we enjoy incredibly smooth transfers of power, and that we benefit from an incredible infrastructure of roads, plumbing, and electricity that many countries don't have.

We were in Vietnam during the election and in Columbia during the inauguration. 

There is nothing quite like coming home to familiar sights, familiar faces, familiar foods. It's not necessarily better than anywhere else. Familiarity just makes it good. And not having to move to a new place every few days is especially nice. The biggest pluses to coming home have been consistently good showers, and smooth sidewalks. Getting to have conversations with people other than Bill is also a treat (I'm sure he feels the same way). 

People have often asked what our favorite place was. Naturally, it’s really difficult to answer that question. But some highlights were:

Best for history: Italy, Greece, Egypt, Israel

Best surprisingly cool place: Meteora, Greece

Best cliche experience: Riding camels next to the pyramids at Giza

Best achievement: Trekking in Nepal

Best historical/architectural remains: Angkor Wat (Cambodia) Machu Picchu (Peru) and Petra (Jordan)

Best beaches: Thailand

Best big city: Hong Kong

Best water adventure: Sailing the San Blas Islands of Panama

Best mountains/hiking: Nepal and Patagonia
Best flowers: The Netherlands
Best day to day: Sunsets all over the world!

Sunset over Halong Bay, Vietnam

Finally, some brief questions/observations: 

Why in the heck are we not on the Metric system? The rest of the world is, so it seems ridiculous that we're not. 

Anna and Elsa (from Frozen) are everywhere in the world. There is no country safe from them!

Much of the world doesn't have dishwashers or clothes dryers, and they’re doing just fine.
It's a little disheartening to see some of the things that America has exported: a Hooters in Phnom Penh, Subways everywhere, KFC everywhere...

We met some amazing fellow travelers along the way. They tend to be interesting, well-informed, and inquisitive.
We really enjoyed seeing strange and interesting animals all over the world (coatis, elephants, giant centipedes, caimans, wild toucans, llamas, and so much more). 

There are so many places we didn’t get to see. Turns out a year just isn’t enough time!  Some of the places that are still on our list: 

New Zealand

Galapagos

Scandanavian countries

Turkey
Africa

More of Mexico!

Thank you so much for traveling the world along with us. We loved getting your feedback and reactions as we went and we look forward to catching up with you as we get settled back into "normal" life.

Meteora, Greece

___________________________

Bill's perspective
As I get ready to go back to my previous job, probably the same desk and phone number I can't help but feel incredibly grateful that we were able to pull this off. My Italian mom and grandmother had a saying something along the lines of "when you have the teeth you don't have the bread, when you have the bread you don't have the teeth." We were in the fortunate position to have the bread and the teeth, so we took a huge bite.

Tallying up the few negatives of a year off: Time away from family and friends. A few bucks less in the bank account. We still visited friends and family along the way and we spent something on the order of what some of our peers spend on cars. No big loss there.

So what were the up sides? I can't stress enough how great it is to spend a year with Kenzi and explore the world while only worrying about the basics of food, shelter and transportation. When we dove into this adventure we weren't sure if we would land on our feet at the end but despite worries about ending up in the poor house we're going to do just fine.

Enjoying time together at Plitvice Lakes in Croatia

So, on top of spending a year of Saturdays with Kenzi here is the short list of epic things I did, in no particular order:

• Spent quality time with my brother and sister-in-law during their pregnancy
• Drank the best white wine with my distant relatives in France
• Reunited with a college friend while checking out the relics of ancient Egypt
• Went paragliding over the the Himalayas
• Flew in a homebuilt plane like mine, below sea level over the dead sea in Israel
• Spent a month looking at 8000 meter peaks in the Himalayas
• For 7 days, woke up in Rome and walked to Saint Peters square
• Got blessed by Pope Francis
• Kitesurfed in the South China Sea off Vietnam, in Colombian Caribbean, and in Panamanian Pacific
• Sailed from Colombia to the San Blas islands of Panama with the best group imaginable
• Saw the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Swam in the Dead Sea
• Held a baby goat in Nepal
• Walked up to Torres del Paine and the Fitz Roy Range in Patagonia
• Saw chunks of ice the size of a building fall into a lake at El Calafate
• Saw the beginning of modern civilization in Greece
• Was an illegal alien in Brazil

Searching for good chocolate in every corner of the world. 

This is only part of why we did this trip, the central reason was to enjoy life before it was over. I can't tell you how many friends I ran into over our Christmas travel break in the US or talked to over email that didn't even realize that anything close to a year had already passed. In other words a year of their life passed with them hardly realizing.

We have both had jobs for most of our adult lives. I've had some sort of job, either currently or lined up, since I was 14 years old when I started at the counter at McDonalds in high school. In the mean time I've seen friends grind away at day jobs, just like I was doing only to never make it to some ethereal far off goal.

Many people may fall into his category, but two come to mind. One friend had a heart attack suddenly 2 weeks after retirement from a distinguished and arduous career. Another friend was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and never saw her 38th birthday. They both lived life to its fullest but I can't say if they got what they wanted out of life or not, but for me, staring down 40, I was beginning to feel like I had spent too much time for the far off goal of retirement and not enough time enjoying the people around me, the world around me and myself. I know some of my closer friends will laugh at me crying "all work and no play", to be sure, I always do have my fair share of fun, so ultimately the judgment fell on making the call of whether we could pull this off. With parents on both sides capable of taking care of themselves and enough money in the bank to feel comfortable about it we couldn't come up with any good reason not to.

So again, gratitude, gratitude that we were able to do this, gratitude that we have the health and means to do it. Thanks for reading.

Looking back on an incredible year with gratitude. 

Don't Cry for Me Argentina!

We arrived in Buenos Aires a bit travel weary from our hiking and traveling through Patagonia. We had intended to spend our first couple days in the area in Montevideo, Uruguay. But upon arrival in Buenos Aires, we quickly figured out that a taxi to a ferry to a bus was not only unfeasible time-wise, it was also very expensive. So we canceled our AirBnB in Montevideo and scrambled to find another in Buenos Aires. Luckily, we found one without too much hassle that would take us for our first two nights in Buenos Aires, and we crashed. I mean we literally didn't leave that place for an entire day. It was a much needed rest day (and finally some good wifi!).

Bill getting friendly with the locals

After two nights at our crash pad, we moved to our more permanent AirBnB in Buenos Aires where we spent the next five nights. We met our host Matias, a super friendly, incredibly resourceful guy who helped us with all kinds of things. He spent many minutes orienting us on the map and showing us the local highlights as well as the more mundane stuff like ATMs and laundry places. If only we'd had Matias in every major city we'd visited! Our AirBnB was great too, and this might be part of the reason I really liked Buenos Aires (that, and the cheap transportation, the all-gluten-free bakery, and delicious gluten free restaurant).

Our nice AirBnB in Buenos Aires

Our first full day in BA was a Sunday, so we went to the Sunday San Telmo market. It was basically a narrow street with vendors on both sides of the street. The booths were mostly filled with textiles, leather goods, art, and trinkets, but there was an incredible variety in the goods and the street went on forever! There were also some restaurants and food vendors along the way. The Sunday market was a really nice introduction to Buenos Aires.

San Telmo Street Market

Bill negotiating for a chocolate churro - yum! 

Then we wandered down to the waterfront, where we saw the famous "Puente de la Mujer", Bridge of the Woman, designed by Santiago Calatrava, whose bridges are distinct. We've seen and admired them in Milwaukee, WI and Redding, CA as well. This waterfront area is an old shipbuilding area that has now been converted to condos and nice restaurants. It's an excellent place for people watching, especially on a Sunday afternoon. They have an 1890s ship on the waterfront that you can tour for free. It is the ARA Presidente Sarmiento, named after Argentina's 7th president, Domingo Sarmiento, and it was very interesting to see the inner workings and historical photos, some included shots of our portly past president Taft on board for a state visit.

Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman) in front of Buenos Aires high rises

Bad picture of the Sarmiento ship 

I believe I wrote in my post on Santiago, Chile that Santiago felt very European. I was wrong. Buenos Aires is VERY European. The people look European, and the architecture is European. It felt like a blend of Barcelona, Rome and Paris. Lots of Europeans emigrated to Buenos Aires (BA) in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It has strong influences from Germany and Britain as well. But of course, everyone speaks Spanish and BA has the tango! Also, BA has lots of incredibly beautiful parks, with giant shade trees and lots of grass. It is a park-goers delight.

The next day we did a tour of the Teatro Colón, the opera house, which opened in 1908 and is well known for its operas, symphonies, and ballets. We were pleasantly surprised by its magnificence. It is one of the most highly ranked theaters in the world for beauty and acoustics, and we could see why. All the building materials were brought from Europe: the various colored marbles, the stained glass, etc. The main theater was incredible. It has eight layers of suites and boxes around the edges of the horseshoe shaped theater. We contemplated seeing a show, however, since we are at the end of our trip, and a bit over our annual travel budget, the only seats we could justify were the cheapest, which meant we would be standing at the top balcony for the 4-hour opera. To make up for not getting to go, Bill did some opera singing for me... just imagine that!

Teatro Colon from the outside

Teatro Colon from the inside (pictures really don't do it justice)

We learned that the above ground theater building itself is just one small part of the Colón Theater. The building extends underground several levels and the underground area is much deeper and wider than the building itself. This is because they need a place to store all the sets, the costumes, etc. And not just store them, they make all their sets, costumes, wigs, etc. onsite, so they have lots of workshops below ground as well.

There was also an art/music exhibit going on in one of the smaller galleries in the theater. It was a Italian pianist, Marino Formenti, playing a piano for 12-hours a day for 26 days in a row. Yowza! Admittedly, when we stopped to see him, he looked a bit tired of playing the piano, and we could understand why.

Marino Formenti, playing the piano all day for a month. Crazy!

Next, we visited the famous La Recolata Cemetery, an opulent cemetery where every gravesite has an elaborately decorated mausoleum. It seems clear that this is where all the wealthy people were buried. It included Evita's gravesite (more on her later). We also visited the charming little Japanese Garden and called it a day.

La Recoleta Cemetery

Evita's mausoleum at La Recoleta Cemetery

Japanese Garden

The next day started with a visit to Buenos Aires' main cathedral, the Metropolitan Cathedral, Pope Francis's home cathedral. It was really beautiful, but looked strangely like a Grecian temple from the outside (Neoclassical facade). It apparently has had to be rebuilt several times since it's original founding in the late 1500s. It is on the famous square, Plaza de Mayo. At the other end of the Plaza de Mayo is the Casa Rosada, the (red) presidential palace. We had hoped to tour it, but one day the tours weren't happening and another day, there was a large protest in the area.

Metropolitan Cathedral (Pope Francis's home church)

Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

Speaking of protests, there were protests happening in BA pretty much the whole time we were there. We'd be walking down the street and run into a massive group of people with signs and matching T-shirts, yelling or pounding on drums, and sometimes setting off some loud firecrackers. During our visit, there was a large, multi-day teacher's union protest. Argentina has had some serious recent inflation problems, and the current president has tried to reign things in, but lots of people are unhappy with the changes.

The teacher's union protest (one of many protests) in Buenos Aires

We visited the Congress building and got to see inside the House of Representatives (the Congress side was closed for renovations). Argentina's government structure is very similar to the US's. Also, if you're a member of the House, when you vote, you have to submit your fingerprint to prove that you're really who they think you are. Each seat has an electronic fingerprint reader.

Argentinian Congress Building

Inside the House of Representatives

We went to an evening Tango show, which was really fun. The dancers were really incredible, of course, but the musicians were also incredibly talented. Tango music has accordions, which I was kind of surprised by.

Tango!

One of the highlights in BA was our visit to the Palacio Barolo, which when it was finished in 1923 was the tallest building in all of South America (it has 22 floors). The architect built around the theme of Dante's Divine Comedy, so the basement and ground floor represent hell, floors 1-14 are purgatory, and floors 15-22 represent heaven. You can see the theme in the building's decor. It also has its original elevators, the kind where you have to pull open two gates to enter and exit. But the best part is the view from the old lighthouse at the top. It is a fantastic view of the city, and we got lucky enough to see it at the prettiest time of day, dusk. Apparently, the building has a twin built by the same architect across the La Plata river in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Looking down on the "Hell" level of Palacio Barolo

View of the Congress Buildings from the top of Palacio Barolo

Finally, we visited the Evita museum, a tribute to the famous Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President, Juan Perón. We didn't know much about her, but learned quite a bit. She had a bit of murky childhood, but moved from her small village to Buenos Aires at age 15 to become an actress on stage, radio, and film. She wasn't particularly successful as an actress, but soon caught the eye of Juan Perón, who was a controversial political figure. She was loved by the people for her work with the poor and the workers, her advocacy for women and children, and her work for women's suffrage. She was even nominated to serve as Vice President, however, she had to decline because of her advanced cervical cancer. She died at the young age of 33 and is an icon of Argentinian culture. Bill and I wondered if part of the reason that Argentina has elected a female president (former President Christina Kirchner) and has a large proportion of female Congresspeople (>30%) is because of Eva Peron's strong political influence.

The Evita Museum

Photo of Evita waving to the crowds from a train

After a really nice week in Buenos Aires, we boarded a bus in the early afternoon for an 18-hour overnight bus ride (yes, you read that right...) to Puerto Iguazu, in the north of Argentina. Our ultimate destination was Iguazu Falls, an incredible system of waterfalls, the largest in the world. The super-wide Iguazu River, crashes over huge, numerous waterfalls and then becomes a much deeper, narrower river. It is very hard to describe how cool this place is. We actually spent three days there exploring the waterfalls from both the Brazil and Argentina sides of the river.

Bill is excited to start our 18-hour overnight bus from the front row of the double decker bus. 

Panorama of Iguazu Falls (not all of it) from the Brazil side  

Some of the smaller Iguazu falls as seen from Brazil 

Panorama of the largest section of the falls, The Devil's Throat

Admiring a very cool place

Panorama of the Devil's Throat from the Argentine side 

We walked on metal walkways over the giant Iguazu River to get to the falls on the Argentinian side

Some of the smaller falls that are in included in Iguazu Falls

Pictures don't really do Iguazu Falls justice, so here's a video of the Devil's Throat section, then another section, both from the Argentina side. 

Apparently, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Iguazu, she said, "Poor Niagara!".  Niagara has a bit more average flow, but Iguazu is taller. Depending on the level of flow which varies according to the season and rainfall, Iguazu can have as many as 275 discrete waterfalls.

The biggest, with about half of the water flow is called the Devil's Throat. We visited the Brazilian side on Day 1, and it provides a nice overview of the whole stretch of waterfalls. Days 2 and 3 were on the Argentinian side, where you can walk along metal sidewalks and get near and above the falls, so it's a closer look. We saw lots of rainbows, and even some colorful toucans in the wild.

We didn't get a picture of the wild toucans, but we saw many at the Bird Park we visited in Brazil. 

Tough to see, but there's a caiman in the Iguazu River. His nose is peeking above the surface of the water. 

Once again, we boarded a bus for an 18-hour ride back to Buenos Aires, where we started our long 3-day journey home through Santiago, Bogata, Mexico City, and Tijuana.

Next Up: One final blog - a his and hers perspective on our year of travel.

Cochamo Valley, Trails by Climbers for Climbers (Patagonia, pt 2)

Close friends of ours had spent a good bit of time in Chile over the years. They told grand tales of South America's own Yosemite Valley called Cochamo Valley. To the uninitiated, that analogy might only mean that Cochamo is a valley of granite walls with unbridled beauty but what it means on top of incredible beauty is that Cochamo is rock climbing paradise.

The reward for many hours of hiking

We're both dilettante rock climbers, we go to a rock climbing gym regularly when we're home and we climb outdoors from time to time when our friends are kind enough to let us mooch off their expertise and gear. Climbing is great fun, great exercise and for me (Bill) it's about the only workout that I consistently look forward to. With all that said, we are not remotely even qualified to launch a climbing expedition into Cochamo but the idea of going and seeing this awesome place is very appealing, at least to me!

Great views in Cochamo Valley

Cochamo Valley is in the lakes region of Patagonia outside of Puerto Montt. After a couple hour bus ride, then a taxi or hitchhike to the trail head, access to Cochamo Valley is a 5 hour hike or a slightly shorter, more jarring, horseback ride. I'm not a fan of horses. Big dumb (beautiful, friendly, sublime, yes, but still dumb) animals holding my life at risk don't appeal to me so we walked.

The primary mode of high speed transportation in the valley

Walking in means that you get to walk across really sketchy bridges like this one that is far sketchier than anything we saw in Nepal. You know Nepal, the country that doesn't have a traffic light? Well they build better back country bridges than Chile. This bridge has no railings, no netting, plenty of bounce, twist and sway... Anyway.

Sketchy bridge, this picture doesn't really capture it.

There is very little differentiation between the 4-legged and 2-legged trail... and in case you didn't know it, horses lay waste to trails. Many sections of the trail were submerged 10 feet from the surrounding terrain by a process of horse and water erosion.

Lots of rain and horse traffic made this ditch possible...

Throw in rain the day before we hiked in and you can imagine this made for a very muddy trail. The only good news in this is that there were tons of side trails that reduce the amount of mud you had to traipse through but this means very slow going. It also means I end up writing the blog post because my partner in crime wasn't 100% sure that she could paint all this fun in an endearing light.

Did I mention that the lakes region has around 300 days of rain a year?

Anyway, the quoted 4-5 hr hike in was more like 6 hrs thanks to constant weaving around mud bogs, but the reward was stunning, granite walls all around, wide meadows, and a stream we drank directly from.

Nice sand bar in the Cochamo river

Most visitors to the valley camp, but we're not equipped for camping, not mentally or physically but our saving grace is what they call a Refugio.

Our civilization away from civilization, the Cochamo Refugio

It's very similar to the huts we stayed at in Slovenia except you bring your own food and use their kitchen. The building is impressive as well considering everything that isn't stone or wood has to make its way up the horse trail: toilets, wood stoves, water heaters, concrete, windows, you name it. The construction is beautiful.

Not much but we called it home for three nights. We shared this dorm room with several other trekkers. 

Seeing construction in austere environments is not what we came for though! We settle in for a good night's sleep and the next day we set out for a hike up to the Amphitheater, which I knew nothing about, other than the name suggests it is probably pretty cool. We're told by some other hikers in the Refugio that they tried to get there but got lost, similar to the trail coming into the valley, the trail would split, and they would eventually lose their way... This wasn't promising but they did offer that it at least wasn't nearly as muddy as the way in.

Everything is that-a-way, what could go wrong?

We get some local advice on where to go and critical to our success, we're told to follow the ribbon markers along the trail, and that there isn't any specific color, just follow them. This valley is all private land but Chilean law allows people to pass through on foot. With that said there isn't management of the trails, it is completely ad hoc.

Um, I think we just keep going up this slippery rock face

And here is where the title to this blog kicks in. The people with the original motivation to go up to the amphitheater and the other great rock faces around the valley are all climbers. Climbers are some of the toughest and most intelligent adventure seekers you'll come across. They waste no effort in their quests and they are not demurred by completely vertical terrain.

They took a bit of mercy on us all and put a rope in here, yes you need to use it to cross, it goes down just as much as it goes up.

Taking that into account and the trails up to the climbing areas end up being incredibly tough compared to anything I'd call a trail in the US. The trails are consistently steep and narrow and hardly developed, just what you'd expect if your goal was just to get to the rock face and camp for weeks on end before coming out as these climber types do. Why waste time building trails when you could climb?

Ad hoc ladder here. Why? You need a ladder here.

The good news is that the markings are frequent and very visible. The going is slow, we're told around 6 hrs but it ends up being more like 7.5 hrs by the time we're done.

One of many many log crossings

The reward is substantial. We've seen tons of places on this trip that are called "The Amphitheater" but I have to say this is the first one that I've actually thought, YES this deserves that title. The Cochamo Amphitheater is the end of a glacial valley and is sheer granite cliffs through 180 degrees of view.

Great views at the top!

We talk with some climbers who have been camped at the wall for a week and they're stoked because it's been raining most of the time they have been there but the rock walls are starting to dry out. They're kind enough to take some pictures of us and after a sugary lunch on the rocks while gazing at the ancient spectacle before us we head back down.

Epic picture opportunities abound!

The trip up was punctuated with lots of stopping, scratching our heads while thinking surely that can't be where the trail goes but the trip down is much more straight forward and goes a lot faster. There is a waterfall side trip we passed up earlier but I go check it out and just like everything else in Patagonia, it's pretty cool too.

Nice waterfall on the way back to the Refugio

With a few hours of daylight left we stumble back into the Refugio, cook dinner and sleep like logs.

Home sweet home! notice the climbing wall under the Refugio, just behind the tree

The next day's excursion wasn't quite as ambitious as a 7 hr hike, we lounge on the deck of the Refugio reading for a few hours and then go check out the nearby natural water slide.

Nice views from the Refugio deck

I didn't mention it earlier but getting to our Refugio requires crossing the Cochamo river in a tiny manually operated, single person cable car. First time across it is extraordinarily exciting and fun, by the fourth ride your hands start to get a bit raw but its another thing that adds to the flavor of our visit to the Valley.

The water slide is just a short hike but it requires crossing the smaller La Junta River. La Junta is also the name of the area where the Refugio and several campgrounds are.

Trying to cross the river with out removing my shoes... and failing too

Once across, the water slide makes for a great snack spot, neither of us could muster the gumption to try it... besides the many many warnings about people getting hurt, there was the real reason, the water was painfully cold!

Natural water slide, people ride down on the far left

Either way, it made for great views. And we made a new friend, this puppy was roaming around looking for morsels and attention from anyone.

Kenzi's new best friend

She cheerfully followed us up and down the side of the waterfall while we were checking out the many vantage points.

Amazing patterns made from water erosion in the rocks

More cool spots around the water slide.

pools that seem to glow in the sunlight

Finally, it's time to go back to the refugio and our little 4 legged friend is still in tow. I thought she wouldn't be able to go up and down the steep trails, but she coped just fine. Then I figured for sure, she would not make it across the river... wrong again, here I am waddling across as fast as I can to avoid the cold water and she's swimming like it's a warm bath.

Now I know where the word dogged comes from

Finally we get to the cable car and say our good byes and then make our way back to the Refugio for one last night.

A few more great views on the last day

Three nights in the valley just wasn't enough, we could have spend a week easily.

One last look around in the morning light, the muddy trail awaits!

On the third morning we start the hike down and there are a lot of beautiful scenes in the morning light.

The trip down is much less muddy than the walk up, we're going downhill mostly and we've got a better idea of where we're going so the hike to the trail head only takes us 4.5 hrs and after a few minutes of walking on the road we get picked up by a nice guy wearing a beret like many of the gauchos we've seen (successful hitchhiking experience). He takes us to Cochamo town, we get lunch, catch the bus and before sundown we're in Puerto Montt returning the gaiters we ended up not needing. All in all a pretty spectacular visit to the Lakes region, and even better to explore Cochamo Valley, we're really not sure it will have this lost in time feel if we come back in 10 years, glad we got a chance now.

Next up: Buenos Aires!