 | | This is what the Patagonian highlands looks like. Barren and extremely windy. Look closely, there ain't nothing to be seen.
Patagonia
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 | | This is me and my toungue after a couple of bites, multiple cups of scalding 215F degree mata, and 4 hrs of sleep over the last 48 hrs.
El Calafate, Argentina
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 | | Glaciar Perito Moreno
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, Argentina
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 | | Coming up on Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
Chile
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 | | Lama
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Flamingos near the road. We thought about driving toward them but we didn't need another car incident in the lake bed...
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Coming into the park you can see the famous Torres del Paine for which the park is named.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The start of the hike! Yeah, spirits aren't the highest for me but it was nice to be finally on track.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The view looking east. Patagonia is an amazing place.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | I'm on the final hill before approaching Camp Dickson
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Me eating dinner at Camp Perros. Hmmm, grapenuts. At least i'm not coughing up blood anymore.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The view eastward from Gardener Pass. Bitch of hike. Fuck-all windy up here too.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The slip'n'slide down from Gardener Pass. What a pain! Steep and muddy. Those ropes helped... a little.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Here I'm approaching a rickety ladder on the way to Los Guardas
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Munching at Camp/Lake Grey. You don't think i only eat grapenuts do you? I get 2 cliffbars a day, it's dessert time for me!
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Jump! Don't fall, it's freezing water. Clean though, i didn't filter it to drink. A bit gitty however.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Holy shit that's cold. That water is glacier runoff...brrrr!!! See the 1/2 naked guy, he's about to do it w/o boots. Dumbass. There are a lot of rocks in the water...
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Here's us after finishing the Torres del Paine circuit. I think Pehoe.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The final stretch up the towers of pain! We're now overlooking Avanzada up the Valle Ascencio
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Tom in fron of the Torres del Paine! The entire reason for the trip, at least for me : )
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Puh-lease... but i got piss all over myself. Damm hard to go into a 30mph headwind.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Racing back to Ushuaia through the straights of Magellen. That's a 16 hr drive or so from Torres del Paine.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | It's a lager but it'll do. Nice to throw back a litre here and then.
Epa!! Rio Grane, Argentina
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 | | Here's all our shit for the trip as we leave. Good thing the car rental guy didn't look closely at the front of the car. Mushed up radiator, headlights that don't go straight (ahem), scratched/cracked window, chipped paint...
Ushuaia Airport, Argentina
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 | | Holy cow, this is the best dammed street show i've seen in my entire life! They should be on stage somewhere.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Ugh. Here's me after arriving in BA after a red-eye and subway system negotiation. And now Tom wants to go out and explore the city... she-it.. fine... but only because the opportunity will never come again...
Hotel Palma, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Hmmm... this country likes meat! We didn't eat everything meatwise. But it's so cheap here! (for foreigners anyways)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | The view from our hotel
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | This is what happens when your travel plans go awry...
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
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 | | Errr.. what's this they're passing back and forth? Hmmm... we'd end up having quite a bit ourselves later on once we found out what it is. I found the customs and TSA people not exactly beliving me about it...
Penguin boat in the Canal Beagle
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 | | Penguins
Beagle Straights
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 | | This used to be a working farm but now it's mainly a museum. And a place for Argentinians to fight about being shortchanged 30 min on their tour.
Estancia Harberton, Argentina
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 | | Overlooking the city, the airports are off in the distance.
Ushuaia, Argentina
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 | | POS American cars. A rock bounced up and cracked the fuel filter. WTF is it exposed? BTW, it's a major source of our adventures this trip...i'm kinda glad it happened. Maybe we should always rent shit vehicles.
Near Cullen, Chile
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 | | Subway in BA. It looks very familiar... hmmm.. oh yeah, imported Japanese subways!
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Cool! Old subway, from the 30's or so.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Downtown shopping scene
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Shopping area cop
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Tom at a mini-waterfall on the Rio Pipo. We walked how far for this? She-it... good thing it's only 10 min back to the car...
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
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 | | Another hike to a hilltop. View looking north i believe. The mountains are way cool here.
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
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 | | Pengiun closeup.
Beagle Straights, Argentina
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 | | Border checkpoint, going back into Argentina. Going north requires you to go back and forth between Chile and Argentina.
Errr... DMZ-ish area between Chile and Argentina.
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 | | Take 2 of plans going awry. We knew all the hotels were full in Rio Grande so we just slept by the side of the road. In the rain.
10 miles north of Rio Grande, Argentina
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 | | The entire scene of our 'camp'. See the smelly fuel can? My bivy? And Tom's halfasses attempt at a tent stuffed under the car... hehe... he ended up sleeping inside.
10 miles north of Rio Grande, Argentina,
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 | | Here we are thinking we're all good since we finally made it into Chile after a couple of false starts. Ha! In an hour or so we'll break down : )
Near San Sabastian but just inside of Chile
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 | | Here's us being towed with a 2m cable. He brakes, we brake... or break.
Near Cullen, Chile
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 | | Damm Chileans are/were paranoid about invasions.
Ferry crossing at Puerto Espora, Chile
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 | | Waiting for the Ferry. The truck on the far right is the one that's towing us.
Ferry crossing at Puerto Espora
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 | | The weakest link. The cop at the gas station just changed it out for us.
Rio Gallegos, Argentina
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 | | The kind people that helped us out. Starting from left Mr Frata that has a brother in Poway, CA. Cop Antonio Solis (repaired us), Adrian Garcia (towed us), Tom, kid Garcia
Rio Gallegos, Argentina
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 | | Why do people always bitch about hostels? This one was NICE!
El Calafate, Argentina
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 | | Downtown shopping scene.
El Calafate, Argentina
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 | | Lama shot. There were hundred of them running around here. Throughout Patagonia you'd see them here and there.
Entrance to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Yeah, it's wet. On the way to Camp Seron. Look at the river, you can tell it's glacier runoff because of the color.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Overlooking Camp Dickson
Parque NacioParque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | For some reason Tom wanted to see how long he could keep his hand in the water. Dumbass, it's cold.Camp Los Perros
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Please compare camping setups. Mine's flat on the ground. Tom's 6'4 with a big stride. And you have to carry all your shit. Which one are you going to pick? Camp Los Perros
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Leaving Camp Los Perros. I don't know Tom to have the best sense of balance. He ate it real nicely in New Zealand but he alright this trip.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Another shot of John Gardener Pass. I 'raced' up some Chilean kids up to the top. Nice kids we had dinner with them later but the little fuckers blazed their own trail to avoid some mud.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Rambo overlooking Glacier Grey
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Tom on the trail above Glacier Grey
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Rickety ladder system, the vertical beam on the big right ladder is broken. And it all hangs there with some old rope.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | This dummy doesn't learn. Yeah, it's cold. See the icebergs floating off in the distance?
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | So i wanted to eat some iceberg ice. It's... different. It wasn't 100% solid, more like little ice pellets stuck togeather. I did learn almost the hard way that icebergs are heavier than shit.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Me eating some iceberg ice
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Damm clouds and their shadows. OIn the way to Camp Italiano
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Glaciar del Frances, a hanging glacier. Every several minutes it would lob some ice down making a tremendous racket.
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Circuit complete!
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | The Torres del Paine. It's a bit of a hump to get up there!
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Proof that we made it!
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | Celebratory dinner after leaving the park. Yes, we ate meat. Lots of it. With an egg of course!
Puerto Natales, Chile
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 | | Downtown area. Small town feel, outdoorsy feel and not touristy. Kinda granola.
Puerto Natales, Chile
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 | | The owner of Alma Gaucha, he used to be a gaucho and retired. A lot of his ranching gear adorns the walls. No english of course : )
Puerto Natales, Chile
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 | | The mines are on the other side thank you very much. Now let me concentrate on peeing on myself.
10-20 miles west of San Gregorio, Chile
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 | | Approaching the Argentinian border checkpoint near San Sabastian
DMZ-ish area between Chile and Argentina near San Sabastian
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 | | So you went to the mall and got some new shoes? That's nice. These guys drove from Columia to Tierra del Fuego, they're 1 day from completing their journey.
Rio Grande, Argenina
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 | | Tom being photographed. What you don't see in this picture is the dashboard- the car is off. We're coasting 14 miles to save gas to make it to town : )
Decending near Co Cornu, Argentina
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 | | Entering Ushuaia. And hoping the car inspector doesn't bust us, we've been way lucky with them so far.
Ushuaia, Argentina
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 | | Downtown foreigner shopping scene. The city has a birkenstock feel to it, wannabe outdoorsy but too money so everyone's a totaly pussy.
Ushuaia, Argentina
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 | | Ushuaia Tourbus, we had a few hours to kill. What you'll see all over Argentinian Patagonia are monuments to the Falklands conflight w/ UK. Or as they call it Malvinas
Ushuaia, Argentina
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 | | A sad sight, leaving Ushuaia. Steep and turning climb to stay out of Chilean airspace which is only a few miles upwind of the airport.
Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
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 | | Tom with all his shit for 2 weeks, we're going to the bus station to buy tickets and stash our gear.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Lunchtime plaza show, tango.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Back streets of BA. Somewhat euro feel to the city
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | Our final dinner of the trip!
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 | | The circuit at Torres del Paine is amazing!!! Here's a panoramic shot looking east from our first night.
Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | So I'm slogging up this crappy ass pile of rock, it's all windy as shit and i'm cold and when i get to the top i'm blasted by even faster winds. Shit. Then I look over the other side and see this! WOW!!! (4.5mb)
Gardener Pass, Torres del Paine, Chile
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 | | So our last night in the area. But there are always amazing views to be had here, no matter if it's nearing the end of our trip : (
Torres del Paine, Chile
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