My Adventures and Travels

I started my long vacation in the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia. I stayed in the walled city, which is a great place to just walk around and take pictures of the colorful houses and flowers. As a bonus, there were also lots of Christmas lights up. Here are some shots taken around the city. One of the fun outings you can do here is go see the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, a fortress built in the 17th and 18th centuries to protect the Spanish from invasions, and it's one fort that has never been overtaken. By this time in the trip friend and coworker Beau had joined me so we checked it out together.  Another fun thing to do in Cartagena is have dinner or a drink on "the wall." It may not look like anything special...  But if you plan your visit around sunset you'll see what the big deal is! Logistics: Travel in Colombia, especially Cartagena, is more expensive than most South American countries, so budget appropri...

The last organized tour deal I did was for a half day of rafting and a half day of hiking. It was so much fun! It was very close to the area of my first hike. We got bused (vanned?) from Mendoza to the "base" area in the mountains. Then we got all outfitted down to the sexy moon boots for rafting. Just like rafting in CO, they use old school buses to get you to the start point. Then they give you the unnerving "what to do if you fall out" speech (I hate that part). Luckily there was a guide that spoke English so I was with him, along with 2 Aussies, a couple of Australians, and I think an American guy. Here we are "before:" There were enough rapids to make it a pretty exciting raft trip. Obviously, our guide (back) wasn't too worried, although we were paddling our little hearts out! And the "after" shot! Don't judge. I'd been rafting all morning and then wearing a hat. Of COURSE my hair is a disaster!  Af...

El Chalten, Argentina. Trekking capital of Argentina. Home of Fitz Roy. Need I say more? This picture sums up why I needed to go here! A 3 hour bus ride from El Calafate brought me here. One interesting thing is that the bus stops at the national park office and it is mandatory to get off and go in and listen to a talk-either in English or Spanish-about the park, safety, and keeping it clean. They pretty much figure if you came to El Chalten, you are going to be spending time outdoors. So we got our talk, suggestions about hikes, and trail maps. I felt ready! It was an absolutely gorgeous, perfect day: a fact that I appreciated even more after the next 2 days here! The bus took us the last few minutes into town. I checked into my hostel, and they recommended that I take a short hike to take advantage of the weather. I did as suggested and hiked up to a nearby overlook where you could see the town of El Chalten as well as the famous Fitz Roy and surrounding range. I also went to a n...

After the hustle and bustle of Bariloche (okay, it wasn't that bad), El Bolson was a welcome change. It is kind of a hippie town, lots smaller and more art-sy, but still with good beer. Adrianne and I were down with that. The first night there we stayed less than a mile apart, as we couldn't get into the same hostel. We walked into town--all the nice places to stay are outside of town--and hit up the local artisan market, including a street/busker show, ARTISAN BEER, and various neat things that I did not have room for in my suitcase. We missed the bus so decided to check out a cerveceria while we waited for the next bus. It was not so bad. That night we had dinner at her hostel, which was yummy and fancy homemade pasta and the hostel's homebrew. Dang, do these South Americans love their carbs or what? But it was good to carbo-load, we had a hike the next day. The next day: we teamed up with a lady from Wales, a guy from Australia, and a girl from London to do a hike ...