Back Up High

Spending today getting used to Cuzco's altitude at 3400m.  That's a lot higher than Quito's 2850m.  We spent a few nights as high as 3800m in Ecuador, so this isn't totally unfamiliar, but we've also been at sea level for quite a while.  Drinking a lot of coca tea.

Puffed up bag of peanuts I brought from sea level - I never get tired of this!

New digs in Cusco

We spent four blissful days in Lima -- a metropolis the same size as NYC (population 8.5 million), and to our eyes, a good mix of Ecuador and Chile.  As one of the kids said, Peru feels like the second world.  

Arriving in Cusco this morning, we feel sated from the best food we've had so far in South America (ceviche, real Chinese food, anticuchos, artisanal ice cream, pollo y papas fritas from Brasa Chicken, and decent coffee!).  That's the first world part.  We also arrived in various states of abdominal distress - yes, the third world part.  While a semi-regular part of life in Ecuador, stomach woes were but a distant memory while we were in Chile.

Between the altitude and our diminished physical state, it was a somewhat dicey morning.  Fortunately, the house we are renting is super comfortable -- three bedrooms, two floors, fully stocked kitchen, fireplace, fast wifi, and washing machine (cue triumphant fanfare).  It's a renovated colonial house in the centro historico, just a few minutes from the Plaza de las Armas, a super mercado, and the Mercado San Pedro.  Can't tell you how glad I am to have two weeks to slow down and relax here.  

         The view from our balcony

                   Main living room

 Ready to cook chicken soup and rice 

       Ruby in the upstairs living room

After naps and coca tea, we went out for sandwiches and beverages of choice (coffee or Gatorade).  I consider it a good omen that not only were we not pick pocketed or mugged as everyone warns us to be careful about, but I actually found my jacket again after leaving it in the cafe for an hour.  

Alicia, we await your arrival next week!!

Early Breakfast En Route to Cuzco

Just like the conquistadores!

Working off the calories

Airports are the best for eating

Haircut #2

Other than maybe going to a doctor, nothing makes me feel quite so much like an exposed foreigner as getting a haircut. 

Random Chile Shots

Brooklyn is always in the house!

America(ns) run on Dunkin Donuts!

Lots of dogs everywhere we stayed

Site of an epic seafood lunch near Valpo

Some more epic seafood

Flying North

Our flight north from Punta Arenas was like a recap of our five weeks in Chile, in reverse.  As we took off, I could see the windy grasslands of Patagonia, lakes, fjords and snow-capped, jagged mountains.  Flying north, the mountains became more prominent and frequent, as the landscape became greener.  We flew over the part of Chile that consists of mostly islands and remote peninsulas and stopped over in Puerto Montt.  From Puerto Montt, we flew over the Lakes District, with its lush and well-tended farmland, and its trademark volcanoes and lakes (of course) in the mid-distance.  It was easy to make out Osorno and Villarrica among the most prominent of volcanoes (cool to see Villarrica from above after being up at the crater!).  Soon fertile greens gave way to dry browns, as we entered the wine country and the central agricultural zone, and then into near desert surrounded by mountains as we finally approached Santiago. 

South of Puerto Montt

Vulcan Osorno from the plane

The entire flight, the vast brown expanse of Argentina was in the distance, always dryer than the Chilean side.  And of course, there was a whole lot of nothing – most of Chile just doesn’t have too much in it, and there were parts where signs of human settlement were scarce.  I was also reminded of how long Chile is.  In four hours of flying, we only covered half of the country.  Our last week there, there had been some strong earthquakes and tsunami alerts in the far north of the country.  My parents called, concerned, until I explained that we would have to fly for about six or seven hours to get to Arica, where the quakes hit.

The views were inspiring, like most of the Chilean landscape.  But they were difficult to photograph in a way that does them any justice.  My advice: if you are ever flying the length of Chile from south to north, try to get a right side window seat.

Hitting the Trails in Torres del Paine

I really love hiking.  On most days, there’s really not much I’d rather do than go for a hike.  I love being outdoors, the sustained physical activity, the sense of accomplishment that comes with every summit – in short, the whole package.  My parents are great people, but they are definitely not hikers.  I first developed this interest at Camp Walt Whitman, the New Hampshire camp where I spent summers as a child.  In sharp contrast to most of the other kids, our weekly hikes were my favorite thing about camp, bar none.  The only thing I liked more were the overnight backpacking trips.  Fortunately, I married someone who loves hiking almost as much as I do, and our kids, despite growing up in Brooklyn, simply don’t know anything different.

And I’m not a fair-weather hiker.  I’m usually just as happy to go out in the cold or rain as in more favorable weather, particularly if I can be warm and dry at the end of the day (i.e., not camping).  Which is good, because we had some pretty unfavorable weather the past few days in TdelP.  Let’s just say that I have a newfound respect for the wind.

Day 1 - our first snow of the year!

Iceberg on Lago Grey

After our first day of hiking in the cold and snow, which I wrote about here, we went out for a big day two.  We started off on a 30-minute catamaran ferry ride across the cold and windy Lago Pehoe, to the start of a trail which would take us 22km along the shores of another lake, Lago Grey, to Glacier Grey, one of the park’s largest glaciers, and back.  Supposedly a brisk seven hours.  But we hadn’t factored in the wind.  Imagine a sustained wind so powerful that it lifts spray off a lake and makes it feel like driving rain.  You can’t hear a thing, and you can easily lean into the wind with your full body weight.  The gusts can knock you down, as Yo and Ruby learned.  Then imagine walking into and around that for about five hours as you hike along cliffs hundreds of feet above an iceberg-ed lake toward a huge glacier, at the base of magnificent, spiky snow-capped mountains.  It was fantastic, although we had to turn around before reaching the mirador closest to the glacier in order to ensure we didn’t miss the last ferry back.

Day 2 - On the catamaran over Lago Pehoe

Lago Grey with Photobomber

Lago Grey and Glacier Grey

So many rainbows in Patagonia!

Wind whipping up the spray (that's not fog) 

The Cueros del Paine

Despite the adventure of day two, it wasn’t until the following day that I really learned what the wind was capable of.  We awoke to clouds and rain, and our plan for a hike to appreciate the famous views of the Torres was clearly not happening.  But we still wanted to get out there, so we picked a couple of shorter routes, starting with a short, flat hike to a waterfall (Salto Grande).  Sure, it felt a bit rough as the wind buffeted the car on the drive to the trailhead, but the hike was very short and we were well-equipped.  Full rain and wind gear on, we emerged from the car and started up the short hill where the trail began.  Headed straight into the rain and wind, it felt like being blasted in the face with a firehose of sleet.  We were all about ten feet from one another, and after just a minute or so of being blasted around by the elements, it was clear that we needed to take these wind warning signs seriously.  Yo and I motioned the kids back to the car, which itself got blasted full of water when Yo couldn’t close the door for a few seconds because of the wind.

To be taken seriously

After all that, time to go back and have some hot chocolate at the cabin, right?  Actually, no – quick sandwich in the car, and a short drive to something maybe not so exposed.  Less than an hour later, we were climbing Cerro Condor, a short but steep 45 minute walk up to a mirador with a view of, well, mostly clouds.  The walk was partially sheltered, but when it was exposed, it was very windy, though by that time, it had stopped raining hard.  It wasn’t until the very top of our climb that we felt the strongest winds of our trip yet.  As we attempted to cross a narrow saddle between two hills, which formed a wind tunnel, we literally couldn’t keep our feet as we climbed.  At two points, I had to grab Ruby hard to make sure she didn’t get knocked way off her feet and down the steep hill.  We climbed low for a few feet to look at the lakes beyond the saddle, but we couldn’t go on from there safely.  By that time, we had had enough for the day, and retreated back to the cabin for a nap.

Day 3 - Climbing Cerro Condor

Yo and Oscar struggling to keep their footing at the top saddle

O&R fighting the wind on the way down

After all that, our last day, yesterday, was relatively calm and completely sunny.  We went for a great two-hour hike up a hill surrounded by guanacos and rheas, which are Patagonia cousins of ostriches (who even knew those things existed???), and enjoyed unobstructed and inspiring views of the Torres and the Cueros del Paine.  I didn’t even wear my windpants!  Kind of a boring way to end the trip, but it felt like a nice reward after all the wind and rain. 

Day 4 featured great views...

Strange animals...

...and more rainbows!

(And once again, I’m completely in awe of O&R, who held it together beautifully in support of their father’s unreasonable love of all-weather hiking).

Um, okay

For you Spanish speakers, qué significa lavamanos?  (Hint, it's not toilet).

Cabin Fever

Yesterday, we had a great outing in Torres del Paine, but the weather was challenging to say the least – incredible winds and driving rain made our outing a short one.  So we spent a lot of our day in our cabaña.  I think we all welcomed the half day of rest, particularly after the morning’s activity.  But I thought it would be a good time to say something about the cabins we’ve been staying in.

The cabañas have certainly made it a pleasure to travel in Chile.  In every small town, and all over in the countryside, there are cabin compounds where we have rented two-bedroom cabins by the night, typically booking ahead on booking.com.  The cost has varied from $110-250 a night, depending on the location.  In addition to the bedrooms, each cabin has a kitchen, a living/dining area and some outside space, usually with a grill.  Given our need to spread out a bit and our preference not to eat every meal in a restaurant, the cabins are great for us. 

I’m writing this from our cabin outside Torres del Paine, but we’ve also stayed in cabins in Pucon, Puerto Varas and Punta Arenas.   The cabins, of course, only work if you have a car, because they are often slightly outside of town, and you need the car for grocery shopping.

A few days' food 

Cabin life

View from our cabin in Torres del Paine at sunrise