Hitting the road tomorrow

After lots of preparation, we set off on foot tomorrow! First stop - Tolhuin which is about 110km (68mi) from Ushuaia.

In our week in South America we have:

• figured out internet cafes and navigated uploading to our online backup (Trinity is mastering the Spanish keyboard shortcuts)
• bought a SIM card for the Tablet
• drank several bottles of wine
• downloaded maps for the GPS and figured out our route for the first month
• replaced the buckle for Shelley´s backpack which came with 2 male pieces
• ate lots of pizza and empanadas
• bought denatured alcohol for our popcan stove
• bought pepper spray
• sorted gear (check out our fashion show pix)
• bought a mate cup and bombilla (traditional tea drink)
• team building (including personality types, fears, conflict resolution and tendencies)
• Thank you Alexis (Trinity's sister) for the team-building strategies!
• ate more cheese and bread
• finalized our daily routine (data collection, yoga, camp setup "duties", hygiene etc.)
• Thank you Maya (Shelley's soon-to-be sister-in-law) for the yoga flow!
• streamlined data collection via excel spreadsheets on the Tablet 
• established more connections through people we've met and blog followers for the trek ahead of us
• put on a good subcutaneous layer to keep us warm in the weeks to come
• nearly completed dreading the bottom half of Sarah's hair
• stocked up on the first week supply of food (we will post more on that after the trial run!)
• wrote our mission and guiding principles

To align our goals for this trip, we established a mission and corresponding guiding principles to help us in our decision-making along the way. Yes, this may resemble a Cheley Code of Living. This process helped us understand each others ideas behind this journey and how we can help each other meet our needs (not surprisingly, they weren't very different). We posted our mission and guiding principles on the right sidebar and we laminated a pequeña copy for reference along the way.

We are catching on to the latin american ways of living, however not without a few cultural adjustments:

• The post office doesn't send packages to the United States after noon
• Places don't open for dinner until 8 (the chef made a special exception for us tired gringas to eat at 7:30)
• Watch repair shops and arms stores are not open late afternoon (maybe "siesta" is later here?)
• Some shopkeepers may lie to us out of laziness (pretty sure it happened at least twice in BA)

For our send-off meal, we treated ourselves to a lavish meal with the best view in town. Fresh seafood for Trinity and Shelley, and a big thick steak for Sarah! The veggie eaters have had to make big adjustments; Argentina culture is not conducive to vegetarianism and we presume vegans do not exist here at all.

We are all in awe of the beauty of Ushuaia. It's been good to get out of the big city and into the fresh mountain air of Patagonia. It feels like home here. We feel very fortunate for the sense of community that is growing around us - from our friends at the hostels, to the Americans on the airplane, and to the locals who affectionately refer to us as the "tres chicas locas".

Our next post will be a week out - wish us good weather! Check out our pictures from Ushuaia!