The X Factor

Strong winds are problematic for a few reasons: we can't talk to each other at all, we become incredibly exhausted far too easily, our tent has a good possibility of air-lifting, and it is generally an unpleasant, harsh environment to be in for hours on end. After the last leg and what were no doubt the strongest headwinds we had faced, none of us thought it could get any worse. Oh, how wrong we were. Now, we can deal with extremely unpleasant weather condidtions; however, this was beyond insane and there was absolutely nowhere to get even a brief moment of reprieve.  Luckily, we were able to get a good 30km under our belts the first day on our hike to San Sebastian before it really set in. An unfinished beach house provided us with some shelter from the wind during the night before we were hammered with the most forceful winds I have experienced. Our rate of hiking at almost 5km/hr fell to 2.6km/hr and there was a strong probability of just falling over (Washoe Valley, NV has nothing on this stuff). After a VERY slow-moving two hours, we consulted our guiding principles - is this fun? no. Is this uniting us? nope. Is this tranquil? absolutely not. Since we only have one year for this trip, would we rather get to the mountains? hell yea. etc., etc.- and decided to hitchhike to San Sebastian (the Argentina-Chile border station).

standing our ground while hitchin' a ride

happy with the Frenchies in the VW Westfalia 

Due to a wind delay of the ferry which crosses the Straight of Magellan, we spent a good eight hours in the local fisherman's restaurant/pub hangout where we observed them drink excessive amounts of Chilean beer and play cards while we indulged in heaping piles of fresh sweet crab and warm bread. For those of you who know my food allergies, crab is the only seafood I can eat so what a treat this was!!

muy rica centolla!

Some highlights from this unusual stage:
- Realizing that being brave and asking for favors often pays off.
- Not coming even close to running out of food!
- Getting to speak French. And Franish (some odd combination of French and Spanish I created).
- Staying at the most amazing hostel, Hospedaje Independencia.
- Subsequently eating what I consider our best breakfast yet at said hostel - eggs, yogurt, pastries, bread with fresh jams and honey, coffee and juice - for 1,000 pesos ($2.50).
- Discovering that giardia isn't nearly as nasty as we has assumed.
- Knowing that we can handle anything this trip hands us and that we can make educated decisions about it.
- Actually having time - and energy - to read.
- Quickly driving through the barren, wind-blown area between San Sebastian and Porvenir and feeling great about it.
- Being back in the mountains!
- Meeting Graham, our new British friend, who is bicycling the length of the Andes over 6 months. By himself! Check out his blog here.
- Seeing Trinity form a rather awkward yet loving bond with the hostel cat.
- Getting rid of the nasty, tangly disaster that was my hair.

here goes nothing... getting rid of the mess! 

Some not-so-favorite moments:
- Seeing the result of my hair cut.
- Wind.
- Realizing that turista is setting in...and will be much more inconvenient than giardia.
- Waiting instead of walking (I get antsy super quickly).
- More wind.
- Being awoken in the middle of the night by construction workers getting supplies from the house we were sleeping in (although Trinity was up standing and ready to fight with her mace and trekking pole in 2.5 seconds and Shelley was armed with her knife - albeit stuck in her sleeping bag. I just really wanted to go back to sleep. Fight, flight or .... sleep?)

We are now in Punta Arenas warm, rested and quite well-fed (as per usual in the cities) and are taking a relaxing four to five days to do some corresponding, route planning, potential giardia over-coming, and eating. A package delay has kept us slightly longer than expected, but we are enjoying the break...apparently we walk quicker than the mail is delivered! The next stretch is looking to be quite stunning with mountains and actual trails!  In looking at our route last night we were overwhelmed with the feeling of  not having enough time to hike all that we want (something like "holy crap we only have a year!"). Nonetheless, at the end of the day, it is really just up to us whether we want to continue on via trekking or via alternate means of transportation to get to the next desired destination. I can only imagine how quickly this year is going to go. This journey has already proven itself to be more than we could have ever dreamed, and we cannot wait (although still living in the moment!) to see what the future holds.

Make sure to check out Trinity's "Photo How To" of our pop-can stove on the pictures page. We have also added more photos!

Hoofin' it to Rio Grande

After a day in Tolhuin overindulging ourselves at the Panadería, testing fuels, troubleshooting the steripen, making our "energy balls" (our secret recipe full of dulce de leche, nuts, oats and dry milk), we were eager to get on the move again. It's only the second week on the road and we have already fallen into routine - this week less snow and mountains, lots more wind and cows. Since we were finally out of marshy lowlands and we started venturing on our own path, away from La Ruta 3, we cut down on mileage substantially. We have been working on our swat team tactics: staying out of sight while we split up to scout campsites, roll under fences, quickly hurdle them or attempt to squeeze through them - I have nearly gotten stuck going through, over or under is clearly the better way to go.

Lesson learned - don't attempt to go through the fence.

A few notable moments this week:
- Hot meals to cap every day of hiking



Hot food!!

 - Seeing our first Guanacos! and then seeing them everywhere...(part of our data collection project)
- A kind local man stopped his car to warn us about drinking dirty water. The water throughout the pastures was questionable, as you can imagine, however we continue to have faith in the Steripen and Chlorine Dioxide tablets. Gestation period for giardia is 1-3 weeks so we will soon know.



Here's to hopin!

 -Making it to the ocean



Look! The ocean!!

 -Beautiful sunset and yoga from a coastal cliff



First night by the ocean.




Sun setting in the opposite direction - these Lenga trees (not in bloom yet) are artful by day and totally creepy going to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

 - We came upon a herd of cows with new calves... and a couple bulls. I found myself wishing I didn't have a bright red rain jacket and Trinity discovered a supressed fear of cows (well, to be fair a fear of any large animal protecting its baby is probably wise)
- The owner of the hostal, Antionella, where we stayed in Tolhuin was en route to Rio Grande and stopped to give us a ride, she was astonished when we refused
- Walking through a desolate wasteland where wind has covered the fence line with plastic bags for miles and making a conscious note to not use plastic bags anymore
- We have been averaging about 15 miles (25km) per day and we have fewer hot spots on our feet than anticipated
- Three hungry, dirty, and smelly American girls with backpacks on stumble into a nice reastaurant full of families enjoying a nice Sunday Mother's Day meal (the waiter looked astonished to see us and then explained he had seen us hiking the day before)
- Realizing the steripen needs Lithium batteries
- Occasionally pretending we don't speak any Spanish so we don't offer up too many details about our trip
- Sarah expressed a very serious fear of running low on food, which we have cured by doubling our food for half the length this week
- At 12:15am, a 5yr old girl put make-up on me- purple cheeks and bright pink eyes. Still not sure why she was running around the hotel lobby but glad to get all dolled up just the same

We arrived in Rio Grande yesterday ahead of schedule and on another holiday!  We have now noted that it might be best to not arrive in a town on a Sunday or a holiday when everything is booked and/or closed. Our route, due to the proximity of towns in Tierra del Fuego, has led us to the coast and away from the mountains. Since we only have a year to see the continent by foot, we have decided to take a bus/ferry from San Sebastian to cross the border to Punta Arenas, Chile! If we have to skip sections along the way, we would rather spend more time in the mountains of Patagonia and forego headwinds, cowpies and speeding tour buses.

Lastly, we are saddened to announce that after many hours of research, desire, and good intentions, many pesos spent on creams and waxes, and after working through the carpal tunnel in our hands and mainly the pain on Sarah's head, her hair is ultimately still just a curly fro. Therefore, we regret to inform our audience that Sarah's hair has refused to dred. The next best option in Sarah's opinion: red. Thoughts?

Check out our new pics under our Section One: Ushuaia to Punta Arenas to see our first month on the road... they will be updated as we make our way!

Tres Chicas Locas

The good thing about expecting harsh, ugly weather is that when you have sort-of bad weather, it's totally manageable. Since Ushuaia, we slept on snow our first night, battled a few days of strong winds, and only had a little bit of rain and sleet. Our greatest difficulty has been avoiding an accident with Argentina's crazy drivers, who pass each other going unbeleivable speeds directly in front of "no passing" signs. Since spring hasn't quite yet sprung here (and we're without snowshoes and skis to cross the mountains), we're weaving our way through Tierra del Fuego along La Ruta 3 which is a 1.5-lane paved highway (with a nice dirt shoulder and sometimes an accompanying trail).

We arrived in Tolhuin (population 5,000) yesterday ready for warm beds, showers, laundry, a day of rest, and a full meal. Although we've filled ourselves with delicious pastries from the well-known Panaderia La Union, we've yet to eat a well-rounded meal due to yesterday's random town holiday which subsequently shut down restaurants off-schedule today.

We head off to Rio Grande tomorrow. We hope to find a better internet connection where we can spend more time to catch up with loved ones and upload more pictures to the blog (there's so much more that we wanted to share).

Some of our favorite moments:

-Unzipping our tent yesterday morning to a sunny, crisp day on the edge of lake Fagnano (larger than lake Tahoe) which was calm as glass with snowy mountains flanking its shores

-Waking up with two cutie-pie dogs outside our tent (sadly we had to scare them away when we returned to the highway)

-Arriving in Tolhuin to two ladies who told us they've seen us every day for the past five days en route from Ushuaia to Tolhuin

-Morning and evening yoga in the mountains

-Being coined the "chicas locas" by several folks... upon hearing of our adventure a lady remarked (in Spanish), "You're walking all the way to Colombia? But that's impossible. That'd take you.... at least... THREE MONTHS (ok, try a year)! Son locas!"

-Personalized daily honks from passing truckers and tour buses

-Coming upon a restaurant on day four where we purchased three chicken empanadas each, one orange fanta each, and two large slices of pie. 

-In a bed in Tolhuin, Sarah woke up in the middle of the night and tried to unzip the tent to go to the bathroom

-Finding a store that sells grains, dried fruits and nuts in bulk

-Realizing that this is what we'll be doing for the year and feeling awesome about it

Some of our not-so-favorite moments (still working out some kinks):

-Didn't leave Ushuaia until 1pm (wanted to leave at 9am) because we found out the afternoon before that the post office only sends packages to the U.S.A. from Tierra del Fuego from 9am-12pm every morning... and then the line took forever

-The sign indicating that Ushuaia is the "fin del mundo" is being repainted so was not available for a commencement photo

-Denatured alcohol comes in many formulas. The one we purchased (without testing on our stove) doesn't burn hot enough to boil water so we've had a raw food diet

-Stores are open when they want to be. And usually not from 3-6pm.

-Internet cafes (i.e. this one) can experience lapses in service for the better part of the day

-Steripen is not sensitive in cold weather, it is VERY sensitive in cold weather

-I, without sleep one night, could hear Sarah's stomach growling in her sleep

-Sore legs and achy feet

First day on the road... realizing we're in Patagonia!

Hiking over a pass into the fog.

Taking in the "view" from the scenic overlook.

Home. Waking up on Lake Fagnano.

Showered in Tolhuin.

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!