CARNIVAL!!!

So in order for us to make it for Carnival we had to take 35 hours of buses from Santiago, Chile to an old mining town called Oruro, Bolivia. We splurged for a bus with fully reclining seats so we could sleep. When we picked our seats on the bus Colleen thought we were getting the seats in the front so we could have a view, but she was mistaken and we were in the very back hanging out with the toilet. Despite the location of the seats it was a very pleasant journey!

The Carnival in Oruro is the second biggest in the world with 400,000 people attending, 20,000 dancers, and 10,000 band members. The parade goes on for 4 km and can last for 20 hours each day for three days. A large part of the parade is to commemorate "El Tio"(similar to the devil)who is the owner of all underground minerals and precious metals.

Chao Chile, hola Bolivia!

The day before the parade anyone can come out on the parade street and sell their goods, there were also people painting the streets and putting up decorations.

Party supplies! Fire works, foam spray, squirt guns, masks, confetti and loads of other fun stuff!

And the battle begins! Colleen was singled out and targeted by all of the younger kids attending the festival! Basically most gringos were soaked with water guns and foam spray.

Here I am getting a face full of foam spray. This was one of the more mellow attacks, at some points I couldn't even see because of the inches of foam on my face and in my eyes! 

All of the groups had a different dance and outfit to celebrate a part of their culture, there were groups from all over Bolivia. The costumes were very detailed and amazing.

Our friend Adam getting worked!

On the second day we wised up and got seats on the top of the bleachers. Great views plus a better position for...

Attacking! It was nice to spend a day on the offence vs the defense. There was no mercy, we were blasting everyone!

No child labor laws here.... 9 year old kids selling beer all over the carnival.

The gringos weren't the only ones getting soaked, the younger Bolivian girls were also main targets.

The carnival was awesome, we got to see some serious Bolivian culture and enjoy it with some great friends!

Making moves.. .Bariloche Argentina & Santiago, Chile

So we were lucky enough to spend a week at a ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina. My dad and Lisa hooked us up with some points on their time share. It was a very nice break after sleeping in our tent for around 40 days in Patagonia. After our week of luxury in Bariloche we went to Santiago, Chile.

This is the view from the top of the ski resort Cerro Catedral.

Bariloche is in the lake district of Argentina, beautiful scenery as far as you could see.

Nectar!

This is a warming hut/cafe that we came across on our hike up the ski hill. It was built into and under this giant boulder. It looks kinda sketchy but super awesome at the same time.

This is a 4 hour hike from where we stayed and is one of the most popular climbing areas in Argentina. There was a laid back climbers refugio at the top and lots of cliffs and spires. 

We went from Bariloche to Osorno, Chile and got stranded there for a night because all of the buses were full. We had to wait for the next night bus to take us to Santiago and when we arrived we found this beautiful hostel overlooking the Plaza Del Armas.

This is one of our dinners overlooking the plaza and catching the sunset. This dinner consisted of 5 avocados and a bowl of lentils..... the joy of budget traveling.

Plaza Del Armas.

Like all good cities there was nice street art and...

Good street food, this is a local drink called huesillo. It's a mix of peach juice and oats, Surprisingly good!

Another view of downtown Santiago, if there wasn't so much polution you could see alot more.....buildings.

And here is Chile thanking us for our visit at the border town of Colchane. Chao Chile, hola Bolivia!

And Patagonia just keeps on going!

After Torres del Paine we crossed back over the border to Argentina. Our first stop was in El Calafate for some glacier watching. Next we went up to El Chalten for some more trekking and to admire the infamous Fitz Roy! After enough of the cold weather we headed north along the desolate Route 40 to El Bolson (our final stop in Patagonia). 

Just airing out the house and enjoying the sun and view in our backyard (for the week).

Enjoying the yummy wine from Mendoza. Patrick has clearly had too much to drink and lost the wine opener in his beard.

The main attraction in El Calafate is Glacier Perito Moreno. We spent the day watching icebergs fall of this glacier and float away into the lake. The noise of the ice cracking and breaking was so loud you thought there was an earthquake or something.  

My favorite part about the glacier was its color. The really cold compact ice was so blue it looked like it had food coloring in it. It was like Kool aid blue.



Fun on the bus/ Patrick annoying me as I get crumbs all over myself.

 

El Chalten. This was one of my favorite towns! It was surrounded by amazing cliffs that made us regret not having out rock climbing gear. Then behind the cliffs are amazing mountains and glaciers. A huge outdoor play ground where you can do so many outdoor activities.

On the trail again!

We set up our tarp and ate lunch here as we watched the clouds move slowly over Fitz Roy. This was the first day of our hike, it was cloudy all morning and we had not seen any of the peaks yet. So this was a very exciting moment.

Finally we started getting a clear sky and were able to see all the peaks and Fitz Roy.

Since the weather was clearing up we thought we should take advantage of the opportunity and hike up to the mirador (lookout). This was as close as you could get hiking.

The sky stayed clear the rest of the night and this was the view from our campsite. You can see the path to the mirador on the hill.

On our hike the next day, we ran into this huge boulder field! The boulders were so big there were bolted rock climbing routes on them. Lots of fun climbing all over them to get to another glacier and glacier lake.

In hind sight... I should have pushed Patrick in. Jk he would probably have gotten hypothermia.

Some how tadpoles and frogs survive in the freezing glacier water. It was cool to see all different stages of life.

My favorite view from the hike. On our second to last day we hiked to the other side of the park to see the back of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. It was cloudy and rainy all day so once we got to camp we set up our tent and hung out inside. Finally after the weather had stopped and I couldn't handle sitting in the tent any longer I went outside to see if the view had cleared up. Peak Torre was still covered in dark clouds but the half moon was amazing and sitting perfectly between these to peaks!

I ran back to camp and got Patrick out of the tent to come and enjoy the moon with me. We watched it move across the sky until we were too cold to stay outside any longer.

Similar to Colorado, the weather here moves fast. By the morning the whole valley was clear of clouds. We got to see a beautiful view of Cerro Torre.

We brought our breakfast supplies up to the glacier lake beneath CerroTorre to fully take in the view  before heading back to town. 

We wanted to travel up the famous Ruta 40 (over 1200 km) to get to El Bolson. There are only a few bus companies that take this route because large portions of the road are unpaved. From El Chalten we took a bus to Perito Moreno (about half way). Once we got there we decided to try our luck at hitch hiking the rest the way. Four rides, 680 km and 1 day later we made it! 

While waiting 15 minutes outside of a small town at an intersection (for over 3 hours), we were touched by a strangers kindness. He had passed us once on his way to a work site out of town and pulled over to talk to us and see what we were doing there. Then an hour later he came back with lunch for both of us! It was so nice and exactly what we needed because we had finished all our crackers. He must of known how hard it would be for us to get a ride.

But finally a family stopped to ask us for directions and offered us a ride if we wanted to sit in the back of their truck. We figured beggars cant be choosers and squished in (behind all of their luggage). We went over 250 km like this mainly on dirt roads. Super dusty!

After a long day of hitch hiking and a night in a town a few hours away, we made it to El Bolson! It was quite the adventure. We were happy to set up our home (tent) at this beautiful campsite. El Bolson was was exactly what we needed after a month of southern Patagonia. It was a warm, hippy, mountain town with good local craft beer, a great farmers market and a Jazz Festival. It reminded us of a miniature Boulder and how much we love Colorado.

There was also lots of hiking but we couldn't get motivated to do more than 1 hike. However we did spend a day lounging out and swimming at this amazing lake(Lago Puelo).