Videos!!!!

So, I really have not figured out at all how to post videos directly onto my blog... but I do have some up on the Web... only two clicks away. Here are the links:

-The video of looking into Valle Silencio and onto the backside of the Torres in Torres del Paine National Park. I hiked to this normally off-limits zone with a park ranger, Victor, whom I befriended. The views were really breathtaking. I could see the whole route I traversed in the eight days previous from this high-ridge vantage point.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5972150149835139597


-A hello to everyone out there from when I was still in Bariloche.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3280944200957788586

The animals of the south

The animals I've seen during the past several weeks have been really really cool. In addition to the condors and toninos, mentioned in previous posts, I've seen plenty of ñadú (the Patagonian ostrich) and guanaco (a member of the camel family closely related to llamas and alpacas). I've also encountered hares, foxes, swans, ducks, a type of parrot and array of other beauitfully colored birds including pink flamingos!

A global dinner, sport

Last night I went to dinner with a couple from Italty, a guy from England, a guy from France, and a girl from Australia. The conversation was flowing along nicely until the topic of the World Cup came up... it got fiery quickly! It's crazy to think about how this one sporting event so unites... or at least connects... the world.

The end of the world

I made it! One end of the world to the other! Tierra del Fuego, here I am! In the national park, which I'm going to tomorrow, there's a sign that gives the distance to Alaska. I definitely need to get my picture next to it.

Alaska's southern opposite is beautiful... often windy and rainy, but beautiful! Urshuaia, the city, has a very Argentine flavor, but like Alaska, it's stuck somewhere between the new tourism-oriented development and backwoods, rustic edges. I love it!

To travel from Calafate to Urshuaia I spent all day and night on a bus. In addition having to cross into and back out of Chile to get to Urshaia we had to do a beautiful ferry crossing across the Megellian Straights. This is a picture of my bus loading onto the ferry.

So this was by far the highlight of the bus trip! During the 20 min. ferry crossing a pod of toninos followed us, jumping in and out of the boat's wake. I didn't even know that toninos existed... I'd never heard of them, never seen a picture. So when a girl motioned me to the edge of the boat and I looked over and saw all these black and white dolphins I was blown away. It was out of this world.

The harbor in Urshuaia is beautiful, esp. when graced by a rainbow!

The full view

Yesterday afternoon I hiked with a few newfound friends up the side of a mountain outside of Urshuaia. The blowing snow and whipping wind cleared for some minutes to offer us this impressive view of the town below.

Calafate and Chalten, Patagonia

Me hiking an isolated trail up the backside of Fitz Roy. It was the first sunny day after three days of rain, and the hike was amazing. I did it with a lady from Montana, a guy I met in Calafate who's lived there and worked there for two years but never been to Chalten, and two kittens. I'm not joking about the two kittens. They started following us from the hut where we were camped and continued all the way up the mountain!

Sunrise on Fitz Roy on my final morning out

Sunrise reflections

The clouds and sunset during my bus trip out of Chalten were breathtaking!

Due to weather and a decision to set up camp rather than fight the wind and rain quite literally knocking me off my feet, I spent from 2:30 p.m. until 9 a.m. the next morning in the tent. I was glad for the rest time and even gladder I had brought my book along.

The Perrito Moreno Glacier outside of Calafate. It was big and impressive. During the three hours I sat infront of it I got to see a massive chunck of ice (were talking the size of a multi-story building) peel off and crash into the lake below!

My intention was to go into the valley between Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy. It's off the main trekking routes and requires a short glacier crossing and a Tirolian Traverse river crossing. Below I'm doing the Tirolian Traverse with my backpack. I never made it into the valley through because by the time I got to the glacier the winds were so strong I was literally getting knocked over. Thus the 2:30 p.m. camp setup mentioned above. The Valley I was headed for is shown in the photo below.

This is the valley I was headed for between Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, but weather (not that you can see any of that from this picture =) turned me around. I guess I'll just have to go back.

All throughout my journey I've spent time with many wonderful, amazing, friendly, interesting people. I spent one night waiting out a rain strom with Kurt and Stephie in Kurt's yellow mansion... aka four man tent he was carrying for himself... his friends had left a few days prior.

After three days of wind and rain you can imagine how excited I was to poke my head out of the tent and rest my eyes on this backside view of Fitz Roy!

A brief

Photos coming soon!!

As is often the case with internet cafes in Latin America, the computer is being a little screwy and not quite working right. I'll try and get images up soon of some of my many awesome moments, views and encounters in Southern Patagonia.

Love and hugs to you all,
Amy

Another beautiful day of living

"Thank you for another beautiful day of living!"

Sometimes I wake up by shouting these words out to the sunbathed mountains, birds and forest around me. Sometimes I wake up just thinking these words quietly over and over in my head.

Even if I had access to all the languages in the world, I still wouldn't know how to fully describe all the sights I've seen, emotions I've felt, and people I've come to know over the last number of months.

My mind wanders through the snipits shuffling past in my memory:

-The roar of a calving glacier as it crashes into a blue velvet lake

-Long, latenight conversations

-Glowing amber sunrises on Fitz Roy

-A nightly communion with the Southern Cross, O'rion and the moon

-Wind so strong it literally knocked me over

-Sunsets painted with a pallet of 1,000 colors on whispy, cottony clouds

-Spending nearly 20 hours in my tent... reading, sleeping, thinking... as the rain and wind tormented ferociously

-Delighful and numerous invitations for coffee, lunch, whisky or a good joke from "strangers."

-Watching condors ride wind currents, foxes weave through shrubs, and hares hop out of sight

-The sensation of timelessness; and inspiration for life

-Standing at the base of rock spires... massive cliff faces piercing the air... and feeling small

-The smile plastered onto my face

-Pulling myself over a glacial river on a tirolian traverse

Torres Photos

The group of rockin' sweet girls who I hiked with (Bree, my main hiking buddy, is in the middle)

Walking on the Grey Glacier

Me infront of one of many spectacular sights

Reflecting on the Cuernos

"Where's Werder?" (see explanation in the previous post)

Torres del Paine

Some days ago I sat high up on a windy mountain ridge. Below me Valle Silencio, an amphitheater for the gods, reverberated soundlessly. My eyes traced the route my feet had traversed during the week previous -- from the Dickson Glacier to John Garner Pass to Laguna Amarga.

Some days ago I rock climbed on a face perched only meters above the rugged, chilling, yet graceful, Grey Glacier. The route demanded focus and creativity, but in the end I passed the crux and climbed to the anchor above.

Some days ago I couldn't fall asleep because Bree and I were laughing too hard in our too small tent. "Where's Werder?!?" Werder was a very quirky, but endearing old man from Switzerland who reminded us of Waldo (the children's books).

Some days ago I met Bree, a chica from Montana, on the bus between Bariloche and Rio Gallegos. After deciding to hike Torres together, we spent one night in a hostel, before getting separated due to a last minute mishap with incorrect passport stamps. Bree stayed behind in Argentina to get everything figured out with immigration while I went on to Puerto Natales to do trip prep. We met two days later at the park entrance and began not only to hike, but also to get to know one another. We ended up to be great hiking companions and friends!

Some days ago I was on John Garner pass with Bree and three other vibrant girls from the U.S. The wind was blowing, but the rain had thankfully let up. Fresh snow crunched under our feet. Great views danced in and out of clouds.

Some days ago Bree and I decided to make dinner with a park ranger, Nico, and a young Chilean couple. The food we all had to contribute complimented each other perfectly and together we ate a particularly excellent meal, followed by particularly excellent wine.

Some days ago I had one of those conversations that leaves a lasting impact. Alexis, who's worked as a park ranger for the past seven years, and I broached topics as wide-ranging as the importance of caring for nature to life purpose to the idea of adopting children.

I sit here on this overcast, windy day in Puerto Natales and I'm still trying to take in all in. More than 100 km. of happy, challenging and inspiring moments...

Cheers to Torres!

From north, TO SOUTH

For life at the polar opposite, there's an amazing number of similarities!

Southern Patagonia is everything I imagined and more... rugged and rustic, quaint and friendly, vast and breathtaking.

Kind of like Alaska.

Right now I'm in Puerto Natales, Chile. I'm spending a couple of nights here before beginning an eight day trek through Torres Del Paine National Park. The trek should be spectacular, filled with spires, glaciers, lakes and mountains passes. It also might be filled with people as the trek I'm doing is a popular one. Hopefully it won't be too smothered though.

No matter what, after three long days on a bus, I'm excited to get back out hiking! I met a really awesome chica from Montana named Bree who I'm going to do the trek with. We get along well and she seems like the perfect person to be in the backcountry with. Once again, things are falling into place better than if I had tried to make a plan.

That's one thing that traveling teaches you: To trust that good things and situations will always work out!

Well, I just wanted to send love, hellos and happiness from the tip of South America.

Photos coming soon... okay in eight plus days... but soon... as soon as I get back!

Penguin hugs,
Amy

Life's traverse

I had a few days without any plans in particular, so I decided to try a summit and a traverse I've had my eyes on for a while. The summit attempt got cut short when I woke up to ferociously blowing snow... it was a chilly night in the tent. The following day though proved to be "re lindo," with perfectly sunny blue skies. I went from Refugio Jakob all the way back to Bariloche following ridge lines. It took 12 hours exactly! You can imagine how a slept last night.

The route was basically straight forward, full of lots of scrambling over loose rocks. There were a few times through where I had to navigate up, under, over, below, or through some cliff faces, and wasn't completely sure of the route. Alone, I learned a lot about mental focus and confidence. I kept telling myself: "Amy, breathe, there's always a way."

About midday, after having proved to myself multiple times that, indeed, there always is a way, I realized how applicable my words are to life in general. Everytime I start to get overwhelmed by trying to plan my life path, I just need to stop and think, "Amy, breathe, you'll find the way."

Self-portrait on the ridge

My day finished with the full moon rising in the alpenglow!