The Best At Both Ends

I've known for sometime that I belong in the mountains. Don't get me

wrong. I loved the time we spent beach hopping through Central America

searching for the perfect wave. I loved exploring new cities, new

cultures and new landscapes that are not so familiar to me.

But sitting here in the middle of Northern Patagonia I fully accept

the fact that the mountains are, and always will be home.

Lately the trip has been stressful to say the least. If its not the

engines, its the shocks. If its not the shocks its the brakes. If its

not the brakes its the water pump... and if its not the water pump its

a... MOUSE? Come ON! As if this van isn't challenging enough to keep

on the road, a friggen MOUSE has to make our engine its home and start

chewing its way to the complete destruction of our motor! Unbelievable

I tell you.

But enough about our problems. I was talking about Patagonia.

We finally left the Ruta 5 endlessly making its way down the 5000

kilometers of Chile at the town of Osorno. We almost immediately

encountered greatness. Huge snowcapped volcanoes (one of which,

unbeknownst to us was to violently erupt mere days after we passed it)

and beautiful green forests with rivers that we could fish! We settled

right back into our northern ways, scoping out quiet spots near lakes

and rivers.

This I believe is Volcano Osorno... only about 60km from Volcano
Puyehue which errupted on the 5th of June spewing tons of ash into the
air and causing the evacuation of over 3000 people from their homes!
Luckily we passed a few days earlier!

Fishing again! Andrew couldn't be happier (at this point we didn't know about the mouse!)

Our first glimpses of the beauty that is Argentina!

First of all... We made it to Argentina!!! If only for a few days before heading back to Chile... But we made it!!
Our first stop was San Carlos De Bariloche. Home to the Simari-Birkner family. The entire family makes up the whole of the Argentine Ski Team! It was so awesome to see some friendly faces and they welcomed us with open arms. We were so thankful to catch them as they flip from from the World cup winter in Europe to the South American Cup winter in Argentina and Chile! We loved their little ski town of Bariloche... I loved it so much in fact that it was the VERY first place in the entire trip that I declared I could live there.
So thank you so much to all the family for being so welcoming and providing us with a long missed taste of home! Good luck this season!

An amazing wooden sculpture in the hippy town of El Bolsen

Nothing like a stopover at a brewery.

Mmmmm Beer tasting

Back out in the wilderness is where we love to be. Even with the endless rains we have been having, nothing can dampen our spirits!

Patagonia up close! Its gnarly like that

Just one of the many crystal clear rivers snaking through Patagonia.

A real campground! Seeing as it is the off-season here we didn't even have to pay. Bonus!

We have definitely been loving Patagonia and we know there is still another 2000 kms of big mountains, rushing rivers and massive glaciers. Crossing these two great continents from the far, far north to the deep, deep south, we truly have discovered the best at both ends.