THE END!

Hey guys,
So we got really lazy and had alot of trouble accessing computers once we left Baraloche so its been six weeks since the last blog...ooops. As most of you know we are home now and desperately searching for jobs and getting ready for Christmas in a couple of days. We just didn't want to leave you hanging like that so I wanted to share some stories and pictures from the last couple of weeks of our trip.
So here goes, lets see what I can remember from way back then haha...After leaving the lake district of Baraloche in Argentina we hopped on a bus and went clear across the country to a port town on the Atlantic ocean called Puerto Madryn. We decided to go there because Puerto Madryn is known to have spectacular views and close encounters with its marine life, so we figured the seafood might not be bad ether...we were wrong. So after a disappointing and over priced shrimp and calamari dinner we looked into what sort of activities we should do in our short two days we had there. We decided upon a do it yourself tour where we would once again rent a car and just show ourselves around. The next morning we took off bright and early to a sanctuary for Penguins and other wildlife. After we parked the car and paid some outrageous entrance fee, we came upon a lone penguin that we photographed about 50 times before moving on and walking over the next hill where of course there were another 25698075865223452 penguins waddling all over the place...some people never learn!

The Penguin place was pretty cool, those things were everywhere and it never got old watching them waddle here and there, kind of like how you can watch a bunch of people step into the same pile of dog poo from a near by bench over and over...or is that just us? Anyway the next day we once again rented bikes to ride down to a sea lion colony that was suppose to be just a few kilometers away, but once again we ended up on an filthy, unpaved, never ending dirt road for about three hours. When we did finally arrive at the sea lion colony, we again paid some ridiculous entrance fee and looked down from the look out point where we could see about a thousand sea lions all crammed onto the secluded cove below.

Sea lions are not nearly as interesting as penguins, you can only watch them for about 10 mins before you have had your fill. Three hours of dusty, bumpy awful bike ridding later we were back in town where we were treated to some whales hanging out right beneath the pier.

And that was it for Puorto Madryn, the next day we got on another 20 hour bus and headed into the capital city of Buenos Aires.
We checked into our hostel, the famous Milhouse Ave and after a long nap we decided to explore the city. Buenos Aires reminded Lynz alot of New York, but not me...mainly because I have never been to New York. We did several walking tours and stayed out late quite a few nights but that's pretty much mandatory. Most places and people don't serve dinner until about 11pm at the earliest, many as late as 1am...for dinner!! It was exhausting! We treated ourselves to the nicest steak restaurants in the city on a couple of occasions, because when you can get the best steak of your life for about $20 USD, why not! We did several day time tours of the city as well and got to see all the famous parts of the city, including La Boca soccer stadium, Evitas tomb, the Recoleta district and the famous outdoor markets.

With only a couple of days left in South America, we made a game time decision to hop on a bus to Iguazu Falls, one of those places everyone says "You cant go to South America and not see it"...So like a couple of sheep we did. This time we were anything but disappointed! I believe Iguazu is the second largest falls on the planet, and it was incredible!

We were even able to take a boat ride under the falls, that was like Splash Mountain at Disney Land on steroids!

The down side was we only spent one full day there, but had to spend two full days on buses getting there and back. Oh well, at least it was our last South American bus rides ever.
The day after we boarded our flights back to America and were able to spend two weeks in southern California and Texas visiting friends, family and most importantly consuming mass quantities of Mexican food!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read our little blog and email us while we were away! Until next trip, hasta la vista!

Sean & Lynz

Paradise in the South!

Hola from Bariloche, Patagonia the most beautiful place on earth!

Sean and I have decided that we have found our new home... Patagonia has proven to be one of the prettiest places that both of us have seen and we have had the pleasure of taking in the fresh mountain air, crystal clear lakes, snowcapped mountains and lush hills peppered with bright colored spring flowers for 10 days now.

Our transition from Mendoza to Bariloche was easy and friendly and in a moments time after getting off the bus we found ourselves at a really cool hostel that over looks lake Nahuel Huapi (the largest of the 7 lakes of Patagonia) and a large looming snowcapped mountain.

Being low on cash we were a little nervous that we wouldn´t be able to do much without a tour guide but contrary to thought we realized that we could do a whole lot more than we imagined on our own. The day after our big hike up Catedral we took it easy hanging around the town gathering maps and information about the nearby local mountains and sights and gluttonously consuming ridiculous amounts of chocolate - something Bariloche is known for.

The following day we woke up early, something we are not used to these days :-) and heading out with a few new friends to Cerro Campanario (a small hike to a look out) by local bus. It was a short 30 minute, vertical, butt kicking hike to a magnificently crowded view point (or you could cheat and take the chair lift up, which everyone and their mom did). It was beautiful but we desperately struggled to get a picture without a stranger in it.

After that Sean and I left our new friends to walk 500 meters up the road to a bike rental place where we rented bikes and headed out on a 26km (16m) ride. The bike ride has probably been our highlight here despite the fact it was a killer for the calves and buns! But it was so, so beautiful to ride past bushes and bushes of bright spring flowers (that we learned only bloom for 2 months out of the year), pine trees and the famous Arrayanes trees (beautiful big trees with striped cinnamon colored trunks famous for growing in the forests of Patagonia). For most of the day we pedaled up hill inclines to arrive at look out points, waterfalls and the most breath taking sights... To be honest I can´t really describe and do justice to the beauty of this place and part of me feels like I am a broken record running out of adjectives that would properly describe the exquistness of Patagonia. Even the pictures that we have taken really don´t capture the charm of the south and because of that I feel like we have to take it in that much more and try to remember the mountains that literally are stacked upon one another and go on for what looks like eternity.

Sean and I have been taking total advantage of every mountain we have access to and trail or no trail we try to scale up it for the view. Because Bariloche is really known as a ski/snowboarding town the mountains trails are maintained but empty and open to the public. So everyday we have been taking the local buses to all the routes offered and embarking on a new adventure, and it has been pure bliss!!! The other day we found a trail marked Cerro Tacul and took it up until it placed us on top of the mountain. It was our first totally unobstructed view... Not one human hand had touched, developed or chopped anything in our sight in a 360 degree view point. So we sat down and had lunch and stayed there for a couple hours until the sun had taken its toll on our skin.

Yesterday we decided to get out of the town and drive around the 7 lakes. We had met a couple of friends a couple days earlier that wanted to go so the 4 of us rented a little red car and headed out down dirt rode that took us for miles into the forest of pine trees, rushing lakes and quiet lakes then desert lands with giant unusal rock formations and then flat lands with clouds streaked with pink. It was like driving through 4 states in a matter of hours and it was so cool.

Today we headed down to the shore of the lake where we laid in the shade for half the day reading a book and admiring the literal crystal clear waters of Lake Nahuel Huapi.

Tomorrow will be a tearful goodbye for us as we head towards the Atlantic Ocean town Puerto Madyrn to catch up with the peguins, sealions and whales.

I hope all is well with everyone! Muchos besos desde Patagonia.

Ciao!

Lyndsay and Sean

Patagonia!

Hey guys,
I know its been awhile since the last blog, but we really haven't been doing too much blog-worthy stuff in the last ten days or so. To get you caught up since the Atacama desert(our last blog) we left San Pedro, drove straight down to Santiago for 24 hours, changed buses and took another 8 hour ride to Mendoza, Argentina. We were staying in a really relaxed hostel in the center of town where we basically just went on walks, read books in the park and watched movies. Very uneventful and totally relaxing. Mendoza was one of the nicest cities I have been in, and I am not just talking about South America, I am talking about anywhere! The streets are very clean, people are nice and highly educated, Lynz went nuts shopping in the zillion clothing stores and we both were extremely happy to see a SUBWAY sandwich shop again! Turns out in Argentina both Education (through your masters degree) and all medical services are free, not only to citizens but to foreigners alike. Kind of makes us want to move down there and get a free masters degree, or at least a free Yellow fever shot (which we paid $150 for in the states WITH insurance!)
Three days ago we jumped on another bus from Mendoza to Baraloche in Patagonia where we are now. We decided to spoil ourselves for this bus ride and paid for ¨Cama¨ class which translates to ¨bed¨...we also booked a week in advance to make sure that we had the upstairs seats against the front windshield for the 18 hour ride...it was an AWESOME decision! As soon as the sun came up we were just surrounded by crystal clear lakes and rivers, huge rock formations, clear blue skies and even a bit of wild life.

As we came into the Baraloche district, we couldn't´t help think of how much it looks like lake Tahoe in California.

Arriving at our hostel we were blown away by how posh it was, they have beautiful lake views from everywhere in the hostel including the HOT TUB room!

This morning we woke up early and headed out for a hike since it was perfect weather outside. We had been recommended to take a bus around the lake and hike up a ski resort that is closed since its summer down here, it supposedly boast one of the best views around. Arriving at the resort we didn´t know what to expect, but lucky for us the place was a ghost town. We just started walking up the mountain until we reached snow, then we kept walking until we reached the top about two hours later. We could not believe the view, I don't think either of us had any idea what a beautiful place we were in until we could see it all in perspective from the top.

We spent a few mins taking some pictures before sliding on our butts down the snow then hiking the rest of the way down in soaking wet shoes...not so fun.
We are thinking we are going to have to change our plans and stay in this town a week or maybe even two before heading back to the cities which we had planned to do much sooner. This place just has too much to offer in the way of hiking, fishing, kayaking, biking and much more. Stay tuned and we will put up another blog soon and let you know what we end up doing!

Sean and Lyndsay

Hasta Luago Bolivia, y Chile....Hola Argentina!

So in the course of three days Lynz and I will have left Bolivia, crossed into Chile and made it into Argentina, our final country! I think the last blog came to you from Sucre, Bolivia where we were taking a few days to recover from the Monkey park and some long bus rides. After three days in Sucre we hoped onto a nine hour bus to the town (if you can call it that) of Unuyi, where our Salt flat adventure began. The town of Unuyi was seriously in the MIDDLE of nowhere, I don't think I have ever seen anywhere so remote, our bus had not passed another sign of civilization for atleast five hours before we had arrived in Unuyi. The only way to know that you are getting close to the town is about two miles before the town you start to see trash stuck in the desert brush, and as you get closer the trash gets thicker until you are on the outskirts of the town where you can barley see the desert earth below all the trash, it was disgusting!
The only people who travel to Unuyi are those who are there to do the Salt flat tour, so no one stays more then a day there. We quickly found a company to go on the tour with, checked into a hostel, got a bite to eat and headed to bed because it was FREEZING outside, probably about 30 something degrees! Our tour picked us up in a big Toyota Land Cruiser and we headed off into the unknown.

As we looked out the window of the truck you see just how popular a destination the salt flats are, there were probably no less then 75 other Land Cruisers on all sides of us headed the same way, it looked a lot like that scene from ¨Independence Day¨ where are the R.V.s are coming across the desert to Area 51....
Our first stop was the train graveyard where I guess Bolivian trains come to die. It was actually really impressive to see these classic trains rusting in the desert, with a beautiful mountain backdrop. Since its Bolivia and you are allowed to do what ever you want, we climbed all over the trains and ran around like kids at a playground for about an hour.

We then loaded back into the Trucks and headed another hour or so across the desert where all of a sudden the dirt turned to salt beneath our tires and soon there was nothing else in sight.

There were a few dump trucks out on the salt flats scooping up pure profit and we couldn't´t help but think what an easy job, no mines to dig, no dirt to filter out, just scoop it up and sell it!
As our truck continued across the flats we got a opportunity to stop at one of the salt hotels that are made entirely of salt, from the tables to the beds to art on the walls and the walls themselves!

Little did we know where we would be staying for the next two nights or we would have saved ourselves the time of touring the place! Our group headed back out onto the salt for another few hours of driving and seeing NOTHING but salt until we arrived a ¨Fish Island¨ which is a rocky island that rises out of the salt flats and is probably the size of two football fields.

There we were able to climb up the rocks and get some amazing views of our surroundings, where the only living thing was cactus plants some over thirty feet tall!

After a lunch of Llama steaks we decided to take advantage of the amazing backdrop the salt flats created and got crazy with some perspective photos...

After ANOTHER five or so hours of driving across the salt flats (sorry I keep mentioning it, but I really want you to get the idea of how much salt is out there!!) we finally arrived at our hotel...made of salt. It was actually very luxury for a hotel made of salt, and just like the previous hotel we toured it was ENTIRELY made of salt. We settled in for the night and actually had a very good night sleep despite the fact that most of the bed was made of salt! I couldn't´t help but have dreams about it raining and the whole place melting all over me, fortunately it did not. The next morning we were up, fed and in the truck by about 630am to check out some volcano´s and lagoons.
Our first stop was was a huge active volcano that was smoking and spitting out some ash into the clear blue morning. Our next stop was the first of four lagoons that are home to Bolivia´s Flamingo population. If you have ever been to the Honolulu zoo, you know these are some stinky little creatures and when you arrive at these lagoons you know why. I'm pretty sure they eat rotten mud....The whole place stunk and was freezing cold, so we snapped a few quick pictures and were on our way again.

Each lagoon we came to offered an amazing backdrop, and each one was a different color depending on what kinds of natural elements and minerals were found nearby. One of the most impressive lagoons was colored red and white due to the high concentration of Borax (the cleaning chemical) and this is supposedly what makes the flamingos pink, because the consume so much red algae in their diet.

Our day ended at another hotel in the middle of nowhere, with not a cloud in the sky and a moon that had been up all day and went below the horizon at nightfall we had the most amazing view of the stars I have ever seen. The temperature was well below freezing, and every layer of clothes I had could not combat the hurricane force winds outside, but I still could not get myself to take my eyes off the stars and planets above. Because the landscape was so flat, the stars literally started at eye level right at the horizon line, and ended in the same place behind you. Because we are now in the southern hemisphere, everything was opposite, the little dipper was barley above the horizon and the southern cross was glowing brite above us, something I have never seen before.
The next morning we were up at 445am to head to the geysers for sunrise. We didn´t really know what to expect, but when we arrived a couple of hours later, there were literally ¨Old Faithful¨ type geysers erupting out of the earth, and pockets of bubbling mud and steam vents in all directions...I felt like a dinosaur about to meet his demise!

It was so cold out that the steam would land on everything around it and instantly turn to ice!

The next stop was a natural hot-spring that none of us really had high hopes for after seeing some of the other hot-springs across South America, but when we arrived we were greeted by perfect 100 degree, crystal clear water surrounded by huge mountains and another cloudless sky.

I hoped in while Lynz decided getting out of her clothes in below freezing water was just too painful. When we got out, I changed back into my warm clothes my wet board shorts froze solid, it was incredible! Our final tour stop was the green lagune that got its color from some mineral that I can not remember, but never the less it was a very green lagoon.

We then drove another few hours and were dropped off at the boarder of Chile and Bolivia, where we crossed and are now in San Pedro, in the heart of the Atacama desert (where those 33 miners just were rescued from). This town is pretty incredible, it looks like the old west on the outside, dirt roads and mud brick structures, but is actually really nice and super expensive! For that reason we are taking the next bus out of here (tonight) to Santiago, the capital of Chile, a 24 hour bus ride away. Four hours after that we will be getting on an eight hour bus from Santiago, across the boarder to Mendoza, Argentina. Yes that means we will spend Halloween in a bus, but I think it should be worth it! We will update you again after a few days in Mendoza, miss you all!

Sean & Lynz