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Adventure Awaits
  • Brian Litwin
  • Stacy Litwin
  • Brian Litwin
  • Stacy Litwin

Adventure Awaits

Let’s go for an adventure she said. He agreed. She planned. They went. The world became....worldly.
This trip showed us what really matters: friends and family. Thanks to all who shared this adventure with us. Read more
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  • Trip start
    December 29, 2024
    Adventure Awaits

    Montevideo, Uruguay

    December 31, 2024 in Uruguay ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Apparently to celebrate New Years, everyone sits up on balconies and throws water down on the people in the streets, Tori definitely got doused by a whole buckets worth😂 They also rip up their 2024 calendars and throw them out their windows, littering the streets with confetti.

    The streets were a crazy dance party during the day, Carnaval style with drummers and professional dancers and then everyone joined in the dance, just amazing and wild.

    Then, everyone waits until midnight on the bike path along the beach, The Rambla, and lights off a barage of fireworks that probably surpasses what most cities put on. So fun.    Read more

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    Colonia, Uruguay

    January 2, 2025 in Uruguay ⋅ 🌬 84 °F

    Today was our final day in Uruguay and it was a really fun five days. We spent our final day in Colonia Del Sacramento, which is a Port town and an old fort that was used to fend off the Spanish when the Portuguese originally “founded” it in 1680. It’s a really pretty town with a nice fort, a lighthouse and really quaint touristy streets.

    We rented a golf cart, yes you read that correctly, and had Tori and Jakob drive us around the Uruguayan streets to a beach and saw an old Colosseum that was built for bullfighting. It was a fun day and we will start exploring Buenos Aires tomorrow.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits

    Buenos Aires, Argentina

    January 7, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Buenos Aires has been fun, but damn is it a big city. We have been taxiing/Ubering around most places and it seemingly always takes 30 minutes to get anywhere. We went to the Plaza de Mayo, which is beautiful and walked the river front. Gorgeous area. The architecture in the area is very European, and is widely considered to be the Paris of the south.

    We went to see a Tango Show, not necessarily for me, but Stacy loved it. Lots of dangerous kicking by those ladies between the legs :) and lots of music and dancing.

    By the way, Argentinians are freaking night owls, the show didn’t start until after 10pm. Argentinians regularly siesta and don’t even go out for dinner until around 9pm and then first go out. Way past my bedtime 😂

    We walked La Boca and San Telmo today. La Boca, which seceded from Argentina for around 50 years certainly has a rebellious spirit. It has beautifully colored buildings. They used left over paint from the ships in port, because it is an impoverished area, but luckily the colors they used were quite vibrant and beautiful.

    We also visited a market in San Telmo, which was mobbed with people but always nice to look around and people watch. I believe tomorrow is a graffiti tour and more pool time.

    This is our last night in BA. Yesterday was La Recoleta, beautiful area with tons of museums, a world famous bookstore (4 floors in a former theater where you can sit in the orchestra level to read your book :) and a very famous cemetery. It's similar to New Orleans, where everything is above ground and a mausoleum. This is where they bury their presidents and most famous citizens.

    Jakob has been loving the numerous parks with their outdoor workout equipment. People, like Jakob :), show up to get a quick workout in and these parks have been a regular thing for us.

    Some of the most fun have been our failures/mistakes. Speaking of the bookstore, I initially Ubered us to the wrong one. Today we spent the day walking to a planetarium through blistering heat only to find it was closed. But, we randomly came across a free zoo, which was awesome. We regularly go grocery shopping and Stacy bought a lot of steak that was only supposed to be used for soup. So each steak only had a few nibbles each, so we essentially had cabbage and squash for dinner, you had to be there :)

    Speaking of cabbage, Tori and Jakob bought a salad to make with their dinner which of course turned out to be cabbage 😂

    Tomorrow we go to Ushuaia, the southern most city and we are in for a BIG weather change. High in the 50’s with rain 😬    Read more

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    Ushuaia, Argentina

    January 15, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 48 °F

    Ushuaia is one of the more beautiful cities in the world and is also the southern most city in the world. It is situated along a stunning coastline, surrounded by mountains. The town itself is quite cute and we had a magnificent Airbnb overlooking the town, mountains and ocean. Spectacular.

    We taught our niece, Tori, and her fiance, Jakob, how to play euchre and promptly crushed them😂 Went for many hikes and one should strive to do as much hiking as possible in this area. Simply stunning. Tori and Jakob went on a penguin tour while Stacy and I cheaped out 😉. Highly recommend this area, but it is time to hike the O circuit of Torres del Paine, Patagonia.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits

    Patagonia O Circuit

    January 16, 2025 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 55 °F

    The O Circuit of Patagonia is around 80 miles of tough hiking over the course of 8 days. It is a land of wind, mountains and glaciers. The first 2 days of hiking were impossibly windy. When we were camping the first night, our tents would literally blow all the way down to our faces. Tents shouldn't do that. It was so windy, that Tori and Jakob's tent ripped. Pretty nerve wracking for it to do that on the very first night. You could hear the wind coming like a freight train. Nobody slept well that first night.

    Amazingly, the second day was even windier. We hiked over this hill into both Gail force winds and some of the most beautiful mountain ranges. Luckily after these first two days, the wind died down. Camp Dickson was night 2 and absolutely stunning. Our camp was surrounded by mountains and a river with horses running around.

    Most of the hiking took around 4-6 hours to complete but there was one day that took 10 hours. Day 4 absolutely kicked everyone's ass. Don't get me wrong, all the days were physically hard and everyone felt worked at the end of it, but day 4 was in its own category. We had a pass along a peak that we had to summit. We climbed a total of 4500 hundred feet, but once we got there saw one of the most majestic scenes. It was one of the largest glaciers I have ever seen. I cannot articulate and can't imagine the photo will do it justice.

    Unfortunately, the hike down was equal in steepness to the way up, a real knee buster. Luckily day 5 was only a 10K of hiking with heavy packs, as easy a day as it got for us, since everyone desperately needed a recovery day.

    Our final destination was Torres del Paine which was every bit as beautiful as expected. We got up on our final day at 4am to start our hike up to the peaks. Our timing was perfect since others left at 3am but it was clouded in the whole time for them, until our arrival:)

    We met so many amazing people along the way, some of whom Stacy and I will continue to travel with, it was gruelingly difficult at times but even more beautiful than I remembered. But, it is good to be back to the land of showers and beds.

    Guest excerpt: I'm not sure how this was overlooked by the author, but there was a big detail misplanned in the trip. Or should I say three details. Suspension bridges. Oops. Brian fears heights....and he will be putting his life on the line, at least in his mind. He peered around looking for an exit strategy on the bridges...but operation bridge it was time and time again. Meanwhile, Jakob had the time of his life giddily bouncing up and down.    Read more

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    El Calafate and El Chalten

    January 31, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    We arrived in El Calafate, gateway to the Los Glaciares National Park. This National Park is home to the massive Perito Moreno Glacier. It’s the third largest glacier in the country, but is most renowned for how close you can walk to it. A series of boardwalks brings you to within a football field where you can walk and listen to the thunderous sounds of glacier calving. Spectacular! Luckily, a couple who hiked the O Circuit of Patagonia landed here too. We met up and were able to visit the glacier together, in all its majesty.

    After El Calafate, we once again hit the backpacking road again, this time we trekked from Argentina over and into Chile. It was a bit wild. We were in this town called El Chalten, gorgeous and where most people hike Fitz Roy, famous mountain and really beautiful, look it up. I say look it up because the weather didn't cooperate enough for us to see it.

    Stacy and I kind of messed up. We went to book a shuttle for our backpacking trip and were told the 10am is already booked and like the two geniuses we are, we held off on buying the noon shuttle and instead tried hitchhiking for a while. When that was unsuccessful, we went back to buy the noon shuttle and sure as shit it was already sold out😂, leaving Stacy and I stuck and back to hitchhiking 🤷‍♂️

    Stacy and I have certainly hitchhiked a lot in our travels but this was a tougher one. We sat around for hours before finally finding someone who would only take us halfway down to the lake where we were starting, placing us in the middle of nowhere without cell reception. We accepted the ride and got dropped off in the middle of nowhere and hoping someone else would pick us up, otherwise we had no plan.

    As an aside, after getting out of the vehicle who took us halfway down in a Toyota Hilux, think Toyota Tacoma, started to drive away as I was still grabbing my backpack (think he forgot we still had to grab our bags) and the driver promptly ran over my right foot!! It hurt and amazingly did not break my foot or any toes.

    After way too much more time anxiously waiting for another ride in the middle of nowhere, there may of been some fighting over this decision:), we luckily had someone tell us to hop in the back of his pickup truck and then endured one of the most uncomfortable 20 kilometer ride of our life, yet life saving because he took us.

    We arrived and missed the boat that would ferry us across the lake by 15-20 minutes and were forced to camp on the south side of the lake for the night. But, it did give us a chance to hike Glacier Humel that night, run over foot and all 😂.

    The ferry we missed the night before naturally doesn't run on Wednesdays, duh:), and had to hike the 12 kilometers of the lake to the Argentinan immigration offices on the other side of the lake. The hike was really challenging, tons of mud and ankle deep water often without good ways to get through, lots of wet shoes/feet. There were also tons of river/creek crossings, most passable through a series of sketchy wet slippery rocks to hop on but one simply required us to change into tevas to cross.

    It was a difficult hike and we were exhausted when we got to the immigration office for leaving Argentina. We asked the agent how much longer we had to go tomorrow to make our ferry by 4:30pm and he said 22 kilometers! Stacy said let's go, meaning now😂 and i immediately vetoed that idea since I barely had the energy to set up camp let alone hike another 22 kilometers that evening.

    The immigration office didn't open the next day until 8am but Stacy convinced him to stamp our passports that night so we could get up early and hike out. Amazing. The next day's hike was pretty easy, just long. Luckily the ferry was running that day since it is weather dependent and had not shown up the previous 6 days!! You are told to bring enough food to wait out the weather and for the ferry to arrive and thank god we weren't stuck there for endless days, because we did not heed that food warning.

    We are now in the small town called Village O'Higgins and are stuck here for a few days because the bus to go where we need doesn't leave until Sunday 🤷‍♂️    Read more

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    Villa O’Higgins to the Marble Caves

    February 12, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    This week has been a bit slower than normal because the weather has been pure rain. After getting into Villa O'Higgins we wound up getting a bit stuck there🤷‍♂️ Our camp host told us there was a bus on Saturday, there wasn't, and the bus for Sunday was sold out (we got in on Thursday). So, once again we were hitchhiking.

    A nice family offered for us to get into the back of their pickup truck and we did. Well, it almost instantly started downpouring and was one of the longest 100 kilometers of our lives😂 Also, pretty sure our driver had aspirations for the Indy 500, oh, and this is all on a dirt road with tons of potholes.

    We got rained out on a hike we wanted to do, we wouldn't have seen anything, but did get to take a boat and see the Marble Caves. Really pretty and the weather actually cooperated. We are now headed towards a ferry that will take us to this beautiful island, still Patagonia weather, not the tropics just yet, where we can hopefully see some penguins. We really are trying to stop hitchhiking:)    Read more

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    Ancud and Penguins

    February 15, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    Currently in Ancud, Chile, on the island of Chiloe. It’s a cute town, decent size, 40,000 people, right on the ocean that also happens to have penguins! We took a tour this afternoon which was great. We saw two types of penguins, Humboldt and Magellanic. The penguins are found on three islets just off the coast/beach but not close enough to see from shore, so we took a boat.

    The process of getting to the boats is quite hilarious. They essentially have an elevated trolley that they wheel into the ocean, which is high enough that you don’t get your feet wet, while workers push us by hand through the waves to our boat. Always feel weird about that kind of stuff, but hey my shoes were dry:)

    Love penguins, something so fun about them. Tons of seagulls, pelicans, mergansers and all sorts of other ones whose names I don’t know. It was a fun day. We have one more day of relaxing here in Ancud and then start the long journey to Bariloche.    Read more

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    Bike packing

    February 16, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    Howdy all,

    Taking advantage of a down day to let you all know our next venture. We leave tomorrow for Bariloche, Argentina and then the very next day, Stacy and I will be doing a six day bike packing trip.

    We are doing part of what is called the 7 lakes route. It will be close to 140 miles and around 9,800 feet in elevation gain. This is still part of the Patagonia area but... the weather is supposed to be nice.

    This is probably going to be incredibly difficult for me, and if I can quote Jakob from Patagonia, what's probably going to hurt the most is my pride😂, since I am not a strong cyclist. There are some hills on this route that are straight up steep as shit. We'll see how it goes. It is mostly on asphalt, maybe 60-70%, and 30-40% gravel.    Read more

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    Catching a bus

    February 18, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    Yesterday was a bit of a fiasco. We were set to leave Ancud early in the morning, 6:15am Uber to the bus station to catch a 6:55am bus. We had been taking Ubers to our hotel, located over 3 kilometers from downtown and up a big hill. We would usually walk one way and Uber back.

    Without putting too much thought into it, I made the Uber reservation the day before we were set to leave. Well, come 6:10am, Uber notified me that there are no available drivers. Shit. Our bus was leaving in 45 minutes and it was a one hour and 7 minute walk.

    We started power walking down the hill hoping to find a taxi. Sometimes I forget how sleepy places can be in the early morning hours, which outside of rush hour traffic, seems to be when the US is busiest.

    With about 20 minutes to spare with our bus leaving, we were miraculously able to hail a cab. Wahoo. Thanks to our amazingly inefficient Spanish, we accidentally had him take us to the wrong bus station!! Now with only 10 minutes until our bus was leaving.

    Incredibly, we were able to hail another taxi, who proceed to immediately go the wrong way so he could stop and pick up more people, which in his defense is what taxis do. I explained that our bus leaves in 5 minutes and he promptly hit the gas:).

    We arrived in time to see our bus pulling out of the terminal with me frantically running in front of it and waving my hands. The exasperated bus driver threw his hands up in frustration then started tapping his right index finger to where a watch would be on the other side of his wrist, indicating that we are the ones who are late. Typical of Argentinians, after expressing this frustration, he promptly pulled back into the bus terminal and welcomed us aboard. Lordy.    Read more

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    Bike Fail

    February 18, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Stacy was right and I probably should have waited to say exactly what bike trip we would do until after talking to the bike shop. Also, and unfortunately, our bus into the area from Chile, drove most of the route we were considering doing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite beautiful, but now we have done a lot of it.

    Yes I know, true cyclists throughout the world are screaming, but it’s not the same:). Well… Also, there is no bike lane, only gravel alongside the road. Many cyclists ride on the road, but it is one lane of traffic each direction with lots of buses and a real narrow gap between you and the cars. To Stacy and I this is a bit nerve wracking and opted for option B.

    We decided to do an overnighter bike packing trip with the plan being to camp out and then bike back the next day. Easy right 😂😂 Well, if anyone knows Stacy and I, havoc always reigns supreme.

    First off, we thought this would be a relatively easy ride, only 20km to our campsite, all the while, riding along pristine lakes with less traffic than what we had been considering doing. Everything started out fine, riding along the coast to start making our way out of the city of San Carlos de Bariloche.

    The main route still entailed those gravel roads that parallel all the streets and highways and is much slower and harder cycling than using the pavement, but neither of us felt terribly safe riding in the road. We still felt like we had plenty of time, evening stopping and taking a break for ice cream, obviously:).

    Once we truly got out of the city, we hit some gravel roads, which were fine but were also an ungraded gravel road, oftentimes making me feel less like I was cycling and more like I was operating a jackhammer. Hills and hills and hills. This ride wound up being much hillier than either of us expected.

    I felt as if we were doing a never ending Flagstaff Mtn in Boulder, over and over again. We didn’t leave on this trip until lunch time and started to get our first glimpses of the lakes maybe around 3-4pm. The lakes region is spectacularly gorgeous. After a brief break on one of the beaches, we started to realize that this ride was going to be much longer than 20 kilometers.

    We started to hit so many hills and am not too prideful to say that there was definitely some walking involved. Around 6pm we finally got to the area of our camp. Thank god. Until we quickly realized that the campground depicted on the map didn’t exist (or we couldn’t find it).

    At this point we had been riding hills for six hours. Finding out this news, I wanted to cry. We were exhausted, spent and I was ready to have someone put a fork in me. We looked so disheveled and lost, that a local tried to tell us where we could camp, but it wasn’t realistic and for the second time, we were out of water .

    As we sat on the ground contemplating options, continuing to look as haphazardly as possible, the local who was trying to help us earlier brought over a giant purple Powerade, 2 chocolate milks, water and chocolate cookies! I cannot even count the number of times that I have blown away by the kindness of the people on our trip. There’s just a general kindness amongst the people here. This act of generosity, saved our little heinies.

    After chugging the chocolate milk so fast that if a recorder had been present I might’ve gotten my mug shot into an Irish book of records, Stacy saw that there was a town another 4-5 kilometers away. Being left with no other options, we saddled back up and naturally started up an incredibly large hill.

    I started eyeing little trails darting off the main road and was thinking one of those side trails might just be where we end up for the night. Completely out of energy, we walked a good portion of this hill, but reached the town of LLOA LLOA around 7:30pm.

    We had now been biking for about 7 and a half hours. We asked a local who quickly said that there was no camping anywhere in this area. Flabbergasted and dejected, we asked what was the next closest option, they said that there is a campsite called Cirse, which is 10 kilometers ahead. She mind as well of just kicked me in the nuts because it felt about the same.

    The sun sets in one hour, and without a lick of energy left, we very slowly made our way down the road. After more walking of the bikes for the unrelenting hills, we noticed a car pulled off the side of the road about a kilometer down the road. They waved us down and said that they had overheard our conversation in LLOA LLOA and calculated that we would not make it to the camp. Stacy and I had already made this same calculation 😂

    They had a small pickup truck and offered to take us to campsite CIRSE. I probably said yes before they had even finished their sentence, and just like that we were hitchhiking again in the bed of a pickup truck. We never would have made it, and this incredibly kind couple from Guatemala were our second guardian angels of the day.

    We got to camp and it turned to be a swanky camp, with food trucks and music. We probably biked with panniers somewhere between 45-50 kilometers of hills as far as the eye can see. Just an easy 20 kilometer ride today, ha. We each got a beer and just had to laugh.    Read more

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    Villa la Angostura

    February 20, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Is a town about 60-70 kilometers north of San Carlos de Bariloche. It’s quite touristy, like most of the towns along route 40, often known as the 7 lakes route. It is a gorgeous area with beautiful lakes and mountain backdrops where many people throughout the world travel to take in the sights, fly fish, hike and bike.

    We visited Los Arrayanes National Park, which is known for their trees with cinnamon colored bark, which is gets because of its tannins, similar to how a grape gets its color. The area is a peninsula within Lake Nahuel Huapi. It has an 11km hike (each way) you can do as an out and back, or, you can take a ferry for $35-$55 per person one way and hike back. The park entrance fee is $20/person unless you want to just go to the overlooks, then it is free. Naturally this is what Stacy and I did 😉

    As an aside, it is a tough balance between being a true traveler at heart and wanting to do all the things, while simultaneously being a complete and utter cheap ass by nature. Stacy usually helps me to overcome my frugal ways but I know the struggle will continue.

    The hike starts with a steep incline of about 500 steps. Amazingly, you are allowed to bike this area, but only after you walk/carry your bike up the steps and can then begin riding at the 2km mark. We did see a few people doing this and looked tough as hell as they struggled to carry their bikes up those initial steps.

    The hike was quite beautiful, we had water on both sides of us and felt good to do a little vigorous walking. There were two overlooks, one overlooking each side of the peninsula. Not doing the full hike gave us time to also spend a little time kayaking the lake. We rented a double kayak and to be polite about it, Stacy and I most certainly have some work to do on our team kayaking. Don’t think we will be winning any races anytime soon:). We ended the day by finding some of the best ice cream we have had yet. Chef’s kiss.    Read more

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    Rental car from Stacy’s personal hell

    February 20, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    After deciding against self emulation by bike and choosing not to do the full seven lakes on bike:), we opted to rent a car instead so that we could still check out the area that we were set to see in super slow-mo by pedal. We decided to camp out at Pichi Ttraful campground for a couple of nights. Upon arrival we discovered that they don’t take credit cards, only cash, so we paid in cash.

    Let’s back up a second. I tend to be ridiculously obsessed with timing the amount of cash we have in a country to be sympatico with the exact timing in which we leave said country. Granted, we still have about 15 days left in Argentina but was presuming that we would mostly pay for everything with our credit card and use the remaining $53,000 Argentinian pesos I had left for tips or buying little things. Stacy absolutely hates that I do this.

    So we paid $44,000 pesos for two nights of camping, leaving us with a whopping $9,000 pesos while still having two more weeks of travel. Stacy gives me a knowing look that this situation is obviously all my fault and of course she is right. 🤷‍♂️ The beach is small but nice and our campsite is right on the beach. Despite all of this, we decide that maybe we should do some more exploring of the area, instead of camping at Pichi for two nights, and ask about changing and only staying for one night and using the money we gave for the second night towards a paddle board or kayak rental instead.

    We asked about us changing plans and she, the campground host is just the nicest lady, promptly informed us that we only paid for one night. The price of $22,000 was not per night, but rather per person for each night. Given that we were fresh out of money we quickly found that not only could we leave after one night, but that we had to 😂

    With our remaining money, we had just enough money to buy a beer and then put my last dollar into the tip jar. The host knew our situation and noticed me tipping our last dollar, she later came over with another beer and simply said, “gift”. I will never cease to be impressed with the people in this area. There is just a different feeling of giving and helping and all the other ways we all know we should be doing actually playing out down here in a way I don’t regularly see elsewhere.

    Stacy has a borderline fear of cars. When we are back home, especially in the winter when there is snow and ice, Stacy will often pull her beanie over her eyes because she is too afraid to look. Keep in mind this makes me look as if I have just kidnapped my wife and often wonder what passing cars think as they drive by and see my blindfolded wife sitting next to me in the car. I’m a little shocked, and mildly disappointed, that none of my fellow Americans have called in this potential crime in progress 😂    Read more

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    Traveller challenges

    February 24, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    Stacy says, "Do you want to top up the bus card to make sure we have enough money to return?"

    Brian replied, "No."

    We get on the bus, and it's just over half the cost of the fare. Uh, oh, inflation must've caused this gravely miscalc. And we weren't cautious enough. We thought we might be hitching again, which honestly appealed to me in the beginning. But now, I'm a bit over it. Either way, this is how we landed 25km away from our lodging with a return bus card that will only get us a fraction of the way home.

    We do what we set off to do and then start the process of catching our return. This entails us asking, "Tu hablas English?" Some back and forth miscommunication, but luckily for hand movements, we are directed to get on the busy bus and swipe our card. Sweet!

    For some reason, unbeknownst to us, the driver let's us on with a partial payment bus card. We're super grateful. We return to the city and check the amount on our bus card out of curiosity. Our card electronically reads the bus card is in arrears! This is the first time I've been made aware that a city bus program lets you go in debt to it.

    The irony of it all is that it's not even our card to begin with.    Read more

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    German Influence in Bariloche

    February 25, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Yesterday we did a walking tour of Bariloche, specifically, on the influence of the Germans on the area. It was amazing! The tour guide was so knowledgeable about history. He spoke about the three main periods of exodus, after the Germanic Revolution of 1848, when some 200,000 Germans immigrated to Argentina.

    After WWI due to the Versailles Treaty and its economic impact , an additional 30,000 Germans immigrated to Argentina; and of course after WWII. An additional 30,000 before the war started, mostly Jews (Argentina has the fifth largest Jewish population) and one million more Germans after the war.

    After WWII, some of the Nazis used the rat line to exit, predominantly through three countries, Spain (ruled by Franco and fascist friendly), southern Italy (same as Spain) and Sweden which was neutral. Many countries worked with these three countries, including Argentina, to help with fake names and passports.

    The reason Bariloche is called San Carlos de Bariloche is that it is named after its German founder, Carlos Wiederholdt in 1895. Carlos immigrated to Chile (they sent immigrants to Puerto Montt) but dreamed of starting a German village.

    At that time, southern Argentina was not developed at all. He asked permission to cross the border and to begin development. Argentinian viewed this as a positive and approved it. Bariloche means, the other side of the mountain, which is what Carlos did when he crossed the Andes to get there.

    Still to this day, there is a German school with K-12 that hosts a 1,000 students and Germans make up 2% of the population. We visited a German village where the design of the houses, if you didn’t know better, you could easily presume you were in Germany. He also spoke about the Nazis who immigrated over, including Eichmann (author of the final solution) and Josef Mangele (nicknamed the Angel of Death for all his grotesque experiments he did in Holocaust prison camps).

    There was discussion of other prominent Nazis, including one who ran the German K-12 school I mentioned earlier, until 1994, until his capture and extradition for his involvement in the Ardretine Caves massacre. Wild stuff. This was one of the better tours I have taken.    Read more

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    Nahuel Huapi

    February 26, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    For our last day in Bariloche we went for a hike in the Nahuel Huapi National Park. The hike we were doing also has access to one of the refugios (refugio grey), but we only hiked to Playa Munoz (10K round trip). We also had to walk 2 kilometers down the road to get to our hike, so 14K total.

    It’s a mostly forested hike, with some good overlooks of Lake Gutierrez. It’s not a terribly difficult hike and you finish at a lovely beach. I couldn’t believe how many locals do this hike, just to go to the beach when there are so many others you can drive to, but the beach was packed.

    Many were doing the 10K hike with their Yerba Mate kit in hand, as one does on hikes:) Once we got to the turn for Playa Munoz, it says it is only 800 meters, 1/2 a mile, to get to the beach. They are full of shit 😂.

    It was much longer, which I’ve noticed with their mileage markers in general. It sets you up to think that you are almost there but choose to let you gradually realize that they were just messing with you:) There was also a double waterfall, which was close by (really was this time) which was really pretty.

    Well Bariloche, it’s been fun but as Tom Petty once said, it’s time to move on. We are going to Mendoza for a wine festival and plan on sampling widely 😉    Read more

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    Mendoza and Symphony

    February 28, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    We arrived in Mendoza on Thursday and we are already super impressed. It is a much more walkable city with impressive parks. One park in particular, General San Martin is a smaller version of NY’s Central Park. It’s enormous. It’s an amazing place to running or biking and is seemingly mobbed with people at all times.

    Dogs run wild and free everywhere, there’s a small lake to kayak, buildings for concerts and venues. That park is also where we go for the wine festival. Stacy and I went for a 3 mile run there and it wonderful.

    There are some pedestrian only streets with shops and restaurants I still want to see. Last night Stacy and I went to see symphony alongside a very popular accordionist. Never expected such a thing but makes sense given the importance of the accordion in Tango music. It was great.

    The orchestrator stopped for a long applause after every song. Each time there was seemingly a standing ovation as if it were to be their last song even though it was their first:). It was a fun day and look forward to seeing more of the city tomorrow. It was hard to get pictures of the park because it wouldn’t do it justice.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits

    Asado

    March 1, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Last night we went for Asado as an Airbnb experience at our host’s house where we were joined by three other Americans. The host makes his own wine, Bonarda, 4 bottles were consumed:) Asado is a traditional Argentine barbecue that involves cooking meat over an open fire. There are some differences, that would seem minor to insignificant to us, but not them, that in Chile they might use coals whereas Argentinians only use wood.

    Asado is an event, centered around the sharing of food. The grill is called a parrilla and the cook is called an Asador. The Asador is in control of everything, from starting the fire to cooking. No one outside of the Asador is supposed to do anything involving the food, even so much as saying, hey do you think that steak should be turned over or it’s done. That’s considered to be insulting.

    It is exceptionally meat based, our menu started with beef empanadas with sautéed onions and olives. We made our own empanadas, my first one was definitely the ugly duckling of the empanada world but my second one was at least a solid C student.

    To say Argentinians are night owls is akin to being in the forest and asking if a bear… Our Asado didn’t start until 8pm and we didn’t even start to build the fire (our Asador asked if anyone would like to start the fire and naturally my pyro wife was first to volunteer) until 9:40pm with the first round of food not being ready to eat until closer to 11pm! All the food, minus the blood sausage, which is essentially a meat pudding), was excellent.

    Our host told us a little about Mendoza and that just over 60% of Argentinians have Italian heritage and that’s why there are so many Italian restaurants in Mendoza. Btw, my all time favorite Italian restaurant is an Argentinian one.

    After dinner, we had an amazing custard, dulce de leche, whipped cream and crumbled cookies dessert. That was followed by fernet liqueur, which is terribly bitter, mixed with Coca-Cola (70%=Coke to 30% fernet). The only reason the drink was tolerable was because of the Coke.

    Our fellow Americans were an interesting lot. There was Aly, she seemed great, hilariously though, she had ChatGPT plan her whole 5 week trip to Argentina 😃 There was Tom who was taking a one year sabbatical off from teaching and who had just attempted to climb Aconcagua, which is the highest peak in South America.

    Aconcagua is close to 23,000 feet and unfortunately he got altitude sickness and had to turn around at 22,000 feet. Of the 4 total bottles of wine consumed, Tom accounted for at least two of those bottles, as well as a beer and two of those fernet liqueurs after the meal. Surprising to no one, he later, after the two fernets, poured himself another glass of wine and promptly spilled it all over himself and shattered the glass for good measure. He then excused himself.

    Then there was Henri who had just retired at 67 and was on an indefinite trip. He has already visited 101 countries!! Henri asked every question under the sun sometimes to the point of absurdity. Our host spoke of wanting to visit Australia, prompting Henri to ask if the flights go east or west, followed by, does it fly over the Arctic. I definitely think our host should have been ashamed not to know that answer 😂

    Our evening ended at 1:30am and congratulated our host for having me out 4 hours past my normal bedtime:) It was a fun night and think we will be going biking with Aly on Monday. Fun fun    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits
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    Walking tour, bikes and vineyards oh my

    March 6, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 82 °F

    Stacy and I have really enjoyed Mendoza. It is so walkable and bikeable (bike lanes everywhere), General San Martin park is amazing, complete with hiking trails with monkeys! The adjacent zoo let’s them roam🤷‍♂️

    A few days ago we rented bikes, no disasters this time:) and went to a winery which was lovely. We also did a walking tour (visited a bunch of different plazas, which you’ll see pictured, plaza Italia, Espana, San Martin and Independence) of the city which was awesomely focused on history. Our tour guide went into the founding of not only Argentina, but many of the countries of S America. It was fascinating.

    He also spoke about the dictatorship Argentinians (also known as the Dirty War) fell under in the late 70’s and early 80’s and how 30,000 Argentinians were “disappeared.” Most of the disappeared were political dissidents. A symbol of resistance became the hoodies worn by women in the Handmaid’s Tale, which is actually an upside down diaper symbolizing their lost children.

    Women would march in the streets protesting the government asking them to return their children, while the men were inside. According to our tour guide, this happened because despite the brutality of their dictatorship, it was still considered to be unseemly to hit a woman in public, while it was completely acceptable to do so with men. So women took the lead.

    We did some wine tasting and touring, always great. The wineries are all so beautiful, down to the buildings, the vineyards, and the barrels. This winery had some barrels crafted like eggs. It was great and finished the evening with one more Asado meal. Great day/s.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits

    Vendimia

    March 8, 2025 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Yesterday we did another wine tour with bikes from a company called Wine and Ride in a city called Maipu (pronounced, my poo). And let me tell ya, Maipu was something to behold:). It was really nice and learned about the late harvest, which makes the wine sweeter. The late harvest is in between normal harvest and ice wine harvest (where the wine is so sweet that it tastes like apple juice). The vineyard was beautiful and focused on making Malbec.

    Then we went to Vendimia. Being an event in Argentina, naturally it did not start until 10pm🤷‍♂️. It started with a beauty pageant, which is obviously controversial but all the locals we spoke to love it. Like Miss America, where there are women representing different states, all the Argentinian regions were represented.

    There was incredibly gaudy music (I have a brief video on it) introducing each woman, as if it were the arrival of the Queen, which in a way it is. All the women even perfected the Queen’s wave. Guess I can say I have officially been to a beauty pageant and check that one off the old bucket list 😂

    Vendimia is a celebration of the grape harvest. The stadium for the event held about 20,000 people, with many more on the cliffs above the stadium watching too. There was an orchestra, singers and tons of dancers (maybe 100 at a time) all going through a choreographed dance.

    The music were clearly well known classics that everyone loved. One of the songs (you can hear part of it in one of the videos) was dedicated to their love of Mendoza, and I’m with’em. It was quite the spectacle. The energy was high and the event ended with a fireworks show. Oh those precious grapes we all love so, let them continue to be celebrated for all the eons.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits
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    Valparaiso

    March 13, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    Did a walking tour of the city, which we often like to do straight away when we are in a new city; it helps us to get a sense of the place, its history, culture, where to go, what to eat… This tour was an exceptionally good one.

    We started in Plaza Sotomayer, which is named after Rafael Sotomayer who founded the Chilean Navy. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its historical significance and buildings. It’s pretty, but sometimes you just have to question those UNESCO designators 😂.

    There’s a statue designating their last naval battle in 1879! Back then, both Peru and Bolivia joined forces against Chile. Chile lost that naval battle but ultimately won the war. It was a war that lasted five years and is known as the War of the Pacific. It was fought for control of the Atacama Desert and their mineral-rich coastal region. Bolivia lost its coastal region in this war, which is why it is currently landlocked.

    Apparently Chile is the most seismic region on the planet and is part of what is known as the ring of fire. Valparaiso meanwhile is most known for its funiculars, which are trams that take you up its steep hills. According to our guide, the hills are at a 41° angle. I’m sure he is right but initially thought he was full of shit because it looks way steeper. There are stairs that parallel the trams, 161 steps in total, and is quite the workout to do everyday up and down. Naturally Stacy and I are staying at the top of one of these hills.

    The city is also a major port with tons of longshoremen operating 24/7. I imagine living here would be like living close to the harbor in Oakland, cranes, trucks and containers as far as the eye can see. We did a graffiti and art tour as well, which was probably the highlight of the tour. Valparaiso is an artsy city and can see they take pride in it. Overall it was a really fun day.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits
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    Santiago Walking Tour

    March 17, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Oh our favorite, the walking tours. They can be hit or miss but overall have a decent batting average:). We started in the Plaza de Armas, which is common for many S American countries to have as their central plaza. The tour was focused on both culture and history.

    The city itself has a European feel to it in its architecture and cobble-stoned streets. The Plaza de Armas has a line running down it that locals use to differentiate northern Chile from the southern Chile. The plaza itself is not exactly in the city center because they wanted to line it up with where the sun would come over the mountains and hit it in the morning, symbolizing a good harvest.

    Our guide also spoke about the September 11, 1973 overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salavador Allende. This day is so infamous that it is often called the other 9/11. Most people are unfamiliar with the American role in this coup d'é·tat.

    Allende was a democratic socialist during the height of the Cold War when the American government would put anyone with the name socialist into the same category as an enemy and a government that would eventually side with the communists.

    Worse yet, from the American perspective, Allende nationalized many important sectors and commodities, such as copper mining and banking. This excluded many American companies from Chile. Under the guise of “national interests” we worked to organize protests that completely destabilized the country so that essentials, including food, could not get to the people in order to foment unrest.

    This culminated in the September 11th overthrow of Allende with the military dictatorship, who was more open to our national interests. It was bloody and violent overthrow, Spanish Civil War style of 1936-1939, with the Capital and Presidential Palace being bombed by both tanks and aircraft. The Allende government quickly fell, Allende committed suicide.

    The Pinochet dictatorship lasted for 17 years! until 1990. Arrogantly, Pinochet held a true and fair election in 1990 and asked the people if they wanted the dictatorship to last an additional 8 years. Amazingly, it was an incredibly close vote, but ultimately they voted no and the dictatorship was no more. During Pinochet’s time, upwards of 30,000 people were killed and/or disappeared.

    You might be asking why it was such a close vote as to whether to overturn a dictatorship, but you must remember that, thanks to the US, what Chileans most remembered about Allende was that their basic needs weren’t being met, food, shelter and water, because of the strike and protests that were instigated by the US. Sorry for this to be so history focused, but hey, we just did a history tour:).    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits

    Goodbye S America

    March 19, 2025 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Welp, after almost three months, this is our last day in South America; we leave on a red eye tonight for Barcelona. It's been a ton of fun, yet am ready for the change that European travel will bring. I already looked it up and we can actually put toilet paper in the toilet in Barcelona 😂

    It's definitely been eye opening to see how patient and kind everyone has been and how courteous and willing they are to help. There is no road rage, people just randomly stop and/or park in the road, nobody honks, they just move around or patiently wait for them to finish whatever they are doing. So different.

    There is a level of patience and tolerance that doesn't often happen back home. There appears to be, I don't speak Spanish 😂, a level of closeness with friends and family that is different. There is time dedicated, everyday!, to spend time having coffee or Yerba Mate or going together to a bakery... with friends and family after work to seemingly converse forever 😃 South Americans definitely have the gift of gab.

    Many know how important La Familia is to the Hispanic community in general, but not only do you see it but feel it. There's a genuine tenderness. There is less individualism and more community. The culture is one of being warm and welcoming. I will miss it. But, in the great words of Tom Petty, it's time to move on.    Read more

  • Adventure Awaits
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    Barcelona

    March 21, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 57 °F

    Our plane from Santiago to Barcelona was delayed by eight and a half hours. We were supposed to leave at 6pm, fly through the night and then arrive in Barcelona during the day; instead, we left at 2:30am, flew through the day and arrived late at night. We lost a day in Barcelona, but sometimes, so goes travel.

    Shocking to no one who follows us, we did a walking tour today. I already like Barcelona a lot. It has a great energy about it, it’s super lively with coffee shops and restaurants filled to the brim day and night. Seemingly every turn there is a little cubbyhole of a restaurant that is jam packed both inside and out. There are bike lanes that seem to parallel all the roads, and I almost always forget to look for them in addition to the cars.

    We walked around part of the Old City today, with its Gothic style buildings mixed in between modern European architecture. They blend so well that one could think they intentionally designed the city to be a blend of both their past and future. We went to the main palace (famous for where the inquisition happened) where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand wanted to bring their divided country together.

    To do so, they wanted to unite their country around religion, Catholicism. Those who were Catholic could stay and those who were not had to go or be converted, we all know how. Then we learned about St Jordi (George).

    Once upon a time a fearsome dragon was terrifying the inhabitants of a small town in Catalonia called Montblanc.

    So, to soothe the dragon's anger, the town's inhabitants decided they would sacrifice someone every day, drawing lots to see who they would offer as a token of their good will.

    One day, it was the turn of the king's daughter to be sacrificed. But, just when the dragon was about to gobble her up, a handsome knight appeared and confronted the beast. This was Sant Jordi (St George). He drove his lance into the dragon and a bush of red roses sprang out of the blood that spilled.

    Love these kind of hero stories and apparently so did Antoni Gaudì. Casa Batllo is designed around this Catalonian mythology. The shingles of the building are designed to look like the dragon’s back, while what looks like a cross on the left is the hilt of St Jordi’s sword piercing into the dragon’s heart.

    The balconies are all set to look like the skeletons of all the dragon’s victims and below that is supposed to be the pile of bones upon which the dragon rests. The upper most balcony with all the blue coming down from it is supposed to be the dragon’s blood that created the rose bushes which St Jordi gave to the princess. Undoubtedly they lived happily ever after.

    We then took a metro to get to our next location. When it was time to get off the train, Stacy got nervous that we weren’t going to be able to get off with our group because the train was so crowded and instead ran for a different door, never once thinking to take her husband along too:) I was able to get off the train but guess when they say it’s every man for himself, that’s only because all the women have already left 😂    Read more

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