Manang: Day 10 and 11

Holy smokes ! This morning I got my head so far up my rear end trying to find a trail head in the dark without a map. I mean I had a picture of the map on my cellphone

Aforementioned cellphone picture

 and belatedly realized that I was going up the wrong gorge. Watching the sun come up I sat and kept turning around to see which peaks were getting light first.

I thought I could get sponsored by my shoe company if I took a good picture

 I can see why sunrise is the best time for pictures and i didn't realize when the moment happened but I did realize when it was gone. Tried tea and breakfast at a new hotel but there wasn't enough sunlight (implied warmth) even though the views were better than our hotels.

Neat lake nearby

Hiked with Zac and elbi to the lobal Glacier Gangapuna, bushwhacking most of the way. We ended up finding a yak herder's hut used in the summertime. then we saw our first glimpse of wildife as a heard of mountain goats passed by.

Goatherder Yurt !

Played a gambling game(Person A rolls the dice and Person B offers something up if they make the roll) I won $400 rupees of yak cheese and snacks from Zac. and ended up paying out movie tickets for everyone to the local projecter hall to see 7 Years in Tibet. Not only was there a fireplace in the projector hall but they served apple tea and popcorn halfway through, score!

Trail Side movie theater

Yak Kharka/Thorung Phedi: Day 12

Chatted with Elbi about cold cures and they have the same ones in Nepal as we do. No dairy or acids, but also suprisingly, no fish. Stopped at our first safe water drinking station and it definitely tasted better than the iodized/SteriPen water we were creating.

Hydropower was how almost all the towns generated their electricity. 

Town of Yak Kharka

Sign says it all

Mount views were getting a bit harder to enjoy amidst raging cold and self-diagnosed Giardia. Elbi talked to a horse porter from his region who said don't book the horse through the hotel, do it on the trail for cheaper. I was glad to see the good ol' buddy system is universal. Spent a nice lazy afternoon reading and staying warm in the sun then had a yak cheese pizza for dinner.

For 14,000 feet it's a damn fine sight, and it was even better than some pizza joints I've had.

Thorung Phedi/Mutkinath: Day 13

Started the trek by waking up not so bright and early at 3:00 am.

Camp the night before

 Elbi said ' no complaining, you are trekking in the mountains'. I couldn't agree more but my shoes were not quite up to snuff for the cold climate. Once the sun hit the earth and my feet they warmed up quite nicely however. Seeing the trail of lights up the cliff was pretty neat.

I must say the views on the rest of the trek were more to my liking. At the camp before the pass we stopped for a snack and someone left who hadn't finished their breakfast potatoes.

Aforementioned faux-pax. Also Hot Bag on Rent is funny.

I was starving and service was slow so I stole the rest of his food after he left. Later I learned that's probably the same social taboo as grave-digging, whoops! Paid an outrageous 100 rupees at the top of the pass for a cup of steaming tea. But not steaming hot because the altitude was 17,000 feet!

If you got tired along the way you could hire a donkey, about $100 US. The catch is they only take you up, not down.

Tea Shop at the top

Also made me wonder how safe the boiled water was, oh well. We reached Mutkinath and Elbi and I investigaed the trek for tomorrow and were stopped by an Indian gentlemen on the way to the temple. Elbi was very polite but once were back in the hotel he said that sometimes Indian people are loud and he pointed them to a hotel other than ours. The hotel doesn't have a fireplace but as I wrote this in my journal my legs were toasty warm.

They stuck a burning bucket of charcoal underneath the table, very effective !

La hoi, la hoi is the Nepalese cheer. We gave a toast to the locals who brewed apple brandy one of the other hotelers had bought.

Mutkinath/Kagbeni Day 14

Thanksgiving day !

Started with removing the bar on the hotel door to visit to the local temple with Elbi and started my souvenir shopping for the family.

I felt guilty about leaving everyone open to invaders!

Entrance to the temple with what I thought was nice framing. 

Hotel for the previous day

Really started and stopped at one stall, perfect. Had a fabulous day trekking with the best views I've ever had. Lunch was spotty because this was an actual hike, not a path through towns. But we ran across a woman hauling back some winter golden apples, score !

I think this is Barley

More barley 

Lunch stop 

I kept forgetting it was winter.

Along with a snickers bar I was foritied for the day. I remembered once again the beauty of hiking in the dessert.

The terrain change was abrupt right around the corner.

 The Lonely Planet said the trek was restricted but we checked with the local office and they said it was clear. Elbi seemed tuckered by the end of the day. I felt great but still making it through some of the worst chapped lips of my life. Finally arrived in Kabeni.

This was the actual seriously restricted zone. Town must be freezing because it was in the shade most of the day.

They were not more scared of me than I was of them.

Kagbeni/Jomsom: Day 15

Started off in Kagbeni with the best fried potatoes of my life, I swear there were shallots instead of onions and probably as much oil as potatoes.

Did I stay here because it was called Yac Donalds Restaurant and hotel, yes I did. 

the little sign in the door says Organic apples, which is true ! then I saw that just about everything in Kagbeni is 'Organic'.

Then off to Jomsom, the Lonely Planet is pretty dead on talking about Jomsom as a short stop-over.

I can add nothing to that sign.

There's not much happening except for the airport and money exchange, of course which MasterCard is not accepted! Damn you Visa ads, you are correct about Visa being except world-wide. Our hotel also has closed their bakery for the season so as I'm looking at the menu
pie... no
brownie... no
cake... no
Instant Chocolate pudding with powdered milk.... yes !
I didn't take any picture for good reason.

Jomsom/Pokhara: Day 16

There is no plane time, number, name or seat number for Jomsom flights

My ticket say 6:50. The airline company says 6:15, LB says whenever you hear a plane land then your flight is ready. Either way this is my kind of security, a hand down either side of my bag for security, shoes on, and water bottle chock full of H20. 

Bye Elbi !

Had an apple pancake while waiting for my flight that was more like a pancake, and less a Nepalese breakfast treat, much to my dismay. I had grown use to the fried doughy-sweet Nepal breakfast treats. My attempt at finding Lakeside once I landed failed miserably along with finding the right hotel once I arrived.

Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell, anyone? "Shop smart, shop S-Mart"

Paid a young man 20 rupees to help me find my way. Settled on a random clean hotel with hot water that could book my bus. Headed off to the World Peace Stupa.

Another monument at the Peace Stupa, pronounced Shtoopa (which is just funny)

Wonderful view of Pokhara city and my next stop was Devil's Fall and Mhoendra cave. After threatening to walk down the mountain for a 200 rupee taxi fair, I got him down to 100, only to promise him 500 if he waited and took me to Lakeside.

I decided to take a land taxi back instead of the water one I came over on. 

 I felt bad he had to pay a 20 rupee parking permit for the Stupa. had a hot shower which is a hallmark of civilization and headed out to dinner. 

Back in Kathmandu: Day 17

Hot pastries in Pokhara means they've been microwaved from two days ago. You've got a seat means your hotel issued a ticket without calling the bus company. Breakfast at the deport however was a surprising treat. Brown roll with eggs and veggies, and not just white bread with brown coloring but real wheat bread. I think I should have been compensated since I lured two other people into breakfast. Alas the owner did not think so.

View from behind the bus depot.

Time Travel, Colorado 2009

My second trip to Colorado took place during 2009 during March. I consider it my first real trip because the first actual trip was visiting schools. Although I did end up climbing the flat irons which was amazing because of the long 70ish degree slab face and unlike any other climbing I've done in my life. I also remember meeting someone who had the best radio voice ever, and it wasn't even because he was sick ! Oh the things that stand out in our memory.

After realizing I didn't have any winter hiking socks my mom and I went to a local ski shop to pick some up along with snow shoes. We ended up doing a pleasant half day snow shoe hike to the bottom of a mountain and that's where the above picture is from. Side Note: Yes those are sweat pants and at the time I did know that cotton kills, but it's so comfortable. It was only a weekend trip because of schedules but still a very enjoyable time in the Rockies.

Rent-A-Dog

Bariloche sits on a lake with gorgeous mountain views surrounding it. Trash stays off most of the streets and pine trees can be seen sporadically throughout the city. If I bought a house in South America it would definitely be here ! We checked into our hostel but it struck us as a wee bit dingy. So after checking in we looked around to find another hostel where we could spend the rest of the week. We picked two out of the Lonely Planet and went to investigate. The first one "Penthouse 1004" occupies the penthouse of a 10 story apartment building and we walked into one of the coziest hostels I have seen. Great sunlight, living spaces.



decorations, kitchen space, rooms, and the view !



We checked out the other hostel but after walking in immediately decided to come back to Penthouse 1004.

A bike tour provided us with entertainment the next day. We passed a 5 star hotel where we found out that the hombre negros stayed there, directly translated means black men but eventually figured out the gate guard meant Men In Black.



We tired pretty quickly after that and only stopped once more at a lake where we chatted with a couple from Buenos Aires on vacation and saw some local wildlife. They might not look big in the picture but they were the size of large chickens and they could actually fly.



The next day we hiked up to Mount Corro along an unmarked trail we later found out was "the trail to Milemarker 4.6" which marks the spot where the bus picks you up. Along the way we were joined by a companion we called Scout.



He definitely made us feel a little safer hiking up the overgrown trail. After reaching the top of the mountain we bought tickets to take a gondola down! Scout was still with us and the ticket agent said that he had seen Scout before and he called him Boomerang. Not his real name we found out later but that's what the guy called him because he was a stray and kept following hikers up the trail, which is 6 kilometers long! I succumbed to Scout's cuteness and gave him part of my sandwich. The ticket agent gave him a whole "triplé" sandwhich, so we left him well fed before we headed down the gondola.

Location:Bariloche, Argentina

Hordes of Penguins

Oddly enough I felt somewhat spry after my 27 hours of traveling from El Chalten to Puerto Madryn. 9 hours consisting of two connections and bus rides and then a whomper 18 overnight bus ride. A large part of it is due to the business class-esque seats that we sat in during the ride. Although worrying about getting a visit from my busmates "las cucaraches" kept me from sleeping too deeply. Food was provided on the bus, 2 snacks and a hot dinner, which made us think "great we don't need to pack any of our own." Unfortunately for us we should have brought our own food, the stuff provided ranked as the worst food I've ever eaten, lower even than airplane food.

Puerto Madryn occupies a nice stretch of coastline with many wildlife observation/interaction opportunities. While we buying groceries a funny lost in translation occurred. As we were checking out at the grocery store Nafisa was confused because the cashier asked her if she wanted to pay three times. After some help from another guy we figured out that she asking us if we wanted to pay for the groceries in installments ! We respectfully declined and paid all at once. I was also amused by the cooler at the checkout line holding beer instead of soda.



We decided on seeing the huge penguin colony instead of the moderate size sea lion/ penguin colony combo. We had a wonderful guide named Diana on a cozy 15 person bus. For our morning break we stopped at a gas station with a hot water machine which reminded me of mate. A drink that takes the place of coffee for many South Americans



I don't think I've gone a day without seeing someone with their small gourd and thermos of hot water for mate.

We made it to Punta Toomba where we saw Magellan penguins everywhere. I'm talking about you didn't even need to look 5 feet from the trail to see one. They especially liked the bridges which provided them with a bit of shade. We worried for a couple minutes because we heard a lot of the penguins sneezing and we thought they were getting sick. Our guide laughed and said that was simply a way for them to get salt out of their bodies.




We left Puerta Madryn on a 14 hour overnight bus to Bariloche. I woke up several times in the middle of night and was amazed at how smooth the ride felt. Only once the sun started to rise did I realize that was because we weren't moving at all ! Our bus broke down but after a couple hours another bus rescued us and we arrived in Bariloche.

Location:El Chalten, Argentinia

National Trekking Capitol

El Chalten is dubbed a national trekking center and sits right in the middle of the Patagonian Mountains, a 3 hour bus ride out of El Calafate. Should have taken two and a half but took three hours because of a half hour break minute break at a cafe/empanada stand. It would have been a tragic bus ride indeed without my morning coffee and pastry.


I'm not sure if the place has much business besides people from buses. I did not see any homes close by or other indications of why the place happened to be a good sight for the store. I'm also not sure why we stopped because there were bathroom on the bus.

Found the hostel and cancelled our rest day in hopes of getting a hike into the schedule because the weather was forecasted to be rainy the next several days. Bad idea. Our feet felt bruised afterwards, and we promptly decided no more hiking in El Chalten. I still snuck in a short waterfall hike the next day while Nafisa worked on a blog post.


Surprisingly, that night we found a store that sold non moldy vegetables! The first since we left Buenos Aires two weeks ago. The next morning we left amid wind and rain that left us feeling justified with leaving early.

Location:El Chalten, Argentinia

Starting the W

A bright and early bus ride took us to the border of Chile and the city of Puerta Natales. I declared the fruit that my bag held at customs and avoided a hefty fine. My stomach was none too happy after that because I tried to eat as many apples as I could in the ten minutes before our bus left. I did, however, gain a new sympathy for chipmunks.

Checked into someones house or should I say hostel before beginning "the W" trek in the Torres del Paine national park. So named because of the shape of the trail. In the teeny tiny town of Puerta Natales we found a trekker's dream, a dried fruit and nut stand. Lots of shoe box sized containers with dried kiwis, pears, melons, strawberries, candied peanuts, to name some of the more exotic ones.

Next came normal food and we stopped at a supermarket chain that seemed to be out of everything crucial to a backpacking trip , flavored instant oatmeal, salami, tuna in pouches (cans weigh a bunch), hot chocolate, peanut butter. Most of these are due to simply being in south America but being out of any sort of dried salami like meat, I mean come on ! Luckily we passed a second store later on that topped off our supplies.

A bus took us into the national park and we boarded a catamaran to begin the first leg of the trek. Clouds and misting rain were hanging low in the sky so i wasn't sure what to expect. The plan was to hike for 6 days and 5 nights to cover 80 kilometers, my longest trek ever!

A spectacular landscape and the best mountain views I've ever seen accompanied us along the hike. We stayed at mountain cabins and ate dinners there while bringing our own lunches. The dinners rated 5 stars every night, slow cooked chicken, creamy tomato soup, fresh baked herb bread, home made salsa, and chocolate mousse. I would have easily paid $40 or $50 dollars back home in the city.

Lady luck travelled with us as well and gave us sunny skies or clear views with only two days of light mist for an hour or so. One day the wind blew so strongly that I had to stop and stabilize myself (thank you trekking poles) whenever I heard it coming, later we learned it was up to 70 km/h.

All too soon the hike was finished and after four different buses/shuttles we made it back to El Calafate.

Location:Torres del Paine, Chile

Getting close to Santa's Vacation Home

While the Buenos Aires heat provided a nice break from the Boston cold, the weather in El Calafate was much more temperate and to my liking. Checked into a very new and clean hostel. I suspect it use to exist as a hotel but went out of business and then relieved as a hostel. It was out of the city (the city being one main street 20 minutes long) so I could see spectacular views of the Patagonian mountains and desert.

Trekking on the Perito Moreno glacier constituted the next activity. The rainy weather and low visibility made up for its morale dampening effects by causing the glacier to calve much more often than normal; the rain melts the ice faster than the sun. Sometimes the loudest sounds came from teeny tiny pieces of ice. That meant that rather then simply breaking off because of calving, the ice had been compressed so much that it exploded outwards. After hiking around the viewing area and running to the nearest open spot whenever I heard a sound, I boarded a boat and headed to the glacier itself for a walk on Perito Moreno itself ! I was fitted with crampons that must have been similar to the first designs ever and enjoyed a wonderful 90 minute hike over the deep blue ice. At the end of the hike, the guides said we were finished hiking and heard back to take crampons off. But then the group rounded a bend and we were surprised with whiskey poured over glacial ice and dulce de leche (caramel) "alfajores". A layer of dulce de leche between two wafers that was then dipped in chocolate, a staple of South American treats.

Location:El Calafate

Thankful it's not winter anymore

Made it safe and sound into Argentina after paying the 140 airport fee, only charged because the US levies the same fee on Argentinians. Similar charges apply if you're from Canada and New Zealand but not the UK.

Warm weather was a welcome change and I went bike riding the first day. Nafisa had already been in Buenos Aires and had the main attractions of the city picked out. I didnt make it to an official tengo show while in BA, but I did see some performances on small platforms setup outsde restaurants. I peered over the edge of a crowd to see some tengo action.

The next day included the highlight of BA. I went to a petting zoo for adults ! We're talking about lions tigers and elephants oh my, the bears we were not allowed to pet. Two people were let in at a time to the animal areas with two zoo attendants and you could pet and cuddle them to your hearts content, although not the big animals of course. The lions fur was short and course, it reminded me of holding a baby lion stuffed animal but it was real ! The zoo attendants said they raise the animals from birth with human interaction.

No he's not sedated, he just ate a huge lunch and was very sleepy.

Stretched my legs a bit my last day in BA and did a walking tour that visited the city cemetery, where Eva Peron is buried. Next came the contemporary art museum where I quickly realized that the Spanish explanatory notes combined with my lack of appreciation for modern art made for a short visit. However, The Museum of Decorative Art provided several hours of open mouthed wandering. Similar to the Isabella Stuart gardener museum, a family collected many artifacts during the early 1900s and arranged them in their mansion. The house and artifacts were then put on display for the public. The ballroom was designed around three enormous tapestries the family owned previous to building the house. The almost as large dining room was built with 5 or 6 hues of marbled granite.

Somewhere along the way we went to Jumbo which bears a resemblance to Super Wal-Mart. This might not seem so striking until you realize other similar types of large standardized stores simply do not exist in South America. Smaller family stores comprise the vast majority of businesses.

The next day I relaxed in the airport for 6 hours passing the time with an excellent Brandon Sanderson book. When i arrived for an 11 o clock flight it turned out that I had been bumped because of a strike the day before. They had rebooked me for a flight the next day but the line was long to get a hotel voucher.

Location:Buenos Aires

Island Time

My first week back in Boston after vacation has me feeling oddly conflicted. I'm back into my normal routine but it's hot enough that I feel like I'm back in the Caribbean ! I was hoping my apartment management would turn on the AC but it looks like they’re holding out till the end.

Vacation was a blast and quite the learning experience. In short it was a sailing and diving trip to the British Virgin Islands for 9 days.

Map of the BVI

And by learning experience I mean I learned that 9 days is about as long as I want to stay on a boat! We slept on the boat all 9 days and ate most of our meals on it as well. We did go ashore for the beach, dinner/drinks in the evening about every other day though, so we didn’t get too stir crazy. There were 5 of us (myself, Nafisa, and three friends) on a 47 foot sail boat named “La Bonne Vie” aka The Good Life.

The kitchen/dining and area above deck were big enough that I never felt crowded even though those were the only common areas. The bedroom was as big as a full size bed plus a 2 feet in front, just enough room for the door to open. The bathroom was about 4 square feet half of which was taken up by the toilet, with a detachable sink head that doubled as a shower head. Size constraints were really the only not so great part about living on the boat most of which I got use to pretty quick. When the wind stopped it tended to get a little hot in the bedroom but with the windows open it wasn’t too bad. The almost nightly thundershowers, however, which caused me to jump out of bed and shut the windows were not so great. I felt like I was living back in my fraternity with fire alarms going off randomly, except it was warm enough that I didn’t have to pile on clothes like I did for my fraternity in Boston.

Meals were great and I probably ate better than I did at home. There was a grill on the back of the boat so we had shish ka bobs, grilled chicken, and even hamburgers one night. Food was pricier than the US because they have to ship everything in on a container boat.

Scuba diving was the main daily activity quite the enjoyable one. This trip was my first time doing it in the ocean. I took a course before I went on the trip but had only mucked about the pool a little bit. It was pretty crazy how much color I saw along with the different types of big creatures (fish, moray eels, and even a shark!)

I wasn’t nearly as scared as I thought I was going to be, probably because I could see all around me, as opposed to swimming in the ocean and not being sure what’s underneath you. The flip side to that being on the way up from diving you have to worry about other boats zooming around up top. About halfway through we saw some kids zipping around in inflatable motor boats which initially made me think “Wow they really shouldn’t be doing that, it’s dangerous!” until I realized that if I was a kid and had an inflatable motor boat to zip around in I would have too =). Flight back was a little longer than anticipated as our plane was overweight leaving the BVIs but our friends volunteered to catch the next flight and saved the day. That was the vacation in a nut shell and hopefully everyone enjoyed the read.