First of all, I want to start by saying that we were blessed to have parents that generously paid our way through college so we both had a great education and were able to find good engineering jobs right out of college.

Aside from our parents’ generosity, James and I live extremely frugally. Every monetary decision is well thought out from what we order when we go out to eat to what house we buy. James cuts his own hair and I buy used clothes. Although we have been blessed with great jobs and educations, we consistently live well below our means in every aspect of our lives. This has given us the freedom to save our money resulting in this opportunity to take the trip of a lifetime. Our lifestyle played a huge part but the “icing on the cake” also known as the “worst 6 months of my life” was when James’ work sent him to Wyoming for 6 months.  This work opportunity allowed us to put our most frugal skills into practice. The other day James and I were reminiscing over dinner about this time in our lives which now we can look back on and laugh. I figured I would share part of that story.

About a year and a half ago, James’ company was struggling through a slow time. His company asked him if he would be willing to go to the-middle-of-nowhere Wyoming to work for 6-12 weeks on a gas-processing plant that he had done a lot of the preliminary work on in Denver. Even though they didn’t come out and say it, due to the lack of work in the Denver office, we had a pretty good idea that it was “go to Wyoming for a while or get laid off”. They proposed this to him at lunch one day and he had until the end of the day to give an answer. James immediately called me while I was at work, we discussed for a few minutes and then we decided he should probably say “yes”.  While the idea of him leaving me in our newly purchased, slightly dilapidated duplex in a low-income neighborhood didn’t exactly strike my fancy, the chance for him to make more money in a shorter amount of time sounded like a good opportunity.

James' work location in Wyoming

We were originally told that it would only last for 6-12 weeks but we knew better that it could go on for much longer. James’ company explained to him that he would make $170 per day for per-diem (to cover his room, board and food) tax-free plus he would get paid his hourly rate for any overtime which was pretty much mandatory. We quickly learned that everything James didn’t spend on room and board, he could keep. We decided to make the best of this situation. The first thing was finding a cheap place for James to live. I did some extensive searching on craigslist (which was quite limited in Rock Spring, WY) and eventually found someone who was renting out rooms in a 4-bedroom house for $400 per month. After making James a list of recipes that he could cook at home to save money, I kissed him goodbye and sent him off to Wyoming.

As soon as he arrived, he was told that the bedrooms were no longer available and had just been rented out. We had already looked into booking a hotel or a month-to-month rent for an apartment but that would cut too deep into his per diem for it to be worth it. Out of desperation, James asked if there was any other place he could stay – a basement perhaps??? Reluctantly, the owner said there was a basement but it was pretty crowded with “storage”; however, there was a fold-up bed down there and for $250 a month he could use it if he really wanted it. He did the quick math and realized that this would only end up costing him $8.33 per day out of his per diem. James quickly said he would take it. I mean, it was only for 6-12 weeks right?

6 weeks eventually got extended to 6 months with a visit home every 4-6 weeks. When I look back on this time it was really, really hard. Here I was in a duplex that we bought with some friends to live in community (they live on one side, we live on the other) and I was the only one living there since they were remodeling their side before they moved in. I distinctly remember our heat being broken so that it would only come on for a few minutes before it would trip the breaker and I had to go outside (in January mind you) to flip it back. After flipping it 20 times, I would try to get the heat up as high as possible before going to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, it was usually 40-something degrees in the house. I also used to go bed scared to death. I don’t particularly like sleeping alone; I naturally get scared no matter where I am but it just so happened that our friend’s side of the duplex was broken into just days before James left. So, naturally, I went to the Navy Surplus store and picked up some bear spray and some mace. The bear spray could shoot something like 30’ and I left it unlocked on my bedside table ready to shoot an intruder if need be.

James on the other hand had his own difficulties in Wyoming. Not only was the house quite the pig-sty with all oil-field workers renting rooms and no regard for general cleanliness, but that was just the main floor. He was going to be living in the basement. James’ new home for 6 months would be on a fold-up bed surrounded by mountains of junk and right next to the furnace, which was constantly roaring on and off. I remember him saying that he wouldn’t walk around barefoot and after he had been there for a few months, he had found a dead mouse not far from his bed, which he was pretty sure had been there all along. As minimal as his situation was, it didn’t really matter. His company worked him outside in the Wyoming winter for about 12 hours each day for 6 days a week not including the hour long drive each way; all he really did was sleep when he got home. Just when we thought he was going to be done, his company kept extending his time there.  They extended it at least 5 times and finally after 6 months, he had said enough. By that time, the Denver office had picked up and there was work for him back in Denver.

James in his gear

We look back on it now and laugh at how ridiculous his living conditions were and the great lengths we went to in order to milk the situation for all it was worth. But after 6 months of sacrifice, it was probably the thing that put us over the edge financially to be able to afford a trip like this so we were thankful for the opportunity.

Here’s a poem I wrote James back when we was in the thick of his stint in Wyoming. If I remember right, I hadn’t seen him 5 or 6 weeks and he was coming home that night.

Dear James,

I miss you so much, yes I do!
Not just cause the house is broken but the car is too
It’s freezing out here, I wish it was hot
But the furnace doesn’t work and the sink leaks a lot
Besides all of that, I just want you here at home
So when the burglars break in, I won’t have to bear spray them alone
Can’t wait to see you tonight!

Another one of James in Wyoming

Our view of the Fitz Roy Range as we drove into El Chalten - the only clear day we had

Next we headed to El Calafate and splurged on a room for two nights.  We got up the next morning to go visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. I had never really seen a glacier up close before but it was pretty amazing. We were even able to witness a large chunk of ice fall off; it was fascinating to watch such a huge object plunge into the water and cause a big ripple of waves up and down the glacier. After we watched it fall, the whole viewing platform erupted into applause. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough with my camera to capture it.

The glacier soon after the big chunk of ice fell off

After catching up on our emails and internet in El Calafate, we crossed back into Chile and headed to Torres del Paine National Park for some more hiking. Many people who visit the National Park do a multi-day backpacking trip but luckily since we had a car, we were able to do most of the same hikes as really long day hikes. There’s a lot to see in the park but the most stunning site was the view when we hiked 3 hours up to the towers (torres in Spanish). We were fortunate enough to have good weather to see the Torres but the winds were insane with gusts up to 70 mph in some places.

Taking in the view

The things we’ve seen in the last week have taken our breath away. I think it’s best to let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

One of the many dirt sections on Ruta 40

As with every time we cross into or out of Argentina, it comes with its own anticipations and reservations. In Chile, everything seems to be more expensive but yet it also seems to be a bit more organized. We never have a doubt that the gas station will actually have gas or the ATMs will actually have cash. We know there will be a wider variety of food and we can stock up on essentials like peanut butter and tortilla chips which are nearly non-existent in Argentina. However, when we’re in Chile and crossing to Argentina, we know gas, camping, food, and nearly everything will be cheaper. At first appearance, there also seems to be a more preserved culture with everyone from the gas station clerk to the border crossing official with his gourd of mate and everyone religiously practicing weekly family asados (“grilling out” as we say in Texas!). However, the Argentine charm can fade just as quickly as it appears.

After leaving Valdivia, we headed along Ruta 40 to San Carlos de Bariloche. We were excited to see Argentina once again. We decided to splurge on a hotel in Bariloche and explored the surrounding sites like the Circuito Chico – a beautiful drive near Bariloche and the Tronador – an impressive mountain with huge glaciers crumbling down its steep faces (which sounds like thunder, hence Tronador, Spanish for thunder).

Pass from Chile to Argentina. Still a ton of ash from the volcano that erupted last year.

After Bariloche, we headed to El Bolson. I was looking forward to El Bolson since I had started researching our trip months ago. They have a great artisan market with non-typical argentine food like crepes and waffles as well as local arts and crafts. It’s also known as a bit more of a laid back, hippie town compared to its neighbor Bariloche which to us seemed more like Breckenridge, Colorado. We spent a few days perusing the market and climbing Piltriquitron, a substantial peak outside of town.

Bosque Tallado in El Bolson where artists have carved the trees

Summit of Piltriquitron overlooking El Bolson

Crazy lines at the Gas Station in El Bolson

After spending a few wonderful days, we decided to fill up on gas before we hit the long haul south to El Chalten and El Calafate. This ended up being easier said than done. We had problems getting gas in Argentina before but mostly it was just that the gas stations were out of Regular and you had to pay the extra cost to get premium. However, in El Bolson, there was a shortage of all gas. In fact – there was none. After we had already asked all the gas stations in town and they all gave us the same answer as if they’d already told 200 people before us, luckily we spotted a gas-filled semi driving around. We decided to follow it to its delivery point and proceeded to get in line when it finally stopped at one of the 5 stations in town. Not 5 minutes after we secured our place in line, the rest of the town proceeded to get in line behind us. Locals started calling their friends and soon the line grew to at least 60 cars (at least that’s as far as I could count). Finally, after a 2 hour wait for the truck to unload, we filled our tank and headed out. I was quite frustrated at this point and James and I had a long standing argument where we weren’t sure if it was worth the 2-hour wait or if there would be gas in the next town. There wasn’t. In fact, the next town was worse. There was a line of 30 cars BEFORE there was even gas. They we just waiting on the hope that gas would arrive at some point.  We continued driving to the next town – same story. By this time it was about 8 pm. There were rumors that gas would come “in the morning” – at what time, no one knew. We decided to sleep in the parking lot and hope that a truck would magically appear in the middle of the night. At this point we still had a ½ tank but with long stretches on Ruta 40 having no services, you can’t just depend on the next town to have gas. You have to know it will be there or else you will use all your gas just to get to an empty gas station.

Yes this is a gas station; no, there is no gas

I have to take a second to give props to Argentines. You would think that after all this, they would be as frustrated as I am as I swear to myself that I will never complain about anything in the US ever again. However, they aren’t. They get out of their car, realize there is no gas, seem mildly annoyed, and then proceed to whip out their mate kits and realize this is a good time to stretch their legs. All the while, I’m thinking, this would be a national crisis in the US. If they can make such a big deal out of full-body airport scanners, how much bigger of a deal would they make out of a gas shortage threatening 1/3 of the country? Surely Fox news, at least, would paint this as the end of the world as we know it. When we insist on knowing why every station is of gas, they shrug their shoulders and explain “there are just a lot of people driving around”. Finally, after there is no gas the next morning, we laboriously try to get the gas station clerk to call the town 200 miles away which we know we can barely make it to with the gas we have. She finally gets through and the news is in – they have gas!!! It ended up being touch and go all the way to El Chalten on Ruta 40 with some stations having gas and others empty.

The view that made the drive worth it

But when we finally arrived after driving hundreds of miles on Ruta 40’s dirt roads, we pulled into El Chalten with the view of Fitz Roy  and decided it was all worth it! We’re hoping the gas situation improves and are looking forward to the next adventure as we continue to explore Southern Patagonia.

We spent a day in Pichilemu for some surfing, then headed to Concepcion which was the site of the recent huge earthquake in 2010 that caused a lot of destruction. Our third main stop was Pucon where we went on a beautiful hike in Parque Nacional Huerquehue and had yet another amazing camp spot on the lake. Next up was Valdivia. Earlier in our trip, we met an Argentine in Cordoba who had travelled to Peru the previous year. She met a guy from Valdivia named Joel while travelling in Peru and gave us his contact information if we were ever in the area. We wrote Joel asking if we could meet him for a drink when we passed through. We received an email back from his mother inviting us to come stay with their family.

Quite possibly the best "pirate" camping spot ever!

Same camping spot at sunset

View of Villarica Volcano outside of Pucon

We weren’t sure what to expect but as soon as we arrived and met his family, we knew it was going to be a warm experience. The family immediately sat us down and started feeding us some amazing clam chowder and a seafood pastry.  They shuffled people around so we could have our own bedroom and continued feeding us incessantly some of the most amazing food. They spoiled us rotten for the next two days and were so patient with our Spanish.  I helped Francisca in the kitchen where she taught me how to make Pan Amasado which is homemade bread with some intense kneading and Kuchen which is a German pastry kind of like cobbler. Of course with no recipe – just “a little bit of this” and “a little bit of that”.

Francisca showing me how to make Pan Amasado

Taking the Pan Amasado out of the oven

The guys cooking up an Asado

We had told them we were going to stay only 2 days but after the second day, they were begging us to stay longer citing all of the additional activities there were around the area. We would have stayed longer if we could but there was so much to do between Valdivia and Ushuaia. They made us agree that we would return on our way back to Santiago and before we could explain that we would if we had time, they started saying “cuando ustedes vuelven…” meaning “when you return…”

Francisca and Juan's House where we spent a few days in Valdivia

It was one of the most welcoming experiences we had and we left with our hearts and our stomachs bursting.

Our time in Mendoza was nice because the apartment we rented was on San Martin Park, a beautifully treed 1,000-acre park in Mendoza.  We made daily runs through park and up to the top of Cerro de la Gloria, the hill overlooking town.

San Martin Park - Mendoza

Then in early December we made our way over the mountain pass surrounded by the beautiful Andes and headed to Santiago.  Despite the daunting hairpin turns, the drive to Santiago is absolutely breathtaking with nothing but sky and mountains not to mention a stunning view of Aconcagua – the highest mountain in the western hemisphere.

Hairpin turns on the pass to Chile

Base of Aconcagua - our 2nd time to see it but this time with clearer skies

Our friends-of-friends were heading to the states to spend the holidays with family and needed someone to watch over their house and take care of their weimaraner.   We were surprised by how modern of a city Santiago is. We enjoyed hiking up to the top of San Cristóbal Hill, going out and seeing the city, and enjoyed some good seafood and ‘completos’, a hot dog loaded up with a ton of toppings, including guacamole!  In addition, we enjoyed a day trip over to the picturesque coastal town of Valparaiso. We have thoroughly enjoyed the peacefulness of the last few weeks here as we prepare ourselves to head South for our next South American adventure.

View of Santiago from San Cristobal Hill

Enjoying a "Completo" in Santiago

This week we start our trek south to Patagonia!  Our plan is to spend the months of January and February down south (where it’s cooler!) and seeing beautiful places like Puerto Montt, Bariloche, Torres del Paine, and the list goes on. It’s been nice to have some downtime and live rent free for a month but we’re antsy for some more adventure.

Caitlin is an American but her boyfriend is South African so he had never had a Thanksgiving since it’s not celebrated in SA. We were excited to show him what Thanksgiving is all about- food and football! (oh yeah, and giving thanks too !). We made our shopping lists the day before and headed to the Mercado Central (a typical Argentine market) to see how much of it we could actually find. Caitlin was set on making a pumpkin pie but canned pumpkin is nowhere to be found here nor did we have a food processor. However, Caitlin found what resembled a pumpkin and we decided we’d figure out the rest later. I was set on making cornbread stuffing the way my mother in law Evelyn makes it with bacon, onions, and lots of poultry seasoning. Only problem is, there’s no “poultry seasoning” here. So I Googled the ingredients, translated them into Spanish, and surprisingly found most of them at the bulk spice section in the market.

With bags and bags of groceries, we headed back to the apartment we were renting and started brainstorming how we were going to make all this food with just a few pots and pans, and NO oven – oh yeah, didn’t I mention that? The apartment we’re staying in has an oven and stove but when we try to use the oven it lets out tons of fumes and exhaust into the kitchen – not to mention it leaves a grey soot all over whatever you’re cooking. Unfortunately, this meant a Turkey was out of the question.

Caitlin and I cooking in our tiny kitchen

We celebrated the first half of Thursday in traditional Thanksgiving style – cooking, cooking, cooking. Caitlin got creative with the pumpkin and by steaming it, mashing it, and then forcing all of it through a strainer, it closely resembled canned pumpkin. Through the help of Google, we found ways to cook everything on the stove (including the pumpkin pie!). We had to settle for fried chicken instead of turkey.

What is Thanksgiving without some football???

While we were cooking, James found some of the football games online and started explaining the rules to Phillip so he could have the whole Thanksgiving experience.

And then we ate!

…and then we watched the Aggies lose so we ate some more to drown our sorrows.

Our Thanksgiving feast!

This year we are so thankful for this opportunity to live in South America and experience a different place and people. We are thankful for our family who we miss so much. We are thankful for new friends. We are thankful for each other.

Kirsten

If you’d like to follow our route on the map, here is a quick description: from Mendoza we headed north in Argentina through San Juan, Ischigualasto, Chilecito, and Fiambala (great hot springs!).  We then crossed over Paso de San Francisco at 15,500 ft above sea level into Chile and descended down to Copiapo and Caldera, Chile (at sea level on the same day that we crossed the pass!).  From there we headed north to Pan de Azucar national park, Antofogasta, and San Pedro de Atacama.  At that point we decided to cross back into northern Argentina where we visited some small towns before heading to Salta.  After Salta, we headed south through Cafayate and couch surfed with a family in Belen.

We are now back in Mendoza for a couple weeks before we head to Santiago where we’ll be house-sitting for some missionaries (friends of friends of ours) for three weeks.

After about the 3^rd week, I think we started to get our groove. The feeling of being disconnected slowly faded – not because we felt totally connected but because I think we just got used to being gringos in a foreign country. It started feeling quite normal to walk down the street and only hear Spanish or to buy groceries at 4 different stores rather than just one or to know that nothing would be open between the hours of 1:30 pm and 5:00 pm.  We’ve adapted – and it wasn’t too hard.

One of the biggest realizations is how easy and quick EVERYTHING is in the US.  We are a culture of “I know exactly what I want, I want it now, and I don’t want to pay very much for it”. That culture is a huge contrast to pretty much every country I have visited. Not that people wouldn’t like things to be that way but for some reason the cultures of Argentina and many other places we’ve visited aren’t centered around this mindset.  It’s good and bad. People here don’t generally buy a whole bunch of stuff that they don’t really need, they spend more time with their families during their 3-4 hour siesta, and they walk everywhere. However, things also don’t happen very quickly here and we don’t seem to get near as much done. It took me 2 weeks to find baking power and it took us about a week to figure out where and how to buy propane for our stove – which resulted in a complicated series of hoses and adaptors to fit their small tanks. I’m sure if you lived here and knew the language, things would be a bit quicker and easier but we have 9 months so we’re not really in any hurry.

Language learning has been slower than I expected. James and I had a decent foundation of Spanish before we started and I had hoped that after a month of being here, a magic switch would be flipped and we would be speaking and understanding with ease. We are making progress and we are starting to understand more but I think it will be a slow process.

Here are a few more observations. There are lots but these are the ones I could remember:

• When you say thank you here, they answer “no” or “como no” or “porfavor no” which literally means, “why not” and “please no”. It’s not meant to be translated word-for-word but it’s weird to hear “no” the first few times.
• You have to flag the busses down here for them to stop. However, even if there are 20 people waiting for the same bus, they will ALL wave the bus down. It seems a bit redundant to me.
• The pedestrian does not have the right of way and many intersections have no stop lights or stop sign. The general rule is the car to the right or whoever is bigger has the right of way.
• No one is allowed to sell alcohol for 24 hours during election day and it is mandatory to vote.
• We ate dinner at 11:30 pm last night – not only is that normal but  they would think you’re crazy if you try to eat at 6 or 7.

We just couldn’t stand to not be able to live in our car again However, on this SUV, the back seats didn’t fold completely flat, so we had to build a raised platform. Plus, we had to do it all with a hand saw and hammer and nails since we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on power tools. Fortunately, we found a place similar to a Home Depot that would cut the large piece of plywood to our general dimensions. We built it with 2 plywood cut-outs: the front cut-out is removable and can slide towards the back when it’s not in use and when people are riding in the back seat. Having our beds on a raised platform doesn’t give us quite as much room for sleeping but it allows for us to store all our stuff underneath so it’s out of sight. We plan to test it out when we hit the road for our month-long road trip to the North of Chile and Argentina.

Pedestrian Street near Plaza Indepencia in Mendoza

We are quickly adjusting. Things don’t seem quite as difficult and we are figuring out how to navigate and enjoy the city and the culture. Our Spanish is improving too. We seem to understand more and more every day. We found a lady who is teaching both of us Spanish for 2 hours a day for one month. Don’t get me wrong, instead of only understanding 10% of what people say, it may have jumped to 30% so we still have a long way to go.

Learning Spanish is rough - with our teacher, Ana

By far, Mendoza’s largest claim-to-fame is the wine industry.  Mendoza is surrounded by vineyards, which are especially known for producing high quality Malbec grapes.

Familia Di Tommaso Winery

Nice lunch in Maipu

One of the Mendoza Bodegas