The Villain’s Sexiest Photos of 2015

Posted by Beth | December 31, 2015

Happy New Year everyone! We are celebrating in Copenhagen tonight but wanted to post some type of recap to end 2015. Last year we did a thorough overview of our points and miles earnings, but this year we’re having too much fun as full-time travelers to sit down and do the math. Our seven weeks in South America flew by and we’re still trying to catch up on posting about all of our crazy adventures in Chile, Argentina and Peru.

A few days ago on Twitter I came across this blog post by Mapping Megan of “The Sexiest Male Travelers of 2015.” Though it was too late to nominate Caleb, it gave me the idea to post some humorous picks of my favorite travel partner.

This was seconds after our first bear sighting in the wilderness.

Though he’s the king of awkward sunburns, bug bites and photos, I couldn’t ask for anyone funnier or more patient then this guy to see the world with. Looking forward to making many more memories in 2016!

How to fly to Patagonia for free on Delta miles

Posted by Beth | December 29, 2015

In my opinion Delta points are among the most worthless airline miles around. It is difficult to find award space at the lowest levels and when we were based in Denver there were just very few options. Caleb got the American Express Delta card in his very first churn in January of 2013 when we still had no idea what we were doing. The 40,000 points he earned for that sign-up bonus sat in his account for several years until we finally found a good use for them. Once we realized we could use them to fly within Patagonia, he also signed up for the American Express Delta Business card, earning another 50,000 points.

We used his Delta points to book one-way flights within Argentina on Aeorlineas Argentinas, a SkyTeam partner.

Here are the miles and cost breakdowns for two people:

• Buenos Aires (EZE) to El Calafate (FTE): 25,000 miles + $58.60 in taxes and fees. The cost of the flight had we paid out-of-pocket would have been $398.
• El Calafate (FTE) to Lima (LIM), with an overnight layover in Buenos Aires (EZE): 45,000 miles + $177.26 in taxes and fees. The cost of the flight had we paid out-of-pocket would have been $2,016.

These flights do not show up on Delta’s website, so I had to call the airline to check on availability and book the tickets. Typically there is a fee for booking over the phone, but since I could not make that same booking online, the agent was able to waive that fee.

Backpacking Patagonia isn’t cheap but Delta miles helped bring our costs down

Aerolineas Review:
Aerolineas Argentinas is the government-run airline in Argentina. Both trips we flew out of EZE, the newer, farther-away from the city, international airport. The cab from the San Telmo neighborhood of BA cost $28, and took about 30-40 minutes, though it was very early in the morning. Apparently it can take up to  two hours if there is traffic.

The check-in process at the airport took quite awhile, but that may have been since a large bus of Chinese tourists arrived right before us. We did not have advance seat assignments (I should have called the airline ahead of time to confirm), but it worked out fine because they were able to put us in two seats together in the exit row.

Overall our experience with Aerolineas Argentinas was smooth sailing. They served sandwiches and sodas on the three and a half hour flights between El Calafate and Buenos Aires.

Note that a cab from the FTE airport into the center of town will run you about $20, or you can take the VES bus, which is $9 per person, or $15 if you purchase roundtrip tickets.

As there are no non-stops between El Calafate and Lima, Peru, we had a 21 hour layover in Buenos Aires. It worked out fine because we loved our stay at the Holiday Inn EZE Airport Hotel.

On the way out from Buenos Aires to Lima we were also able to enjoy the Star Alliance lounge, thanks to our Priority Pass Access (free with Citi Prestige card). The lounge was very spacious with lots of self-serve food and drink options.

Though I typically overlook Delta points for more valuable (in my mind) currencies such as United or American Airline miles, in this case Delta miles helped us to fly for a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid otherwise.

Holiday Inn Buenos Aires Airport Review + How we earned bonus points

En route from Patagonia to Peru we were stuck with a 21-hour layover in Buenos Aires. We knew at this point in the trip we would have already been in Buenos Aires for several days so decided just to book a points hotel close to the airport for some R&R. It turned out to be a great decision because we weren’t crazy about Buenos Aires anyway, the cab from the airport to downtown was nearly $30 one-way, and the Holiday Inn EZE was very nice.

We redeemed 10,000 IHG points for a one-night stay at the Holiday Inn Buenos Aires EZE Airport Hotel. Perhaps it was just because we’d spent the previous few weeks in our tent, hostels or bad guesthouses, but we were so thankful for the amenities that are included in a “chain” hotel.

Caleb has Spire Elite status, the top tier with IHG hotels, thanks to their new policy of earning Spire Elite if you earn 100,000 points or more in a year, which he did by signing up for the Chase IHG-branded credit card.

Spire Elite Benefits (may apply to other levels as well, not sure):

• Hot breakfast buffet. Espresso drinks are not typically included but I was able to get one “on the house” for asking nicely.
• Welcome package with a bottle of water and chocolate
• 2 p.m. late checkout

Benefits for all guests:

• Airport transportation included. Once you land and get your bags, make your way to the C terminal (international arrivals) and look for the Holiday Inn desk across from the McDonalds. If no one is there, pick up the phone which will dial the hotel. Keep in mind that the shuttle does not run from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. (Argentinans love their afternoon siesta!)
• Full-service hotel with restuarant, bar, barber shop, a gym and a pool. 

Downsides:

• There is not much around the hotel within walking distance. If you don’t plan to leave the hotel (we didn’t!) you’ll be fine, otherwise you’ll need to take a cab.
• We were in desperate need of clean laundry and had been holding off on doing ours because the website advertised laundry machines, but it was a 24-hour send-off service, like most of the rest of Argentina. We attempted to do ours in the bathtub, but it didn’t dry in time and we ended up having to try to dry some pieces outside by the pool after checkout and carrying around wet laundry. Not our best decision.
  

  Attempting to nonchalantly dry our laundry by the pool.

I put a couple of messages on social media about our positive experience with this Holiday Inn and received a response on Twitter saying to check my account for a special reward. We received 2,500 IHG bonus points! I thought that was a really nice touch for Holiday Inn to interactive with guests via social media and offer bonus points.

 

Glacier Trekking Options in Patagonia

Posted by Caleb | December 29, 2015

The Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the second largest ice field in the world, covering about 6,500 square meters in Argentina and Chile.  It is packed with massive glaciers and unemployed people who like to hike (there were tons of people that looked exactly like us)  As we are figuring out, there does not seem to be any climate in the world that can not be made into some sort of tourism, ice fields are no different.

The easiest and most convenient option for us to see a glacier was to visit the most famous in the region, Perito Moreno, located just an hour away from the Argentinian launching point, El Calafete.

To the best of our knowledge the only company allowed to actually trek on Perito Moreno is Hielo y Aventura, an Argentinian outfit plastered all over the El Calafete tourist scene.  This exclusivity makes the decision easy for tourists but also pretty expensive and they seem to take pleasure in tacking on the extra fees.  They offer two main options to get on the glacier:

• Hielo y Aventura Mini Trekking – Price $1,200 ARS + $300 ARS Transfer Fee + $260 ARS National Park Fee  (El Calafete, Argentina)

This is the option we chose based on a ton of recommendations from fellow travelers on the length of the trek.

What it includes:

It is almost a full day of glacier interaction starting with a visit to the Perito Moreno park that provides several “look out” opportunities walking along balconies.  Normally this kind of stuff gets old quick but this glacier is nuts.  Stand and look for five minutes and you will have seen at least one ice avalanche breaking off the glacier and into the water below.  It is well worth the time allotted, about an hour.

Perito Moreno Glacier Lookout

A 20 minute ferry ride follows, floating your boat next to the glacier, it actually sounds much more entertaining that it was.  The ferry drops you off at the nearest land point to the glacier, there you mosey up to two modern buildings that look completely capable of serving you lunch; however, you are required to bring your grub with you.

The finale is the glacier walk.  You are provided with crampons and a short lesson on how to use them.  Our group had two guides, one an entertaining fluent English speaker. The other, Marcel, a younger version of the most interesting man in the world. He followed us around in silence for most of the trek, only speaking to notify one of the walkers of faulty crampon walking form.  The total time on the glacier is advertised as 90 minutes though we spent only 60-65 minutes actually on the glacier.

For us the trek was worth the ~$118 USD/person we had to shell out.  This was tacked onto the list of Patagonian landscapes that look more like something from Game of Thrones, rather than real earth.

•  Hielo y Aventura – Big Ice – Price $2,200 ARS + $300 ARS transfer fee + $260 ARS National Park Fee (El Calafete, Argentina)

This trek includes all of what is posted above, with an extra two hours on the glacier.  Due to the fact the glacier is growing two meters a day, while also receding at the edges, the trek is different from month to month. When talking to different folks that had completed this full trek, we got very different stories.  All were extremely positive, but $200 USD (using the blue dolar rate) was too much for us to dish out.

• Big Foot Patagonia – Ice Hike – Price $95,000 CLP (Torres del Paine National Park, Chile)

Glacier Grey, the second most popular ice trekking option

Another option we looked into for glacier hiking is located in Torres del Paine National park.  Located on one tip of the W Trek, the Big Foot camp offers a 5 hour tour with 2.5 hours on the glacier hiking.  We did not include this in our W Trek hike but talked with several people who said it was well worth it.  The camp is roughly a 30 minute walk from Refugio Grey though many said the hike included in the trek is pretty difficult.  Tacking this onto your W Trek hike would be simple, and more cost effective than the similar Big Ice trek in Argentina.

Don’t miss a chance to walk on top of a glacier if you make it to Patagonia!

 

Top 4 Tips for Visiting El Chalten, Argentina’s Trekking Capital

Posted by Beth | December 20, 2015

We spent six days and five nights in Argentina’s trekking capital, El Chalten. Here’s our four best tips for how to make the most of your time in this part of Patagonia.

1. Hike your heart out

El Chalten is best known as a hiker’s paradise. The tiny town in the heart of Patagonia seems to exist solely for the purpose of accommodating hikers (the town itself was only established in 1985 over a border dispute between Argentina and Chile). Entrance to this part of Los Glacieres National Park is free and there are enough day hikes to keep you occupied for at least a week.

Cloudy skies but still a good view of the town from the Mirador los Condores.

A definite perk is that most of the major hikes leave right from the center of town. While the majority of hikes can be completed as day hikes (offering the luxury of a cold beer and warm bed at the end of a long hike), you can combine several routes into multi-day trips with free camping in between. This site has a basic list of hike overviews.

We did both Mount Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre as two-day, overnight trips to allow ourselves to go at a leisurely pace, save money on lodging and enjoy more time at the beautiful campgrounds (Poincenot and De Agostini).

The weather was finally warm enough to use our hammock at the last campground!

2. Plan a little in advance
   

Though there’s plenty of hiking trails in the area worthy of your attention, I would put some thought into when in your Patagonia trip you visit El Chalten. For us personally, the Chalten area was a distant second to Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. I think perhaps if we had visited Argentina’s trekking capital first, we would have been a little more impressed and it may have been a good warm up for the W-Trek. That being said it could have taken away from the W-Trek and left us exhausted at the end, who knows.

El Chalten is about a 3.5 hour ride from El Calafate (where the international airport is located). We spent a few days in El Calafate visiting the Perito Mereno glacier, then spent six days and five nights in El Chalten, then went back to El Calafate for one more night before flying out. The main reason we went back was the Internet in El Chalten is practically non-existent. We had been in Patagonia for over two weeks at this point and were a little burnt out on hiking and ready for some Wi-Fi catch up time (unfortunately the Wi-Fi at our hotel in Calafate was out, leading to my first major trip breakdown, but that’s a story for another day).

If you’re planning on cooking your own food in El Chalten, we highly recommend you buy groceries in El Calafate and take them with you, as the grocery store in El Chalten is tiny and the shelves were practically empty. We ended up eating macaroni noodles with cream of asparagus soup as a sauce for our Thanksgiving dinner.

This was our “best” camp dinner. Noodles with water, a cheese cube and tuna.

There are two main bus companies that make the trip between El Calafate and El Chalten, Chalten Travel and Cal-Tur. They basically leave at the same times and are priced the same. We used Chalten Travel, which has an option to drop you back off at the El Calafate airport for no additional charge, which would have saved us $16 in cab fare.

One final thing to consider about timing in El Chalten is if you’re dead set on getting great views or photos of Fitz Roy, the weather can be a major factor. It was pretty cloudy for the majority of our six days there, only allowing for clear views for a few hours total during that time period.

The clearest view of Fitz Roy we had was one random morning in town headed out for a hike.

3. Eat and drink well, even on a budget!
   

El Chalten really is a charming little mountain town and there’s no shortage of restaurants and bars catering to tourists. Here were some of our favorites:

• Bakery—I am not one to visit the same place more than once but I stopped by this bakery no less than five times it was so amazingly good and affordable. Empanadas, pre-made sandwiches, croissants, cheese biscuits and donuts; I ate more than my fair share of carbs here. Open 8 a.m. to midnight everyday. (Unfortunately I don’t remember the name but when you get off the bus, it’s
  on your right on the street you walk into town on, past the big El Chalten sign).
  

  I couldn’t get enough of this place!

• La Vineria—delicious, big sandwiches for about $10 USD (we easily split one), and bottles of wine starting at $6.
• Heladeria Domo Blanco-homemade ice cream. So good we went twice.
• Take your pick of restaurants offering happy hour craft beers (though none too impressive for these two Colorado craft beer snobs), wood-fired pizzas and Patagonian lamb dishes.
  

  The beautiful scenery and well-marked hiking trails are the big draw to El Chalten.

4. Find cheap dorm rooms or camp for free

For our first night in El Chalten we splurged on a private room and paid about $45. We did not book in advance but walked around comparing prices on a few places near the bus station when we arrived. The lady was willing to negotiate prices and dropped it down about 10 percent.

We camped for free for two of the nights we were in El Chalten, and stayed in dorms the other two. Dorm beds range from 90 pesos to 250 pesos per person, per night. I apparently did a shit job of keeping track of names of places we visited, but the cheapest hostel was on the same little street as the bakery, right as you get in to town. It’s attached to a restaurant and has a sign in the window advertising dorms for 90 pesos. We stayed there one night and ended up with a private room since no one else was in the other bunk bed. The bathrooms were tiny and certainly not the cleanest, but for about $7 what can you expect? It was just as nice as the 150 pesos dorm we stayed in (luckily also ended up as a private room since we visited before the high season).

Country Recap and Travel Budget Review: Chile

Posted by Beth | December 19, 2015

Here is a recap of our time in Chile, what we loved, what we didn’t and how many points and dollars we spent!

Days in the country: 9

Cities visited: Santiago, Puerto Natales + Torres del Paine National Park

Language: Spanish (most tourist locations have English available)

Favorite Lodging: Grand Hyatt Santiago

We can’t say enough good things about our fabulous stay at the Grand Hyatt Santiago

Favorite food: The lunch we had at Peluqueria Francesca. We know, we should totally choose Chilean food here and not French food, but it was so good.

Favorite drink: The Famous “Terremoto” (Earthquake)

Terreomotos: Sweet white wine with pineapple ice cream.

Favorite activities: The W-Trek! Read more about our gear list and the logistics.

What we enjoyed most: The easy-to-navigate Santiago subway system, our first free walking tour of Santiago with our main-man Joaquin, the endless free food and drinks in the fancy pants Hyatt lounge, and of course the stunning scenery in Patagonia.

Patagonia lived up to all the hype

What we enjoyed least: Waking up to an earthquake at 4 a.m., none of the maps being to scale whatsoever, lack of street food

What surprised us: We were very impressed by how modern and Western-feeling Chile was compared to other South American cities.

What we would have done differently: We would have spent at least one more day in the city so we could have taken a day trip to nearby coastal town, Valparaiso

Valparaiso is calling us to a return trip to Chile. Photo from 99traveltips.com

Most interesting person we met: Ricardo, a local who let us practice our Spanish and made us laugh out loud over lunch. We also adored the two gentlemen who staffed the Grand Club Lounge at the Hyatt.

Currency: Chilean Pesos (~650:1)

Visa cost: $0

Airline miles spent: 40,000 American Airlines miles, off-peak awards

Hotel points spent: 20,000 Hyatt points

Flexible points spent: 17,100 Barclaycard Arrival points (*we are applying statement credits from our Barclaycard Arrival Plus cards toward airline taxes and fees and accommodation expenses. Full post with detailed explanation coming soon).

Total out-of-pocket expense: $463.15

Daily Average: $25.73 per person, per day

 

Hiking the W-Trek in Patagonia, Part 2: Route, budget and logistics

Posted by Beth | December 12, 2015

One of the highlights, by far, of our South American adventure has been hiking the W-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. It was a challenging but rewarding experience with the most stunning scenery we’ve ever seen.

We weren’t able to find a lot of info pre-trip on Patagonia trekking, so decided to do a little series on our personal experience with the W-Trek. If nothing else, hopefully it will help our friends headed to do it in a few weeks! Yesterday we focused on our packing list, and today we’ll review more logistics, including our route, transportation options, and total costs. We thought the most helpful way would be to start by breaking down our schedule. As always, feel free to comment or send us a message if you have specific questions. All prices are for two people. 

Pre-hike day:

• 8:30 a.m. Depart El Calafate, Argentina for Puerto Natales, Chile (1,760 ARS, $118 USD)
• 2:45 p.m. Arrive at Puerto Natales bus terminal, walk about 20 minutes
• 3:00 p.m. Erratic Rock lecture-highly recommend!
• 4:30 p.m. Check in to hostel, El Patogonico. Paid 22,000 Chilean pesos ($33) for private room. We booked in advance on Hostels.com. The hosts were lovely, we would recommend this place.
• 5:00 p.m. Visit ATM, camping store, get groceries, dried fruit store, etc.
• 7:30 p.m. Cook dinner at hostel, shower and head to bed early

Day 1:

• 7:00 a.m. Walk 15 minutes uphill to bus terminal
• 7:30 a.m. Bus to Torres del Paine National Park. We booked our round-trip bus the night before through our hostel, any hostel should be able to book. (30,000 pesos, $46)
• 9:30 a.m. Arrive at park entrance, get out to pay entry fee (36,000 pesos, $55).
• 11:00 a.m. Get off at Pudeto bus stop. If you have more than an hour to spare, there’s a waterfall hike you can take if you walk straight up the road. Otherwise you can stay warm in a small café on the lake.
  

  Most scenic boat ride we’ve ever taken

• 12:00 p.m. Catarmaran departs. Line forms pretty early because there’s limited seats. It’s cold on the upper deck but worth the views (30,000 pesos, $46).
• 12:30 p.m. Arrive at Paine Grande Refugio and campsite; start hiking
• 4:00 p.m. Arrive at Glacier Gray campsite. Register and pay (6,000 pesos, $18.50).
• 5:00 p.m. Set up camp, then continue along trail for better views of Glacier Grey. It’s only a 15 minute walk or so to the first viewpoint, but apparently an hour, or two hours, up the trail you come across even better lookouts.
  
  
• 6:30 p.m. Cook dinner in designated camp cooking area (NO open fires allowed, taken very seriously).
• 8:30 p.m. Settle in to our tent way before sundown

Day 2:

• 7:00 a.m. Wake up, cook breakfast and tear down camp
• 9:00 a.m. Depart camp in order to arrive back at Paine Grande by noon, before catamaran of new hikers arrives
• 12:00 p.m. Arrive back at Paine Grande, can stop to use facilities, or continue up the trail.
  
• 2:30 p.m. Arrive at Camp Italiano (free campsite-only allowed to stay one night)
• 3:00 p.m. Make lunch, set up camp, play cards with other hikers, read
• 7:00 p.m. Cook dinner
• 8:30 p.m. Walk pretty far to the rustic outhouses before retiring to tent

Day 3:

• 6:30 a.m. Wake up, cook breakfast, tear down camp, store bags at shelter
  

  Much easier to hike through the French Valley if you leave your big pack at the campsite

• 8:30 a.m. Begin trek through the French Valley.
• 9:15 a.m. Arrive at the first 360 degree viewpoint. If you hear a loud noise, look left for avalanches on the hanging glacier.
  
• 11:00 a.m. Arrive at Mirador Brittanica for excellent 360 degree views of the towers. Keep your eyes peeled for orange signs marking the route, we got a little lost at one point.
  
• 1:30 p.m. Arrive back at Camp Italiano, cook soup, pick up our packs, set off in other direction
  
  

  Beautiful lake views on the way to the campsite

• 4:00 p.m. Arrive at Refugio Cuerno. (Paid campsite-15,000 pesos, $23). Some of the campsites here are on wooden platforms, so you’ll want strings to tie it down. We ended up on a site on the ground and it was warmer, and our best night of sleep of the trek.
• 5:30 p.m. Cooked an early dinner, read in our tents, went to bed early.
  

  beautiful site for a campground at Cuerno

  

Day 4:

• 7:00 a.m. Wake up, cook breakfast, tear down camp
• 9:00 a.m. Hiked 4.5 hours along the lake, mostly uphill. (Take the shortcut to Chilaneo!) I thought this was the hardest section of the whole trek.
  
  

  Someone came untied and was blocking the trail

  

  The trail to Refugio Chilaneo

  

  Stopping to examine how I got blood on my sleeve.

• 1:30 p.m. Arrive at Refugio Chilaneo. Stop for quick break and indulge in a coke.
• 2:00 p.m. Hike one more hour to Camp Torres (free campsite).
  
• 3:00 p.m. Arrive at Torres, set up camp, cook dinner, hang out with people we’ve gotten to know over the past few days along the route.
• 8:00 p.m. Prepare pack for early morning hike, set alarm and head to bed.

Day 5: 

• 4:00 a.m. Wake up call
• 4:30 a.m. Leave camp to hike 45 minutes to an hour to Torres, steep uphill climb. We carried our sleeping bags so we’d be warm at the top while waiting for the sunrise to hit the towers.
  

  Worth the 4:30 a.m start

  

• 7:00 a.m. Leave the towers to hike back down to camp. Pack up tent and cook breakfast.
• 9:30 a.m. Hike the final leg-about 45 minutes back to Chilaneo, stop for quick break, then finish with about 1.5 hours all downhill to the hotel parking lot.
  
  
  

  We made it!

• 12:00 p.m. Arrive at the end, only to have to wait two hours for the shuttle.
• 2:00 p.m. Shuttle back to bus stop (5,600 pesos, $8.60).
• 2:30 p.m. Get back on the bus we took to the park, as we had purchased roundtrip tickets.
• 4:30 p.m. Arrive in Puerto Natales, walk back in to town to our hostel.
• 5:30 p.m. Enjoy a hot shower like I have never enjoyed a shower before!
• 6:30 p.m. Eat a huge dinner at Picardo de Carlitos.
• 9:00 p.m. Crash in bed so thankful for an actual bed.

Lodging:
We camped all four nights during our trek, but there are options to stay in refugios, and even a few hotels along the way. These type of accommodations are way over priced and fill up far in advance.

Transportation:

• The bus from Puerto Natales into Torres del Paine National Park takes about two hours and can be booked from either the bus station or basically any hotel or hostel. They all seem to leave at either 7:30 a.m. or 2 p.m. We opted to take the 7:30 bus. Within the National Park, all of the transportation waits for the previous mode, so you don’t have to worry about missing your boat, bus, shuttle etc.
  • There are a few places you can get off the bus. Administracion, (5 hours of extra hiking), Pudeto (where we got off to catch the catamaran), and the third I can’t remember, but don’t think it related to the W.
  • The Catarman cost 30,000 pesos ($46).
    

    line for the catamaran–get in line early to get a seat.

• If you end the W at the hotel, then you can take a shuttle (5,600 pesos). They leave at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., or 7 p.m. We arrived to the hotel around noon so had to wait a few hours in a grassy area for the shuttle.
• The shuttle drops you off at the bus station where you can hop your bus back to Puerto Natales, which you likely already purchased as an open-ended roundtrip.

Torres del Paine is featured on the 1000 Chilean peso bill

Total Costs:
Again, all prices in this post are for two people.

Groceries: $65
Park Fee: $55
Camping: $41.50
Transportation to and within park: $101
Subtotal: $262.50

Two nights lodging in Puerto Natales: $77
Roundtrip bus to Puerto Natales from El Calafate Argentina: $118.50
Post hike meal and wine: $44
Subtotal: $239.50
Grand Total: $502

We were pleased that we only spent around $500 for the week of our W-Trek (average $72/day) for an incredible trek.

Keep your eyes open for condors!

Extending the trek: 

We completed the five day W-trek, but if you’re looking for a longer hike then you can do the full circuit, which includes the more difficult back side, which can be an “O” trek, or a “Q” trek, which is the longest option (7-10 days).

Hiking the W-Trek in Patagonia, Part 1: Gear

Posted by Beth | December 11, 2015

Yesterday Caleb posted about our full trip packing list for our nine-month RTW trip. Today we’re moving into reviewing our time in Patagonia, featuring a two-part series on hiking the W-Trek. Today’s post specifically will focus on the camping gear, clothing and food we carried.

The W-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is one of the most famous and scenic treks in the world, but before our trip we were able to find very little info on the logistics of preparing for and completing the five-day, four-night hike. Really, this mini-series should be called, “everything you need to know before doing the W-Trek the way we did it,” as truly there are lots of different ways you can complete it and even more ways you can day hike, stay in hotels, etc. in the park. All in all it’s fairly intuitive and easy to figure out as you go, but we were very thankful we attended the 90-minute talk at the Erratic Rock hostel in Puerto Natales (3 p.m. everyday) the day before we left for the park. We followed the route and tips they suggested and everything went smoothly for us.

This pack got pretty heavy over the course of 5 days and 40+ miles.

Part one of the series will focus specifically on what to pack, and tomorrow we’ll break down more of the logistics, including our route, transportation and a breakdown of our daily schedule on the trail.

 

Gear:

• We each carried our 65L packs, but left anything “non-essential” for the hike behind at our hostel in Puerto Natales. Almost any hostel or hotel in the area will store your belongings in lockers during your trek.
• Camelbak bladders and Nalgene water bottles. No need to carry too much water or filter because all of the water in streams, lakes, etc. you come across are drinkable without filtering.

One of the things that makes Patagonia a hiker’s paradise is you can get ice cold glacier water out of any stream

• Camping stove and equipment. No fires are allowed in the park but all campsites have designated cooking areas. We used the MSR PocketRocket Backpacking Stove, and the GSI Outdoor Pinnacle Dualist Cooking Set (the silverware in this sucked though, we wished we had brought extra cutlery).
• Tent: We used the REI Camp Dome 2 and footprint.  Prior to the trip we were very worried about how this tent would hold up in the intense winds.  It did more than fine as all the campsites were in wooded areas and mostly protected from the wind.  We did use stakes and tie downs on 3 of the 4 nights.

• Fuel: There’s a little camping store in Puerto Natales where you can buy the gas canisters (about 7 USD), or check in at Erratic Rock for any partially used canisters for free.  One small canister would have been fine for breakfast and dinner everyday, as well as a couple hot lunches.
• For sleeping: Sleeping pads, sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners, camping pillows, eye masks and ear plugs.  They suggest heavy sleeping bags as it does get cold.
• Headlamps: You’ll hike in the dark on the final day and it’s helpful for navigating around the campsite after dark, though admittedly we went to bed before sundown every night on the trail, as sunset wasn’t until 10:30 p.m. or so.

For our sunrise hike we carried our headlamps, as well as our sleeping bags for warmth at the top.

• Hammock: We carried our beloved Eno hammock but unfortunately never used it because it was pretty cold out, so anytime we weren’t hiking, we were in our tent snuggled up.
• Camping towels: I never used mine (that’s right, five days with no shower), but Caleb did take a shower at one of the campsites (and left his Fitbit Charge in the shower stall, never to be seen again. The price to pay for a hot shower I suppose!) We were actually quite surprised that the paid sites even had showers, which we weren’t expecting.
  

  We considered ourselves very luck with the great weather we had all things considered, but it was still pretty chilly and windy.

• Trash bags: This was a pro-tip we picked up from the Erratic Rock lecture, but luckily didn’t need in the end because we never got rained on! But it’s a good idea to have everything in your pack stuffed inside trash bags.
• Toiletries: Face wipes, deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste, contact solution, sunscreen, bug spray (not too many bugs luckily),etc.
• Electronics: Go Pro camera, small digital camera, our iPhones, Kindles and step-tracking/GPS watches (RIP Fitbit). If you have a nice camera, I’d bring it. The scenery is stunning so it’s worth it to carry. Just make sure you have a way to waterproof it. We also took our Belkin power-pack, which helped keep our devices charged.

Clothing:

• Main hiking outfits: Long sleeve dry-fit tops, hiking pants, hiking boots, smart wool socks, dry-fit under garments, buffs. This was the base outfit we hiked in everyday, though we rotated between items (i.e. I brought two shirts I switched back and forth but brought enough underwear for everyday).
• Warmer layers: We kept our gloves (thin-pair is fine), stocking caps, vest and rain jackets handy so we could take on and off as needed.

Needed all my warmest layers on the first day of hiking

• Sleeping clothes: This is a separate set of clothing from what you’ll hike in that you can change into when you set up camp. We wore thermal long underwear, second pair of pants (yoga pants or thin hiking pants), several layers of tops–short sleeve, long sleeve and hoodies/jackets, and wool socks.
• Sunglasses, buffs, ball cap, headband, belt if needed

Food: 

• Protein: We did not bring anything with us from the States since we were traveling for several weeks prior, but if I could have done anything differently I’d have a jar of peanut butter! Beef jerky would have also been clutch. Our only real source of protein was nuts, and we didn’t feel it was enough. Some people brought boiled eggs and tuna, which seemed to work fine.
• Dried fruit and nuts: There’s a store in Puerto Natales that has a HUGE variety of dried fruits and nuts. But it is fairly expensive.
  
  We liked the dried strawberries, dried apricots and salted cashews the best from this place. We also bought some fresh fruit from the big grocery store in town (where we bought most of our supplies).
• Carbs: We cooked a combination of pastas, risottos and quinoa for dinner, occasionally mixed with soup packets/sauces. We ate oatmeal every morning, and had granola and granola bars to snack on as well. For snacks we had some crackers, chips and cookies.
• Drinks: We had instant coffee packets, tea bags and lemonade/flavored water packets.

There are options to buy food at the paid campsites, but they are more expensive.  You can expect prices to be nearly double.

This can of Coke Light was over $3, but well worth it after our hardest day of hiking

In the end we did just fine with what we packed. Obviously pack as light as you can, but we really used everything we packed, except for our hammock. We did the hike at the end of November, which is the end of spring/beginning of summer. The weather is warmer, and trails more crowded, during December and January.

The sack on my back: Packing for nine months of travel

Posted by Caleb | December 10, 2015

Here I am, and taller.

My default strategy in narrowing options down is always the round by round draft format.  This coincides well with my willingness and general enjoyment of analyzing meaningless activities or decisions.  Thus when choosing what I wanted to take on this trip, a draft seemed to be a great start.  Below I have listed the first five things I chose to toss in my bag, ordered on how useful I thought each item will be.  If you are looking for other ideas on what to take on a long-term trip, our full packing list is also posted below.  Keep in mind much of these items were influenced heavily by the trekking and camping portions of our trip.

Round 1: Dry Fit Hiking Pants

Previously I had been awkward jeans guy in our hikes around Colorado, not fitting in with the expected hiking attire of the other bearded men.  In preparation for the trip I excitingly purchased three pairs of dry fit hiking pants, including a sporty red pair that helps me fit in with all the Europeans.  These go round one as I will be wearing one of these three items nearly everyday for nine months.

Christmas Tree

Round 2: Waterproof Hiking Boots

The challenge in being a big guy and carrying nine months worth of stuff on your back is that my stuff is normally bigger.  This becomes an even bigger problem when in comes to shoes, as my hiking boots alone take up a quarter of my bag.  Nonetheless they are making the trip and I chose to spend a little bit more on these to keep my puppies dry.  These go round two as we plan to walk a ton in muddy/wet places, and I tend to get a little hissy when my socks are wet.

Waterproof boots, allowing me to set foot on an iceberg

Round 3:  Amazon Kindle Fire 

As mentioned in previous posts, we are not doing a lot of hanging around in any cities and the number of places we are going will require a ton of travel.  I’m pretty pumped about the Kindle in that it will be my go-to for long bus rides and extended airport layovers.

Round 4: Eyemask and earplugs

We are going to be trying to sleep in some pretty uncomfortable places, and specifically in parts of South America where the sun stays up about 18 hours.  Not to mention I am going to be within five feet of my wife, 24/7, for nine months straight.

Round 5:  Hawaiian Shirt

Sleeper pick here, I figured at some point on this trip there is going to be a time when I needed a collared Hawaiian shirt, and when that time comes I’ll be glad I lugged it around for nine months.  We took a boat cruise the other day to see some pelicans and penguins, and the fellow travelers loved my shirt.

Noticeably undrafted:

Cologne – Just forgot it, big mistake as I often smell pretty bad.

Working beard trimmer – didn’t matter anyway, was growing this thing out!

Got a haircut in Arequipa, Peru for about $2.

Here is our full packing list, everything in our bags.  In total my full pack weighs about 42 pounds.

Gear:

Gregory 65 Liter Mens Backpack – For the male

Osprey 65 Liter Pack – For the lady

Tent (Two person, REI 2+ Dome Tent)

Sleeping bags (29 Degree)

Polar Liner sleeping sack

Sleeping pads

PocketRocket Stove

ENO Hammock and Straps

Cooking Set – Bowls and Spoons

Quick Dry Towels

Travel Pillows

Water filtration set

Waterproof matches

Men’s Clothes:

3 pairs Dry Fit Hiking Pants

Casual shorts

Athletic shorts

Swim trunks

5 pairs synthetic underwear

Synthetic long-johns

3 cotton t-shirts

Dry Fit long sleeve

Hawaiian shirt

Fleece Jacket

Waterproof rain jacket

For my other extremities:

Beanie

Waterproof gloves

Waterproof hking boots

Running shoes

Sandals

5 Pairs dry fit socks

2 Pairs Smartwool hiking socks

Personal Hygiene:

Travel toothbrush

Contact Lenses and two bottles of contact solution

Deodorant

1 Beard and Dome Buzzer

Medicine and other stuff: (Heavily influenced and collected by Beth)

Multi-vitamins

Dramomine

Ibproufen

Zantac

Probiotics

Melatonin

Amoxicillin

Malarone – For Malaria

Doxycycline – For potential waterborne bacteria

Anti-diarrhea – For the the worst yet to come

Emergen-C

Technology for 2 people  (Mostly hand-me downs, so if we get mugged our friends are out more money than us!)

2 Macbook Pros

2 Kindle Fires

2 iPhones

2 Smart watches (Garmin Forerunner 15 and FitBit Charge)

2 External hard drives

Mini USB

Many sets of earbud headphones

1 Digital Camera

1 Go Pro – Thanks Kacey!

2 Power adapters

1 Power strip

1 Portable power charger

Miscellaneous Stuff

Fanny pack/Money Belt

Eye mask for sleeping

Ear plugs

2 headlamps

Document holder

Notepad and pens

Bible

Journal

Spare batteries

Drain stopper

Laundry soap

Passport holder

Zip-ties

Safety pens

Sewing kit

2 TSA padlocks

Duct tape

Deck of cards

Ziplocks

Women’s Clothes:

2 Dresses

1 long skirt

3 cotton short sleeve t-shirts

2 long sleeve shirts

3 pairs of leggings/athletic tights

pair of athletic shorts

cotton tank

dry-fit tank top

dry-fit short sleeve

2 dry-fit long sleeve shirts

1 pair hiking pants

1 cotton jacket

waterproof rain jacket

pajama shorts/nightgown

swimsuit

Rainbow sandals

running shoes

hiking boots

2 sports bras, 2 regular bras (1 with removable straps), 3 pairs wool hiking socks,4 pairs short athletic socks, 1 pair of Exofficio undies and several more pairs of underwear

Other Girl Stuff she brought:

Dry shampoo

Razor

Sunscreen

Chapstick with SPF

Hairbrush

Mini-mirror

Eye make up remover pads

Q tips

Cotton balls

Floss

Baby wipes

Hand sanitizer

Stain remover pen

Tweezers

Nail file

Nail clippers

Hair ties

Mini Kleenex packets

Eye drops

Basic make-up

Bug spray

Sometimes we carry all of our stuff into tiny bakeries. What are you thoughts on that, Beth?

Comparing South American Bus Rides

Posted by Beth | December 5, 2015

In both Chile and Argentina travel by bus is the most popular mode of transportation. We had heard pretty good things about the buses in South America, and we’ve been quite impressed by all the options. Some of the actual rides have been far better than others, but here’s a snapshot of a few of the buses we’ve taken so far.

Route:             Santiago to Mendoza
Company:       El Rapido
Seat Type:      Semi-cama (standard reclining seat)
Cost:               $76 USD for two people
Tickets:           Bought online, with small convenience fee.
Length:           7 hours, including 2 hours at the border.
Departure:     10 a.m.
Disadvantages:

• Was convenient to buy online but then we were at a disadvantage not knowing where to find the bus the next day. (In our defense we did try to go to what Google told us was El Rapido’s downtown office but it turned out to be a random restaurant with same name).
• Very difficult to find the exact bus because the terminal is huge. If taking El Rapido get off at the Universidad de Santiago metro stop, not the Estacion Central stop. Luckily we found an Irish couple looking for same bus and the four of us ran around wildly looking for it together.
• The bus was old, stuffy and kind of dirty, especially the bathroom. We sat behind some smelly characters too.
  

Advantages:

• Amazingly scenic views the whole way, first vineyards, then mountains, then more vineyards. The border is at the top of the pass and you go up a road with 28 hairpin turns to get to top.
  
• It left promptly on time and despite our confusion and high stress levels we made it on to the bus. They advise you to be there 30 minutes early but it was fine that we weren’t.

Route:             Mendoza to Buenos Aires
Company:       Chevallier
Seat Type:      Suites class. Our seats turned into lie-flat beds
Cost:               2600 ARS, about $175 USD for two people
Tickets:           Booked through CATA International at the Mendoza bus terminal
Length:           13 hour ride, overnight
Departure:      7:15 p.m.
Disadvantages:

• We splurged on the nicest tickets to get a good night’s sleep, and we’re glad we did, but there certainly were more budget-friendly options.
• Food was a little weird, but hey, at least they were serving food (and wine!)
  

Advantages:

• Probably the nicest bus we’ve ever been on. Our seats turned into lie-flat beds and we slept well. The comfortable seats made the 13 hours fly by.
• Attendant on the bus who served us dinner and drinks around 9:30 p.m. then breakfast and coffee the next morning around 7:30 a.m.
• Arrives to the Retiro bus terminal in BA, which is a short walk to the Retiro metro stop or you can catch a local bus

front row seats!

Route:             El Calafate, Argentina to Puerto Natales, Chile
Company:       Cootra
Seat Type:      Standard. Only one option to the best of our knowledge.
Cost:               880 ARS Roundtrip, or 480 ARS one-way. Roundtrip $118 USD.
Tickets:           Booked in-person at the El Calfate bus terminal
Length:           5-6 hours, including the border crossing.
Departure:     8:30 a.m.
Disadvantages:

• We almost tipped over. About halfway to Puerto Natales our bus driver pulled over to talk to someone on the side of the road and ended up getting the bus stuck in the gravel. We all had to get out, the bus was leaning so far we thought for sure it would tip, and eventually another bus had to tow us out. Shockingly the whole ordeal only took 30-40 minutes.
  
• There’s a few different bus companies that all leave at the same time from the same place, and like everywhere else it’s easy to book your tickets a day in advance or likely even the same day.

Advantages:

• Option to leave your return trip as an open ticket.
• Border crossing is a piece of cake here compared to the border near Mendoza.