The Traveling Judeas

Since our last post we have finished our awesome roadtrip with Shawn and Mike and we are back in Santiago. So let's rewind a bit and go back to right after the trek. We were pretty exhausted after the W so we hung out in Puerto Natales for a few days, relaxing, eating good pizza and empanadas, going on long walks and enjoying wearing shoes other than our sneakers that we trekked in. Mike was finishing the circuit (longer version of the W) and we wanted to wait for him. After leaving Puerto Natales we decided to stop at the Perito Moreno Glacier which is close to El Calafate.

Ali had seen the glacier a few years ago with her family and seeing it for a second time was just as awe-inspiring. We got to the glacier on the later side just before sunset, and it was wonderful because we almost had the place to ourselves. Walking up to the glacier is incredible it has a huge face that is about 200 feet tall and about 97 square miles. It is very cool because there are probably a few miles long of metal sidewalks with railing that you can explore and get all different kinds of views of the glacier. One of the coolest things we saw was the gigantic building size chunks of ice falling off of the glacier or as it's called, calving. Seeing the massive pieces fall off and the huge splashes and effects they have on the lake is incredible. It is definitely something we were grateful we had a chance to see.

Sarah at Perito Moreno

Sun setting on Perito Moreno

Massive glacier

Glacier views

After Perito Moreno we continued driving to El Bolson, a cool, kind of hippie, spiritual town close to Bariloche. We enjoyed the market in El Bolson and stayed at a campsite for a night before driving back to Bariloche. Mike was going to Bariloche to rock climb and although we were planning on staying the night we decided to keep going and try to make it back to Santiago after going up to Cerro Otto (an incredible gondala ride to view all of Bariloche).  We got to Santiago in the afternoon the next day after a lot of driving by Shawn. We stayed with Shawn and his roommate Beth for a few days as we started our exploration of Santiago.

Ali with a dog that reminded us of Sarah's dog, Max

Eating Figs in El Bolson

Cool bus at our campsite in El Bolson

Ali and Shawn in El Bolson

Going up the gondala in Bariloche

Fun fact: Sarah does not like gondalas

At the top of the overlook of Bariloche 

Meditation

Sunset

Ali's passport had only one more space to stamp so she had to go to the American Embassy to get an insert of extra papers. While Ali was at the embassy she saw a young woman with her 5 year old son (Ali learned this later she didn't know his age at the time) who looked like religious Jews (the woman was dressed modestly and the boy was wearing a kepah)  Ali decided that she would go and talk to her because we didn't have a place to have Passover and she thought the woman would have a good suggestion. This is how the conversation started.

Ali walks over "Hi, wait do you speak English?"
"Yes"
"Hi, my name is Ali, this might be weird but are you Jewish?"
"Haha how could you tell?" (Obvious sarcasm, Ali liked her already)
"Haha well I saw the kepah. So I have a question, my friend and I have been travelling for the past 5 months and we are going to be in Santiago for Pesach and I thought you might know a shul or place that we could go to..."

Her name turned out to be Ivonne and she ended up inviting us to her house for Pesach. We had such an incredible time with her family, she and her husband Jacob (both 28) have Moshe (the 5 year old) and Akiva (2.5 years old) and Jacob's parents Brigdet and Maurice, and 2 brothers, Mike (25) and Danny (23), Mike's wife Delilah, niece Tamar (18 months), Abuelo, and sister Sharon (17) were also there. Ivonne and her family were so incredibly warm and welcoming and we had the best time with amazing food and family. After 5 months on the road challah, brisket and matzah ball soup have never tasted better.

Also we will just say that you are supposed to drink 4 cups of wine at Passover and we experienced a lot of laughing until we couldn't breathe :) Ivonne's mother-in-law Bridget, is from Miami so we got a good taste of a wonderful Jewish mother. It was as you would imagine a close family Seder, lots of laughs, jokes on each other's behalf and love and warmth all around. The Seder was in Spanish/English/Hebrew which was definitely a different experience. For the second night of Seder we went to Bridget and Maurice's home for another lovely night.  Also both Seder' s ended at around 2:30 AM!! Note: sorry there are no photos of our Seder extravaganzas but out of respect for the family's traditions we didn't take photos.

To backtrack a bit when Ali was at the embassy Sarah went to a kosher restaurant with great falafel and met a friendly man named Yehudah who invited us to his synagogue for Shabbat (Sabbath) the Friday before Passover. We were planning on attending services and maybe staying at the synagogue for dinner, but instead we met another Sharon who is a year older in school than Ivonne's sister-in-law Sharon (they're friends). Sharon insisted we spend Shabbat dinner at her family's house. Again amazing food was eaten, laughs were had, and the warmth of the Jewish community was definitely felt by us.  We had some delicious home cooked meals and learned about the customs of the Jews living in Chile.

We have loved exploring Santiago and getting to spend time with some wonderful families here. Since we left Shawn's we have been staying with Antonella an amazing woman Sarah's Mom met while standing in line for Lion King tickets on Broadway in NY in October. Antonella offered for us to stay with her and she has been an incredible host. Tomorrow we leave for Valparaiso and Vina del Mar,  two beachy towns about two hours from Santiago. We will be there for a few days and unfortunately  after that we are going to be going on different paths.

Santiago street art 

Ali found her brother Ian's band! The Higher Concept (THC)

Wallstreet Area of Santiago

Thirsty 

Tourist

Street Performer

Pretty flowers

At La Vega, huge open market in Santiago 

At Parque Araunco

Relaxing in the park

We see a giraffe, we have to take a photo. AePhi fo life. LML. 

In front of the President's house, raising the flag

La Moneda Palace, the Presidents crib

With our new friend Arturo who we met in the park.
 He took us to an interesting exhibit on textiles in Latin America

After some of the most amazing 5 months of our lives we have experienced everything we would have thought possible physically,
emotionally, and spiritually. We have laughed until we almost peed, learned, been open, experienced unreal experiences, seen gorgeous sites both famous and some you've never heard of, made great friends from all over the world and said goodbye to them, learned Spanish,  ate lots of empanadas,  connected, and we have done all of this together. As hard as it will be to split up Ali decided that because she only has two months left (she's in one of her best friend and former roommate's weddings, Shoutout Rach and Dani!) she is going to move to Buenos Aires, live with a family (her Spanish teacher's family) and volunteer. Sarah doesn't have a time limit on when she needs to be home and wants to experience things like working on a farm, learning to surf and possibly living in an Eco Yoga Village. It will be hard not to have our best friend there for support for our next part of our journey, but we decided it was best for us and our goals for our trip. It definitely won't be goodbye, it will be see you later as we hug and cry goodbye :) Also we will continue the blog but just will be writing separately. Thanks for all the love and support we have received as we continue on our journey.

Gustock, aka huge picnic with a concert. 

"Life is a journey, not a destination."

Love and Hugs,

A & S

Patagonia LOVE.

Hola! Our farewell dinner from Santiago was fabulous. Sarah's friend's mom who lives in Santiago had us over to swim and eat an incredible homemade dinner. She made amazing grilled salmon, fresh salad, two kinds of homemade bread, ziti bake and fresh strawberries and ice cream for dessert. It was all delicious and we had a great time chatting about dogs, motorcycles, traveling and Chilean culture. Thanks Candy and Gonzalo for inviting us into your home for such a nice evening.

View from Shawn's apartment in Santiago

Whiskey the dog

Dinner on the patio.

Candy and Gonzalo's. Beautiful backyard!

Thank you Candy and Gonzalo!

Ready for road trip! Note: it's still dark outside

We have been road tripping since our last post and we've mainly been camping so we have not had consistent internet (good excuse huh?). These past few weeks have been some of the most fun weeks we've had traveling. We drove from Santiago to Bariloche, Argentina where we spent two days just exploring the city, we did not do much there but we're planning on going back. Ali was so excited to be back in a place she had been with her family and it was just as gorgeous as she remembered. So in one day we drove 15 hours, crossed the border and arrived into Argentina!

Border crossing into Argentina

One of our many stops along the drive

Pretty flowers along the road

High five! In Bariloche

Proud to be back in Bariloche,

Raining outside so the owner of the campsite let us make dinner inside. Excited to have hot beverages.

Photo opp.

One of the many places we felt God

From Bariloche we kept on driving with our new buddy Shawn. We have both learned how to drive stick shift since our rental car is manual. Yes, we have both stalled out a few times but we are learning. Shawn is a great teacher even though he has a heart attack almost every time we drive and yells "clutttttch" when we forget, it has been great. We drove from Bariloche to the coast of Argentina where we decided to cook dinner with our camping stove on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. It was pretty cold out and we got a lot of stares from people passing by. We arrived in El Chalten, Argentina, one of the most beautiful places we've visited. We spent eight days in El Chalten hiking and rock climbing. Ali went climbing for her first time and did great! Sarah climbed again for her first time since she hurt her tailbone and had a blast. We slept in our tent in the backyard of this couple's house named Juan and we don't remember his wife's name but they were so nice and we got to practice our Spanish with them.

Learning to drive stick. Hey,  keep your eyes on the road please. And, clluuuuutcchhhh!

Beach front dinner

El Chalten trekking

El Chalten beauty

Sweet sunshine

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." -Albert Einstein

Israeli wrapping tefillin to pray at Mt. Fitz Roy 

Sunrise on Mt. Fitz Roy

Shawn trying to fix Ali's headlamp

One of our new friends (Mike from New York) that we met in El Chalten rode with us to Puerto Natales since he was also heading to do the W trek in Torres del Paine. Patagonia (southern Chile and Argentina) has been beautiful overall. The mountains, lagunas, lush greenery, glaciers and all of it have been mind blowing and with every few steps there's even more to see. We arrived with Mike and Shawn in Puerto Natales on March 5th, went to a 3:00 PM informational session at Erratic Rock Hostel, rented gear and left for Torres del Paine two days later to start trekking. We were loaded up with food for five days (lots of oatmeal, beans and pasta), our sleeping bags, our dry clothes (you can experience all seasons in one day in the park so we made sure we were prepared), sleeping bags, stove, pot, comfy shoes, hiking poles, and of course chocolate. Our overall experience was unbelievable. This was the longest trek that either of us have ever done. There were times that were difficult physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually but being out there with no way to get back except for hiking really doesn't offer many options except to keep going. So, that's what we did, one foot in front of the other. We hiked West to East so the first piece of unreal nature we got to see was Glacier Grey and we ended with the Torres (towers).

Needing to pack for the trek but wanting to hang out. That's Mike.

Ali testing out her new, warm, rented sleeping bag

Our bags are packed and we're ready to trek

Puma attack aftermath (Ali is protesting this photo being posted)

Just starting out the W. Smiles and feeling excited!

Reflection on the still water.

Glacier Grey

We are the luckiest

The first night we slept in Campamento Grey where we met some really fun Chilenos that live in Santiago and we are hoping to connect with them when we go back to Santiago. The weather was cold but we were happy to drink hot chocolate at the end of the day. Day two we hiked to Campamento Italiano where we crossed paths with our friend Alex who we had met camping in El Chalten so all three of us hiked Valle Frances (the French Valley) together on day three. Alex had ripped his bright red pants so his evening activity consisted of sewing his pants back up while we supported and laughed at him. We slept at this site for two nights and had a great spot, posted up next to this tree that we used to hang all of our belongings also known as The Hanging Tree. Day four we hiked to Campamento Torres which was a very long day, about eight hours of hiking. We experienced the strongest winds of any of our days in the park, along with a lot of uphill hiking. We arrived at the campsite and were ready to change into dry clothes and sip on a hot beverage. Even though the weather was cold and windy and sometimes rainy we still got so sweaty because of all the hiking so then when you stop moving you're just cold because your clothes are wet. We enjoyed a good dinner of couscous, leftover spaghetti, beans and tomato sauce. Day five we were planning on waking up early to hike up to the towers together but Sarah chose to sleep in and hiked later. Or as she will say, and Ali will definitely agree, it's more that it is usually really difficult for Sarah to get out of her warm sleeping bag and have to venture back into the cold. So Ali hiked up (about 45 minutes), returned to campsite, we packed up and then Ali hiked down to catch the earlier bus back to town while Sarah made her way up to the towers. The towers are two huge mountains that are very narrow and look almost like buildings. They were pretty gigantic, with some of the time having cloud coverage but there were moments where the towers could be fully viewed. Ali got down in time to catch the 2:00 PM bus back to town, which was about a 1-1.5 hour ride where she bumped into Alex and some other friends from the trek.

Sunset on Glacier Grey

One foot in front of the other. We are doing the W!

Green luscious beauty. Good place to stop, take a look around and pray.

Us with Alex and his ripped pants

Ali loves this moss. Do you see the fairy? 

Top of the French Valley. The clouds decided to move so we could get a view. Thanks clouds!

A magical place

Sound of the water, view of the mountains.  Doesn't get much better

Our hanging tree

The yellow flower that reminded Sarah of her cousin Jenna. Love you Jenna.

Bridge crossing with only one hand rail. Seguro (safe).

The towers with slight cloud coverage

Expressing gratitude and love. Nature is all around and a gift we are given so why not enjoy it

View hiking down from the towers to the bus

Sarah got to the end of the hike where she took the mini bus at 4:30 to the park station to catch the big bus that wasn't leaving until 8:00 PM. So, do the math and that gives about three hours of wait time at the park station. Sarah made her self comfortable by the fire and sat there for about an hour but then went outside for some fresh air and ended up hitch hiking back to Puerto Natales with two wonderful Argentinian ladies, instead of having to wait for two more hours. They even gave her a pastry and she got to practice her Spanish and learned all about Argentinean fish. Sarah made it back in time to join Ali, Alex, Shawn and some other folks for dinner. Success!

Our top 10 list of memories and moments on the trek:

1. Seeing the after affect of a puma attack on a guanaco, intestines on the ground and blood coming out of its head. (A guanaco is kind of like a llama). We actually saw this before the hike, our bus driver pulled over to show us this and then explained everything to us as if he was a crime scene investigator.
2. Drinking fresh glacier water all day along the trail. And at night boiling water to put in our water bottles to use as a heater in our sleeping bags.
3. Being in front of a massive glacier and watching the glacier break off which sounds like a huge thunderstorm.
4. Running into friends on the trail; Alex on day three and Shawn on day four.
5. The amount of times Ali's trekking poles prevented her natural klutziness from occurring with a big fall.
6. Hiking to the top of the French Valley and being freezing cold because of the wind. The view was clouded and after waiting an hour it finally cleared so we were surrounded by mountains and felt the sun shining down and warming us.
7. Sarah burning a hole in her glove with the camping stove.
8. The bright, yellow flowers along the trail that reminded Sarah of her cousin Jenna.
9. The times that Ali would trek ahead of Sarah, wait for Sarah, ask Sarah what she was doing and then finally Sarah would show up with a big grin on her face and have some story or incident to explain.
10. Getting to do the W trek with your best friend. :)

More magic, amazing rainbow. Always something more to see.

And like George Mallory's response when being interviewed about why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, "because it's there," we successfully completed the W because it is here, and we loved it. This place is magical, the spiritual energy is overflowing and the healing ability of the beauty here cannot even be expressed in words. Patagonia has a very special place in our hearts and we hope to return to this place one day. We consider ourselves extremely privileged that we have been able to experience all of this natural beauty and that we get to continue on our journey.

In love and gratitude.
A & S