The streets of Castro (my home in Chile) at dawn.
Taking the ferry to Caguach for a big religious festival.
Mt. Osorno, one of four volcanoes on the mainland visible from the island on a clear day.
Chiloe is known for it's wooden Jesuit churches. This is the church at Caguach where people come from far and wide for a religious festival.
More Caguach
Inside Caguach church
My friend Jessica always lights a candle for her brother, Cesar, who drowned in the ocean when he was 20.
Mmmm... kabobs. Interesting food abounds at religious festivals.
View of Andes on mainland from Caguach island.
My roommate Leo, from Ecuador, and friend Jessica, from Chile.
Many ferries....
Sea lions! Our boat went right past them. An old man talked to me during this entire boat trip, but because of the motor I could not hear a word he said.
scenes from my favorite walking loop to Ten Ten, a peninsula across from Castro
Castro from Ten Ten
Ten Ten lookout, a great place to read, journal, reflect
Palafitos, houses on stilts. Most have washed away but some still thrive in Castro
rolling hilss
Church at Dalcahue, where I did some classes and where my friend Jessica has a souvenir shop
Dalcahue
My Ecuadorian roommate, Leo
Leo's sister and neice, Isabel and Angelin
Forget which church this is :)
Achao on Quinchao island (where Leo's sister lives)
out the porthole on a ferry off the island
Puerto montt at night, full moon
Independence day parade in Puerto Montt
kids from the church plant I visited
Hostetter children (missionaries in Puerto montt) and a pupppy
view from a little town on the way to Cucao, the national park on Chiloe island
why don't we paint our houses interesting colors?
Day of the dead at the Castro graveyard
Mar Bravo, close to the penguin island just outside of Achao (about 2 hours from where I lived)
Leo and I went to see penguins
PENGUINS!
me and leo
Temporary roommate, Victoria, and her mum
Yet another religious festival. With three pink puffy Mary's
Angelin and Leo
my friend, Oscar, and I at Cucao beach in Cucao national park
I got all my paychecks in cash!
Leo's attempt at a Christmas tree
me in Mendoza, Argentina
Together at last! Mendoza is wine country
Neil and I toured a winery
Salta, AR
Neil in Salta
Salta from the cable car
cable carring
park atop the city
more views from atop Salta
more bad english translations, yes there is demand for English teachers like me!
paddle boats in Salta
Can you see the uninvited guest?
I, said the duck, with the waddly walk.....
mounties!
Bike ride to small towns outside of salta. Wonderful day!!
psycho rock-eating dog
soooo green!
Bolivia border
Tarija, after a terrifying night on a Bolivian bus.
more Tarija
Neil's wingspan cannot match the condor
Tarija zoo costs 20 cents
jaguar, eating a pig head
Neil inforces unnecesarily harsh anti-littering sign (translation: Here, DON'T throw your trash please we are following you and we're going to....... FINE YOU)
Wierd billboard of John Paul II, buil to to welcome JPII to Bolivia, who doesn't want to be welcomed by a billboard of themself?
Mi Casa, our Tarija home
from the bus leaving Tarija for Potosi and La Paz
bus scenes on the way to Potosi
Potosi, famous mining town
Sooo many church
The ominous mining mountain where tens of thousands of indigenous slaves died
Anna with ominous mountain
Neil with ominous mountain
slooow buses, unpaved roads between major cities, seriously scary transportation situations....
el tio, from within the mine at potosi. They say the idea was "El Tio is watching, so you slaves better work hard!"
shacks of miners outside of mine
shacks
to La Paz at last
La Paz
highest futbol stadium in the world
gives me altitude sickness just thinking of it!
Neil and his brother, Brian
Brian
Brian's family and neil, eating
David, Neil's nephew
classy transport
on the way to Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca
a man tried to charge me for getting his donkey in my picture...
crossing the border back to Chile. This was part of my 55 hour bus marathon!!
mosque in La Serena.... there are muslims here??
one of my favorite spots on Chiloe.... the chocolate shop :)
religious festival in Llau-Llau
pretty weak as religious festivals go
dude bringing in the seaweed harvest
seasweed used for cosmetics in asia
Captain Grete came to visit me for 3 weeks in February
more penguins! I loved them before Happy Feet made them cool....
sea otter
cute kids
silly girls on the beach
disappointing horseride at Cucao
path to the beach at Cucao
Me and Grete about to hit the town
on a tour to Lemuy
our first experience of curanto, seafood steamed in a hole in the ground over hot rocks
mmmmmm
soooo much food
boat to Lemuy
Maria Elena boards the boat (my secretary at English House)
Loretta, Maria elena, Sofia, and Roxanna
tejuelas, many interesting types on Chile
waterfall on chiloe
Grete and I travel north to Osorno and Frutillar, settled by Germans in the 19th c.
German museum
view of mt. Osorno
hot springs!
poor babes in the wood
Vina del Mar, famous beach town, home of my friend Oscar, 30 min. from Santiago
botanical garden in Vina
beach in Vina
wierd fashion show outdoors in vina
Arturo Prat, Chilean war hero
bohemian streets of Valparaiso
Leo and I
Hyper Bechna, big ol' grocery store
street corner outside my house
my house, with two of my students outside, they were on a photo scavenger hunt
Jessica in her tiny house
I travelled to Santiago to accompany my friend, Daniel, to a wedding
The bride and her father
Daniel and I
fast forward to TORRES DEL PAINE! The most wonderful week of backpacking with Jessica in the most amazing national park.
Day 1
guanaco, undomesticated cousin of the alpaca, llama, camel, etc. I think i've seen every species of camelid that exists. :)
first night camping at the base of Torres
sun setting over the towers
Jessica finally caught up! She is a slow hiker
Jess and the towers. Must she have a peace sign in EVERY pic?
Jess, me, torres
it takes several days to scale the towers themselves
chilly first night....
breathtaking walk, day 2
the sun is setting because I got kind of lost and I got into the camp site just as night fell
Day 3, I am a backpacker, self-portrait
this was a real avalanche happening. If you watch a glacier long enough, you see one
Valle Frances-- french valley, amazing rock formations on all sides
I tried to hike to the top of this with an Israeli guy... we never made it and burned ourselves out trying. I was late back to camp, didn't find Jessica, and had to camp alone.
Frency valley
avalance!!
heading toward Glacier grey on the second to last day
little clues that the glacier is drawing nigh
we have glacier!!
pondering glacier grey
hey, it's tough living in these windy climates...
camping under los cuernos de paine, my favoriate formation in the park
los cuernos
the boat taking us back to civilization, and cell phone coverage (to my mom's relief)
cuernos, love'em!
me with cuernos
magellan flag and chilean flag
Jessica with out Australian friends from the park
we did it!
nightfall in the town I ended up instead of Ushuaia because I missed my bus because they told me the wrong place and time :(
Los Glaciares national park in Calafate, AR
up close and personal with perito moreno glacier
river of ice
Buenos Aires, next stop on my solo trip
eva peron's grave is in there somewhere...
the harbor at night
Tigre, a daytrip from BA
my humble $4 a night hostel
Iguazu... looking at uruguay
brazil, uruguay, argentina can all be seen from here
Brazil
Iguazu!! Most amazing day EVER!!!
can you see my delight??
coigues, i think they're called
garganta del diablo
it is really hard to capture one of these spry monkeys on film as they crash above your head, but here is my best attempt
San Pedro de Atacama, desert in northern Chile. Some say it's the dryest on earth, others say the second dryest. Either way, pretty darn dry.
salt fields
my hostel, so nice!
church in San Pedro
graveyard in San Pedro
sunset over los salares (that's a field of salt!)
flamingos!
pink mountains
early morning trip to the geysers
we boiled eggs and heated our milk in the boiling geyser water
geysers at dawn
bathing in the geyser hot pools
guanaco
church of mechuque
llama
valle de la luna
Cuzco!!
Incan ruins outside of Cuzco
me and Cuzco
you call this urban??
Ollaytantambo
Ollaytanambo, en route to Macchu Picchu
Ollantaytambo, close to Macchu Pichu
Macchu picchu at dawn
another wonderful day of exploring
I hiked to the tippy top of that mountain in the background
here's the view of MP from the top. it's a steep hike!!
Cuzco at night
market in the sacred valley
oh, the scene was directly behind that sign that said "urban zone"
they put bulls on their roofs for good luck
market
ruins
