Ya Mon…Negril, Jamaica!

Traveling to Jamaica

What a relaxing trip to Jamaica!

The travel started out a bit rough, having to arrive at the airport at 4:30am only to be helped by a grouchy Southwest Airlines ticket agent. This was a bit disappointing to me, as generally the customer service is quite spectacular which is a big reason why I use the company. Not to mention I worked there years ago in Revenue Management and Pricing.

After a weak “hello”, the older woman asked me in a condescending tone, “Do you have your passport?” It was almost like she thought I wouldn’t! Then after I received the boarding pass, I asked if she could reprint it with TSA precheck since I have global entry. Continue reading “Ya Mon…Negril, Jamaica!” →

Viewing the Northern Lights in Joy, Alaska

My friend Debby turned fifty this year. To celebrate her birthday, six of us traveled to Alaska. Why would we want to go to Alaska in the winter time and freeze some might wonder? Well, after this year, the Northern Lights are forecasted to be less frequent and less vibrant for the next decade!!

EXPLORE!

Christoffel Park and Willemstad, Curaçao

Sightseeing in Curacao

Christoffel Park (Mountain Side)

We had to schedule a day on land after diving so we could off gas before flying. As such we planned on spending our morning at another national park called Christoffel and our afternoon in Willemstad, the larger town near the airport.

We thought it would be best to hike and enjoy nature before it got too hot. It’s a good thing we did, the park doesn’t even allow visitors to hike up the “mountain” after 11am for this very reason. Originally, we thought we would hike the orchid trail. The online information suggested this would be a two hour hike and not too strenuous. Continue reading “Christoffel Park and Willemstad, Curaçao” →

boca ascension

Boca Acension in Curaçao

Traveling to Curaçao

a long day of travel, we finally arrived at Curaçao’s International Airport around 10pm. Slowly and in a sweltering heat, we eventually got our rental car from Sixt. We piled our dive gear into the back of the tiny car, jacked with the driver side door lock, turned the volume on the radio blasting jibberish down to zero since the Kenwood stereo wouldn’t turn off and headed out in the dark to Westpunt. According to the map, we only had to make one turn. According to the rental car agent, we had to go to the round-about and go straight. Continue reading “Boca Acension in Curaçao” →

Our Last Day in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

At 3:30 am, the stars twinkled overhead. We dressed in pants and long sleeves and packed our jackets, hats, gloves, and snacks up to Torres del Paine under of the guidance of our headlamps along with a trail of lights from other campers. The ranger suggested we arrive by 4:45am to see the sunrise. I think we got there sooner.

Once again, we climbed up the rocky hillside for a perfect view only we weren’t sure exactly where the sun would rise. We broke a sweat as we ascended and piled on extra layers of clothes. It’s amazing how warm both our sleeping bag and the sun is, as the darkness in Patagonia is cold! I put on all my clothes and had to dance around occasionally to keep my feet and hands from going numb.

the moon
first light

The thin wisps of clouds behind the torres turned pink around 5 am. I think we may have waited an additional 1.5 hours to see the sun light up all the torres on the diagonal. It was breath taking to watch the grey granite torres turn more and more orange with every minute as the color moved down the rocks. As we waited we saw an avalanche. The morning couldn’t have been any better! It was spectacular to end 2015 and begin 2016 at the Torres del Paine…and with perfect weather to boot!

Photos every 15 minutes starting at 5am. Watch the light change!:

IMG_7977 sunrise 1

pink clouds
pink clouds
light started hitting the torres
light started hitting the torres…not on rock to right or south torre
light moving down the torres…hasn’t hit south torre yet
light moving down the torres

IMG_8034 sunrise 5

from a different angle, but the light keeps moving down

Other photos from New Year’s morning:

David hiked to the top of the ridge which is off limits when the rangers are around
Zoomed in!

With our legs on the tired side, we strolled down to camp, heated some water for oatmeal and coffee, and packed up our gear. I read it took 3.5 to 4 hours to get down to the hotel for the shuttle ride. We had tickets for the 2:30 Bus Gomez who really has their act together. We had to get the 2 pm shuttle from the hotel to Laguna Amarga for 2,800 pesos and wanted enough time to eat lunch by the hotel that is $500/night and requires a two night minimum stay. As such, we hiked down at a slow pace around 8:45am. I think it only took us 2.5 hours so we chilled out with some other campers while we waited for our transportation. One girl quipped, “This is going to be a stinky bus ride.” No doubt!

The shuttles ran at 9, 2, 4, 7:30, according to the chalk board at the ranch style hotel, but one came early around 1, so we hopped on and paid our fare. Sadly, we both fell asleep on the slow, 20 minute bus ride to the administration office where we waited in the shade of a shelter with several others for our 2 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales. We learned to dress according to the weather for the bus rides as A/C and heat were lacking. In shorts and T-shirts, we were hot!

From the bus station, we meandered through the quiet town as most everything was closed for New Year’s Day to Kau Lodge. This time at least we got twin beds that weren’t bunk beds. With nothing clean to wear, the shower became our washer and later in the evening we celebrated New Year’s dinner at Afrigonia which received spectacular reviews on Trip Advisor. I suppose we should have stuck with the regular menu as the king crab special was expensive, over cooked, and somewhat flavorless, especially with out warm butter. Having said that, with as much crab as I have shelled and eaten in my lifetime, I’ve never had a giant king crab placed in front of me. It was a fun experience, and David liked the curried shrimp and scallops he ordered. Not being a curry fan, I skipped that.

The coffee shop at our hotel has happy hour and makes tangerine sours. Apparently happy hour wasn’t over even though it was 9pm, so we ended the night with a sour and dessert. I think I passed out before 10, but who knows. We were up before 6 getting breakfast and a taxi to the bus station for the 7:15 am Bus Fernandez to Punta Arenas. This may have been the nicest bus with assigned seats, a bathroom, and temperature controlled.

We enjoyed our last view of the countryside…wind blown trees, lamb, guanacos, bus stops in the middle of nowhere, flowers that looked like blue bonnets, estancias and more. Three hours later we arrived at the airport, very early for our flight, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The airport was small, but nice with two restaurants and three shops or so. The cash machine was out of order, so glad we didn’t need any money! We were trying to get rid of the rest of ours, and I have to say the restaurant upstairs was really good! I got a chicken sandwich that had about two avocados of guacamole…not the thin spread that barely covers the bread that restaurants in the States serve! We had an awesome trip, though I’m looking forward to home. ETB

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A Day Off In Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine

So the beauty of reserving camping at Refugio Paine Grande two nights in a row is twofold.

1. In case of bad weather we could choose which day would be better suited for a hike to Glacier Grey

2. We could hike with a day pack, as opposed to backpacking to Refugio Grey on day 1 and backpacking back to Refugio Paine Grande on day 2

It rained off and on from midnight until 11 am. The wind battered our tent. Though the only, single pole alpine tent set up in camp, it survived handily. Since we hiked to Glacier Grey yesterday, we got to take a day off from hiking on a gloomy day. We showered when no one was around, though I would have liked my shower better had it been hot. It was cool with an occasional surge of luke warm water.

During the dreary morning, we played cards and read in the dining area. We warmed up with a hot lunch of lentil soup with salad and bread as we watched the changing weather pattern. Eventually, the sun peaked out. We thought we’d take advantage of the clearing sky to stretch our legs.

We strolled down to Lago Pehoé and found the trail that leads from the park’s administrative headquarters to our campground. This section is part of the Q route. There is also an O route. Both of these routes include the W, but extend to a less crowded section of the park. Having said that, we didn’t find our hike to Glacier Grey to be terribly crowded, especially in the evening.

So we climbed the path to the top of the ridge and admired the landscape from above our campground. On our way down, we saw a woman eating berries. We asked what they were and she replied, “Calafate berries”. We decided to try some, though I didn’t find them that tasty.

Lago Pehoé
Lago Pehoé
berries

Dinner tonight was roast on rice with salad and cream of lentil soup with a terrible dessert and peach juice. After David’s third glass of juice, I said, “You know, I think that juice is straight from the canned peaches that were used for the peach tart last night.” He laughed and replied, “Yeah, and I think the cream of lentil soup is leftover water from the hot lunch that was served today.” Well, at least they aren’t wasteful!

Tomorrow we are headed to Campamento Italiano and Valle de Francés and the forecast seems promising! ETB

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Navigating Puerto Natales, Chile

Our 5:30 bus came after 6 am. I guess that gave us a little more time for our breakfast that the hotel provided to us early. The company blamed the snowy weather. I could see why…we boarded a freezing cold bus with only one windshield wiper. Bundled in our puffy jackets and hats, we thought this will be a long ride to Puerto Natales. Just as we reached the outskirts of El Calafate, however, we met up with another bus and transferred. We gave up our front row seats for heat. I was OK with that trade!

Our bus took us past fields of snow that blended with a white sky. Sheep, guanaco (llama), rheas that look like ostrich, cows and horses peppered the fields that slowly turned green over our five hour drive. The sheep made me laugh because they ran away when the bus passed. They seemed so surprised, but they had to be used to it given all the scheduled bus transportation. On our way, we stopped at Hotel La Esperanza for our rest stop.

rest stop

We arrived at the Argentinian border, got our passports stamped and then continued on to the Chilean border. In Chile we removed all our carry-ons from the bus, declared any food and passed through customs. The dog sniffed out fruit in our bags and helped agents search the bus baggage storage. The X-ray machine was somewhat useless because the agents only looked at the monitor half the time. We were ready to cross the border, but the bus driver didn’t have his papers! We were stranded 45 minutes away from Puerto Natales. What was funny, is this was the major piece of transportation I was most concerned about going as planned.

argentina customs
chile customs

We waited a while because the driver said it would be 20 minutes. But after 45 minutes or so, we noticed a guide leading a tour group on our bus started looking for alternate transportation. When they ditched, David went in search of a new ride. A taxi had just pulled up to the border. $30 later, we were racing off the bus, crossing the border and jumping in a cab. It was pricey relative to the buses, but we needed to get cash, stop by the CONAF office, buy our camping food, get our bus tickets to Puntas Arenas upon our return from the W in Torres del Paine, find a park map, and come to find out buy another hat since I grabbed all of David’s stuff off the bus but managed to forget mine!

We checked into Kau Lodge around 1pm, got our room, and reimbursed our hotel $33 in cash for the Bus Gomez tickets to the park that they purchased for us in advance to guarantee us a space during the high season. As much as we would have liked to enjoy their awesome coffee shop, errands called our name. Once again, we had no problem getting cash, despite arriving on a Saturday, so I feel like the Fodor’s book is incorrect given we were visiting over the high season. The CONAF office posed more of a challenge. Our hotel staff guessed its location and was a few blocks off, but it didn’t matter as it is closed on Saturday (but of course it was open on Christmas). We needed to make reservations for some free campsites operated by the park, but it was required to make the reservations in person. We hoped we’d be able to make the reservations upon arrival in the park.

We checked the hours of the grocery store which remained open until 8, so we walked up the hill to the bus station where we purchased our bus tickets to the airport in Puntas Arenas for next week. We actually got to use a credit card for this bus! It seems Puerto Natales is far more equipped for credit cards than El Chaltén. We headed back down the hill for the grocery store. We spotted a few fellow bus mates who told us they were stuck at the border for another hour…not too bad, but aggravating none-the-less. We stocked up on cheese, sausage, pasta, and oatmeal. Outside the grocery store, we picked up some dried fruit and nuts from a street vendor. Next to him, we purchased a hat from a young girl, and then we went in search of a map.

grocery store
trash can
trash can

It was just after 5, and we found many stores had closed. Fortunately, we happened upon a hostel that had what we needed. Not only did we find a map, we met an Aussie couple that had just returned from the W route. They said it dumped snow (2-4 feet), it was freezing, two of the routes were closed (Britanico and Torres del Paine), and that people were fleeing to the ferry to leave the park. YIKES…not what we wanted to hear…especially since we opted to leave our microspikes behind in Denver!

Oh, well. After five hours of wandering around town which was much larger than I expected, we returned to Kau Lodge for a coffee and a view of the lake and mountains across the street. We didn’t want to be out too late, so we chose a restaurant mentioned in Fodor’s called Kosten just a few blocks from our lodge. I wouldn’t recommend it. The king crab appetizer that we both wanted wasn’t available, and the service was extremely slow. Our entrees were tasty, though rather small in portion compared to the amounts of food we have been getting everywhere else. At least it had a nice view.

view from Kau Lodge coffee shop
Kau Lodge coffee shop
kosten
fishing boat
our room

Back at the lodge, we packed up and got ready for our adventure in Torres del Paine with both excitement and nervousness. ETB

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El Chaltén…An Awesome Argentinian Town

Traveling to El Chaltén

We returned to the airport Saturday evening to take a flight to Buenos Aires. Things were rather uneventful until we landed in Buenos Aires late that night. We asked the information desk for the name of a hotel closest to the airport for our over night layover. It was suggested to go a new hotel, Hotel Aeroparque. After a visit to the ATM, we took a taxi that drove to a dark area by a parking garage and stopped. We looked at each other nervously and then David asked, “Where’s the hotel?”

EXPLORE!