Tierra del Fuego - WOW!

Two things have immediately struck me here at the bottom of the world. One, they eat dinner really late here. Like 10 or 11pm, late. The second, which seems to fit nicely with the first one, is that it stays light here during the summer (now, in the Southern Hemisphere) very late. Also 10 or 11pm. This is good because after eating at 11pm when I arrived my first night in Ushuaia and hanging out talking with people at my hostel, I went to bed late and slept in (way in) the next morning, er, afternoon. Anyway, despite waking up well into the afternoon hours, there was still time to gather up some supplies and head out on a 6 hour hike into Tierra del Fuego National Park where I'd spend my second night here in Ushuaia. I met a guy at the hostel from Oregon who was heading out trekking for a couple days and decided to join him. Why wait? All I kept thinking during that first day's hike is WOW! The hike took us through some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. All of this on my first real day of my trip. How could it get any better?

In between hiking every day, and camping several nights, over the next 5 days I booked a last minute deal on a trip to Antarctica that I had been looking at just before leaving CT. Even better news was that an old friend from CO decided to come down and join me for this 10 day cruise to the frozen continent. I cant wait!!!!

Ushuaia, Argentina...finally the ¨Fin del Mundo¨

Well, I've finally made it to Argentina after a couple of long days of travel. Ushuaia is at the very bottom of South America and the people here refer to their city as the Fin del Mundo (Spanish for end of the world) because it is the Southernmost city in the world. It sure feels like I've been traveling long enough to be at the end of the world...

Wow. When you use frequent flier miles to book a ticket to South America one week before going, you can't be too picky about how you get there. My trip took me from Hartford to Detroit to Houston to Buenos Aires. Oh well, at least I could shower and get some sleep in Buenos Aires before heading out the next morning for the final leg of my trip to Ushuaia. Well, that was the plan anyway. As I watched the baggage carousel creep past with less and less luggage on it I had that feeling I've had many times before...what if my bag doesn´t arrive? Well, for the first time in all the flights I've taken, this feeling was justified and I would spend the night in B.A. without my backpack. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees outside and I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. As I was already fairly ripe after 20 hours of travel, I decided not to venture out into the humidity and risk total meltdown. Rather, I'd hang out in the ¨relative¨ cool of the airport until I left (sans luggage) at 5:30 the next morning for Ushuaia. It'd be the third airport I've slept in over the past month and it beats having to wake up at a hostel at 4am. Right? Right? Well, it made sense at the time. After a lot of people-watching and nodding off on various benches throughout Terminal B, I checked in for my flight at 4:30 and went to the gate. There was some confusion near the gate as an Aerolineas Argentina employee explained (i couldn't understand his Spanish - or any Spanish for that matter -, but could tell people were not happy) that the pilots had gone on strike at midnight and therefore we would not be leaving at 5:30. That was it. No other info on when or if we'd be departing. Long story short, there were 144 angry people on my flight after repeated delays had us finally taking off 13 hours late. Make that 143. Despite this added delay making my trip time well over 50 hours, I was thrilled. The airline gave us free breakfast, free lunch and by the time we took off, my backpack had arrived from Houston. Okay, things are looking up. Can't wait for my adventure to begin. (photos: my things while packing, my things while stuck in airport for over a day, unhappy Argentinians, view from the plane before landing in Ushuaia, finally, ahhh...)

My first attempt at blogging (Costa Rica / Nicaragua)

Apparently a blog is like a journal or a diary but it's put on the internet for the whole world to see. I'm guessing the whole world won't care too much what I've been up to, but perhaps you are curious.

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I went down to Costa Rica to meet up with friends. A good friend from college was going to be down there with his wife, father and sister for a 60th birthday fishing trip and another friend from Washington was going down to look at a new house he had just built. That these two separate groups were both going to be in Costa Rica at the same time, seemed too convenient. So, I found a cheap flight from New Haven to San Jose (via Philadelphia, Washington and Charlotte - I said it was cheap!) and left the cold of New England for the warm waters and beaches of Central America. After meeting up with friends Todd and Curt in San Jose, we made our way westward to Jaco and Quepos to find the beach, the waves and the monkeys at Manuel Antonio National Park. I then met up with Ben, Elaine, Emily and Butch for a couple days of catching up, landing my first sailfish (AMAZING!) and eating some great food. I had such a good time with them, it was sad to say goodbye, but I was excited to catch back up with the crew, which now included my friend Bart, and to go check out his new house - our home for the next week. As it turned out, the house was not completely finished, so the developers put us up in the model home which came complete with a pool, a waterfall, a 24 hour guard, and a maid that did our laundry everyday - basically, we were roughing it. We spent hours each day relaxing, drinking coffee and playing in the waves. We also tried a new activity - Zip-lining, which is basically where you go high up a mountain and then work your way down by "zipping" along a wire that is suspended between two platforms as much as 6oo feet apart. Not quite the rush of bungee jumping or skydiving, but fun, nonetheless. When the guys were headed home, I decided to make my way up to Nicaragua for the remaining five days of my trip. A crazy 13 hour day of travel that included a missed "grande bus", a "poco bus" ride, two more big bus rides, a taxi ride with the happiest, most smilingest cabbie (Chino) that I've ever met and finally a ride on one of the infamous "chicken buses" into Granada had me completely exhausted yet totally exhilarated. It was great to be back on the road again - challenged by a foreign language, third world conditions and a completely new environment. Sleeping in a 12 bed dorm room in a hostel was certainly not as glamorous as hanging in a house with our own maid, but it provided such an amazing environment to meet new and different people from all over the world. I spent a day hiking with a great girl from Portland and then a couple more days on the volcanic island of Ometepe which included a wonderful (and MUDDY!) hike with two young dutch girls, a 50 year old Quebecois and a really nice guy from Switzerland. I had such a great time putting the backpack on again that I pretty much made up my mind that I was going to turn around, almost as soon as I got back to Connecticut, and make a trip that I've dreamed about for a long time....

Link to Costa Rica / Nicaragua photo album