El Chalten, Argentina

Saturday, April 8th, 2006

Weird time was spent in El Chalten starting from the bus that brought us there, where we met Genevieve – an Australian born who grew up in Hong Kong and lived alone with her ten year old brother from the age of twelve in a house of their own. Her story is extraordinary, although I don’t think I’m at liberty to tell it. However, I do have her permission to show you a tattoo of hers which is very appropriate for a citizen of the world such as herself.

Tags: food, people, trekking
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To W or not to W?

Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

Actually, the question was more like to Circuit or not to Circuit. I know it sounds complicated, but it’s really not, so just bear with me. The two best and most popular treks in Torres del Paine are “The Circuit”, which goes in sort of a circle hitting all the important sites, and “The W”, which is a part of “The Circuit” that takes you to the most important parts and from a bird’s eye view looks just like the letter W. Now, this is a huge national park, and only the W takes four-five days; so when I heard we are doing the week-week and a half Circuit I pleaded, cried, stomped my feet, but nothing helped. I did think of fake fainting to underline my protest, but though that would leave me with no dignity at all, so I didn’t.

Tags: extreme, trekking
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Free Mint at the End of the World

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Although next to a nice plaza, the hostel we stayed in, “Hostel Carly”, was a dinky little place with one, and only one advantage to it – free internet. And there is nothing else that draws Israelis more, like free internet. We’ve stayed in that hostel a few times already and every time both the machines were taken by my fellow countrymen. The computer room was also the “hangout” room and had a little TV hanging off the wall as there was barely room in there for people. On our way in and out, we always peeked in to see if there was a free computer to check our emails, but many times got stuck inside waiting and chatting with other residents. On one of such occasions, we encountered Yosi, Yosi, and Hagai (who we now refer to as simply “Yosi and Yosi”). They have already been to Ushuaia and Patagonia and had some useful advice for us: “You must go to Nana Hinam (Free Mint in Hebrew),” said one of the Yosis. “It is not the official name of the place, but all the Israelis grew accustomed to the name as there is a mint bush growing right next to the house and you can pick at it for free.” Now, if any of you know Shurik, you must remember his never ending love affair with tea, so to the free mint tea at the very end of the world we went.

Tags: climbing, people, trekking
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Operation Condor

Friday, January 13th, 2006

Not having found anything else of interest in Arequipa itself, we moved on to plan number two. Colca Canyon, one of the most famous Peruvian wonders,is located not four hours away from Arequipa. Described as being twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and easy enough to hike through without a guide, we could not resist. We caught a 2am bus hoping to get there in time to catch a glimpse of the condors which are promised to be flying above the canyon in the early hours of the morning.

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Tags: kids, trekking
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“Whine” Potosi

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

Traveling, you end up doing many things that are exciting and fun only in recollection. After the wounds have been licked shut and the pain in your lungs does not feel like a knife through the chest anymore – only then you can say with a straight face you would have done it all over again given the opportunity.

In Bolivia, having just done the famous Death Road, we were not exactly in the lets-do-it-again mood. Still, the adrenalin of hurtling down a steep mountain road dotted by shrines commemorating those who fell off the perilous path, with nothing but the brakes of our rental bikes to stop us from going over the edge of a cliff and into the harrowing depths of a canyon swimming in murky clouds was still with us, as were our sore muscles, bruised bottoms, and the soaking wet shoes. In retrospect, all that could have been more or less bearable and fixable if only we did not decide to tackle a nearby 6,088m peak the very next day.

Originally, we didn’t plan to do any extreme climbing until Kilimanjaro in Africa (5,895m high), but when we heard that Huayna Potosi, a 6,088m mountain near La Paz, takes only three days and requires no experience, we were hooked. Actually, to both our surprise, I was even more enthusiastic than my husband Alex. I don’t know what got into me, but I kept thinking about the ice axe and crampons that we would get to use, and how cool would it be to conquer a 6,088m summit. I was like a little girl about to use her new tea-set for the very first time. Alex was not against climbing either. He did keep asking me over and over if I was sure, surprised I felt so passionate about such a demanding physical task, but the fact that this would be an extremely cool experience that would cost us less then Kilimanjaro would, eventually won both of us over, and we booked a guide to lead us up the day after we did the Death Road. If only we knew how we would feel after finally getting off our bikes, we might have taken a day off to take it easy for twenty four hours. Alas, the trip was booked, and we were not the only people in the group going up; so we wore plastic bags over our spare socks, put on our still soaking wet shoes, and set off for the mountain.

In the van to the first of two camps we met the third member of our expedition. Julian was a 22 year old Frenchman who traveled whenever possible and always in the most extreme of ways. Since neither of us had any experience in ice climbing, the original plan was to get to the first camp (4700m) by car, and spend the day on a nearby glacier practicing technical skills for our two day climb to the peak. Next, we would spend the night at the same place, and the next morning head out to high camp. There we would eat lunch and go to sleep at about 5pm in order to wake up at about midnight and climb in the dark for the next seven hours to the peak. The reason the final climb is done at night is because it is now summer time here, and the hot Bolivian summer sun softens the snow and increases the risk of an avalanche. Unfortunately, when we reached the camp, the weather was already so bad that a group of men we met coming back from high camp said they didn’t even attempt the peak since the risk of an avalanche was too great. Cautiously, that day our guide decided to not even take us out for training. Instead, we spent the whole day playing the card game “Asshole” in a tiny room behind a little house belonging to the hydro-electric plant guard. To be honest, it was alright with us. We had a chance to dry off our very wet shoes and rest our sore muscles. Actually, I’m pretty sure we were not even supposed to be there at all – we were allowed to use the bathroom only if there was nobody else near the house; and then, right before we went to sleep, and I went to brush my teeth, I was literally shoved back into the room by the guard because, as he apologetically explained later, the Sheriff was outside the door.

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Tags: climbing, extreme, trekking
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Inca Trail, Machu Picchu

Tuesday, December 20th, 2005

No words can express the awesomness of our four day hike on the Inca Trail, So here is a tousand pictures.

To get the most out of the experience, we recommend you watch them climbing up a StairMaster about 65 degrees alternating half a day up, half a day down.

Tags: ruins, trekking
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