haley+gabe

Happy Birthday Roy and Suzanne and Sami and Colleen.

Today we are leaving La Posada del Monje and the amazing Maria Cristina Lugones and her 55 dogs. It turned out to be an incredible 2 weeks, more than we could ever have expected. It was also a lot of very hard work.

Our days were often like this: 8am – wake up and go to the kitchen for coffee and bread..during which time haley will be taking chicken meat off 7-8 carcasses(cooked with salt and oregano every night) and mixing it into the gigantic pot with 15.5 pounds of rice for the dog’s breakfast, 830 am – start feeding the dogs and continue feeding the dogs for about 1.5 hours. They get fed 4 at a time and you gotta watch that they don’t try to steal from each other – most of them finish in about 12 seconds flat. Sometimes I help with the dogs, and other times I am feeding the pigs and wild boars or broken-legged horses, trying to fix a whole in the cage where the dogs are now escaping, working on Cristina’s computer so that it runs faster and better for her, setting up or updating profiles on volunteer websites to get Cristina more helpers like us, running to the store to buy the 7 pounds of lettuce a day it takes to feed the 20+ birds, etc.  After feeding, haley is often patting dogs or giving a sick dog medicine or wound treatment, or cleaning out the dormitorios or going to the store or cutting vegetables for lunch or breaking up a dog fight or… I would keep fixing things or do more to get the ancient computer to work better or make sure that the hotel had water or clean the pool or…

Anywhere between 1:30 and 4pm we would find the time to sit down and have a nice lunch. After that, we would do the dishes and if there weren’t any guests in the hotel (which there were for 4 days of Easter – which was NUTS) we even got to take a siesta. Wake up at 5pm, have some tea and bread and then back to work. At 7pm’ish the dogs got fed again and then put to bed (a roughly 1.5 hour process again), the boars and pigs and horses get their dinner, and then we gotta make dinner.  But to make dinner you gotta have food.  So off to the store again (our best guess is that there were at least 6 trips to the store per day from La Posada workers) . Dinner around 10 or 11pm with some wine or beer to wind down after a hectic day and then bed time or as we say at La Posada, Chau Pesacado.

our first asado and it was good.

haley fitting right in at the bolivian carnaval in san carlos

haley and cristina, a match made in heaven.

This is what we did, and the good part is that every day you really felt like you were making a big difference. Haley loves her animals and she got to love and love and love them some more for 2 weeks. I got to be there to watch and fix stuff which I also like.  Cristina, the owner of the Posada is one in a million and makes it all happen every day forever.   While you would think someone who has over 80 animal lives in her care would be running some sort of rescue foundation with help from the government and/or donors, you’d be surprised to know that all the work and love just comes from one gigantic heart.  She gets no financial donations at all and while she has occasional workawayers like us – the only physical help she has are two great sisters – Anabel and Maribel – who live and work at the Posada, and are also paid by Cristina.  Almost all of the dogs are strays, rescued from the streets of San Carlos.  Crisitina nurses them back to health with love, and medical care when needed, spays or neuters them, and then gives them a home for the rest of their lives.  What she does and who she is, are remarkable.  (If anyone knows anyone who – or if anyone reading this blog – wants to donate their time or anything financial to Crisitina’s efforts, please let us know.  She is trying to start a foundation but until then, the financial burden remains entirely on her.)

Team La Posada

Now we are on the bus leaving the little town of San Carlos and heading to try out our first Couch Surfing at Alejandro’s house in a place near the city of San Luis. It was sad to say goodbye to Cristina and her dogs and our time there and we hope we get to see everyone again one day.

Other notes:

Often during meals at La Posada, a chair was provided at the table for some dog or another.

The pitbull Nani tried to eat  Gabe on 2 separate occasions – luckily she was malnourished as a puppy and has very few teeth.  Plus it was Gabe’s fault.  He surprised her in her very own kitchen.

The two parrots ate in the kitchen in the morning and nightly for their meal time – some of their favorite treats were cloves of garlic and ground beef.  They got warm tea for breakfast and before bed time.

Everyone at La Posada tripped in the kitchen over Lucas the blind cocker spaniel at least twice daily.

The litter of four puppies that Crisitina recently nursed back to health (sadly she lost 3 out of the 7) had to be expelled from the kitchen approximately 14 times a day.  The general rule was for every 2 you got out, one escaped back in.  The average amount of time with no puppies in the kitchen was 15.2 minutes.   (By the way, little was cuter at La Posada than puppy feeding time.)

Some dog names that Haley can remember off the top of her head:  Andrea, Ingrid, Julian, Chiquita Banana, Teti, Raul, Flaca, Lucas, Lucho, Claudia 1, Claudia 2, Nani, Florenzia, Anabela, Ana Maria, Caramelo, Cara Dura, Roberto, Blanca, Samira, Michela, Mario, Panchita, Selva, Sebastian, Julia, Maria Teresa, Laline, Susy, Felipe, Victoria (RIP), Milena, Carola, Rubia, Pelucita, Blanquita, Juana, Anteojitos, Mamacita, Coco and Diego.

We went through about 3 loaves of bread daily.  Half of that was consumed by humans, the other half was fed to dogs from the table.

We both cried in the taxi on the way to the bus station when we left.

Haley wrote part of this blog post.

Here are a bunch of stupid but cute dog videos if you are bored at work – Lucho might have been Haley’s favorite dog.

Right when I left off last time we went into the mountains. We first visited Refugio Retamal which is up above Cajon del Azul. We had been to the cajon before, but it was a raining the first time, and one of the reasons we wanted to come all the way back to the small hippyville of el bolson was to revisit the cajon in the bright sun. We did it and it was great. We went along with some other nice girls named Katja, Paula and Nina too. We had lots of fun and went swimming in the cold water and slept on the nastiest mattresses you’ve ever seen. On the way up we went up to 2 miradores. One looked straight at Chile and a beautiful valley below.

the coolest part is that i had my mouth open and was drinking and swimming simultaneously. a first for me.

the snowy mountains way in the back are in Chile.

After taking a day to rest, we went for the next refugio, Cerro Lindo. This one is straight up a hill. When we got to the refugio, we then went another 3 hours up to the cumbre (very top). Our initial plan was to rest the night at the refugio and go higher the next day, but we had heard that the next day might be cloudy and today was clear as a bell so we didn’t want to take our chances. It ended up being a good choice as we knew that we were the only ones up above the refugio and that nobody would be coming up behind us as it was getting late. It was also cloudy and even raining the next day. It was a spectacular place, highlighted by the Laguna Tricolor, a lake that we looked down on after climbing for a very long time. We also got a great view of El Tronador, a big mountain that we had been trying to get a good view of for a long time. By the time we reached the top, we had gained an elevation of 1 mile that day and would end up walking about 10 hours before we made it back to the refugio in the dark for a delicious plate of pasta with vegetable oil and a little cheese. It really was delicious, but probably only because it was one of those meals that felt needed and well deserved. The keeper of the refugio, Julio, was one of the nicest guys around too.

this lake (tricolor) looked so nice that haley was ready to scramble down the cliff to take a dip.

haley directing photography.

that big one in the back is El Tronador.

getting dark, better get down the steep trail, but...

yum, pasta and vegetable oil by the fire/stove.

haley and julio down by the refugio, just before heading up to tricolor.

After the refugios, the rain came and we decided to get out of El Bolson for the second time. We headed for Mendoza, a place that most people seem to like, but not us. We tried to like it for 5 days, and it did get a little better as we learned a little more, but in the end we decided that it was not for us. We then happened to find a hotel come dog rescue about 2 hours south of Mendoza where the owner would put us up an feed us if we helped her take care of her hotel and her 45 dogs. Now we’ve been here 24 hours and it looks like it may have been a good choice. Haley is in heaven taking care all of the dogs and I’m trying to help things run a bit smoother, by fixing some of the broken doors and things around here. It is not the cleanest most comfortable conditions, but we are doing good deeds, which seems to make it all worthwhile.

take me home haley.

Other notes:

We left our shoes at a hostel in Mendoza and by the time we realized it they had been donated to a church.

I left my cashmere sweater in El Bolson and now a French person has it who is eventually planning on coming to Mendoza. Hopefully I get it back.

My computer took a hard fall and is now injured badly and probably will need a new hard drive.

We took a bus from El Bolson to Mendoza in a Cama Suite and it was awesome. Flat beds with on demand movies and decent food and wine.

I played poker in Mendoza but got no cards and lost fast.

This will either be a very long post or I will leave a large amount of stuff out. We’ll see how my blogging stamina is on this cold clear early morning at Casona Odile in El Bolson. Haley is sleeping. Last night we got very lucky and got a good dose of our great friends Jake and Naiomi AND Princess Akolea on the Skype video. A trip highlight for sure.

The last 2 days we have been relaxing/recovering from bus rides (Haley says ‘no more semi-camas for me’… you see, a semi-cama seat on a bus is kind of like an economy seat on a plane which reclines much further and has a support for your lower legs and much more leg room….but this is one step down from a ‘cama’ seat which is more like a first class seat on a plane that reclines almost flat and is much wider, etc… and we know haley is very much first class so…)/catching up on chores like photos and emails/planning some hikes.

We are back at Casona Odile in El Bolson for the second time after taking a week long detour to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast mostly to see some (300,000) penguins. We ended up staying for more than the penguins. We rented a car for 2 days to see the penguins and the beautiful Peninsula Valdez. We agreed that Peninsula Valdez was a lot like Pt. Reyes, California, except there were penguins instead of herons, ostriches instead of coyotes and llamas instead of deer. Other than that, there was fog, magically beautiful coast, sea lions, and a few old farms.  In some places you could really believe that you were just out for the day at Pt. Reyes.

family day at the beach

you probably can't see the seals behind us, but they are down there

punta piramides. very very pretty.

Also in Puerto Madryn we snorkeled with the seals, but they weren’t feeling particularly interested in us so it wasn’t as cool as it could have been. Haley did her first SCUBA dive with almost 0 preparation and liked it after the initial ‘o shit I’m under water and I’m breathing’ freak out.

aqua haley

More Puerto Madryn notes:

We met a few very nice people who we hung out with a good amount.

The town is pretty boring, but we had a nice hostel called El Gualicho.

We looked for orcas eating seals in a place where that is common, but the orcas must have been on a diet and didn’t show.

The weather was nice and the moon was full (see photos section).

Before P. Madryn we spent one night and two days in El Bolson and did a beautiful hike called El Cajon Azul that started out sunny and slowly turned into a downpour. The hike was so spectacular even in the clouds and rain that it sucked us all the way back 12 hours to El Bolson…on a semi-cama no less. We may re-do the hike today as the prognostico calls for lots of sun. We are also planning on sleeping in a refugio for a night or two, to get a little deeper into the nature around here.

la playita on rio azul

brrrrrr

More El Bolson notes:

This place is a hippy haven. They’re everywhere.

The place we are staying is like an old farmhouse outside of town with a nice fireplace and garden with a stream running through it.

The wild fruit is very good here, especially the raspberries.

Before El Bolson the first time, we were in Bariloche at the Piramide just like the last post, but we did many more things since then including:

An incredible hike up to Refugio Frey and a little bit past. When we were in Nicaragua we met some Argentinians who told us that we shouldn’t miss Refugio Frey when we got to Argentina. Well, we just so happened to end up staying very close to the trail to the refugio so we took advantage of one of the less cloudy days, packed some food and warm clothes and set out for the big adventure. It did not disappoint. We ended up walking about 17 miles that day and couldn’t have been happier. I could go on for a very long time about the whole thing, so ask me to when we see each other next and I promise to elaborate.

looking at chile and a river below and hooting happily.

meadow and lake and mountains at refugio frey

more refugio frey surroundings

Other things we did in Bariloche were taking a gondola to the top of Cerro Catedral which was like a moonscape looking out over the world. It was also really windy. After having a nice cold picnic up on the mountain we decided to go get lost and then the weather decided to rain and be cold and windy. We finally made it back to the parking lot and eventually home but Haley vowed never to stray off trail again, ever.

way way up on cerro catedral

One other day we went on a pretty hike up Arroyo Goye out of Colonia Suisa. I set up a nice shade for Haley using our umbrella, but then the wind put the umbrella in the river and broke it.

Another day we went for a run to a beach with floating rocks.

a beautiful spot near the piramide. windy though.

can you see those rocks floating? they are everywhere.

missed a whole bunch of stuff, and there are a ton of pictures in the Argentina album, so if you are at work one day and bored… set it to slide show and daydream a bit. talk soon.

We’re living in a mostly glass pyramid at the moment staring out at a big mountain. It is a small pyramid, maybe 16’X16’ at the base and includes a very small kitchen and very very small bathroom.

pyramid bed

view from pyramid

The area we are in is spectacular; everywhere you look there is a mountain peak or a clear lake. Yesterday we rented bikes and rode the Circuito Chico. Our first stop was this amazing section of coastline on the Nahul Huapi Lake. Imagine a beautiful section of Lake Tahoe with nobody in sight.

haley says: "not your best form"

clear lake nahuel huapi on clear day

Two years ago a volcano started erupting in Chile and sending ash toward Bariloche.  Mostly this sucks for Bariloche but the one positive is that the ash settles in the lakes and rivers and makes them all turn this Caribbean blue. Don’t get me wrong, they are all still crystal clear, just some beautiful colors underneath.

Well, that was a beautiful day and so was today, when we visited another beautiful lake and waterfall, but the prognostico (weather forecast) is calling for rain for the next few days which turns our little pyramid paradise into a very small room a long way from everything. So we’re hoping that the weather people are wrong and that the good life will continue.

Other notes:

Haley may have gotten bitten by some bed bugs at the Alaska hostel or maybe some mean and very hungry spider.

Everybody around here has at least one dog and usually more – and they bark like crazy whenever you walk by. We have 3 dogs and 2 kittens and some chickens.

Sometimes we go into town and buy locally made amazing chocolates that we slowly savor after dinner.

We cook a lot even though we only have 1 burner and a toaster oven. We even roasted a 1/2 chicken in our toaster oven and it was so good.

Our internet only works if the computer is on top of the toaster oven – and then only sometimes.  That’s an improvement though.  Until yesterday when the owner got a new router, we had to sit outside on a tree stump about 50 yards away from our pyramid.

I wrote most of this post 2 days ago, so I am pretending that it is still two days ago… really other things have happened, but I’ll say those things next time.

Going backward in time again. Currently I am lying in bed at the Alaska Hostel in Bariloche, Argentina at 449pm in the afternoon. We arrived a few hours ago after an amazingly painless 22 hour Valentine bus ride from Cordoba. The food on the bus made airplane food sound delicious, but other than that we had big first class seats that reclined way way back (coche cama), a big bottle of wine (sleep aid), and some good and bad movies that either got cut off in the middle (scratched disks) or made it all the way through. If anyone wants to tell us the end to Charlie St. Cloud or The Neighbor, that would be fine, otherwise I am guessing we won’t lose sleep (haley is sleeping right now)  over not knowing what happened. I think I have a good guess anyway. The one movie we both liked was ‘A Little Bit of Heaven’. Other than that…we were on the upper level of the bus with big windows all around and saw some amazing lightning last night and good scenery this morning.

straight to bariloche

good bus window view

Before the bus ride, we were in Cordoba which was mostly boring except when we took a bus ride out of town to a river in the hills with good swimming and this standing wave that I couldn’t get enough of… just need to figure out how to shrink myself to about 1 inch tall and I could ride this wave all day.

epic river barrel needs at least 1.5 inches of swell

pretty wife-o-me by the river

Before Cordoba was Ilha Grande and Paraty.

Just as we had gotten the use of the public buses and bikes in Rio down to a science, we learned that our luxury condo was in need of some renovations for which we may not want to be around. For no good reason, we decided to take this chance to hit the road rather than staying around and looking for a place to stay for carnaval. We got on a bus and boat to Ilha Grande (3 hours south of Rio) which turned out to be a very good idea. This place is like Disneyland for nature lovers – in a good way. All of the trails are in perfect condition and just as you are walking along and getting too hot, a perfect swimming hole or beach would materialize in front of you. There are no cars on the island apart from a garbage truck and a few other city things, everyone there seems to be happy- because they are in paradise – and everywhere you look is something beautiful.

1 of my favorite of the 102 beaches on Ilha grande

lopes mendez beach.. amazing sand and crystal clear warm water.. tiny bit of surf too

coming into town..errr... paradise by water taxi back from those beaches above

After Ilha Grande we had the less brilliant idea of trusting Lonely Planet and leaving paradise to explore a place called Paraty. We even said out loud as we were leaving, ‘we must be crazy to leave paradise before we have to’, and it turns out that we were crazy. Note to self: when in paradise, do not leave unless required to leave. Note to self 2: don’t trust Lonely Planet. After our initial Ilha Grande departure shock, we got a really nice place and even saw the coolest waterfall ever…where you can slide down a rock face like a water slide for 60 ft. The locals tear it apart and the gringos just enjoy the coolness of sliding down a waterfall.

haley killing it

also…don’t forget to check the photos section if you want to see more pics…lots more in the brazil and argentina albums.