Hunker Down

Dude! If anyone wants to know. I'm okay. I had to hunker down in the hotel room this entire weekend. Apparently this typhoon was a pretty big one and shut down the entire country. The eye of the storm passed right over Taipei so it has been super wet and rainy for the past few days. Peter and I were able to venture out a bit to see debris all over the roads and up-rooted trees. The east side of Taiwan was severly affected with flooding, landslides, and roads washed away. I had planned on going to Taroko gorge to do some hiking, but that may be dangerous. I'll need to see if the weather clears up before going (biggest danger is falling rocks).

After some though, I decided to get my own room instead of sharing with Peter. It will be an extra $300 per month, but totally worth it. Peter has been obsessing about a couple girls who he has met during his stay here. It is almost unbearable hearing him talk about these girls all the time. Any subject we talk about inevitably morphs into a discussion of his relationship with these women.

My first day of Mandarin class was great. I have one on one instruction, so I will dictate the speed of the material we cover. I get the feeling that I will profit very little with only one month of Mandarin. However, it should give me a good base to start. I hope that being in Taiwan will also speed the learning process. On the other hand, my Taiwanese has improved tremendously. There are still many people (typically older folks) who still use Taiwanese regularly. My vocabulary is coming back and I have been able to get by a little bit understanding and speaking some. My knowledge base for Taiwanese covers mostly what I learned up to about 5-6 years old from my grandparents and cousins. That means I know a lot of fart and booger jokes in Taiwanese.

Just in time for the typhoon

The simple action of slipping on old hiking boots seems innocuous enough, but the last time I had the boots on my feet, I was on a different continent. The anxiety started to rise as I put all the gear next to the front door. As with my previous trips, I was wandering throughout the house for the last hour or so to figure out if I had remembered everything, or if there was one last item I forgot to pack. Did I need the 32 degree sleeping bag for the mountains? Was the house in order for Jaime to live without me? Could everything be set on auto-pilot? None of these questions had immediate answers, but I knew the answers would come to me once I was on the road.

The great land of America left me with one funny stupid moment before leaving. At the ticket counter, the ticketing agent was reviewing my Taiwan visa. She noticed that the visitor visa was for 60 days and then said "You have a problem with your visa. Your trip is more than 60 days (as she was counting the weeks on her fingers)." I replied that I was leaving from Bangkok on December 17th and I was only in Taiwan for five weeks. She acknowledged as if I was telling her something she already knew, then I realized that she didn't know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand. Not again! Are you friggin' kidding me!?

The trip was extremely long, but I was lucky to arrive before the typhoon. Peter and I were supposed to go snorkeling this weekend, but likely not with the rain. It is really coming down hard now! No worries. It will take a day or two to get over the jet lag and to get a feel for the city anyways. I should be back to full speed by Monday.

More on the accommodations and my cousin Peter later.

Count Down

Almost one more week to go. The countdown has officially begun. Everything seems to be squared away here in Dallas. I'm now making a list of things I'll need to buy before leaving. REI and Whole Earth Provisions love me!

I've learned a whole lot about how to pack for these backpacking trips from my experience in South America. My pack should be a lot lighter this go around compared to the last trip (not packing five pairs of pants this time). However, I do have the same delima regarding what clothes to take since I will be doing some hiking in the Taiwan and Thailand mountains. My guess is that I won't need too much technical equipment, but it may get a bit cold at 3900 meters. My parents are also expecting me to bring gifts for the family as well. I'll be loaded down when I arrive to Taiwan, but the pack will be super light once I'm in Thailand.

It's good that I'm leaving again. It will be nice to be on the road and taking language classes. You would be amazed at how quickly the day goes by when you are not working. It is not like I've been just sitting around, but there were a couple days where I nearly spent the entire morning and afternon in a t-shirt and underwear eating a giant bowl of cereal. Jane would be proud that I'm still eating breakfast regularly.

The South East Asia route has been decided. Everyone has been great giving me suggestions for places to see. I'll be wined and dined by family and friends while I'm in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The real backpacking begins when I arrive in Bangkok. I'll be headed north into the mountains then cross into Laos. From Laos, I'll either bus it down the Mekong to Cambodia, or fly directly to Siem Reap. The next stop will be Phnom Penh, then off to Phuket. My plan is to be in the water so much that I grow fins. Getting sooooo excited to go.

Treading Water

I've pretty much taken care of all of the house admin tasks required since returning from South America. The house needed quite a bit of work since Jaime was moving in. I also had a will drawn up (kind of morbid) which was necessary after consolidating all my liquid assets. The list of things to do was much more than anticipated and derailed my plans to travel to the west coast. Too bad because I miss the mountains.

In any case, I now have my reservation set for my trip to Asia. I'll be in Dallas for another two and a half weeks before heading out. If I didn't have the house, insurance, and finances to deal with, I would have only stayed for two weeks. Being at home for so long and getting back into the old routine feels like I'm treading water figuring out where to swim to. I'm trying to keep the internal fire stoked for the next leg of my adventure.

There are a few good things I'm really happy to come back to.

1. Diverse cuisine. Man! I've missed good Chinese food. I've been to Chinatown every week for lunch.

2. http://www.kexp.org/playlist/playlist.asp Cheryls voice sounds like home.

3. Cubs baseball. They have the best record in the NL but will probablly choke at the end of the season.

4. Fishing. I finally was able to head out to the lakes the past couple weeks.

Many people have been helpful giving me tips for Thailand and the surrounding countries. There are a ton of books on my kitchen table I'll need to browse through this week. With most of the to do list crossed off now, it looks like I'll have some time to make a quick trip if I can find a cheap ticket somewhere.

The picture is me at lake Texoma on Laborday weekend.

Farewell South America.....for Now

What a close to an adventure. The feeling that I had getting on the plane in Buenos Aires was bittersweet. I'm sure it was time for me to go home, but I felt as if I was leaving something very familiar and going to something quite foreign. For months I had been living out of a backpack and moving from place to place seeing new things everyday. Every element of my travels varied. From weather to people to setting to language, it was all sort of new and exciting. I think Jon may have been worried that I would not get on the plane with him to go home. Now I'm back in Texas trying to sort out all of the admin duties (like paying off traffic tickets from April). I would much rather be sitting on a Bolivian bus stuck at a blockade at 3 AM, no heat, and a large woman sleeping with all of her belongings in the aisle next to me.

Early on in the trip, I decided to extend my travels to include places in Asia which I have and have not seen already. Jane was right. One year off can easily turn into one and a half. I hope that the next leg of my travels brings me as much enjoyment and learning as this last one. Patagonia still beckons and you can bet that I will be back boots-n-all.

Bariloche.

The drive into Bariloche was so nice. We did the overnighter, so we missed the barren landscape in the evening. After changing buses in Neuquen, the scenery started to get better. By mid-morning, we started seeing mesas, trees, and crystal blue lakes. Once we reached Lago Nahuel Huapi, you could see the city.

Bariloche is quite small and before we knew it, we were checked into the hostel. Hostel Pudu was recommended by a few people I met back in Argentina. It was a nice little place run by an Irish couple (Emma and John). The best thing about the hostel was the bar downstairs which had three different kinds of home brew (HH from 6-8 PM).

We quickly made friends with an English guy (who works as a guide in Verbier) and another American. Both Jim and Tarn had been to Cerro Catedral that day, so they were sort of familiar with the mountain. The report they gave me was as I expected from talking to another American a couple weeks ago. THE SNOW IS CRAP (but better than last week where it was crappier)! Well Jon and I didn't take two overnight buses just to sit in a hostel and drink beer. The next day, we shared a cab with Old English (Jim's new name) and Big Drop Heath (Tarn's new name). Confirmed! Crap conditions! Although recent snowfall allowed people to actually ski to the bottom, the snow was heavy and not nice. My rental gear was also shit! The second day was even worse with rain towards the end of the day.

I woke up on the third day to see John at the computer. "120 KM/hr gusts at the top! There is only one lift running." There is only one thing to do now and that's shop, drink, eat, and repeat. We found some great restaurants in Bariloche. Jon was continuing his quest to eat every possible cut of beef on the menu. He went back to the bife de lomo, but it was no match for the 800 gram ribeye he would order the next evening. Tomorrow would be our last day on the mountain, so we were going up regardless of the conditions.

We were delighted to see that the storm that brought the screaming winds also brought a massive amount of snow. The report said 55 km/hr winds at the top, so it was a bit calmer than the day before. The website said that 50 cm had dropped over the last two days. I'm not sure how accurate that report was, but based on our estimate a solid 30 cm was fresh. One major disappointment was how poorly the mountain was managed. The two best people movers (Nubes chair and the big gondola) were not running all week. All of the other lifts were slow to open. There is no such thing as a high speed quad in Catedral. It is all slow and the queues are looooong. By 12 pm the four of us completed one long run from top to bottom. The powder was sweet, but it would take a local to show us where the goods really were.

Sophie is married to an Argentinian and spends half of the year in Bariloche and the other half in Verbier. She is a good friend with Old English and lucky for us, she knew how to get to some steep open powder fields with a little bit of a hike. I had the best two powder runs this season my friends! The second run was highlighted with a 3-4 meter launch off of a fallen tree. That was it for me. My legs were shot, but it was worth it.

Pictures are from the mountain.
I also have one of the 800 gr ribeye.

Patagonia in Winter

Jon is getting aquainted with overnight busses now. We left BA in a rush getting in our last bottle of wine before leaving. We have been on a gastronomic blow out since his arrival. With BA in the rear view mirror the excitement started to build. It would be the first time for me in Patagonia and I was hoping to see something spectacular every day. Morning came and we both looked out the window to see absolutely nothing other than flat land and sparse bushes. I kind of knew that it would be like that, but not the entire way! It was a relief when we entered the bus terminal in Puerto Madryn. The wind was absoluely whippin´! We quicky walked to the hostel and booked the whale watching tour to Peninsula Valdez.

Everyone piled into the van and we set of to Puerto Pyramides. The first stop was a beach about 20K up the coast where we were able to see mother whales with their calves. They were so close (about 20 meters away)! The rest of the trip ended being a dud since the wind had not dies and the seas were really rough. However, you could see whales everywhere along the coast! Although we didn´t ride on the zodiac out to the bay, the tour exceeded my expectations. Once back, it was on the bus to Bariloche. The weather report was promising and I could feel the fire inside me starting to burn hotter. Freshies...Here I come.

Jon and I had the most expensive dinner do date in Argentina. It was well over 2X what Jane and I payed for our final meal together in Lima! My backpackers buget is beat up and bloody!