patagonia is a place...

So when I told people that I was going to Patagonia over Christmas break I was surprised at the amount of people that did not know it was an actual place, many people just know of the company Patagonia. But it is an actual place and a beautiful one at that.

My friends an I spent 3 weeks in Chile, 2 and a half in Patagonia (10 backpacking) and 4 days in Santiago. My bag was lost on the way down there and we had a difficult time trying to communicate with the airport workers what had happened. Luckily the hostel owner in Punta Arenas had a sister-in-law that forked for LAN and took care of getting my bag. It only pushed us back a day but luckily we built extra time into our schedule. We spent 2 nights in Punta Arenas and then one night in Puerto Natales and then went into the Torres Del Paine National Park.

When I look at my pictures it is still hard to believe that I was there. It is easily the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We were extremely lucky with weather. We had one bad day with 60 mph winds which knocked me over and took Omar's glasses. Liz got stuck in a bog on the day we went through the pass but Omar helped get her out. We met people from all over the world and someone that goes to Auburn. We had a trail family from Texas.

We hiked for 10 days and then went back to Puerto Natales for 2 days and then to Punta Arenas for 2 days. On our way to the Punta Arenas airport there was a strike and we had to walk around it and were luckily picked up by an airport worker and our flight to Santigo was only delayed 20 minutes. We spent 4 days in Sanitiago and met up with someone from home who guided us around the giant city.

What to do

We didn't know where to begin. There were so many options of things to do and places to go. One day Omar called and said "I know where we are going" and said that he had read several things about the Torres Del Paine Grand Circuit. We looked into it and it was perfect. It takes roughly 8 days and is between 50 and 60 miles. We would have enough time to have some layover takes or do short day hikes.

So then we had to actually start planning the trip. The past trips that I have been on have been completely planned for me so I didn't know where to begin. We found the travel agent that NOLS recommends for students doing the Patagonia course and she patiently worked with us as we figured out dates and found us a good deal on plane tickets. "Good deal" is a relative term, it isn't cheap to fly to Patagonia. So now I am working on getting the right gear and figuring out just what I need to bring down there. We are also starting to work on hostels and public transportation which might be a bit of a challenge since Liz is the only one that can speak any Spanish.

another trip

So this summer after I got back from Wyoming I visited my good friend Omar in Birmingham. I had heard of this movie/documentary and told Omar about it and he had heard of it to so we decided to watch it. It is called 180 South and features one of my heroes, Yvon Chouinard.

So the movie is amazing for those of you that have not seen it. It is a great example showing that a good trip is on where you learn more than you were expecting. It also shows beautiful images of Patagonia. They go to Conservacion Patagonica which is something that Doug Tompkins founded and basically they are restoring Patagonia by buying farms and removing the fences and invasive plant species.

Conservacion Patagonica seemed like an amazing organization and immediately after the movie Omar and I looked online to see if there was any way that we could go there. We found out that they had a volunteer program that operated from October through March and that volunteers were encouraged to stay three weeks. What about our winter break? We called a few friends and Liz was the only one who was persuaded to join our hypothetical adventure. I emailed the volunteer manager and we started to bring up this idea to our parents. None of them said no but they weren't saying yes. So we waited and a few weeks later I heard back from the volunteer manager saying that we could go but we needed to know soon because the spots fill up fast. Well, it took awhile for all of our parents to come around but eventually they did. I remember how excited I was when Omar's parents finally said yes. I wasn't at home when I received his call but as soon as I got home I emailed the volunteer manager with our basic information. The next morning I had a reply saying that they were overbooked and that we would not be able to go. I think I called Omar about 4 times before 9:30 am and when he finally called back he said "What is going on? Did someone die?" and I explained to him what happened. We were all depressed since our great adventure didn't seem like it would happen. It was hard for me to go from "I'm going to Patagonia over Christmas break to help restore the wilderness" to "I'm going to go home...probably sit on the couch and watch old Christmas movies" which would be nice, but not anywhere as amazing as going to Patagonia. Another thing is that this is our last chance to do something together. Omar is about to start medical school and Liz is about to start grad school so it seemed like it was now or never.

We thought about our options for a couple of days, non of us wanting to sit at home for the whole break. Then we realized that we could still go to Patagonia, we would just have to plan our trip. So we started working on that.

30 Days

It had been awhile and summer is almost over. You may know that I did a NOLS course this summer in the Wind River Range for 30 days. I learned so much out there about myself, dealing with others, a tolerance for the uncertainty so I've decided to just list some things that you may or may not have known about my trip.

For thirty days:

I did not take a shower

I carried everything I needed on my back

I woke up around 6:30 and hiked

All of my meals were made on a single burner stove

I carried all of my garbage on my back

I had to wait 25 minutes before drinking my water for it to be purified

I put on wet or frozen socks and boos every morning

I slept in a tent with 3 or 4 other people who I didn't know before the trip

I got to know everyone in the group and learned to see the good in all of them

I walked through waist deep snow (not everyday, but a lot of them)

I was the only one to not get a mosquito bite (genetic superiority!)

I learned that in order to motivate others sometimes you have to take initiative and do things first.

I learned that there are a lot of leadership styles

I learned that sometimes it is best to lead from behind

I did not have an ipod or any way to listen to music

I did not have a cell phone or any connection to the outside world

I did not carry money or any plastic card

I did not carry any form of identification

I learned that just because society tells us to do something does not mean it is the right this to do

I learned that we do not have control over the majority of things that go on around us

The list goes on and I'm sure that other things will come to me later tonight that I should have mentioned and other things will come a month down the road that I did not realize I got from the course but I just wanted to share a few of these things with you.

traveling

It is hard for me to believe that I have been back in the states for 3 weeks and in less than a week and a half I will be heading to Wyoming where I will be doing the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Wind River Wilderness course.

I have been wanting to do a NOLS course for quite some time and this is the one that I finally got my parents to agree to but now that it approaches I am starting to get nervous. I know that everything will be taken care of but I am still nervous. I just have to remember that this school has the wonderful reputation it does for a reason.

London Calling

The internet at our hostel in London has not been great but it is working now so I can update you on my London adventures.

Tuesday, after a four and a half hour train ride from Edinburgh to London we walked into the hostel and basically had enough time to drop our stuff off and unpack a little and then we were off again. wE got on the tube and when we came up and walked a little bit there was Big Ben (he's not as tall as I had imagined), the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We walked across the river to the London Eye which is like a giant ferris wheel that lets you see all over London. We went up as the sun was starting to set and had a magnificent view of the city.

Wednesday we watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Then after that we walked through Hyde Park and ate lunch at a cafe there then went to St. Paul's Cathedral. I was blown away by St. Pauls, it was so beautiful (no pictures allowed inside though) and we walked up all the 500 and something steps to the very top. Wednesday night we went to different theater shows, I chose the Phantom of the Opera, playing at Her Majesty's Theatre. It was a wonderful performance and what made it better was that I had blackberry ice cream during intermission.

Thursday we started off at the British Museum which has a little bit of everything and I was overwhelmed walking though there. Then we went to the Design Museum which I loved. There was an exhibit on sustainable innovation which showed new products, buildings, etc that were making moves in sustainability including a solar powered boat, new packaging for puma, and recycling rain coats into bags. After that we went to the firm uscreates (http://www.uscreates.com/) and talked with Mary Rose Cook, one of the founders, about what they do. They were service designers but their main focus was changing social behavior. One of their recent projects was getting more people to get tested for chlamydia. Then we went to radarstation (http://www.radarstation.co.uk/) which was one guy who did more of managing and coordinating people to work on projects.

Friday we went to Prospect (http://www.prospectdesign.eu/) where we talked with Richard Eisermann who I was very impressed with. He studied at RISD and has lived all over. He has been working for quite some time and told us a lot about how he has made transitions into new things. We ate lunch at the Black Friar and then headed to Seymour Powell (http://www.seymourpowell.com/). I think everyone was pretty impressed with Seymour Powell. Out of all the firms we visited they do more of what we are specifically trained to do. Their main focus is researching the future and doing a lot of forecasting. After that I walked through the National Gallery where I saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Da Vinci's Cartoon. Then I went to the National Portrait Gallery and then a few of us went to see Date Night.

Today I went to an exhibit at the British Museum that had Renaissance drawings then to a little French cafe near the hostel for lunch. After that I took the tube to the Tate Modern Gallery and then walked to Westminster Abbey which was closed for visiting by the time I got there. I did get to see a protest against the war in Afghanistan which was interesting. Then I came back to the hostel and I guess I'm about to start packing for my last travel day, my journey back to the states tomorrow.