Given that so many people wanted to be able to see Osman's face as he caught the first glimpse of his new office, i decided to plant myself inside with a camera.
Here he comes....
(Yes, that is Lord of the Rings music playing in the background.)
Josh and Kelsey had just left, and I heard a little noise coming from what should have been an empty house...
Which one of our pets was up to no good? The process of elimination usually reduces it to Smokey Joe pretty darn quickly, so I was a bit surprised to turn the corner and see this...
"Hmmm. Looks like no-ones home. Smells like they left me a snack! Great!"
"Nope, can't see that wretched cat... coast is clear."
"I haven't had this before. I'll just take a little taste to see if it's good."
"I know it's not good for my squirrel figure, but darn it, it tastes so good!"
"Perhaps just a little more..."
"Or a lot."
"No point in leaving this little bit. I'll take the rest 'for my friends'..."
"I wish they would leave the windows open wider!"
...And the reason I'm only a bit surprised, is that I discovered this guy helping himself to a canister of corn starch from our pantry, last week.
Yes, Marley was supervising the raid at the time!!!
I have a great laptop... thanks to the research and good advice of Osman.
So when I began to hear a funny noise coming from somewhere inside it when I tipped it side to side, I decided to get a second opinion. Yep, Osman agreed it sounded like something had come loose inside the machine and was rolling around, so it was time to consult Lenovo and then send it in for diagnosis and repair.
Three days and a traumatic UPS episode later, I got it back. Upon opening I read the "diagnosis and repair" sheet.
Basically I had managed to stuff a coin into a slot (the only use I have found for said slot) and it was rolling around inside!
Ummmm... let's just say Im glad to have it back.
PS: It was an Argentinian coin from my recent trip... which probably confused/amused the technician even more.
Who can resist a hike when the sky is blue and its almost 70 degrees outside? Not me.
After carefully researching a suitable trail, considering distance from home, degree of difficulty and time needed to complete it, we set off for Eldorado Canyon State Park.
Once there and having paid $6 to enter, we were informed by a helpful ranger that the trail didn't exist and never had. It was a dodgy website! (Just for the record: www.go-colorado.com/boulder/hiking has it listed as the Crescent Meadows Trail, leaving from the Visitors Center)
None-the-less we managed to pull ourselves up a "real" trail for some fresh air, semi-decent exercise and this self portrait.
2 weeks to the day, since I arrived back in Colorado...
And I am pleased to announce that all my vacation photos are uploaded to flickr.com and this blog has had the gaps filled in retrospectively. It didn't take a month after all!
For those wanting to see the full 5500 or so pictures you can see them at:
(not recommended unless you were on the truck and need copies)
If you live in or around Boulder, we will be holding several "slide show evenings" with commentary etc in the next few weeks. I promise there will be no more than about 200 photos by then, and they will be more organized!
As for the blog entries... just scroll down to find new and updated entries with plenty of pics.
Your comments are welcome, as always. ;-)
Its Wednesday the 25th of February. About 8 weeks since I left Denver in the middle of the night (or so it seemed) to begin my South American adventure.
Im not ready to review the trip or discuss my bitter-sweet emotional state, but perhaps its a good time to reflect on my position... as I sit here in Santiago.
I feel lucky.
Not many people can say they left their job for 2 months to pursue a dream in South America. Even fewer could say they were in the best company imaginable for the trip, that the sun shone bright for all the bits that counted and they made it to the end without significant loss or breakage of all-important "stuff".
And Im pretty sure that I stand alone when I say I did it all with the love and support of a husband who selflessly worked his butt off at home, to afford me this opportunity.
Ok, so maybe I was ready to address those bitter-sweet emotions. How can it not be sad to say goodbye to people and places that have changed your life... at the same time not to be excited to return to my soul mate?
PS: That shirtless guy posing on the left... I have no idea who he is. But apparently his overwhelming need to be in the photo lead him to believe we wouldn't mind!
...and it was definitely rumbling and smoking the whole time!
We have spent the last 2 days in Pucon, Chile. A gorgeous little tourist town, complete with many of my favorite South American things; patisserie, outdoor activities, laundromat and fine weather. What can I say...Im easily pleased!
Mt Villarica towers over the town. Perfectly cone shaped with a hearty helping of old and new snow near the top. For 45,000 Chilean Pesos (about $65 US) a tour company will pick you up at the campsite (at dark-o´clock), provide rucksack, crampons, jacket, crampons, trousers with tear-proof butt, plastic butt guard, gloves, ice axe and helmet. And once you have added lunch, water, camera and dry clothes to the bag, its time drive an hour or so to the start point.
In all fairness I do have to admit that the first part of the climb is available by chair lift sometimes. I took the opportunity to save my legs (which were still asleep) from an hour of uphill slog, since the fact it was operating was obviously a sign from God.
The walk wasnt that bad. Yes, there were times I thought I was going to die if I fell, but all in all, the 4 hours of steep ascent and slippery ice/snow was quite peaceful. The chocolate I felt compelled to eat at every water stop probably helped too.
Once at the top the view was to die for... so worth the walk. For miles in every direction were Chilean hills, snow capped mountains and lakes. Visibility was perfect and the sun that threatened to scorch us coming up, was a welcome addition.
As if all this wasnt entertainment enough, Rachel and I had just ventured to the inner edge of the crater when the volcano began to grumble thunderously and more smoke puffed out. In unison we screamed and ran towards the out edge of the crater, despite just discussing how tired our legs were. In the event of iminent erruption, we obviously felt we could out run a river of lava!!! All those who watched us, were in hysterics. Apparently every 5 minutes or so this happens.
In fact, Mt Villarica hasnt errupted since 1984. And while there was little to no warning of the last erruption, there is now serious seismic activity monitoring equipment on the job. None-the-less, the crater we ate lunch around drops about 60m before hitting lava and up until about 2 years ago this lava was completely visible from our view point, as it spat molten rock against the side of the crater. All this is made even more surreal by breathing the sulfur tasting and acidic gas as it blows around the top. The whole experience was breathtaking!
The adrenalin part of the volcano climbing experience was yet to come though. A four hour hike up was reduced to a one and a half hour downhill challenge. So... the fastest and (?)safest way to descend is apparently by something I would describe as Butt-Luge. Into grooves carved in ice fields you sit. Ice axe in hand (for braking), butt on plastic butt guard to decrease friction (increase speed) and heart in mouth. I was not the only one to lose control from time to time... but I believe I was the only one to come off a corner land backwards and belly-down, still racing out of control down an ice field, towards rocks and a large drop. Since this was the appropriate time to stab the ice axe into the ice and bring yourself to a stop, I did just that... almost! In reality, my ice axe did stick into the ice, but it then ripped out of my hands and I was left barrelling down a mountain without any brakes at all. Oh no!
Since I am now here, safely typing from an internet cafe, you can assume I didnt lose my life on Mt Villarica. Or even break an arm. Actually I managed to fling my arms and legs around sufficiently to slow myself before the others at the bottom helped stop me.
As you can imagine, I did sleep well last night (after several glasses of wine) and today Im exploring town before we head out to Santiago tomorrow. Its a long, 800km, drive... and its the last day of my overland adventure. My flight home from Santiago is in just 3 days.
I am filled with bittersweet feelings and so many memories. Sad to leave a group people who were crazy strangers to me just 8 weeks ago and a continent that has brought endless adventure, sights and sounds.
Very happy to be coming home... to a wonderful husband and best friend, who I have missed so much.
Ok, so technically we are not blood relatives. But today, after a sting of emails, days and months apart, and shot in the dark, my friend Justine and I spent the day together in Bariloche, Argentina.
What can I say... its a small world and a good one at that!
For those of you who dont know our connection, here is the short version:
Four and half years ago, when Osman worked with Justine´s mom on Nantucket, a plan was hatched to go halves in a puppy deal. Justines family bred their golden retriever and that´s how Marley and his sister came to be. And how I spent so much time at the Paradis residence, that I could almost consider myself a foster child!
Getting back to Bariloche... We met for tea and chocolate mousse this morning at the famous Mamuschka chocolate shop. Then followed it with a chair lift excursion for a view over and around the lake. Dinner was at The Map Room, which apparently was a favorite for both of us (yes, Im aware I just got into town 2 days ago and shouldnt probably have a favorite restaurant yet, but I do).
I left Justine perusing the spanish books at a local bookstore/cafe. Yep, she speaks quite good Spanish (Im envious) and my hat goes off to her for appearing to be quite at home in a foreign country, with new friends and further plans to travel independently before starting Vassar in the Fall.
Have fun in Puerto Madryn Justine. Maybe we´ll run into each other in a Texas airport next week, on the way home! Either way, keep in touch. I miss you already!
It doesn't happen very often, but when the opportunity arises I do like to horse ride.
Lucky for me this trip both offers the opportunities and good company to boot.
So here we are in, or somewhere near Bariloche, and Brendan recommends this place that will let us ride all day. And even better, they will feed us all-you-can-eat BBQ and red wine for lunch in between rides! Does life get any better?
First stop is... Nope, not a waiver, not a helmet, not even a brief overview of the ride...Its the "get on a horse" part!
I should have suspected something was amok when my horse was named Samantha. Its just not the name of a spirited stallion is it?! Worse still, she had to be almost dragged out of the shade to meet me.
As you can probably guess, Samantha's heart just wasn't in it. While all the others cantered merrily down the trail, I was offered a green branch (whip) to help give Samantha the message... like kicking her repeatedly wasn't enough! She was described as stubborn by the staff. I prefer to think of her as "almost dead".
After several hours of this, I had made up my mind that I needed a different horse if I was to continue riding after lunch. So while the others finished off another bottle of vino tinto, I went outside to have a word in English with our Spanish-only speaking riding guides.
(Just for the record, I believe my Oasis friends found that last bottle of vino tinto on the table next to ours... at around the same time they relieved that table of their excess BBQ beef!)
Getting back to my quest for a horse that could keep up;
Imagine this... Me using broken and very poor Spanish (mostly made up) along with hand gestures to indicate that I needed a more lively horse AND while we were at it, my butt was sore, so could we add a sheepskin blanket to the English saddle I was enduring? Yep, they understood alright. And once they finished laughing themselves silly, I was assured my next horse would be faster.
Lesson of the day: Be careful what you wish for. Cordito was a good looking horse, definitely taller, more muscular and his eyes looked sparklier too.
Definitely a better looking horse than Ewan's.
I tried him out with a gentle nudge and a "giddy-up". And we were off! From 0 to 60 in only a few seconds, I barely had time to hold on before having to rein him in.
The rest of my day was great. Even though I have no doubt the riding staff were probably teaching me a lesson, I had fun and managed take a few photos and video as we enjoyed the hills and vistas in the brilliant sunshine. Life is good.
In fact the only thing holding me back in the afternoon, was George and his slow-poke horse! If he hadn't been so entertaining, sitting upon his horse, legs straight out, singing "Summer breeze makes me feel fine..." I might have felt more frustrated. But before I got to that point, others did.
I would loved to have captured on film the part when Brendon came trotting up behind George and whipped the rear of his horse with a long green stick! Apparently old slow-poke had it in him to canter after all!!! The important thing is that George (a first time rider?) did manage to hold on, and in fact looked just as ready to hit the disco when finished, as when we started. Nice job George :-)
