Friday, December 26, 2008

More Photos





The day after Christmas






It is officially the day after Christmas and Santa did arrive. He brought a remote control car for Finn, and a remote control dinosaur for Noah.... we watched ´The Grinch´last night after whistling Christmas songs and eating a heaping bowl full of ice cream - a great celebration! The big celebration down here was actually on Christmas eve night where the hostel prepared a huge feast, and many local friends showed up to celebrate.

Our bags still haven´t arrived and we´ve now decided to head into the park tomorrow for our trek with borrowed gear from friends of Rustyn´s. We (Owen, Jenny (the dog) and me - yes, they have a dog named Jenny and a cat named Owen)...went to the market today to gather food for the 5 of us and stopped by the ´fruit guy`to get dried fruit for our journey. Jenny is a pretty funny dog in that she use to be wild and is now domestic. She´s pretty tough and will walk us to the store, and wait outside until we´re done shopping and walk us back to the hostel...

It´s amazing how many people come through this town before they head into the park (Torres Del Paine). There are some pretty big name climbers in town that are heading into the park for more than a month.. pretty impressive.... We´ve met amazing people from all over the world, and we still have over a week left on our trip!

After today, we will be out of communication until New Years eve when we return to bring in the new year with all sorts of people....

Have a great next few days..... we´ll write again soon!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve






Today is Christmas eve and there is actually a christmas vibe down here. Christmas trees and the traditional music to go with it but all in Spanish. The hostel is FULL and people are being turned away left and right. But there is a 3:00 talk put on by Rustyn or Bill that tells everything you would need to know about the park and everyone is invited to even if they dont stay here. So the place REALLY full then. Jenny and I stayed at Erratic Rock II last night, which is all private rooms with double beds. Nice place. Today has been a pretty chill day, we met up with Dave Turner today, nice guy, saw some video from a helmet cam of someone here at the hostel that Dave took Ice climbing, which turned epic and it was all caught on film,
Jenny right now is off getting a massage, a gift from Rustyn (no, rustyns not the one giving it to her).
Im getting one tomorrow.
There is also a cool cemetary in town that i forgot to take pictures of the last time I was here.
Tonight we are going to do chistmas with the family. Because if all goes well our bags will show up and we will be heading into the park in the next couple of days. If they don´t, were still heading into the park.

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Mesdag´s.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Traveling light


This is me pretending to carry my missing bags.

Puerto Natales






We finally made. I forgot how long of a journey it is to nearly the bottom of the globe.
Seattle to Atlanta to Santiago to Punta Arenas bus to Puerto Natales. 28 hours.
But we made it. Weather in Seattle made us worry a little about whether or not we would get out of the city. And a huge thanks to Delian who chained up the jeep fought the snow and delivered us to the airport, not without a quick stop at Ladro of course where we saw a snowboarder come down QA hill and a cop doing donuts in the intersection (no joke).
Airports a mess, people at their wits end, planes two hours delayed, de-ice the plane, bumpy take off, and were outta there. In Atlanta we run as fast as we can to make our next flight. We arrive at the gate with 4 minutes to spare and the people at the gate gave us a look like they couldnt believe we made it. 9 1/2 more hours and were in Santiago. This part was smooth except for the part when we got on the plane, our bags without us knowing DID NOT!!! Sweet!
4 more hours on another plane, this one a little more bumpy with a few sudden drops. we make it to Puerto Arenas. That is were we realized as we were the last people waiting for our bags, that our bags must still be in Santiago.
Anyway, the trip still goes on. Were not going to let out lack of bags dictate our trip here.
Outside the airport a bus pulls up and a guy leans out the door and asks "Owen?". "Yes" I reply. My brother Rustyn had already bought our tickets and the bus came to pick us up. The trip is though the county, very beautiful. Two lane road that winds around a mostly flat landscape with a few up and downs that lets us look even farther into the already expansive view.
We finally arrive in Puerto Natales, our looong journey is finally over. At least this part of it.
Tonight we stay in the Hostel. We get in say hi te everyone, their all expecting us, and happy to see we finaly made it. Rustyn, my nephews Noah and Finn, Jenny and I all take a cab across town, (about 4 minutes) to get dinner. Then its off to bed. We left our house in Seattle at 8am Sunday and arrived in Puerto Natales 8pm Monday. Were tired....

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas in PATAGONIA


Check back soon for updates on our trip to Patagonia.