Quarantine…

Day #2: I awoke this morning alone. The room was quiet as the warm sun rose over the cityscape and lit my room. Emily has successfully returned to the US and had been updating me via WhatsApp. Still mostly symptom free except an improving sore throat. The last three days were nice with relaxation but I had started to worry about my training for the Ironman and general sanity. The hotel staff have been amazing with any and every request I made. Today I finished a 90 minute yoga session. Luckily I was able to order food via Uber as the room menu was severely limited. The reminder of the day was filled with books on tape and movies. I did get to see my pups and Emily at home before crashing for the night. 

Day#3: I started to get into a monotonous daily routine. Woke up after a great night of sleep. Did 90 minute Bikram yoga session. Watched multiple movies and listen to my book on audible. The exciting portions of my day consist of position changes on the bed or, and brace yourselves, moving to a chair! It’s Sunday so everything was mostly closed. I am getting tired of the delivery food already. I don’t have very many healthy options. Fortunately, my spirits have remained somewhat neutral. I’m not super depressed, I’m not currently sick, however I cannot wait to leave this room. The staff again has been phenomenal at this hotel. I did break the rules a little bit and snuck out last night for a 10K run at around midnight to avoid people. It was warm in the dimly lit city at night with ‘youths’ occasionally spotted skateboarding. It felt amazing. Although, I think there’s heavy smog here because I had coughing when I came back that I believe is not Covid related.

Day #4: Given that it’s Monday I worked to complete as many tasks as I could including emails, setting up a physician to meet with me at the end of my quarantine to certify me to go home, I took a repeat Covid test that was positive again luckily these are the cheap home tests I brought with me. I was on the phone for nearly 2 1/2 hours rearranging flights to try to get back early and start working. The amount of loss revenue is pretty significant, I will have to repay lots of shifts over the next two months. Continue to watch movies, yoga, I think I might try for another run tonight.

Santiago Chile

Day 1: Wow. What a night of sleep. This hotel is amazing. This was the beginning of the vacation portion of our trip. Not a lot to report today as we slept in, had an amazing breakfast, and sat at the poolside drinking and snacking. The weather was perfect and we tanned and swam to our hearts content. 

Day 2: Another award winning night of sleep. More amazing time by the pool today. We were supposed to dine at one of the world’s top restaurants (#37) but as we took our COVID tests, I tested positive…  It took a while for the realization of being quarantined in Chile for another week set in. One of the big issues is that there are no easy points of contact here in country for advice. Emily tested negative. So we went to our room to make arrangements. We have great colleagues who were willing to cover for us, a sign of a great work environment. We were extremely saddened that there was no dinner, wine tasting, or easy return home. We weren’t too preoccupied with having COVID as we were both healthy, vaccinated, asymptomatic, and had access to good healthcare if needed. After some information gathering we found that Emily was eligible to fly home but I was not…🤔 Given that we need babysitters for our pups and it would be easiest to have someone home we opted to have her fly back alone. Leaving me, here, in Santiago in a small hotel room, that I can’t leave despite amazing weather…. Get ready for some interesting blogage. 

Penguins and Seasick

 

For some odd reason I have a strong urge to dance this morning. It could have been due to the sick beats all last night… Without breaking dad’s tradition of planning early morning events, we were all up at 6 am to go see the penguins. We piled into a bus and drove to a submarine-looking boat to take us 1 hour out into the Magellan Straits to see the mythical creatures. As the boat gently bobbed towards the island we engaged in a very lively discussion of travel with an animated Chilean while dad (who is HIGHLY susceptible to sick sickness) concentrated on not vomiting. The winds picked up just before we arrived giving us a glimpse into what sailing in these treacherous waters would be like. If you closed you eyes and someone said, “imagine the treacherous Magellan straits”, it would be how you imaged it (or at least how I thought). We landed safely on the penguins’ island and were immediately inundated with thousands of squawking penguins covering this barron plot capped by a red and white lighthouse. For how funny these little guys look on the discovery channel, it is nothing compared to how funny they are in person. They each have their own little personalities and quarks. These were temperate weather penguins that have one of the longest migrations. They normally reside in Brazil but come down here to feeds on sardines, mate for life, and produce offspring. Interestingly enough the females choose their mates based on how well constructed their burrows are. Needless to say the entire island looked like Swiss cheese with all the dug burrows. We slowly followed the pre designed path occasionally allowing some self righteous penguins to cross and roamed throughout their colony. The wind picked up even more and now there were 1-2 meter waves around our island. After an hour with the impeccably dressed birds we returned to the boat to go see sea lions. I’ve been in some rough seas in my day by the ocean chewed us up and spit us out repeatedly. Several people hit their heads on the ceiling as we crested waves. I did not know there were so many different shades of green that a single person could turn but dad managed to hit the full spectrum. With frequent sighs and loosening of clothing an eruption of vomit was imminent. We finally pulled into the island and when the captain came down to inform us that the seas were too rough to continue so he had returned us to the busses instead of another 3 hours on the ocean I don’t think I had ever seen my dad so happy/green. While disembarking I could have sworn I saw him kiss land. After a small snag of my phone getting wrenched out of my pocket on the boat and not realizing until we returned to the hotel the trip was a success. Luckily the tourist group was amazing and found my phone and got it to me! 

Emily and I have been having issues with the airlines in country and found out they canceled our return trip so we rescheduled to fly out that evening a start our poolside vacation in Santiago early. We left the adults in good spirits and flew to Santiago where we crashed in our luxurious hotel for the night. Best sleep of the trip! 

The Tip of the Civilized World

What a hike! Now that the daily ritual of getting up early and hiking is over we found ourselves looking for more adventures in the various pueblos. We left Puerta Natalas in the morning and we took a drive to Punta Arenas, the last drivable city south of the world. Ironically we drove on a road called “fin del mundo” (end of the world).  The drive was initially very boring but as we started to stare out at the expansive flatlands we started noticing whole wild herds of Guanacus (lama-like creatures) and “flocks” of ñandus (ostrich-like creatures). I mean, for a termporate desert, this land was filled with all of these wild creatures from eagles to albatrosses and foxes to pumas. Our driver was super nice and patient with my Spanish and we chatted vigorously during the drive. Dad did an amazing job of finding these cute boutique hotels for us to stay in and The Albatros (spelled like that) was no exception. After settling in, we wondered in search of food. Chile has been, let’s say, overly cautious about COVID. Most of their restaurants have been closed down and the few that remain have strange and idiotic rules. That, and the fact it was Valentine’s Day made the search for food extremely difficult. Every restaurant we came to had a line out the door like it was the most exclusive club in the city.  There were not street food options either. Luckily we stumbled into a hidden gem that many were passing up but served us some incredible sesame seared salmon. Dining in South America is not a rushed event. For the simple lunch it took round three hours to complete. After that, we followed the culture and all took a much warranted siesta.   It was refreshing. We awoke late in the evening and decided to try our luck again with the restaurants and again we were rebuffed by the entire city. Never in all of my traveling experience have I ever had so much trouble finding food. We searched high and low for hours without success. Finally on our way back to the hotel with growling bellies and low hanging heads we again stumbled upon a little eatery where the matron took pity on us and allowed us to dine… at three separate tables because the new law states that only two people may share a table at a time….. we all paired off leaving Viv to hilariously sit in culinary isolation in the dead center of the restaurant.  We all ordered cervezas and air-toasted laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. After dinner we retired to bed to the sweet rhythmic sounds of, not one, but two dance clubs competing to see who could play music the loudest and longest. I only had to retrieve our bedside table once as the bass vibrated it across our room. 

The Final Trek

Up at the crack of dawn, we all surprised each other by how poorly we slept despite the amazing hotel. We meandered over for breakfast and started to mentally prepare for the elevation onslaught. With stiff legs and some mild aches and pains we set out, shadowed by the looming mountains ahead. The theme of the day was ‘up’.  Billygoat Ben led the way.  Step by step we began to assault the ever increasing altitude. Funny enough, we also were hiking in record breaking winds (65mph), and let me tell you, there is no more interesting sensation then rounding a corner on a cliff and receiving such a powerful gust of wind that you teeter on the brink of oblivion. The sun was warm and so was the wind as we trudged onward.  The scene was a deep valley cut by a roaring glacial stream engulfed by razor sharp mountains. The actual towers were obscured from our view until the end.  To start the hike we had to back track a little bit to arrive at the trailhead. One funny moment was when we were most of the way up our first long incline and Emily turned exhausted with a red face glistening with sweat stating, “this is so hard and we’re still only back tracking”. To which I replied that we had finished the backtracking over an hour ago and we had been hiking on the trail nearly the whole time. The instant transition from agony to elation was priceless.  Higher and higher we rose. This trek had two main elevation gains, one in the beginning and one near the top. The middle section was a very pleasant walk through cool wooded areas punctuated by glacial streams. Finally we reached the last hard ascent. It was bouldering more or less; hard, windy, and cold. There was also an odd juxtaposition of blue sunny skies and being pelted with hail blown off the nearest glaciers.  Through sheer force of will; We. Made. It. 

A breathtaking front row seat to the Torres del Paine; staggering mountain peaks dotted by small glaciers all feeding into a small mystical turquoise lake.  Photos first, then we sat in silence eating our packed lunches admiring the spectacle.  An interesting surprise was that we met up with an old medical school housemate of mine, Anna at the top. We chatted and then wished them luck on their reverse trekking. After we drank in our fill we started the decent which went without a hitch other than the trains of tourists hiking up and the quadriceps stain of prolonged and steep downward hiking.  Oh and also, dad persistently grumbling, “if only i was [a half century] younger I’d easily be able to keep up with you [whippersnappers]”. Arriving at the hotel we collapsed joyously in the chairs and ordered beers and empanadas recounting tales of our adventures. 

From there we took a ride out of the park passing lama-like wild herds and salty lakes to Puerto Natalas. Ben took off from here back to the states with promises of more hikes. The five of us remained and scoured the Pueblo for food which, despite a heavy tourist industry, we found difficult as most restaurants were closed on Sundays. Finally settling on a late night pizza we ate then passed out. What a day. 

 

An easy day. (Late entry)

Sorry I did not post this yesterday. Be on the lookout for today’s entry as well.  Not super eventful. After a complicated night of sleep due to high winds opening and slamming doors, ‘youths’ celebrating birthdays via loud karaoke, and occasional nighttime flatus from ‘someone’, we awoke mildly refreshed. Our bodies having recovered from one of our hardest days yet. We set out early and had an uneventful 6 mile trek to meet up with mom and Viv at our final trekking hotel. This place was cool, think hipster-meets-cowboy motif. It sits at the far base of the Towers with free foaming horses and a yoga retreat in the pasture. We all enjoyed beers and cocktails before sitting down to a nice dinner with wine flowing. We were all anxious about, “the hardest hike of the trip”. An underlying theme about this trip has been the woefully inaccurate maps. So we had no idea how long or how high we’d be hiking. After saying good night and planning on an early departure we all crept into bed. 

Beautiful but hard

Another night for the books. We all got fantastic sleep after our first outings and awoke reenergized.  Today was to be much harder. With a total of 16 miles consisting of an altitude trek in the middle without packs followed by 3 more miles with packs. After a light breakfast we set out full of joy and excitement. The initial part of the trek was level and filled with prairie scenery. The only down side was the 40 mph winds the nearly blew us off the trail. We hiked by lakes that seemed to glow iridescent turquoise. Again we were surrounded by immense mountains with 1000’+ waterfalls.  It was amazing. Finally the winds died down. The first part of our trek went smoothly and we reach the lower campsite where we were able to drop our packs and resume the Britanica lookout hike. This was a beast. There was bouldering, steep climbs, stream crossings, and generally a long trek. There where two lookouts. The first lookout was Frances lookout. Here was were able to rest our bones and stare at glacial cut mountains with a few glaciers clinging to them. What made this spot amazing was that every few minutes there was a ‘BOOM’ from the glaciers and pieces of ice would tumble off the mountain. We enjoyed a boxed lunch admiring the clouds rolling over the thunderous glaciers.  We continued, again it was a challenging hike. But we finally made it to the Britanica lookout which was truly awe inspiring, 360° panorama of mountains including the Torres del Pain, the turquoise lake, and the glacier mountains.  The sheer geology of the place was a spectacle. The ‘towers’ look as if the glaciers of old nearly covered them but not quite as their peaks were craggy black rock that abruptly transformed to a smooth tan color. We turned around and started the long trek down. Unfortunately, most of the trail is small to medium sized rocks which are murder on your ankles and feet.  This was made worse by the fact that the last few kilometers were on a small rock beach. Ben is insanely fit and could hike for days, dad and I nearly reached our physical limit as we could barely lift our feet for the last 2 miles.

 Emily was amazing and trudged onward. Arriving at the chaotic hostel we battled the extreme fatigue and checked in. We had a beer or two and are now all lying in bed awaiting that sweet succulent sleep to take us away… sorry for any miss types again, so tired. 

The Hike Day 1

Whew. After a phenomenal night of well desired sleep we were up at the crack of dawn and rearranging packs for our highly anticipated hike. Emily and I met up with mom, dad, Ben, and Viv for breakfast. It was quite the spread and everyone was energetic. Some of our group had fought a GI bug and were steadily recovering. But this hotel was amazing! It sat on the edge of a lake with iridescently blue mammoth icebergs floating in front of a slowly receding glacier.  The view was framed by sharp and pointed mountains slicing the drifting clouds like enormous mandolins. Viv and mom decided they wanted to ride the ferry with us to our trailhead.  So we all hiked a mile to meet a catamaran style ferry on the choppy glacial lake. The wind was rip roaring from the glacier at the end of the long lake filled with whitecaps. On the little ferry there were about 60 other tourists, we were the only hikers. The boat had filled prior to our arrival so we were all sitting separately. As a tour guide rambled on the back ground Emily and I chatted up some local Chileans to find out that, “pisco is not only made in Chile, but it’s the best in the world.”  Speaking of which, Ben came around with pisco sours for us that were delicious but the boat had stopped to drop us off and so we had to literally down our drinks and jump off the boat, great way to start a hike. With our packs set and waving good by to mom and Viv, who were going to continue the tour we set out! Dad had a huge grin on his face. 

The first portion of our epic journey took us the a beautiful lookout near the glacier. Tons of small floating icebergs and weather that kept us on our toes. One minute it was 60s and sunny and the next it was cloudy with rain and chilling wind. But our spirits were high and we started the 4 hour trek to our overnight spot. Beautiful and fun we hiked back along the glacial lake with heavy winds at our backs and the whirlwind weather over our heads. Dad kept us on pace the whole way. To our left was part of the famous “towers” (pictures to follow). Our group chatted and marched at a good clip without breaks until we reached Paine Grande a hostal on another lake that looked like liquid turquoise. It sat at the base of “the towers” and endures a never ending bombardment of howling wind.

The hostel itself was modern and quaint. Though feeling good, everyone was glad to strip off their boots, change clothes, and grab a beer with a slice of pizza. Dad and I took a quick nap before dinner and for dinner we had high-school-cafeteria-style large pieces of mystery meat with gravy and veggies.  I think we are all going to call it an early night after our first stint of 9 miles. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Still Traveling…

You know, sleeping upright is one of those skills I wish I had. We were in relatively comfortable seats but sleeping upright is just plain hard to accomplished. We landed in Chile without a hitch, though we are feeling (and probably smelling) ripe. After disembarking from the plane we were herded like cattle through an intricate maze of document checking (where our documents had expired due to the long flight delay…), PCR testing, customs, and baggage claim. Though smooth, it felt very conveyer-belt-ish. Next we sat in what appeared to be one of the busiest airports awaiting our flight to Punta Arenas. 

A very lovely flight which we missed most of as our exhaustion is catching up with us. We both did  achieve 3 solid hours of sleep on the plane. 

Arriving without issues we met Victor, our driver, who drove us for 5 hours across beautiful flat landscape dotted occasionally with craggy mountains. The sunset and we continued in the dark without signs of civilization. Finally, at our wits’ end we arrived at our hotel! It’s dark so not a lot of descriptions but the hotel, for being the only building in the valley, is emasculate. Ben met us at midnight for some food and a beer before we stalked off to have the best shower I have ever had. Finally, we are showered, fed, and in a bed. can’t wait for hiking tomorrow. 

Ps sorry if there are grammar or spelling issues.. too tired to care…

Still in the air…

After a night of anxious sleep we awoke to “beautiful” Houston. We still had some pesky issues with baggage claim but they promised our bags would arrive at 11am, AND we were able to confirm our flight to Santiago!!! Praise the high One!!

 However, given that we had now been traveling for >48 hours our negative COVID tests had expired.. so we needed rush tests, at the airport (for an outrageous price..), and arrange for our local flight in Chile, of which; there was only one, it was ruinously priced, and we couldn’t  contact the agent in country despite multiple attempts to change our current ticket. Alas, the universe aligned in our favor!! We received our bags and high-fived ALL the claims reps, printed our boarding passes again high-fiving the counter reps, were negative on our COVID test (elbow bumps for the med techs), and purchased the LAST tickets to Punta Arenas (sobbing a little at the price)! Now. Finally. We could start our vacation.  

Luckily we had lounge access so we sat, relaxed, and enjoyed more Champaign for 8 more hours before our flight.  

Not to kill our luck but we made it to the plane! 48 of 72 hours into our total travel time. Only 24 more hours until we meet up with the rest of the party and the real hiking begins! Needless to say this will be the longest stint traveling I have ever experienced. Emily was a trooper!

And yes… same clothes……….

On our way (sort of)

Setting off from Juneau’s record snow/rainy winter feels like a godsend. The trip started off with a great free upgrade to 1st class and ensuing Champaign sips set the tone for a fantastic vacation. After a smooth flight we were whisked away to Cedarbrook lodge for a great night of comfortable sleep. I was even able to get in a short run the next morning.  However our first hiccup occurred.. American Airlines emailed us, with 4 hours notice, that our flight was delayed.. enough that we would miss our international connection. With a panicked early sprint to the airport we managed to secure middle seats down to Dallas to keep our original schedule on Alaska airlines. 

Well… that changed, while on the tarmac we had an engine failure so we returned to the airport. Now it looks like we won’t make our flight. While scrambling at the airport, American called us back from this morning and informs us that because the Alaska flight broke down it’s their responsibility to rebook us. Funny enough after waiting in line at Alaska, they say it’s American’s responsibility…. Again panicked, we raced to the gate were they are supposed to reboard us (but we’ll miss our connection and there are no flights to Chile for days from Dallas). A kick ass Alaska desk lady, Anna, started helping us. She ran down to the tarmac to pull our bags so they didn’t leave with out us and diligently worked to rearrange our whole trip to get us magically down to Chile a day late through an intricate web of connections. We were in high spirits once we had confirmed bookings but then as she went to get our bags we all learned that an over zealous employee had whisked them on to the next Dallas flight which was pulling away in front of us… our spirits sank as we became separated from our bags and could not continue because they cannot fly internationally without us. But Anna didn’t give up, she rerouted us again, and rerouted our bags so now we were off to Houston and our bags should meet us tomorrow before we fly on to Chile. Exhausted we landed in Houston at midnight….. to be continued.