To our dear old friends...

Dearest Ryan,

What fun we had with you! Meeting you in Cuzco and hiking the never ending stair master was a truly unforgettable adventure! You are a trooper and your attitude along the way was something to learn from. You're too much fun! We may not have many opportunities to hike a lot of stairs together but I think we hiked enough in one day to last a lifetime! Thank you for sharing this adventure with us and being such a fun travel buddy!

The Old Friends cont...

Chelsea, Abe and Mone- Thanks for letting us crash your trips. We really enjoyed seeing you all even if it was brief. Seeing you three, provided an opportunity and a calender to get to new countries. We don't get to see you nearly enough but meeting up in Buenos Aires and Santiago makes up for lost time. Thank you for spoiling us rotten, it was a true treat to have friends that we adore to spend a few fun nights with. Thanks again for being a highlight to our trip!

AND NEW FRIENDS...

Here's to the new friends we made along the way. Travis and Victoria from Canada and Fletcher and Julie from Colorado are two couples that have really become people we have enjoyed seeing and hope to see more in the future. These people helped to make traveling so much funner (contrary to the photos we did more than sample beer!) and provided familiar faces that we began to look forward to seeing. Thanks for the fun times!

P.S. Just because you happen to be from Whistler and Vail doesn't mean that that is the only reason we like you.... just a major perk! Let's ski!

Mendoza and Santiago

The last leg of our journey has been a fun one! From our sweet beach town, Villa Gessel, we headed to Mendoza where we spent a few days in wine country with some travel buddies from Colorado. We road bikes from vineyard to vineyard tasting wine at each stop. Yum! We found a few new favorites too! The lower two pics in this blog are from Alta Vista winery where Hunky took some fantastic photos! We left Mendoza and headed straight for Santiago, Chile. I hate to report that at the border crossing, Hank was subject of a pick-pocket and his iPhone has become property to someone new. This was our ONLY negative experience in three countries, unless of course you consider Chilean and Argentine men make kissy noises at you when you walk down the street a negative experience...

Anyway, we met Chelsea (Drew's super awesome girlfriend) and did a walking tour of the Santiago. We were spoiled rotten by her and her friends from HMC Farms (mmm...yummy fruit- check them out hmcfarms.com) with visits to a lovely home, swanky dinners, and Cuban cigars. While Chelsea worked the days away, Hank and I toured the city where we stumbled upon the Terracotta soldiers from China on display in a museum below the Presidential Residence (yay! female president!) in Santiago. This was especially exciting for me because when I visited China in 2006, we didn't get to see these guys. As you can see from the pics above, this art work from 210 B.C. is truly amazing!

Chile is currently in elections for a new president. We arrived on voting day where everything was closed. No stores or restaurants were open and when some restaurants finally opened for dinner, we found that it is illegal to sell alcohol on voting day. Just some fun facts about Chile's election culture.

So, we are heading home tonight with mixed emotions. There is still so much to see and so much to do in South America that I am so bummed we have ran out of time for. We have met really amazing people on this journey and enjoyed the people of these countries greatly. However, returning to our friends and families at home (Miss Pickles- my poodle, included) is an especially rewarding end to a fun journey.

See you all very soon!

H&D

Villa Gesell

Hola Sports Fans!

Hanky doodle and I are in a sweet beach town in Argentina called Villa Gesell. We stumbled upon this town because we found ourselves beat up in Buenos Aires and needed a rest. I requested a beach town to get some sun. With little research, and an 8 hour bus ride, here we are. The weather has been mostly cloudy with two absolutely lovely days- today being one of them. I think we have found this town in it's "shoulder season" right before they are gearing up for summer. It's been very sleepy but this weekend has seemed to kick off the beginning of summer. For the most part, it has been a lovely, laid- back couple of days here. I was nursing a cold so we really took it easy- beach days and sleeping in. Perfectly Awesome.

We spent one day riding quads on the beach. It's kinda like trail-riding to be honest. Better to own your own horse. We did enjoy the ride and the beach was completely beautiful. We did encounter a seal (a guide got really close to it a made it mad- poor baby!).

The ride was a really fun way to spend the afternoon, however, we have no photos of the beautiful sand dunes, beach scenery, and trails through the pine forest to share. Apparently, battery packs are a key element to camera and we left ours in the plug at the hostel. Uh-oh...Bad photos assistant. Bad.

Anywho, here's the key to the photos...

Hanky Poodle and I at the beach today...yay, sun!

Another day collecting shells...

Steak- yum. Aregentinan's are famous for their meat and it's well worth the trip. Just go...

Villa Gesell...

A couple of boys that were particularly entertaining during lunch....

Much Love and the count down is on!

H&D

Abey baby...

and some beautiful art...

for Kay and Drew...

Here's some pics from B.A.

La Recoleta cemetery...

Some tourists on the bridge...

and some antiques from the fair...

Buenos Aires

Hola!

Hank and I write to you from Argentina where we have spent the last few days enjoying some familiar faces. Abe and Mone were extremely fun to hang out with before they left for their REI honeymoon trek through Patagonia. While they were in Buenos Aires with us we did a lot of walking through the city checking out the very European town. Buenos Aires is so different from Peru in that it is a modern, large city where shopping and dining are the major attractions. It has been so different from Peru in that we left old world, trekking and stepped into trendy, modern cappuccino and croissant nibbling B.A. It feels like we have time traveled.

Some of the highlights have been visiting La Recoleta cemetery where we visited Evita's grave, checking out the world's second largest bookstore, going to a nightclub and watching the tango dancers, an antique fair and checking out a modern art piece, Floralis Generica, a flower that opens and closes with the day.

We are pretty well exhausted at this leg of the journey with only two weeks left. We are finding that the things on out must-see list are much longer than our time and money will allow. Plus, we really just need to sit on a beach.

The pictures Hank chose for this blog include two from Machu Pichu- just because it was such an amazing place. We are working on some of the other photos from B.A. and will post those later. The other two pics are with Abe and Mone trying to decide where to eat lunch. Empanadas are yummy! Can you find the tourists? Lastly, the angels are from La Recoleta.

Hope you enjoy! We are looking forward to seeing everyone very soon! Please leave us some messages because we miss you....

XOXO- H&D