The Fortunate and Unfortunate

It's hard to believe we left Ushuaia 18 days ago! What?! Time really does seem to fly as we travel. Sometimes reality seems to hit us hard when it feels like we were at the bottom of the world over a month ago. Oh well, onto new and exiting things! Since we have achieved the ultimate goal of our trip, now we have gotten to check other things off the adventure-must-do list. As we travelled south we started compiling a list of things we wanted to do on the return trip. So far we have been able to achieve every one of them! 

Snowy roads as we were leaving Ushuaia, Argentina.

The day we left Ushuaia, on the first of September, we drove for a long time. We got all the way through the ferry ride, to Torres del Paine. Our main reasoning for going back to the famous Chilean national park was because the first time we had visited, we weren't able to see the peaks due to thick fog. Since most of the park was closed for the off season,  this time we didn't enter the park to avoid paying another $50 for tickets. We camped on the shore of a lake that was near enough for us to see a spectacular view of the mountain. Fortunately, in the morning we had the clearest day imaginable to see the mountain. Check that off the list! We took tons of pictures of the mountain reflected on the lake, and many of the Jeep with the mountains as the background. We were able to drive to a look out point to get pictures of us as well. The view was better than we could have hoped for!

Torres del Paine

Mat & Emily and Torres del Paine

Seth and Torres del Paine

From there we decided to try our luck at seeing a glacier without having to actually go into Glacier National Park (it cost $65 just to enter the park!). Seth found a road on our GPS that looked promising, but alas, it led onto private property. Let me tell you, we got some funny looks from the farmers nearby as we turned around to go back. We were only able to look at the glaciers from afar and wish it wouldn't have cost so much to see them up close. That night we stayed at a campground we think was technically closed for the season. But, nothing told us not to enter and there were no signs stating we had to pay to stay! It was a very cold night, but well worth the view of the moon setting over the mountains.

Moon setting

Here is where some unfortunate things started happening. Since it was so cold out, and we were low on fuel in our propane tank (we didn't know we were low at the time) we had a very hard time cooking. Sometimes the stove would fire right up, but then sputter out a few minutes later. Sometimes the flames would be very weak, and sometimes we could only run one burner at a time. This morning we weren't able to cook breakfast :( So, we went on our way to El Chalten.

We arrived in Chalten with the intent to pick a trail to hike the next day, buy snacks for the hike, and buy a few dinner necessities. That morning Seth had the idea to keep the propane tank inside the Jeep all day so it didn't get cold and maybe it would run better! Then he made a nice little jacket for it to stay a bit warm while we used it outside to cook. It worked! We made double portions of dinner so we could have food for the 16km hike in the morning. However, we woke up late the next morning. Instead of hiking to Lago Torres, we decided on an 8km hike to Lago Capri, which would leave us ample amounts of time to keep driving north after we were done.

Seths' jacket for the propane tank

Mount Fitz Roy from the entrance to El Chalten

 The beginning of the trail was very steep and very windy up in the mountains, but we made it to the lake! The lake was still half iced over, with Mount Fitz Roy behind it. It was beautiful. And then Mat and Seth got the idea to hike further to Tres Lagos. Therefore turning our 8km hike, into what we thought would be 18km. It turned out to be 20km (equivalent to 12 miles total). I don't know why I agreed to it. The first 3 extra kilometers were pretty flat, but the last kilometer was a killer. We ascended 750 meters over the course of 1km. Even at the beginning of the trail there was a huge sign warning people only to continue if they were in good physical condition with no heath problems. It claimed it was supposed to take an hour to get to the top. I consider it an achievement that Mat and I made it in an hour and 15 minutes! The ascent was steeper than 45 degrees at some parts, and the last half of it was through snow.  It was probably one of the worst ideas we have had yet, but worth it nonetheless. We started the hike around noon, and got off the mountain at 7:45pm-- needless to say, we didn't drive any further when we were done. While Seth was used to ruck marches in the army, Mat and I were exponentially more exhausted. I've never had hotdogs as delicious as the ones we cooked that night. 

Waterfall in El Chalten

Mount Fitz Roy from Lago Capri

Mount Fitz Roy from Tres Lagos

Seth at Tres Lagos

The next morning we packed up camp and made it to San Carlos de Briloche. It is a super nice tourist town that basically thrives off of hotels, restaurants, and selling mountain gear. We spent that night on the shore of a beautiful lake with huge multi-million dollar homes on the opposite side. We joked that while those homes were so expensive, our stay was free :) However, again, our propane tank was acting up again. On an average night, we usually cook meat in one pan and pasta in the other, but this night we were only able to cook our meat. Its a good thing we hadn't yet eaten the pasta we had made for our hike up Fitz Roy, and we used those noodles instead. That night we realized we really needed to fix our propane tank, because none of our problem solving was helping. 

The next morning we stopped by a coffee shop for wifi so Seth could learn everything he could to diagnose our propane problems. First we realized that, although it wasn't a big deal, we had been connecting the hose from the tank to our stove incorrectly. It needed to be attached in order of connected to the tank first, stove second, and tank turned on third. Also, the few times we had taken the tank off its mount outside the Jeep, it had tipped over, and liquid fuel had gotten into parts it shouldn't have, therefore causing liquid fuel to come out of the tank instead of gas. Lastly, we just simply needed the tank filled. The last time we had it filled was in Columbia, so even though we thought we still had enough fuel left, we apparently didn't. This was all an easy fix after finding this out. We stopped by a local station to have it filled, and went out to a restaurant until the shop was finished with it. It was nice to finally have a working tank, and not have to worry about if we were going to be able to finish cooking before it went on the fritz.

From there we spent a few days driving from Puerto Varas, through Osorno, and Los Angeles, Chile. This is when we started noticing our brakes making strange grinding noises. While leaving a gas station in Los Angeles, Seth took a look at the brakes and realized we needed them replaced ASAP. We looked around Los Angeles for a Jeep dealership for parts, but it was closed due to the weekend. Later that night we rotated the tires on the Jeep and Seth took a closer look at the brakes at a Copec gas station. Turns out the performance brake pads that were supposed to last the trip all needed replaced, and the drivers rear brake rotor needed to be either machined (to fix it), or replaced. This is because the pads were so bad, they had left deep scratches in the rotor that would have destroyed new pads if we didn't get it fixed. Ultimately, we decided to keep pushing north, and timed our arrival into Santiago so we got there early Monday. 

Drivers side rear brake pad

After driving to a Jeep repair shop and talking with a manager, we found out we would have to wait until the next day to get all the brake pads. We were taking a gamble on this though, because we were still not sure if the brake rotor would need replaced or if it could be machined. If it couldn't be machined, then we would have to wait another day for the part to come in. That night we returned to the Fox Hostel where we had stayed before. 
We also returned to The Pizza Factory we had visited last time, and went to the bar above it called The Red. We walked in the bar and found it to be super fancy, but in a really cool and unique way. There were real candles dripping wax on the tables, funky house music playing, and a dark speak-easy feel to it. There was no such thing as a drink menu here. For instance, when I asked for a mojito that was a bit fruity, the waiter made some suggestions for flavors and liquors that would work well together. It was delicious! No wonder this place was voted the #1 bar in Chile two years in a row! We got back to our hostel hoping for good news about the Jeep in the morning.

Our drinks at The Red

We were in luck. While Mat was getting the rotor situation figured out, Seth taught me how to replace brake pads. Turns out, it is really easy! I just either needed someone to loosen the lug nuts on the tires for me, or invest in a four foot long pipe to help me out. We were able to replace all of the brake pads and install the machined rotor by noon! One day of work and $200 later, we were back in business! 

Emily wrenching on the Jeep brakes

Llama statue we found on the side of the road

In the next few days we stayed at Hostel Emilia again, just to get more Kangreburgers. We had purposely not eaten at all that day in order to gorge ourselves in the most delicious burger in the history of man kind. We crossed into Peru on the 17th and drove all the way to the city of Puno on lake Titicaca. We consider it a life achievement to say we have been to Lake Titicaca. And yes, we might have the humor of a 7th grade boy. Unfortunately, Mat had an adverse reaction and did not acclimate very well at all. What should have taken us three or four days to ascend in elevation, we did in one day from sea level to 14,000 feet. Yikes. The hostel we stayed at let us borrow oxygen for him, and within hours he was back to his normal self. 

The Kangreburger. 

We arrived in Cusco Peru today (the 18th) and we are leaving for Aguas Calientes tomorrow. We will spend one night there, and then the next morning trek up to Machu Picchu! The last few weeks have been full of trials, but all of it is worth it in order to see South America. Next things to check off our list of things to see is the Nazca Lines, and the lost Inca fortress, Ollantaytambo.