Admirals Lounge, Santiago, Chile

Hi All!

Since Peru, we have spent the past week in Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina. We have enjoyed every last bit of it and can't even believe it's time to come home. We have had such an amazing time. There will be pictures to post when we get back as we haven't had a chance to upload our last week's adventures.

Currently, we are enjoying our first class status with drinks in the Admirals lounge. What a great way to end the trip!

Hope you are all doing well! We look forward to seeing our Seattle family and friends soon and look forward to a trip to SF in the near future! We miss you all!!

XOXO
Ashley & Jon

Cuzco, Peru and Machu Picchu

March 9th (Cuzco, Peru)
Llamas and a cute native girl on the streets of Cuzco

first day of 4 day trek on the Inca Trail

camp on night 1 - lucky for us a local Andean was selling beer nearby

our highest pass on day 2 - Dead Woman's Pass at 13,829 ft.!

our guide, Freddy, passing out shots of rum at the summit of our 2nd pass of the day

Machu Picchu!! (in clouds and rain)

March 10th-13th (the Inca Trail)

We set out on our 4 day/3 night trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We lucked out with the weather with only evening rain until our last day....rain and clouds at Machu Picchu! It was a great trek and still an amazing sight to see even in the rain.

March 14th (Cuzco, Peru to Santiago, Chile)

Today we head back down south to Santiago for our last 9 days!! We are spending some time in the coastal town of Valparaiso and then heading to Mendoza, Argentina to spend our last few days of vacation in wine country!!

Amazonían Ecuador!

squirrel monkey

Jon aiming a blowgun

tamarind monkey

jungle hike!

swimming with caiman and piranhas

March 3rd-6th (Amazonía Ecuador)

After the Galápagos we spent 3 nights and 4 days in the jungle! We stayed at a great ecolodge, Napo Wildlife Center, that is 100% owned by the native community. We did a lot of canoeing, hiking, and wildlife spotting! We saw 6 different monkey species, swam in a dark lake with caiman, piranhas, and 9 ft. fish, and saw lots of HUGE insects!!! Cockroaches galore!!

Quito and the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

February 19th (Quito, Ecuador)
We arrived in Quito from Puerto Montt and explored the city for a few days. This is at a nice café overlooking the city.

Galápagos sea lion and sally light-footed crabs

marine iguana

marine iguanas

marine iguana

sea turtle blue footed boobie!

flightless cormorant

Galápagos penguins

Bartolome Island

great frigate bird (male looking for a mate)

land tortoise

land tortoise

cutest little sea lion pup!

more beauty

lazy sea lions basking in the sun in paradise

February 22nd - March 1st (Galápagos Islands)

The most amazing place on earth! (that we've seen!!) We spent 7 nights on a boat in paradise traveling from island to island looking at all these crazy creatures! We got to swim and snorkel everyday too and saw tons of crazy marine life including a white tip shark and a huge manta ray!! Definitely the trip of a lifetime!!

March 2nd (Mitad del Mundo, Ecuador)

Here we stand at the middle of the earth! (actually this isn't the real equator. 12 years ago they discovered they were 240 meters off, but not bad for 18th century measurements)

Tomorrow we leave for 4 days in the Ecuadorian Amazon! Can't wait for some jungle action!

The Lake District (Bariloche, Argentina)

February 12th (San Martin de los Andes, Argentina)

We stayed in this pretty little town which is a hot holiday spot for the wealthy Argentines. It was quite prestine and all lawns were manicured to perfection. We hiked to this lookout of Lago Lacár and took a lovely boat ride on the lake to a beach after our hike.

February 14th (El Bolsón, Argentina)

Still in the Lake District, we did a 40 km bike ride to a good viewpoint of this lake and then down the valley to the lake. The bikes could use a good tune up...it was a long ride. We had sore buns afterwards but treated ourselves to a Valentine's Day dinner at a great steak house.

February 15th (El Bolsón, Argentina)

This is Claudio, the owner of our hostel in El Bolsón. He cooked up a traditional Argentine asado (bbq) for all of us staying with him. It was in true Argentine fashion with beef, lamb and sausage on the grill, plus bread and lots of wine! Truly delicious!

Bariloche, Quito and The Galapagos

Hello All,

We have a REALLY slow internet connection, so we are too impatient to upload photos but we hope to do so after we return from the Galapagos Islands on the March 2nd.

We went from Puerto Montt, Chile to the Lakes District in Argentina. We had some beautiful weather and some not so great weather so we got out for a hike and some mountain biking when we could and relaxed when the weather was bad. We enjoyed a homemade asado (bbq) at our hostel in El Bolsòn on our last night. A ton of grilled meat (steak, lamb and sausage) with lots of vino. It was delicious!

We are now in Quito, Ecuador and have been enjoying the city. We took a trip up to Otavalo (about 2 hours north of Quito) yesterday and hit the great craft market today. We're back in Quito tonight and we leave tomorrow morning for the Galapagos Islands! We can hardly wait! We hope to post some awesome iguana and turtle pics when we return.

We hope you are all doing well!!

Cheers,
Jon & Ashley

Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt (on the Navimag Ferry)

February 6th (first morning on the ferry)
We boarded the Navimag ferry Thursday evening for our first night on the boat because they depart Puerto Natales super early in the morning. We awoke to this amazing sunrise as we were passing through one of the narrowist channels on the route (we had just 4 meters on either side of the boat).


February 6th (the bridge)
Jon at the bridge of the ferry where they allowed us to visit throughout the day!


February 6th (glacier)
We got to approach a glacier for great views. It was super cold and windy at the bow of the boat.


The bunks were quite cozy. We lucked out and only had to share this space with one other person. The lockers and curtains on the beds were quite a luxury!


February 7th (Puerto Eden)
We stopped at this village of 130 people. It's the only village we passed during our 3 day journey through the fjords.

February 8th (whale watching with vino)
We spent our last afternoon on the boat with some new friends drinking vino and watching for whales. We spotted a few!! and saw some dolphins too! The vino continued to pour during the bingo & fiesta the crew puts on for the last evening.

February 9th (Puerto Montt)

We stopped for lunch to nurse our hangovers from bingo the night before and found the biggest burgers in all of Chile. It seems the Chileans know how to cook a burger....

February 10th (Puerto Montt, Chile to Bariloche, Argentina)

We catch the bus this afternoon for a 7 hour bus ride into Argentina to hit The Lakes District.