I crossed five borders this month, zigzagging back and forth across Patagonia through Argentina and Chile and finally flying back to Colombia, my last South American country.
In month four I slept in 16 beds, flew on five planes (one of which I jumped out of), spent 80 hours on buses and four hours in a boat. In the past four months total I have slept in 79 beds, been on 11 planes, spent 326 hours in buses, and 23 hours on boats.
This month we visited an island with 250,000 penguins and rented a car and drove along beautiful lake view roads from Bariloche to San Martin de Los Andes. We hiked Mt. Fitz Roy, the most beautiful mountain I've ever seen and the highlight of my trip so far. We jumped 9,000 feet out of a tiny pink airplane at dusk above the Argentinian lake district and used ice picks to climb Villarica, a snow-covered volcano. We toured the beautiful graffiti filled streets of Valparaiso, Chile. We rented a double bike and pedaled to wineries in Mendoza.
We drank Terremotos (translation: earthquakes) in Santiago, a drink made of cheap white wine, rum, and a scoop of pineapple ice cream... Right up my alley. We ate a delicious midnight dinner at Don Albertos, a very famous Argentinian steak house. We made it our mission to find the best ice cream in Argentina (for research purposes only) and established a self guided tour. The result: helados Mamusia in San Martin de los Andes. "Probably the best ice cream in the world," Sinead Conlon, 2013. If you ever go to Argentina you will thank me for this tip.
I saw the most spectacular sunrise of my life as the sun rose over Mount Fitz Roy, a reward for a very steep, cold, uphill climb in the dark. I saw an amazing sunset during the first few hours of our 28 hour bus ride from Bariloche, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. On the last day of my fourth month, I was back in Cartagena, the same city I had flown into on my first day in South America. As I watched the sunset from the Old City wall, I couldn't help but think of all that has happened in the past four months.
This month was filled with goodbyes. After a month traveling through Patagonia together, we split up from the Israelis and said goodbye as they headed on their way to Brazil for Carnival. The following weekend I had to say the hardest goodbyes of my life as Mona, Sinead, and I all went our separate ways. After two and a half months of traveling with the girls, saying goodbye to them physically pained me.
In less than a week I went from traveling in a group of eight to traveling by myself. I spent the last week of the month in Colombia. First in Bogota, where I barely left the hostel for five days, exhausted both mentally and physically from a month of fast paced travel and painful goodbyes. In Bogota I quickly made new friends who reminded me of all the reasons that I love traveling. We spent our days watching movies and taking it easy and our nights cooking big, family style dinners. After regaining energy I flew to Cartagena to meet a friend from home, thankful to see a familiar face after so many goodbyes.
I finally booked my flight back to the United States. I leave South America March 5 for a two and a half week "vacation from backpacking" in Costa Rica and fly back to DC on March 22. I'm devastated to leave but very much looking forward to seeing family and friends, sleeping in my own bed, flushing toilet paper, and wearing clothes without holes.
Photos:
1. Before our skydiving
2. Climbing Villrica
3. From the bus: Patagonian sunset
4. Mount Fitz Roy
5. Grapes before harvest in Mendoza
6. Wine o´clock in Mendoza
7. Before our skydive
8. Road trip to San Martin de Los Andes
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