Hola from South America!

Erin and I are safe and sound on the ground in Santiago, Chile. We had a good flight yesterday from New Zealand and are fighting through the jet lag and getting ourselves acquainted here. Last night I was struggling to keep my eyes open at night, went right to sleep at 9 PM, woke up bright-eyed at 1 30 AM, laid there until 5 45 AM, then fell back asleep until Erin woke me up at 9 30. Ugh, the joys of travel. But it´s all good. I´m actually really excited to be here.

Even last night - our first night in town - it was so exciting to be in a new city in a new continent where the people are speaking a different language. The most basic tasks are challenging and exciting - finding the way from the airport to town by public transport, landing a place to stay, navigating the streets of a strange city. This leg of our journey is by far the least planned of our travels so far. We had a flight to Santiago and that´s it. No itinerary, no plans, no limitations - other than our budget and a three-and-a-half month timeframe. I feel it´s a measure of how we have grown as travelers to be able to approach this part of the trip this way. We´re confident that having full flexibility will ultimately improve our ability to tailor the trip as best we can, moving as we wish and retaining the ability to modify our plans as we hear or learn of new places or options. It should be the ultimate adventure.

La Plaza de Armas, Santiago, Chile

We walked through town last evening, and it was pulsing with activity. Lots of chileños walking everywhere. We made our way to the La Plaza de Armas in El Centro which is a historic open city square which was a hub of activity. It was quite amusing and rewarding to successfully order food alongside the locals at the express foodstands. I was quite proud, even though it is essentially the equivalent of ordering a hamburger and Coke at a fast food joint in the U.S. Somehow ordering an empañada and chucarero and 2 bebidas in Spanish in Santiago was more exciting. These are the simple joys and adventures of travel that balance out the jet lag and other downers.

One thing I´ve been surprised about is how few people speak English here. So far on our travels it´s been pretty to easy to speak English everywhere - even in places like Laos and Cambodia. Here it seems English is less common. It´s perfect actually, as we aim to learn Spanish and speak to the locals on their terms and in their language. That´s another unique aspect of this South American leg of the trip that I´m excited about - the challenge of learning a new language. Erin and I have both had a few years of Spanish in high school but have very limited experience actually speaking the language. We aim to take a course at some point and do lots of learning-by-doing. It should add to the depth of the adventure.

Before I look forward too much to this next and last leg of the trip, I´d like to add a few final thoughts on NZ. Again, what an awesome place. So gorgeous. And we were glad to have Aly join us. It was great to re-connect with a friend from Colorado and get caught up on all the goings-on at home - not to mention share a few beers and learn lots of interesting things about birds.

Okarito coastline

Over the last couple weeks of the trip, we did a whirlwind tour of the island which Aly did a great job of highlighting. Two of my favorite highlights were hanging in Okarito and wine-tasting in the north. As Aly described, Okarito was an undiscovered gem of a town on the west coast, offering a picture-perfect setting on the beach between the ocean and the mountains. It was a great place to relax and enjoy for a few days. It was also a place of which we had no knowledge before our trip to NZ. We discovered it only through word-of-mouth and the insights of other locals and travelers on our trip. Sometimes it is these unheralded spots that turn out to be the most pleasant and rewarding. In addition to the classics, it´s just these type of places we hope to uncover in South America.

Okarito sunset

My other highlight of the last portion of the trip was wine-tasting in the white-wine country in the Marlborough region. We stayed at Watson´s Way Backpackers in Renwick which is one of the best-run hostels in NZ. Aly, Erin, and I rented bikes one afternoon and visited five small, family-run wineries to sip and taste their best vintages. It was an incredible way to see the wineries and the region. The wines were excellent, especially the sauvignon blancs and the pinot noirs. And often it was the wife of the husband-and-wife ownership team that was pouring and describing the wines for us. Without exception, our hosts were friendly, down-to-earth, and unpretentious. The New Zealand way, I suppose.

Wine-tasting on wheels

Which leads to my last thoughts on New Zealand. So much is said about the land and the superlative landscapes of NZ. They´re outstanding. But I´d like to touch on the people as well. First off, there are very few of them, especially on the South Island. I think the total population is roughly 4 million, with only a quarter of those on the South Island which is the larger of the two in terms of area. It´s tough to characterize a whole nation of people, but I have some definite impressions. The New Zealand people we met tended to be very friendly and operated at a slower pace than in the U.S. Of course, a handful were short or even rude - like the young guy who nearly road-raged on us for going too slow the first hour after we bought our car in Christchurch and were cautiously driving on the opposite side of the road than we are accustomed - but these people were the exception rather than the rule. As an example, one Kiwi gentleman we met on the Milford Track even gave me his name and address and invited us to stay at his place if we made it to the North Island. Kiwis also tend to be down-to-earth, outdoorsy, and in touch with the land - whether that be in an sporty or hunter or farmer sort-of-way. And also in my opinion NZers give an impression of being a little innocent or sheltered - in a midwestern US farmland sort-of-way - especially in the older generations. There´s little crime or pollution or the ills faced by large, more urban populations, and that seems to come through in the attitudes and outlooks of the people. They enjoy small, close-knit communities. But at the same time they are a worldly and outward-looking people. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they are a small, island country - with strong links to Europe yet situated in Asia and with a native population of Pacific Islanders. It also likely has to do with the fact that they have about 2.5 million tourists descending on their shores every year - a staggering number relative to their population. In any event, the Kiwis are a breath of fresh air, and I like them quite a bit. They´re a lucky lot - living in the paradise that they do and not sharing it with too many others.

On the Abel Tasman Coast Track

That´s all for now. Off to track down a good English-Spanish dictionary and let the learning begin.

Adios!

Drew