Perfect Timing

Trevor and I reminisced a lot as we rode the familiar and arduous road up the Andes. We spotted our old rest points, remembered conversations, and generally appreciated that we hauled so much less gear with us this time. A lot has changed for us since our last visit to this place, and we certainly feel a lot more comfortable traveling.
That said, we are still surprised sometimes, and abundantly grateful for the fortuitous timing of our trip. Had we left one day later, we probably wouldn´t have been able to cross the pass. As it was, we had plenty of adventure.

Up the Andes...Again?!?

Thank you for your love and prayers and comments,
Will and Trev

The Road Warriors Have Arrived!

Trevor and I decided to push ourselves hard from Villarrica and bike along the main north-south highway through Chile in an effort to reach Santiago (some 780km away) as quickly as possible. Here we are! Yesterday afternoon, while still some 340km outside of Santiago, we decided to try to hitch a ride the rest of the way into town. You see, we had a slight head-wind, the weather was crummy, and well...we were tired. We also wanted to spend more time on the other side of the Andes.
It all worked out, and we actually hopped a bus arriving last night. After dinner, we went walking and came across an authentic Chinese restaurant. The family working the restaurant came over to Chile from China six years ago. Trev and I decided to get some takeout for an after-dinner-snack (being the eating machines we are), and walked back to our hostel happy as can be.
Sadly, the food was horrible. I say it was worse than China Express. Trev isn´t quite sure. China Express has better sauce, but this food had real chicken (yes, it was dry). Of course, we ate all the food. We were just dissapointed as we´d been hoping it would be so good that we would want to return for breakfast. I bought a box of cereal instead.
Today, we´ll be getting together with our friend Marina, the British gal we met in our hostel in Ushuaia, and then it´s off to the Andes!

Here are a few photos, too (though I can´t use my normal photo editing software :( )


Bicycling through beautiful pastureland by some gorgeous trees that are almost completely obscured by my head.


Fall has returned! As we bicycled down the west coast at the beginning of our journey, the leaves were changing and showering down around us. Though we´ve had some especially cold days, we never really had a winter. Now that fall is back, it´s special and reminds us of home.


Goodnight, sun.


We´d better find a place to camp soon...


School children in Los Angeles preparing for a parade and enjoying the gringos (us).

Love!
Will and Trev

To Villarrica and Beyond!

Hello dear friends and family,
Trevor, Felipe, and I have arrived in Villarrica, Chile, and are enjoying a couple days of rest. Well, we kind of rested yesterday. We tried to summit the Volcano Villarrica but were stopped by unfavorable conditions. Here are some photos!

Villarrica

From here, we´ve decided to try and push it back to Tucuman, well, to see how far we can get on bicycles and still arrive before May 7th (Trev´s birthday!). It´s about 3,000km (very rough estimate) and I don´t expect us to be able to make it on bikes, but we´ll see :).

We will probably be parting ways with Felipe tomorrow when we head north, so tonight we plan to do some loving on him. Other than that, we´re doing well. I´m in the midst of the too-much-time-on-the-computer haze, and while I´m sure there´s quite a lot I´ve wanted to write here, I can´t think of it at the moment.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos. And may we honor, respect, and worship God.

Love,
Will and Trev

Some Forgotten Photos

I uploaded these photos some time ago, but never shared them. So...here they are. The last of our photos from the Careterra Austral in Chile.

The Last of the Careterra Austral

Enjoy!
Will and Trev

San Martin de Los Andes

Hello Friends,
We have arrived in San Martin de Los Andes, a couple hundred kilometers north of Bariloche, and while the rain has left us alone, it´s been powerful cold. Last night Trevor slept wearing almost every article of clothing that he has...and he was cold. Our waterbottles were frozen solid this morning and there was a thick crust of frozen condensation both inside and outside the tent. Daytime temperatures are wonderful and our riding has been beautiful. "Grrrr," says my stomach, I am hungry!!!
Sorry.
We spent several days in Bariloche. It´s a beautiful place, which was great. More importantly, however (for there are many beautiful places in our journey), is that we got to stay in a ridiculously nice house. Felipe, our Mexican friend, has a friend whose relative has an amazing house in Llao Llao, a beautiful area about 20km outside of Bariloche. We enjoyed three nights there relaxing, taking in views, and enjoying their wonderful kitchen. It was such ridiculous and unexpected luxury.
Here are some photos of our journey!

Esquel to San Martin de Los Andes

Love!
Will and Trev

Maps and Weather

Trevor and I are in San Carlos de Bariloche now, the jewel of Argentine Patagonia. Felipe, our Mexican cycling companion, was checking the weather, and well, I thought I'd share the map with you all.



You see, I have wanted to put a map up here for a long time, something on which people could watch our progress in some way. Unfortunately, this map lacks in detail. You might even say, "William, I don't even see Bariloche on this map. What good is it?" And, well, you´d be right if it weren´t for one simple fact. Bariloche is located precisely under the only rain-cloud on the map.

Yup folks, We have managed to plant ourselves in the only rainy place in Argentina.

Soggily yours,
Will and Trev

Freezing our Tushies Off

Sometimes the great difficulties of life hit when I wouldn´t expect them. At least, that´s what I think the last day of biking was teaching me. Trevor and I have ridden through windy, empty, un-known southern Argentina and Chile, and well, it´s been manageable. It´s not really as deserted as some made out, and the 100kph winds never joined forces with the hail. All in all, it seemed quite doable.
That is, of course, until we left Esquel yesterday, headed for El Bolson. The morning was brisk and damp, it had rained a bit during the night and couldn´t seem to decide if it was done or not, but it was nothing that would keep us from a day of cycling.
Twenty-five kilometers into the day we were having a grand time of it. The rain never completely stopped, but the pavement was welcome, traffic was light, and the sun would be ever so slightly brigher through the clouds every now and again, giving us hope of clearing. We even asked God to help us make it to El Bolson that day, about 160km from where we began.
Fourty kilometers into our riding, it was a different story entirely. We had climbed a lot and were riding on some high-plateaus where the air was a bit colder than it had been in the morning, and the rain steadied up a bit, thoroughly soaking us. Intrepid youths that we are, we bicycled harder to keep warm. That strategy worked...for a while. Our hands were never warm, but slowly they stopped hurting (in a numb sort of way). Our legs and ankles became stump like, but we pedaled on. The up-hills felt a little like merciful relief from the cold of the swiftly passing air, but what goes up must come down.
At the top of one rise Trevor suggested we pause to warm our hands. This would help in case braking were to become necessary in the descent. Unfortunately, as good an idea as that may seem, it´s really a bad one. There was no hope of warming our hands, and stopping only cooled the rest of us down. I don´t know that we could have pressed on much longer, but we gazed off into the valley that stretched before us for some sign of warmth and civilization (we hadn´t passed any in the previous hour). Seeing nothing, we began to talk plan B.

Will: "Hey Trev, does your thumb still work?"
Trev: "Yeah, if I use my other hand to pull it up."
Will: "Sweet. I´ll do my best to look pitiful"

You must understand that all this was said in mumbles, for we could not precisely control any muscles of the face, and looking pitiful did not proove difficult. The first truck to pass us stopped and gave us a lift all the way into El Bolson.
I´m really not sure what we would have done if not for passing traffic. We might have been able to cycle another 20km, but we would´ve been really weak at that point. Setting up the tent and getting into our sleeping bags is another possibility, but who knows how many days that weather was going to last.

So...there. I´m feeling better!!!! Oh, it´s such a joyous thing. For several days I was not able to eat very much without considerable stomach discomfort. I noticed that I was getting slightly weaker as time went on, and well...it was disconcerting. But, the last few days I´ve been improving, and I feel positively normal today! I ate a ton last night and had plenty to show for it this morning.

Anyway, from here we´re heading to San Carlos de Bariloche with Felipe. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement.

Love,
Will and Trev

A Few Photos from Futalefu

Trev and I did get to go rafting today, and it was fantastic. We traveled 9km of the river getting to run through two class 5 rapids, and a ton of class 4 and 3. Our guide suggested we use Paypal to pay, and it worked flawlessly (I think).
Here are some photos of our day (none of them capture the size or awesomeness of it, but they're better than nothing, eh?


That's our rafting crew. You can probably guess which one's the guide. Trev and I are the crazy looking gringos, and the gringa's a French gal named Cecile. We only had half a raft-load, but hey, they have minimums for some reason, and besides, when the raft is lighter it catches more air.






(We just emerged from the "Casa de Piedra")



The most difficult rapid we went through is called "Casa de Piedra" or "House of Rock" because it's got only narrow passageways amongst some really big rocks and there's a lot of water there dropping fast. We had a great time. Our guide ran through the different calls for who was supposed to paddle and how (i.e. forward, back, right back, left back) which isn't too complicated, but snappy reaction is really desired in difficult rapids, and our team came through with big, wet smiles.

The image most clear in my mind is actually of a rapid we didn't ride a whole lot of. It's a series of waves that build from small to massive, I think there are seven in all. The last one is virtually guaranteed to flip the raft and send all into the drink (which didn't seem a horrible idea to Trevor and myself, but then again, we're not rafting guides). We went by it within a couple of feet on the left hand side, and the sight of those river waves was impressive! Trevor looked so small right up next to it.

Last photo for now actually comes from yesterday at the town BBQ.

It's of Trevor eagerly waiting with hands in pockets (to make self-control easier).

Love!

Will and Trev

Argentina, here we come!

Trevor and I have arrived in Futalefu, the last town before we return to Argentina, a mere 10km from the border. From Coyhaique the road´s been good, tough, rough, and both Trev and I had days during which sickness plagued. Mine was a little worse and involved some very orange vomit, but there wasn´t anything truly disturbing about it. The only really disturbing things are large and some colorful signs that we see occasionally on buildings. These signs picture a somewhat cute looking mouse with huge words of warning about some hantavirus somethingerother. I have accidently left bags of crackers exposed, and twice they were nibbled on. I didn´t smell any hantavirus (though I wasn´t on the lookout), so we ate them. I certainly don´t mean to alarm anyone, and I am not the least bit concerned about having contracted the virus, but perhaps I should be?
Anyway, This day, Trevor and I got to participate in celebrating the 79th anniversary of the founding of Futalefu, and there was a municipal BBQ with music and folkloric dancing and a military parade and a marching band. The town is small, but they celebrated well.
Tomorrow we hope to raft on the famous Rio Futalefu, but payment is an issue as we can´t cover it in cash, and we can´t use the only bank that´s in this town. We shall see. Anyone feeling prompted to offer up prayers for rafting, please do so.
Updates should come a little more frequently on the Argentine side of things, but you never know when you´re going to roll into a town during an internet outage day :).

With love, missings, achings, and longings for home, and joy about where we are and what we´re doing,
Will and Trev (or as one friend put it Guille and Clover)