The End Is The Beginning; 1

It all started at 4am when we hopped a crowded bus with Hermana Elisa, 4 boiled eggs and two reeses in our winter hiking boots.

It was OVER 100 degrees but we had to wear our boots to save room in our luggage! Hermana Elisa got off on the bus to go to work at the Women’s Jail in the city as we continued on our sweaty way to the airport- heading out to southern Patagonia. We packed pasta and beans with us to save money; our beans were totally taken in the airport which bummed me out bc I love myself some beans! Anyways, we had a connection flight in Santiago, Chile which is where we met our 1^st character, Doug. As we sat in the airport in Chile waiting for our connecting flight smiling from ear to ear in the luxurious air conditioning in the airport, we saw an American looking kid who looked a bit lost/having trouble with the language barrier. He heard us speaking English and well befriended us. He invited us to hangout in Santiago, Chile- go get a bite to eat. Afterall, we had a 6-7 hour layover. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t want anything to do with him because I felt he might be a creeper. Krystina, on the contrary, was team Dougie. After deciding to give the kid the benefit of the doubt and that we could totally take him- 2 v. 1- if need be (NY and Jersey girl combo..deezangerous!), we decided to explore Santiago during our layover with Dougie-teach me how to Dougie. Hmm, where do I start with that little adventure. Lamas, Barrio Bellavista (Bohemian town with loads of sweet handcrafted artwork, artisan stands, parks, and more).

Before I get into Bellavista, I would like to sidenote another great character in our trip-Pablo, our taxi driver. On our way to town with rando-Dougie, our taxi driver, Pablo, pulls over the side of a main highway and jumps out of the van, leaving it running. We are in a running van on the side of a main highway as our taxi driver just ditched his own taxi. We sat there confused as ever-not wanting to get out of the van due to the fact that we were on a major highway and cars were zooming by. There we stared at Pablo who was 50 ft away from us pretty much dodging cars looking down the highway. Obviously, I found this hilarious. 15 minutes later, we see another taxi driver swerve from the highway bumpin’ right up behind us. Pablo hands him money then hops back in our taxi van and peels away. We are like Pablo, whats going on? What the heck was that about? He’s like my friend needs to drive this family out of the country and needed to borrow money for exit fee. Kinda sketchy but more funny. Pablo had a kind energy about him- so we all still felt safe with Pabby, in a weird kind of way. We ended up spending some time with one of the artisans-who eventually invited us over for dinner in which we probably would have went, but couldn’t because we had to catch our connecting flight.

He was so nice and enthusiastic about his paintings (which Doug ended up buying). He talked really close to your face, which obviously I find as an awkward hilarious trip bonus.

We hung out with a Lama and visited Parque Forestal which turned out to be “lover’s park.” EVERY single person, LITERALLY, every person- there was making out with someone on the grass. We didn’t know this at first but even when we figured it out, we still continued to walk through the park like the biggest creeps aside all these making-out couples. We clearly stood out. We found quite the immature humor in the awkwardness, yet again. After the park and a delicious lunch Dougie treated us to, we were off to our the beginning of our trip to “the end of the world.” Oh ya, I should sidenote- that Pablo, taxi man- after he dropped us off in Santiago, he goes do you want me to pick you guys up later to bring you back to the airport? We are like uh, sure thinking yaa righttt, he’s not gonna drive all the way back for us? What if he drives back and we are a no show? He doesn’t trust us. (Having only NYC taxi experience, we laugh that he even asked us that) Well, Pablo does not disappoint. We were supposed to meet him at 5pm in the same spot he dropped us off. Our lunch went late and we took our time, all thinking there is no way Pablo came all the way back for us. Well, as walking out of the place we ate, we see Pablo waving his hands. He not only came back for us. But he parked his van taxi and walked Bellavista until he found us. We all walked back to his taxi together. Pablo-such a loyal side-character, and we didn’t even get to our first destination yet!  What a fabulous creepy start to this adventure! Cost of Day= PRICELESS (literally, thanks dougie teach me how to dougie!)

2am-land in Punta Arenas. Now what? All we had planned was well-we wanted to backpack southern argentina/chile. All we had were plane tickets-to and from- Puntas Arenas, Chile-that’s about it. We had our hiking boots, our backpacks of clothes, some reeses, a map, and well-eachother.

There we sat in the airport-we made it to the end of the world- now what? Let’s pick the most north place we want to go-head there, then work our way down-suppose that makes sense. The buses don’t run until 8:30am. Backpacking Patagonia on a budget means being creative. Let’s sleep for free in the airport-well, lets play first, then sleep, then we will (hopefully) catch a bus in the morning.

Okay so we are off. There are so many details about this trip; ill talk about some of them.

New Years Eve

1.     Airport play/taking turns sleeping in the airport/people so disturbed by us head deep in the airport sinks drinking water from the faucet.

2.     Seeing water- the Atlantic Ocean! Paraguay is a land-locked country. Being land-locked + the summer heat= tough. Seeing the ocean for the first time was seriously the biggest breath of fresh air! Ahhhhh! Love the ocean! Also, love the first feeling of FRESH COLD BREEZE! Escaping the heat! Chyeaa!

3.     Finding a RANDOM bus sitting on the side of the road and asking it if its heading toward Argentina. The driver says yes so we hop on, thinking hey- lets hope this works! Always an adventure. 5 hours into the ride we wake up to see that we are on a boat and the bus driver is missing. We are dying laughing! Are we kidding?? Just chillen on this bus on this boat in the middle of the Magallanes Straight! Overwhelmed with the freedom that the infinite ocean brings to us while hysterically laughing with our fingers crossed, hoping we are going in the right direction on this random bus on this random boat in the midst of infinite body of water. I cant.

4.     Meeting a bunch of crazy hooligan backpackers. Always so many characters.

5.     Our food in the first 24 hours= 2 fiber one brownies thanks to monetti’s mom as well as complimentary coconut cookies and coffee on the bus.

6.     Hills! Lots and lots of beautiful hilly landscape! Guanacos (Chilean lama).SO MANY GUANACOS! SHEEP. HORSES. COWS. SO Many. Dirt roads after dirt roads after dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. Cattle crossing/sheep crossing. Never gets old. So beautiful. So free. So EVERYTHING in nothingness.

7.     Lady behind us had some spicy smelling farts.

8.     Snowcapped mountains! Christmas in 107 degrees just wasn’t the same. We were pretty much in tears just being surrounded by the majestic snow-capped mountains! Literally felt like I was INSIDE my favorite magazine, National Geographics. INSANE.

9.     Finding a small creepy 7 passanger van that will drive us to our first destination- Ushuaia, “the end of the world.”

10 FREESTYLE Hostel.

 Of course we find the hostel that is throwing the big NYE party that night.

DELICIOUS food! Music! Backpackers and travelers from all over.

From Argentina to Chile to Austrailia to Austria to Holland to Brasil to Italy to South Africa to Germany to Iceland to Canada to you name it…the list goes on and on and on. Nothing like a multicultural/multilingual NYE dinner table (including many vegetarian options J) and dance party!

11. Become besties with a group of Brasilians, Argentinians, and South Americans, and a sidecharacter lady from England. SO many characters in just the first night!!

12. Monetti dancing with a man’s bow tie.

Music Music Dancing Dancing! 24 hour light outside (bc its summertime at the tip of the world)!! Let’s just say it was a fabulous way to bring in the New Year! The end of the world was the beginning of our adventure…