What traditional foods have you fallen in love with during your travels?
Throughout our travels in Patagonia, we came across many restaurants with this common sight: entire lamb carcasses splayed in triplicate over slow-burning coals. This is called cordero al palo, and it is a very specific type of barbecue favored in the southern regions of both Chile and Argentina.
Continue reading “A Glimpse of Cordero al Palo”
Have you ever found a secret or lesser-known hike?
Following our major 11- to 14-mile (depending on which device you believe) hike the previous day, we wanted to go easy on our poor sore legs. Therefore, we opted for another quick hike within Torres Del Paine National Park, one that would take us 1.5hrs each way out and back, culminating in some ancient rock paintings. Continue reading “A Glimpse of the Fauna Trail”
We’re all stuck at home now, so we can’t quite travel like we want to. So instead, we’re taking a world trip from our kitchen! We love food, and we eat far too much of it while we travel. We were able to hit at least 20 countries before we were forced to come home, but our tastebuds fell in love with many new culinary delights along the way. We’re working through replicating some of these recipes at home, and we invite you to do the same. Let’s take a gastronomical trip around the globe!
Continue reading “A Culinary World Tour – 17 International Recipes”
What’s a place you were looking forward to for a long time before you finally visited?
The Torres Del Paine spires are arguably what originally drew us to the stunningly beautiful Patagonia region. When searching for pictures of this place, chances are one of the first images you’ll see is similar to the first one here: a turquoise blue pool in front of thick fingers jutting into the sky.
Continue reading “A Glimpse of the Mirador Torres Del Paine”
Are you a fair-weather hiker, or will you even go out in the rain?
For our second day in Torres Del Paine National Park, we were still breaking in our legs in preparation for the big hike we were there for. The rain only helped in our decision to do another warmup hike rather than tackle the park’s namesake trek.
What animals have you met during your travels?
When we first went to Torres Del Paine National Park, we were told guanaco sightings were rare. I have no idea where we read that, but they were dead wrong; we saw them everywhere!
What is the most beautiful place you’ve been in the world?
Our first day in the renowned Patagonia did not disappoint! With sapphire blue skies and joyful puffy white clouds, we couldn’t have been happier! Torres Del Paine National Park had on its finest and it certainly impressed.
Knowing we had a pretty grueling hike in store to reach the famed Mirador Torres viewpoint, we decided to break our legs in on a much more gentle hike on our first day.
The Sendero Mirador Cuernos hike was just what we were looking for: a couple-hour in-and-out hike to view the backside of the Torres towering over one of the park’s many glacial lakes.
Golden fields punctuated by twisted black trees lined the pools of turquoise. We felt so alive to just be outside in this stunning show of nature. It was windy, and the sky threatened periodic showers, but we didn’t mind.
The trail had everything we wanted, including the massive Salto Grande waterfall spraying water well above the cliff edge. And as we rounded a bend, we stumbled upon a herd of guanaco! Looking like llamas with kangaroo-like heads, we were delighted to just observe these docile creatures for a time.
When we finally reached the viewpoint, we continued along the hill to get out of sight of the spot where all the other groups would no doubt picnic. Instead, we found a quiet rock to have all to ourselves and ate our lunch in perfect silence, admiring the dark spires before us.
Our day wasn’t through with just Sendero Mirador Cuernos… we also made a point to bushwhack our way down to a river on the east end of the park and overall get our bearings to scope out the rest of our time in the park. After all, we paid for the unlimited (more than three days) park entrance, so we had lots of time to play!
A small flock of rhea bid us farewell as we departed for the day. What a great start!
Don’t miss out on new content!
Follow our blog for new snippets every day and full posts and videos every week.
Do you often take pictures from your plane window seat?
I’m an incurable photographer, so I always have some sort of camera at the ready. And it was a really good thing on our flight through Chile down to Patagonia!
We were blessed with completely clear skies on that day, so the farther south we flew, the more stunning the landscape below us grew!
We passed snow-capped mountains and teal-blue glacial lakes. But the real treat was the glaciers!
The first one was impressive, but then we saw Viedma. It actually looked like a river of snow from above! I’ve never seen anything like it!
But the real treat was flying over Torres Del Paine National Park. I’m a bit surprised the plane didn’t list to the side when all passengers swarmed to the left side, vying for a glimpse of the scenery below.
I was thankfully already in the window seat, so I could snap a few coveted pictures of the famed Torres from above before pressing myself back into my seat to let others look out.
We later hiked to those spires, but from above, they looked so small and unimposing!
Don’t miss out on new content!
Follow our blog for new snippets every day and full posts and videos every week.
Where have you found the coolest repurposed spaces?
Atop Cerro Carcel, a hill in Valparaiso, sits a beautiful park. However, this place used to be a prison. The white building no longer houses prisoners, and the old yard has been transformed into a walkable garden.
Inside, the cells have been removed to make room for practice rooms and a ropes gym. The open layout serves as a culture center. When we visited, a dance team was rehearsing their routine in the foyer while a musician tuned his guitar in one of the rooms above. We could also peek into the gym, where a coach was teaching aerial silk and hoop techniques.
Across the open lawn, there also sits a much newer building, wherein we discovered a free art gallery. This featured a small mural contest outside and works by Loro Coiron inside. He carves his artwork into giant sheets of linoleum and then uses these as a sort of stamp to “print” the final works. It’s a very distinctive style with more of a white-on-black look.
I particularly like that he “animates” some of his characters within a single piece by duplicating them in various poses. With this, we could watch birds fly across the sky or a little girl follow a stray cat through the market.
I also like that he seems to share in our affinity for cats; we could find one in almost every work. And I really love the banner of a cat falling, landing on its feet, and then running away.
How cool is that!
Don’t miss out on new content!
Follow our blog for new snippets every day and full posts and videos every week.
After spending time in Patagonia seeing glaciers and beautiful mountainous peaks, we headed to Ushuaia. In our time there, we had to check to see if there were any last-minute deals on cruises to Antarctica, and managed to find one. It was a dream come true, as we have always wanted to visit the seventh continent. Our boat was booked and all we had to do is wait about a week, rent some gear, and go. As coronavirus became more widespread, we started worrying things might get canceled, but continued to be hopeful and optimistic. Then things changed dramatically, and our entire world trip was canceled. We had to go home.
