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Climbing after 4pm

Tuesday, February 17, 2009.Alisa and I head out after her work, with a dufflebackpack full of climbing goodies - rather, climbing necessities - and head out to catch the 20 Bus out to KM19.5 to go climbing at the walls near the lake, El Treból. The views at the top of each climb, especially at Pared Blanca (the White Wall cragline), are a nice reward for the pump you receive for these slightly overhanging testpieces for the grades! We climb a few routes, two of which I am in love with and hope to climb 100 times each, making them a warmup! Here's a welcome and parting shot in one for our after-work climbing day: Alisa rappels down the gorgeous 6a+ with Pared Blanca in the foreground, the closing sky and Cerro Lopez in the background.

Visits, Visas, and Various Other Things!

It is now 3:00pm on Monday, February 16th, 2009.
Pat, Alisa's mom, has graced us with her presence and filled our lives with some tempting travels! During her visit to Argentina, Pat brought us to Chile, too!
We saw many towns yet unseen. While it was my second visit to El Bolsón, I hadn't before gotten a haircut there! Meanwhile, we visited Osorno, Valdivia, Villarrica,
and Pucón in Chile, thanks to the excuse that we needed to renew our Visas for Argentina.
It must also be mentioned that we visited new towns in Argentina as well, namely, Junín de los Andes, and San Martín de los Andes. We ate watermelons,
Chilean completos,
and homemade yogurt. Thanks to Pat, we got to see a lot (including this man and wires everywhere in Valdivia, Chile)
and I was able to practice my stickshift skills!

Thanks for a great visit, Pat!

In other news, today I posted flyers at many hostels and equipment shops in town offering my Porter and Guide services to aid in receiving some income whilst hourly-job-hunting.

Furthermore, I am considering enrolling in a 2-day running race that will cover many trails that I am familiar with. The first day would be the "3-day" loop connecting refugios Frey and San Martín; I have written about this loop already on this blog. The second day would be another loop of comparable difficulty connecting two other nearby refugios (Italia and Lopez). My enrollment will weigh the entry costs, winning likelihood, and prizes offered, if any.

Two friends from our travels in Ecuador are finally touching down in Bariloche, starting on the 19th of February (3 days from now). We are excited to host Becky and Olivier! Beyond that, Darrell "Hammer" Hoy and Kevin "Smashing Keviniel" Wilcox are looking to visit in late March, April, assumedly this year! Can't wait (to see them and to see how two 6'5" guys fit on our futon - haha)!

More to come (including pictures) from this jobhungry landescaper, n8

Update

It is now Sunday, February 1st, 2009.
I am getting over being sick. My job occurs once a week, forcing me to look for more work.

One piece of good news is that the last time I had to porter to the refugio, I made it up in 2h40, a new record for me that found praise from the workers there, some of whom care to learn some Chinese!

Like always, I took some pictures on the way up

and on the way down.

The other good news is that we just had Ben Kunz and Lindsey Saunders visit us from Seattle on their 15-month trip around the world. They are two wildly bubbly climbers! Visit their travelpod blog at the following address: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/benandlindsey/1/tpod.html Thanks to them we got more climbing in than usual!

Featured in this blog entry are pictures of climbing at Cerro Ventana, Bariloche and resting atop Cerro Campanario.

Now! Looking forward to Pat's visit, cooking dinner, finding a job and freetime with Alisa!