Day 5: Mexico City

Happy 4th of July everyone who will be reading this sometime after the holiday.

We started in the gym with Jill on an elliptical machine. I biked for 10 minutes to warm up. I did our homework WOD that is supposed to be with a kettlebell but they only have dumbbells so used that which was awkward. Jill did the WOD after me and we got breakfast.

We all met up and walked into Chapultepec park for the scenery and then over to the Anthropology Museum.

This was a worthwhile museum to spend a couple of hours wandering around. Lots of well preserved artifacts from different eras and presentation of temples and tombs and art and society and traditions. I saw Jill a few times as we meandered separately around. At one point she told me to go get a picture of "the big wooden thing". The specifics beyond that became it's at the top of the stairs/escalator. When I saw it, it reminded me of Fazzino which Jill's family has many his works. I texted her that I got picture of the pre Fazzino. 3D art from way before this last century.

Too many photos to post here, but a small selection at the end of this post. For those that want even more, you can browse all photos on Dropbox.

Next up was a walk back over to Pujol again but now for a lunch taco omakase. Someone else's take on this from last September saves me some presentation and typing time. Notable differences now include it being 10 courses and they have you choose the pairing. Mezcal, wine/sake, beer, or mocktails.

I was asked about my food preferences since they had a list. At the end he asked if insects are ok and I said sure. Yes, ants were involved. Ant larvae to be specific which one server or bartender referred to as Mexican caviar.

The 10 courses were great and they substituted shellfish well. The mole at course #9 was great like Tuesday (and 2 days older!). The accompanying Mezcal tasting all afternoon was spectacular. All 4 of us agreed that the taco omakase was the one to do if you couldn't do both this and the regular dinner menu we did on Tuesday night.

While sitting at the bar, we got to interact with an Australian bartender who gave us some great pure agave syrup that was amazing. Plus more than one staff member recognized us from Tues and warmly welcomed us back. Jason and I both agreed that the two best Mezcals of the 6 we were served were Mezcal Real Minero (Largo) which was just solid daily goodness and Mayalen which was peppery for particular occasions.

We also learned that as the shift ends at 2am, the pastry staff start showing up for the next day. And the prep crew shows between 6 and 7am as the fresh food deliveries arrive to get the next full day of meat and vegetables going. 24 hour full operation!

We got out just before 4pm and got an Uber to the Frida Kahlo Museum. This was an interesting view on her life and what she endured while also persevering and creating some legacy. I don't watch many movies so I have not seen Frida.

We got back to the hotel 2 hours before dinner to relax just a little bit. Could have used 3 hours. Off to Sartoria to complete our very international 4th of July by going Italian for a great meal. It was very nice to take a short break from Mexican cuisine after almost 5 full days of it. We were all too full and tired to take on dessert. I know this may shock some readers.

Day 3: Mexico City

Got up to work out. Hot and humid in the gym but we did the work - 18 minutes of burpees, DB snatches, and sit ups.

Got some breakfast food and showered then met Jason and Rebecca to head over to the historical center to walk around.

We started in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.  We then zigzagged all over the historical area including the Postal Palace until back in the huge square known as Zócolo with the cathedrals and Palacio Nacional. It was cleared of all the concert setup we saw on Sunday and was magnificent without the clutter.

We entered Catedral Metropolitana which was beautiful. We then wandered even more streets getting into the very busy section of small businesses in every spot plus spilling onto the streets.

We started wandering back toward our lunch location and Jason spotted churros. That reminded him that we had seen an Eater Mexico City entry on churros so we mapped it at .8 miles away and went to El Moro. A great churros y chocolate appetizer before walking to lunch at La Opera with a TV tuned to WWC semi final game between USA and England.

We got some food and sat for 3+ hours resting from the morning walk and watching the game. It seemed better played by USA than last game but still intense, stressful to watch and full of fouls. But they won and play the final on Sunday.

We rested for about 90 minutes at the hotel before heading to Pujol. This was our highly anticipated dinner excursion. 3 out of 4 of us had the vegetarian maiz (corn) tasting menu and the other had the mar (sea) tasting menu. Everything was delicious and we are going back on Thursday for lunch taco tasting menu. It should be amazing too.

Day 0 & 1: Seattle —> Mexico City, Mexico

Most of our trips begin with an early flight based on our preference for being first flight of the day when possible. The European ones are closer to dinner time but they serve you a full meal and then everyone “tries” to sleep.

This one involved eating a regular dinner at home and then going to the airport for a 10:30pm flight. This is day 0. We walked over the the gate just before boarding time and they were announcing our names to come up and validate our passports. We had checked in online so nobody at SeaTac had scanned them up to this point. They may have been announcing a call to us for the past 30 minutes.

We stood around as the boarding was delayed by a ton of underage children traveling by themselves that had to be dealt with first. They finally went down to the plane and they took people needing assistance. We were in first class so we went next and the children were all being taken one at a time to their seat so not off to the fastest start. We finally got in and sat down and remarkably the plane detached from the boarding area around 10:30 which was amazing.

I don’t sleep well, if at all, on airplanes. Jill will tell you I can sleep on command just about any other time. She had some ZZZquil pills and I asked for some. It might have helped. The flight in the air was in the 5 hour range and there was some decent turbulence at many points along the way. I’m guessing I snoozed in small few minute doses waking up often as we moved into day 1.

We got off the plane around 6am which was the schedule. We were handed immigration forms walking off and had to fill them out among the masses before getting in line to go through customs/immigration. It would have been nice to get these in the last 30 minutes of the flight and been able to just walk into the line.

The non-Mexican line was insane but we worked our way into the roped area because before that it was just chaos. After a couple minutes barely moving, they randomly opened the ropes about 5 curves ahead and directed the line to start moving over the the Mexican immigration line. We moved up and into the people being sent over and they cut it off about 5 people behind us. This line moved way faster and we probably cut 20-30 minutes off entry time being over there.

Our driver was outside the customs area and quickly got us to the hotel. We unpacked most items and set an alarm for just under 2 hours later. I don’t think it took me long to fall asleep on command outside of an airplane. That was a great chance to try to reset to a time zone 2 hours ahead but not really losing the day and really messing up sleep at the end of day 1 as well.

We had a light breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the park (Bosque de Chapultepec) right next to the hotel to walk around. We were unable to withdraw cash from the ATM inside our hotel and we should have gotten some at the bank right next to it before walking around. We decided to walk up to the castle but there was a pat down / bag check area along with lockers but we didn’t have any local currency to get a locker. We were close enough to the hotel that we went back and got cash and ditched the bag for the morning.

We walked up to the Castillo de Chapultepec and were forced to drink the water in hand as they don’t appear to allow water inside a lot of places that you pay to get into. It was a beautiful place with some amazing art on the walls along with some museum-like collectibles on display and great views of the densely treed park around us an the tall city buildings beyond. You can see straight down Paseo de la Reforma from there which goes by our hotel. On Sundays, they close it to traffic until 2pm and people walk and bike it without the distraction of vehicles. It’s similar to Bogotá.

We walked back down the hill from the castle and grabbed the backpack before heading to lunch. It was a quick 15 minute walk to Contramar, which is a heavy seafood restaurant with hardly anything that didn’t include things from the sea. I used to tell people “I don’t eat my own kind” meaning creatures that love/live to swim (not a fishy fish eater whatsoever). I guess after Operation Cincuenta in Dec and now day 1 here I have to retire that statement. I ate 3 seafood dishes. Ceviche Contramar, a tuna tostada with avocado, and some taco like mahi-mahi. All very fresh and delicious.

We then walked from lunch to the Centro Historico area which has some pretty beautiful buildings and lots of activity during the day. We will be going here again on Tues with Rebecca and Jason so we looked around a little for pre-planning and went to the Museo. This shows the history of this temple that was built and then added 7 layers on top of getting bigger and bigger as it went. We had walked around a lot today in the sun without sunscreen and this museum also made me chug my water. So I was starting to feel the dehydration and sun on my neck. I told Jill I’d just sit inside the indoor portion while she walked around more. We ended up leaving and just getting back to the hotel to hydrate, plan day 2, clean up a bit, and get ready for dinner.

We ate at the hotel but they didn’t have the lamb tacos tonight which was a bummer. They did have something that Jill noticed - duck with mole and other goodness. That’s what I got and it was delicious. While we were looking at the menu, we decided that we tend to try to go with local wines and they had some from Mexico. We aren’t sure this will happen all week, but I confirmed we should do it if something seems interesting. Then Jill texted our friend, Erik Segelbaum, to ask about wines from Mexico and he wrote back quickly with 2 of 3 producers that were on the very limited list! Erik has many talents, with one of them being how to master beverage programs at restaurants as well as how to get a label into a top beverage program.

I ordered a really good margarita so Jill got a glass of the only Mexican wine by the glass. It was a cab from the oldest producer in the Western Hemisphere (thanks Erik) and then we just ordered a bottle for dinner. Believe it or not, it was good AND it was the cheapest red wine on the menu. I encourage readers to find out where in Mexico wine grapes are grown.

As we walked out of the restaurant past the fountain back into the hotel, I was staring at the pastry/coffee area. I had spoken with the guy working there earlier about opening time. 6am. Perfect! So after dinner he waves as he sees me and I loudly “woo-hoo” this occasion which raises a smile.

And with that we are closing the first very full day in Mexico for the both of us.

Day 22: Calanoa --> Leticia --> Bogota, Colombia

Plans change sometimes and flexibility is important.

It was muggier and warmer overnight than the previous night if that is even possible. At some point, probably 3-4am, I saw lightning across river taking a good 10+ seconds to hear thunder. It was dumping rain. It felt cooler and I rolled over back to sleep. I didn't know until we got up around 6:30 that the warmth/humidity was causing a lack of sleep for Jill. She mentioned that she wanted to see if we could get back to Bogotá a day early. I said ok but also felt very glad that she booked the Amazon. She likes to enhance travel itineraries. Galapagos was the base. Amazon was the spice.

I am glad we hiked 11k yesterday with two guides through the jungle. We saw some interesting stuff and sweated far more than any other hike of that distance and relatively slow pace with barely any elevation change. Just high heat and a humidity sweat box while walking through mud. But we've done that!

Calanoa staff and Ramiro our guide were super accommodating as they easily helped us get the flight a day early as well as a boat down the river to get to the airport. Ramiro came with us and since we left a little earlier than we would have the following day he said we'd hit one or two spots along the way with pink dolphins since we only saw the grey ones yesterday afternoon. After about 45 minutes we pulled into a calm area in shallow water and BINGO! Pink dolphins! They don't come out of the water as high as the greys so spotting and capturing on camera is more difficult. We hung there for 15 minutes and I took tons of photos that were late. But I got one that might show a bit despite dolphin being further away than desired.

We then finished journey to Leticia and went to the airport. Once there, Jill could communicate with the outside world again on her phone so we arranged extra night in Bogotá plus dinner.

Seated next to me on flight was Brazilian dude in green and yellow shirt who appeared to have purchased a scarf with Colombia colors and wording. He literally took dozens of selfies in this dual outfit before takeoff as well as halfway through the flight. He just kept adjusting something like the scarf or the window lighting or the phone angle. Then he threw on his jacket and did it even more. A lot more. Somewhat entertaining.

As we appoached Bogota airport, the plane suddenly turned up engines and aborted landing. They said something in Spanish and then another sparse announcement in English. Several minutes later they indicated that we were flying 30 minutes to Cali rather than circling for another landing.

We finally got explanation that there was something preventing landing so we were landing nearby and refueling and waiting to hear when we can fly safely to and land in Bogota. Once on the ground, we could look things up and found no issues on Twitter or Google. FlightAware was showing flights landing in Bogota. Not making any sense. THEN we got story from flight attendant in first class. There was a dog on the runway and they couldn't get it off. Our flight was "low" on fuel so had to land somewhere rather than circle indefinitely. Dog probably was cleared after it was too late for us to just turn around and go back.

When we walked out of airport the car we had the W Hotel hire for us wasn't there. Unsure if the flight issue caused this but after being unable to contact hotel we hired a taxi. They were quoting strange amounts and switching between pesos and dollars. We finally settled on 35,000 pesos which is just over $10.

We minimally unpacked and got our big bags we left there a week prior and Jill showered. We then went to a good dinner at El Chato and then back for some COOL AIR sleep (and I showered). Crazier day than expected...

Day 20: Armenia --> Leticia (and beyond), Colombia

Going to the jungle day...

Early wake up before 6am to get to airport in Armenia so we could fly to Bogota for quick layover before flying to Leticia in the Amazonas of Colombia. The staff at Hacienda Bambusa really wanted to make us breakfast and pack juices and coffee for our early ride. We just asked multiple times for something simple like ham & cheese sandwiches. Those turned out perfect at the airport while waiting for the first flight.

We then boarded flight to Leticia. Looking down from 5-15k feet as we neared the town, all you can see are clouds, rainbows, and trees. The landscape in all directions is trees. I also saw some rivers that are tributaries to the big one. Welcome to the jungle.

Ramiro picked us up. We got quick tour of town heading to our speedboat that would soon take us 56k up the Amazon to where we planned to stay for 3 nights. It's about 1.5 hours upriver.

When we first got on the boat we were told the tiny island across the water is Isla de La Fantasia. You can walk over to island close to where we were at the end of dry season. They river has risen 7-8 meters so crossing on foot isn't possible until several months from now. We went about 600M down this side area in Leticia that move their houseboats/docks up and down by season - 15 meters low to high so that you can get on a boat to go up or down the Amazon. We were next to Brazilian town Tabatinga and also an island called Santa Rosa between Colombia, Brazil, Peru (it belongs to Peru). On other side of island the Amazon is wider than the mass we could see but we were officially on the Amazon. In this region you can move freely between the 3 countries for about 100 kilometers up or down the Amazon river.

Araza (Brazilian) fruit juice served as we got to check in at Calanoa and reviewed our planned tours. We had a huge dump of rain come down for 20 minutes. Luckily for us that didn't happen as we came up the river and sat in the dining hut that was covered.

We were shown our accommodations which is a nice hut named araza (fruit mentioned above) with screens everywhere plus a bed with netting entirely surrounding it. Downstairs under bedroom was a shower and toilet. Just one dial on the shower - cold. Refreshing...

We got situated and took some photos. We learned that the view across the Amazon from our hut in Colombia was 7k. We also learned the mouth down at the end can be about 35k across. We started watching Somm II on Jill's tablet and a new rainstorm came down with such loud drops and volume that we couldn't hear the video and just paused it for a while until the storm blew over.

We got part way through before heading to dinner. We were the only new arrivals today so we learned some things such as the bug nets work well, Deet does not play well with any plastics, and that you will get bites no matter what plus other tips.

Tarantula

It was raining during dinner but let up part way through. So our evening walk in the jungle was not skippable. We walked for just under an hour looking at various creatures that come out at night as well as listening to all of the sounds. It was an interesting start.

Day 18: Armenia, Salento, Cocora (Colombia)

Colombians eat/celebrate with family on Christmas Eve and open presents at midnight and often stay up all night drinking. Then they like to go out for lunch, dinner, movies etc to escape mess of a house on Christmas day. Many are also apparently severely hung over. So we started our full day a little early in an attempt to beat crowds by 11am and later.

While driving to Salento, we went by former house of Carlos Lehder Rivas and heard how he flew drugs over an island in the Caribbean then power boated it to Miami. And then when extradited to the US how he attempted to take down everyone including Pablo Escobar. And then the crazy stuff Escobar did to avoid extradition by offering to build his own prison to avoid being turned over to the United States.

We then learned about the Juan Valdez coffee character and how the first guy portraying a farmer from Colombia was neither a farmer nor a Colombian but rather a foreign actor.

We hired a Willys Jeep in Salento to take us to Cocora with our guide. Our Jeep was from 1954 and had the engine rebuilt once. The ones that have all original parts are worth over $30k because they are beloved.

Hike over 500 meters in altitude gain to Finca la Montaña ending at 2860M (9400ft) early enough in day to be ahead of the crowds and with some gorgeous weather with great view of Morogacho at the top across a valley. This view happens less than 5x per month. Then we hiked back down taking about 2.5 hours total for high altitude hike.

I told our guide, Guillermo, over lunch about eating ants and worms the other day in Bogota and he said he could not do that. I also told him about the Coloma coffee liqueur and he said that and one other one are good and he'd show me as we walked through town. So we went into a store while walking the main street toward Plaza Bolivar and he pointed it out. The proprietor offered a taste of another one that was sweeter but not as good in my mind. Then she offered Jill and I a small chocolate piece. Jill ate it to discover coffee bean inside and made the greatest face that had me and Guillermo laughing so hard.

During lunch our guide also told us about one of the great wonders of Colombia that nobody knows about that he wants to visit. It's the Caño Cristales - the river of five colors. It looks amazing but getting there isn't easy and only colorful part of the year (July-September). First you fly from Bogota to Villavicencio then another plane to La Macarena then a guide can potentially take you the rest of the way which might be multi-hour hike. But wow. Just read more about it.

We went to Jesus Martin coffee shop for coffee. This guy really started the good coffee revolution in Colombia for locals. The country was exporting basically everything and keeping the crap locally and he wanted Colombians to also enjoy the good stuff.

We had dinner with Kyra and her mom Adele who we spoke with this morning. I noticed last night that Kyra got up more than once to visit the chocolate table while we were still halfway through our meal. I was starting to think some chocolate needed to be saved for ME! So I told them this morning I was worried about the chocolate supply and found out that she lives in Gig Harbor (near Seattle). At the end of our meal just as we finished dessert, one of the candle torches by our table blew up and in slow motion I watched the fireball in the air flying toward Jill and I'm just thinking "don't land on Jill, don't land on Jill". It landed between her and the person at the table behind us. I was relieved there was no "stop, drop, roll" necessary. But we all got up and I moved us into the courtyard away from the other 5-8 candles. Staff even told us that this happens from time to time. Yikes!

Day 16: Bogota, Colombia

We met a private tour guide named Juan at hotel at 9am to show us around until lunch. As we drove to first destination on a Sunday, we saw so many folks on bicycles and learned the city shuts down many roads on Sundays and people love it. They've been doing it since the mid 70's.

We learned about the legend of El Dorado and the Spanish search for gold. They even heard about Lake Guatavita and attempted to drain it for gold.

We then reached Monserrate to visit the top. You can hike it and we would if we had more than a full day here but we want to see much more before lunch. So we took the funicular up for the great views and to look around the top then ride it back down.

We then headed over to La Candelaria to see the buildings on main square and the surrounding area including some sanctioned graffiti art. We went into Museo del Oro to learn just a portion of the history that gold has played in this area.

We then went to have some delicious lunch at Harry Sasson since it was closed for dinner because they close on Sundays like many places in Latin America.

After lunch we walked 4.2k back to hotel and managed to enter a couple of shopping malls looking for Coloma Licor de Cafe Gran Reserva. The first place didn't have any but directed us to VIPS which had it so we bought a couple bottles to bring back.

We relaxed a bit and prepared bags for final leg of trip. Plan is to store large checked luggage at hotel we are in now in Bogota since we are coming back here in a week before having dinner and flying out late overnight. So small backpack carry ons for coffee plantation and the Amazon forest bug festival.

Day 14: Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island (Galápagos)

Most people live on this island if they live in the Galápagos. This is the home of the National Park Service as well as the Charles Darwin Research Station. They keep young tortoise hatchlings for 4-5 years of the 10 remaining species until their shells are thick and hard enough to withstand most attacks and then methodically release them appropriately. Some live over 100 years and some still die for various reasons including as prey.

We bused up to the highlands to see wild giant tortoises on some property the family shares with the Charles Darwin Research Station. The tortoises roam across many properties freely navigating from the beach (laying eggs) to the highlands (hanging out most of the time). They had us all put on mud boots which I was quite thankful for once we started walking. The turtles just sit in a lot in mud puddles to regulate temperature. The boots got tons of mud and poop all over them. There were so many turtles to look at and then after our walk we got to climb out of the boots and leave them to be cleaned. Our shoes were perfectly clean.

We bused back into town to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station. They raise tortoises from each island for about 5 years and release them when their survival rate will be extremely high. The younger ones shells are not tough enough to withstand some predators and so many were taken from the islands before it became a national park that they are trying to get species per island back up to levels before humans intervened. Humans also brought non-native things like goats, rats, and more that altered things considerably. They've tried to eliminate as much as possible.

We stayed in town for a couple of hours for a long lunch that had WiFi. It was actually kind of nice to be free from outside communication while touring the Galápagos for a week. This helped everyone mingle more after activities rather than stare at screens in silence.

I originally wanted to be on the smallest tour boat here which is typically 16 guests. There are pros and cons to that over what we got (41 guests on boat that maxes at 48) or the 100 person boats.

The 16 guest boats can anchor closer to things to get to shore landings and snorkeling stuff spending less time in zodiac unless that is the activity for morning or afternoon. You get to know everyone really well on those boats. One thing I didn't realize is that the certified naturalists that must accompany everyone in the national park areas can deal with at most 16 people. This is why those are the common size. You only need one naturalist on board. Hopefully they're really good because you're only going to get their perspective. We have 4 of them on our boat - it could get away with 3 but we go in max groups of 12 on our zodiacs. We get different perspectives from each of them and it's been interesting learning from them all. I like the size we ended up with not feeling too crowded as 100 would likely make me anxious waiting in line for every zodiac excursion.

Day 12: Isabela Island --> Bartolome & Santa Cruz Islands (Galápagos)

We sailed all night from the northwest part of Isabela Island over to Bartolomé Island. There is a short hike to a peak on this island with gorgeous views that happen to be photographed a lot. If you Google the Galápagos you probably see a photo from this lookout without looking very long.

There is a pinnacle rock visible from there that would become our morning snorkeling expedition once we returned to the ship for a quick change. We were on the first zodiac for snorkeling.

SHARK! I finally saw a shark on this one. It was white finned and perhaps 4-5 feet long but not huge in diameter. It was just cruising along and I turned on video and kicked with the fins to keep up. In person it was visible but barely since the section of shore I was closest to was sandy and the water was murkier than I'd like. The video does a poor job of revealing the shark despite following it for 10-15 seconds while recording. I'm going to have to get video from others on board and also perhaps see more sharks!

We ate lunch and chilled on the upper deck for a couple of hours after lunch. Mostly a nice breeze that helped induce a nap for me... All these activities are awesome but also energy draining.

We stopped near Las Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island and there was a beach walk with optional snorkel or swim or skip the walk and head to beach for snorkel, swim or beach time. I signed us up for the walk, but we switched to skip that. We were last group to the beach and the conditions weren't great for snorkeling. It was tough just doing a wet landing and getting out of the zodiac.

I went in with mask no snorkel but couldn't really see anything as the waves were churning sand too much. Nobody else came out as far as I did (past the break line) so I came back in and took off wetsuit and mask and just swam a bit. Fortunately they let us leave shortly thereafter as there was nothing visible other than birds and a marine iguana and we were originally going to stay for sunburn for 2 hours. We got first zodiac back to boat to clean up for the evening.

The walking tour that we skipped saw flamingos! That would have been better use of that time but the WaterClown in me wanted more water time when we skipped the walk.

The cocktail hour at 6 involved a ship circumnavigation of Daphne Island just north of Santa Cruz. It's a volcanic cone that has a crater floor that is an important breeding ground for Blue Footed Boobies. We have many pictures of these birds.

So we had another good evening at dinner on the boat. Then I saw a tray of dessert drinks delivered to a table that had the couple celebrating their 50th anniversary this week (Friday) and their kids and those that joined them. It looked amazing. I walked over to ask about it then ordered one for myself.

They called it KAB - Kahlua, Amaretto, Bailey's plus ice and an Oreo cookie. Wow! I don't know proportions and cannot look it up as I write this with no internet access, but yum! Great end of evening dessert.

We went up to top deck after dinner and hung out in cooler air chatting a bit. I learned a new phrase from some 60 year olds trying to make the best of everything. They know I'm turning 50 shortly and told me that your 60s are the "go go" decade, your 70s are the "slow go" decade, and your 80s are the "no go" decade. They didn't give me the 50s decade phrase so perhaps add several go's to the 60s phrase. So enjoy it now! Seems about right...

Day 10: Santiago Island --> Isabella & Fernandina Island (Galápagos)

The day began before 3am because we sailed all evening and overnight. Around 2:30am for at least 90 minutes we were going over some waves possibly going around the North end of Isabela Island and a drawer in the closet was opening and closing regularly along with hangers in the closet bumping the door. And we had a full day planned - both long walks and both wet entry snorkeling adventures.

We pulled into Tagus Cove right at breakfast time and dropped anchor. This cove has centuries of rock carved graffiti from boats who've been here long ago. We took the long hike option which went up part of a volcano for about 30 minutes passing above Darwin Lake along the way. The lake is extremely salty like the Dead Sea. We got some great views along the way and saw a Galápagos Hawk and ventured back down to the zodiac.

We thought we were going back to the boat because that was this option while the other was zooming around in zodiac looking for animals like penguins and turtles. But we were basically shown both sides of the bay too since we had time and we saw more penguins on rock rather than in the water than the boat designated for that assignment.

Sometimes better lucky than good.

It was a quick turnaround to a wet snorkeling expedition in which you just pop into the water from the zodiac rather than getting into wetsuit from shore. I prefer this method as it is less of a mess to clean when returning to the ship at the end. It's also just plain fun falling backwards off the zodiac into the water. The water over here in the West is colder but not too bad in the wetsuit.

We saw penguins swimming, lots of turtles, playful sea lions, and other fish. Some folks saw a shark but we missed it. I got some great photos and videos of all that we saw. Catching the penguin is tricky because it's so fast, but I got a great video keeping it on screen for 5-10 seconds.

As we ate lunch, the boat began the short journey over to Espinoza Point on Fernandina Island for the afternoon adventures that awaited.

We had another wet snorkeling expedition to start at 3:30. We got on second zodiac and by the time we got to drop area, the first group had been in for a few minutes and the overall team decided it was too choppy and difficult to navigate around a rocky outcrop with waves breaking over them. They were getting back into their zodiac.

So we went around that outcrop by boat and were dropped in calmer water. It was murkier than the morning but we still saw new stuff. I got good photos and videos but we actually got on the zodiac early since visibility was not as good as the morning snorkel. Still very enjoyable.

We got back to the main ship and had to quickly change into walking attire for the late afternoon adventure. That involved mostly marine iguanas. Lots and lots of them. And then even more. We also saw sea lions and cactus and other cool stuff but focus was marine iguanas. I've seen a lifetime worth in one afternoon.

We had 5+ minutes to shower for the day when we got back on the boat. We were still relatively early for drinks and dinner because basically everyone was showering too. So we got pictures and enjoyed dinner before learning more about tomorrow expeditions and the Galápagos in general.

The marine iguanas eat algae and they've evolved a gland that takes salt from their blood and allows them to spit it out rather than going through system. El Niño years are particularly bad for them so they've also evolved to shrink body mass by 20% or more to handle fact that the algae doesn't show up in those years and main food source simply isn't present.

Great day!

Day 8: Quito --> Galápagos!

The day we arrive for the primary purpose of this adventure Jill has dubbed Operation Cincuenta.

Despite getting up @ 6am to head to the airport, it's still mostly a travel day even when starting in the same country as the destination. The Galápagos National Park charges $100 per person when you arrive on the islands. This we took care of with our tour company long ago. We didn't know that each person also must get a transit control card for $20 that contains passport info and allows you to enter and leave based on when you say you are returning. Insane process that nobody at the airport in Quito seemed to understand. We got it refunded to us when we arrived because we had in fact already paid that too!

We got on a shuttle bus to board the plane. 3 open doors letting people on the bus. To get off though everyone had to plow through the middle door only as they apparently want to control deboarding chaos in some sinister manner.

It appears that all flights go to the Galápagos from Guayaquil, Ecuador so we had a quick stop over before heading out over some Pacific Ocean to actually get there. We stayed on with about 1/2 the plane full and then more joined us before departing for real destination.

Once we landed in the Galápagos I was so stressed about making our boat. Our flight was 30 minutes late and we had under an hour to "be checked in" (which felt nebulous). We had bags to collect and customs to go through and I didn't know how close it would get. We were the first two up the sidewalk to the airport and someone came out of the VIP lounge at the perfect time with our boat company sign. We walked in and were reassured that there was another plane still in the air so we were ahead of the crowd! I felt so much better immediately.

We then got word to contact anyone now because the boat has no internet. We were told just lots of time to enjoy nature for the next week. While sitting at airport waiting for later flight, we both wondered after an hour why our phones were still on mainland time. The Islands are equivalent to Central Time but are taking "island time" to switch... Our boat told us they just stay on mainland time by clock even though it isn't that time here. It's definitely light later.

We got on board and had "lunch" at like 4:20-4:45 then saw presentation of Black Turtle Cove - Santa Cruz Island. We were given 5-10 minutes to get hats, jackets, sunscreen, cameras and come back for Zodiac ride to see this. We were the first two people on the first departing Zodiac. I was READY!

We saw so many creatures in this cove area including the black turtles, Sally Lightfoot crabs, brown pelicans, rays, sharks, and blue footed boobies. Even though boat got a late start to the day, they pleased us before going over tomorrow's morning and afternoon walks/snorkeling and serving us dinner. They're going to keep us busy all week. They said we'll be tired by the end and need a vacation.

Black turtle cove by zodiac...

Day 6: Lima, Peru --> Quito, Ecuador

Crazy drive through neighborhoods with hired driver from hotel. He knew where he was going and how to avoid backups by getting off main road for sketchy side areas. But definitely most aggressive driver we've had and slightly scary to experience although having watched several days of traffic not completely on the extreme. Good news when we got to airport his company has special entrance right to the front door. Taxis go with crazy regular traffic jam into lot.

Line to check bags had less people waiting than total places to check it. Super fast! Then international boarding line was about the same - straight through ticket/passport check then maybe 10 people putting bags on belt in front of us. I was amazed given we didn't have TSA pre check option.

This photo was taken at the GPS equator at 4:03 pm. Check out the shadow! You’ll read about GPS precise location and the magnetic location (we visited both - they’re only a few hundred meters apart).

Flight was maybe 85% full with empty seat next to us and clouds covering view of the Andes most of the way (sad for the window viewer in me). Jill found us some Priority Pass food for free (thanks Jill & Amex Platinum) before boarding. Restaurant was right next to our gate and we both chose a decent sandwich. Then we were offered a "coffee break" sandwich on board while flying which was nowhere near as good but I took one and basically ate the ham/cheese inside but left most of the bread alone.

Mario picked us up to take us to Mitad del Mundo - Middle of the World, Equatorial Line. The area next to the Lima airport is chaotic. The area next to Quito is perfectly paved roads and a sense of order.

We started at the reservation that has the digital gps latitude of 00°00'00" and learned a lot on tour there taking lots of fun photos. They stamped our passports at the end of the tour with a special stamp. Then we went to the magnetic monument area built by the French a while ago retaking photos of "the line" and structure for the second time. I preferred the first spot perhaps because of the tour although she shared depressing stuff like head shrinking and fish that swim into your urethra if you piss while swimming in the amazon river. She further enhanced the tour by telling us that when men died they'd be buried in pottery that was burned and if the wife was alive, she was buried with him alive. Very uplifting.

Getting to the hotel around 5:30 as well as going to dinner at 7:30 basically involved sitting in traffic for over an hour to go maybe 3 miles. And you get to breathe high quality exhaust the entire time. Welcome to peak traffic hours.

We went to Osaka for dinner in the traffic. It took us a while to decompress, but the food was delicious. I got a beef nikudito and pork belly main while Jill ordered several items to try and seemed to enjoy them all. Then I got a chocolate volcano dessert that was a good ending.

Day 4: Lima, Peru (ChocoMuseum)

We started the day a little earlier with breakfast so that we could walk about an hour before starting our chocolate bean to bar making class at ChocoMuseum. We walked South out of the hotel in the San Isidro area along neighborhood streets heading into the Miraflores area. The streets interconnect at strange angles in places and I slightly lost track of the direct route so by the time we crossed Av Jose Pardo we were further West than I had planned but only 7 minutes too far that direction so we still made it in time to start the class without a problem.

Marcelo was our instructor and was great. He talked us through the cacao plant and where they grow in the world (equatorial regions in South America and Africa). We tasted an opened one that had a gooey white stuff that was slightly sweet. That fruity and sticky white stuff is fermented with the beans for almost a week and then the beans are removed so that they can be dried in the sun. For most chocolate growing regions, this is where they bag and sell the beans to countries like Switzerland and the United States to finish the process into various chocolate products.

So we started the chocolate bar making process by roasting the beans about 15+ minutes constantly stirring until you could begin to hear popping like popcorn. After these cooled on the counter in front of us, there were about 25 beans for me, Jill, and Marcelo. We cracked the roasted beans and put the outer shell into one bowl and the inner bean into another bowl. We used the shell portion to make a tea with. While it was seeping, we used some mortars and pestles to grind the beans. The goal is to grind for a long time into a paste such that you can actually separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder but Jill and I were not as experienced as Marcelo nor did we have enough time to just keep doing that. He looks like a paste at least - ours were still just fine grains but we had to move on from there.

So after we drank the tea, which was pretty good, we made two different chocolate beverages with the ground beans. The first was more Mayan traditional. We added honey, chili powder and hot water. The second was Conquistadores style with sugar and hot milk. That one was really good when the bean remnants were strained out.

Now that we knew but didn’t accomplish the cacao butter/powder separation, we heard about the process. That takes about a day. After that, you decide your target chocolate percentage which indicates how much cacao powder is going in. For the 50% range, you have less than half cacao powder, then some of the cacao butter, then some sugar, and the rest is milk powder. For the 70% range or higher, you have about half cacao powder, some of the cacao butter, and the remainder is sugar. The closer to 100% you get, the less sugar involved. 100% is about 90% cacao powder and 10% cacao butter and no sugar. That is powerfully good for you but you generally can only eat about 1 (perhaps 2) square(s) of it a day.

Once your target percentage is determined, you put those into a machine that blends them for 24 hours. This breaks down the crystals in the components to make things really smooth. It takes time! When that is done the liquid rests for several hours and then it is time to temper it so that it is shiny! If you don’t temper it, it will taste just fine but it will be a lighter brown look that appears raw. But if you temper it by cooling it on a marble stone and then mixing in some more and cooling that and eventually refrigerating it, then when you use that chocolate to pour into molds it will hold the shininess and will have a snap when broken.

So we got to the point of choosing 47% milk chocolate or 70% dark chocolate for the bars we would be making and both chose to get the 70% for our bars. Then we had to choose a mold from about 25 options. Jill went with a bar mold while I chose chocolate egg mold. We then could choose any of about 20 fillings for the bars. I went with coffee beans and m&m’s while I cannot even list all of the stuff Jill chose for her chocolate bars. We filled the molds slightly and then made sure the chocolate had covered the interior of every mold. We then had to get the air out by dropping and tapping the mold pans several times. Then we put in fillings as desired. Jill elaborately put all kinds of stuff in there making me proud. I just put a few of either choice in my eggs. After this we covered our fillings with a drizzling motion and had to ensure none of them were “above” the bottom of the chocolate mold when they’d be turned over to remove later. They were put in the fridge for about 20 minutes and dropped from the molds. Nice popping sound coming out. And after 2 hours working with chocolate, we had our own bars to enjoy!

We bought a little from the store and walked 15-20 minutes over to a seafood restaurant that is well known called La Mar. I didn’t see a single thing on the menu that was not some kind of seafood dish. Jill knew this going in. So we ordered a shared scallop appetizer and two other “cebiche” dishes. The scallop thing was ok - perhaps a bit fishy for me but both of the “cebiche” items were actually good and I had seconds of each. Jill was impressed with my ability to consume more than a few bites with the ugly face of yuck. It was admittedly pretty good.

The server talked me into finishing the meal with a glass of Pisco to sooth the stomach. While I went through that, we saw some cookbooks in the back and took one to the table. The one we will get has lots of interesting stuff in it and it is available on Amazon so we don’t have to carry around an extra 5+ pounds to get it back to our kitchen.

We then walked back to the hotel via a different route to see some other parts of the city and ended up walking past the place we will be going to dinner later. So it was a productive walk and good way to burn off some of the chocolate and lunch before we go workout in the nice hotel gym for the day.

We went into the hotel gym which is really nice and started warming up on some bikes before doing our workout. The same guy that stretched us after our workout yesterday was there and he was happy to see us. I went into the room where we can do some Crossfit like moves without machines in the way and he came in there to turn up the music for me again. He doesn’t speak a lot of English, but he asked what kind of music I like. I told him rock. He said “metal?”, and made a guitar motion. I said no just rock. He thought about this a bit then asked for a band. I said Rush. He eventually had me type that. Then he plays Tom Sawyer and he seemed pleased and walked out of the room so a few Rush songs played while I stretched and did some mobility movement waiting for Jill. Eventually we ended up on songs that had the word “rush” in the song but were no longer by the band.

For dinner, we walked to Astrid and Gaston for dinner. I had no idea that we were in for a 10 course tasting menu PLUS 3 courses of dessert PLUS take home box of chocolates. I’m confident Jill didn’t expect that either. They worked around my food restrictions perfectly. At the END of the marathon meal, they brought complimentary bubbles and wished me a happy birthday. I could write AS MUCH about this dinner as about all the paragraphs of chocolate earlier in this post. Instead, I will summarize with the following and if you want more please ask or talk to Jill :-)

Jill thought every course was great which is saying something given the number of courses there are usually one or two “whatever” moments for her. The only exception was the palette cleanser dessert starter that she wasn’t fond of. For me, thinking back to any 7+ course tasting menus I HAVE EVER HAD, I can say with certainty it was the best I have had. My favorite memorable item was course #5 (early) which was a Cantonese Peruvian taco that was simply amazing and not outdone by any savory courses after that. I’m including a photo of the menu and you can click the link to view all of our photos if you really need to see this stuff.

Day 2: Lima, Peru

We got out of the airport with bags and into the hotel faster than we expected. We got a decent amount of sleep before getting a small breakfast at the hotel. We were going on a food tour at 9:30am so we had to save room....

We started in Barranco at a church built when the Spanish first came. The roof of the church was destroyed in the 1940 earthquake that the government has promised to restore. Our guide, Lourdes, said “they’re working on it”, which is about how it looks. We then walked across the “Bridge of Sighs” while holding hands and our breath. Legend has it that is you make a wish and make it across without taking a breath with your beloved, it will come true. We took some more photos and went for a coffee tasting.

Tostaduria Bisetti selects and roasts their own beans on site. I had an Americano and we got Jill a Mochachino with Peruvian chocolate so she could taste. Jill doesn’t drink coffee so I finished mine and most of hers. We did more walking on Barranco and then went into a place for a shake. It has a Peruvian fruit called lúcuma along with ice cream and sugar. It was fairly tasty!

We used the toilet here since our next stop would be the market and it’s much cleaner here. While Jill was away, I talked to Lourdes about awareness of thieves. She said that they are so good they can unzip a backpack and take something without you noticing. She said someone took her wallet from her front pocket and she did not notice it. She called this “manos de mantequilla”. Hands of butter. So smooth.

We then went to the market. We looked at a veggie stand for a while inspecting at least 10 different types of potatoes. We saw many other veggies with variations including black corn and a white corn with HUGE kernels. We learned there are about 3000 varieties of quinoa grown here although only a few are actually known on the market. We were also shown a bunch of fresh seafood and fish caught today. We then hung out at a fruit stand for a while learning about several variations of some fruits and even saw some raw cacao that with some work could become chocolate with the stuff on the inside. We were then given forks and bowls of several fruits to try. One had this gooey seed stuff we were told not to chew - just scoop onto fork and swallow it.

We then over to Miraflores to do two things: 1. learn how to make a Pisco Sour and 2. learn how to make a ceviche. For the Pisco Sour, it’s important to note that today is ‘Election Day’ in Peru. This means no alcohol is allowed to be served through Monday morning so I’m not naming where we went. We got there before the lunch hour so the staff showed us how to make them and then we got to make our own! It was fun AND foamy good!

Once we got that down, we sat down at a table and made our own ceviche with assistance from the chef. We then ate the “appetizer” and it was good. We still had lunch to eat.

Lunch was at Huaca Puallana right next to some Incan ruins. The restaurant is helping to unearth then somewhat. We had a great chicken dish along with  guinea pig (tastes like chicken) and beef heart (a little tough, but not bad). Of course, they then cleared our plates and then brought out 4 different dessert cups like a shake/ice cream. A couple of them had fruit that were good. 3 of them had some or a lot of chocolate! 

It was all so well balanced and tasty - we were so full..... Great way to start the trip in a food city which I’m sure Jill will be talking about in detail over the next several days.

After this food tour, we headed back to the hotel to rest and digest. Eventually I swam in the pool for about 25 minutes and Jill worked out in the gym.

For dinner we went to La Rosa Nautica - the same owner as the place the tour happened to take us for lunch as our final stop. They had a Perry Como & Frank Sinatra Christmas music on a 10 song repeat loop. We heard it at least 3 times and we weren’t really there that long since the voting prevented ordering a bottle of wine. Jill ordered a ceviche starter and a seafood main while I got a pasta dish in a cheese sauce and Arroz con Pato. That duck was a superb Peruvian dish. Jill’s main came first which kind of confused us and the other dish never came. By the time we got the staff to understand what was missing we realized we had eaten so much today that we should just get back to the hotel. We had eaten 2 days worth of food in a single day.

For more pics, please click here.

Operation Cincuenta

"Where do you want to go for your 50th birthday?" Jill asked me almost a year ago. We may have come up with some travel interest lists before she asked this question.

My list has some cold places like Alaska and Canada (Banff, Jasper National Park, more) which are better in the summer. So I think I mentioned a couple of finalists including Mt Kilimanjaro and Galápagos.

Then I know I looked more into the Galápagos and found this National Geographic Expedition and the swimmer in me had my birthday spot! We aren't going on that particular boat, but we are going to do well over here on Celebrity Cruises on one of their boats.

After this, Jill took over and basically booked everything including some stuff before and after the islands "while we are over there" (South America).

She has dubbed this whole thing "Operation Cincuenta" -- so come back for more in the next several weeks to learn about the before, after, and in-between adventures.

Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything

To begin discussing the answer to this question, I must request that those that don't immediately know the answer please go visit Google or Bing and see some immediate results. We'll wait...

Many of you read The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and already knew this, but now hopefully everyone is caught up. When I turned 42, I had a great birthday party asking guests to come to the party with a plausible question that gets to this answer. Everyone wrote them down on 3x5 cards and I read them all while laughing hysterically at many of them and we gave out some prizes. Tons of fun and I'll list a few of my favorites here.

• In 1889, Washington joined the union bringing the total number of states to how many?
• What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
• 10! (factorial) seconds is exactly how many days?
• What is the name of space command in Buzz Lightyear?
• How many eyes in a deck of cards?
• What is the only jersey number that has been retired by all MLB teams?

Now let us fast forward to 2015. Jill took up yoga (shocking herself) at Modo Yoga Seattle and did the 30 day challenge in March. Then she kept going and realized that she'd get to 42 days straight of yoga the day before our spring flight to New York and that would end the streak perfectly.

Unfortunately for the both of us, on the evening of day 41, I had a seizure followed by MRI and possibility of an operation on day 42 so Jill didn't complete all 42 days. As everyone knows, I recovered quite well from brain surgery but the seizure also tore two of four tendons in my rotator cuff and I ended up with shoulder surgery a few months later.

The shoulder is doing great because I do everything my PT tells me to do with daily exercises and I have already started swimming once a week just 2 weeks ago. I don't go very far yet, but it feels good to be able to use the shoulder in the pool pain free. I've been going to yoga recently too which has been great for stretching and mobility as I slowly gain strength in the shoulder.

In the meantime, yoga had another 30 day challenge in October and Jill was determined to get to 42 this time. She started early (in September) so that she'd hit 42 at the end of Oct as the challenge ended for everyone else getting to 30 straight days. Congrats Jill on making it!

2 March: Mendoza Wine Tasting AND Siete Overload

We spent our final full day (non-travel related) doing one of the things we like to do. Taste wine.
We started Bodega Catena Zapata and this place can best be described visually as a crazy Napa winery down in Argentina. Wine in Argentina used to be table wine for the local market. This winery was the first to see what it could do against international competition. They were 20 years ahead of the Argentine market in doing this.

We arrived by driving up to the building that is a tribute to Mayan architecture in the shape of a pyramid. We started with a movie combined with another tour group of about 10-12 people. After the movie, Tatiana pulled us out for a personal tour likely the result of something Erik Segelbaum might have "arranged". So thanks!

Tatiana showed us the locked room with wines from all over the world that are stored there and sometimes opened to see how the wines made here stack up in relation. We also got to see an entire room of bottled wine that had been in barrel for a couple of years and was now spending a year or so in unlabeled bottles before being labeled and released to market.

We entered the barrel room for tasting, and the power went out. Fortunately German, our driver for the day, was hanging around like the paparazzi taking photos of our personal tour with two different cameras and used his cell phone to light our barrel tasting until the lights came back on. We tasted about 4 barrels and they were good to get a sense of what the winery is going for here.

We eventually ended in a nice room at a table and tasted 4 bottled wines - 3 for the export market and one available only in Argentina. This tour was a great way to start the day.

German then drove us over to Achaval Ferrer for our next tasting. This was started about 15 years ago by two friends. The winemaker is Italian which makes him different from basically all the other wineries in Mendoza. The wines are almost all Malbec (they have zero white wines) and basically some blend in a small percentage of other grapes. The goal of this winery is all high end and no second wines like a lot of wineries do all over the world.

That being said, half of their production is what they consider their table wine and likely mostly available in Argentina. We didn't taste that one, we tasted 4 other bottles plus a barrel sample and a sweet wine. The first wine we tasted was Quimera which is rare in that the winemaker co-ferments several grapes and selects the "blend" by tasting the grapes before they ferment. There is no going back once combined.

We then tasted 3 different Finca wines. Each of these come from different vineyards (or "plots"/"ranches") and are meant to show the sense of place for each area in Medoza that they come from. They are all 100% malbec and they were all good although I think we both settled on Finca Bella Vista as our slight favorite.

The final dry wine is a blend of the best 3 barrels from all 3 fincas called Temporis. So production is limited and they do not open them to taste but do allow visitors to buy them. We happened to show up mere days before they will be bottling the 2013 version and they allow sampling from the barrel in the 2 weeks prior to bottling so we sampled this and it was good. We didn't buy any. We went back to the tasting table we were sitting around and tasted a nice dessert Malbec.

We were with a group of 6 other tasters on this tour. One couple was from Austin and the guy threw in some pretty humorous stuff. He called Austin "the blueberry in the middle of a strawberry pie." This caused some laughter between us and another couple from the San Fran area. Somehow the group soon got on the topic of rednecks and he belted out: "our rednecks make YOUR necks red."

On to Siete...

We then drove out to Siete Fuegos for lunch. This place was *remote* but quite beautiful. It is in Uco Valley and is a new resort at a winery with seven different ways to fire up food including burying in a pit and covering with dirt, huge ring of fire to hang meat on, a pizza oven that has been burning fuel constantly since they opened, and several others. This place is gorgeous but *very* expensive to stay there and so remote you'd need to rent a car or get a driver to do anything unless you want to just hang solely at the resort. We tasted some decent wines here and had a wonderful lunch and tour of the fires.

We were driven back into Mendoza which allowed us to pack things up for a big 24+ hours of travel and sightseeing on the way back home.

For dinner, we went to Siete Cocinas just a short walk from the hotel. The restaurant showcases the best of each of the seven regions of Argentina. I was so tired of meat by this point, that I actually had a vegetarian soup followed by a vegetarian pasta dish and both of these were excellent. We ended up ordering a malbec from Patagonia which was different. And of course I ended with some chocolate...

28 Feb: Insane Winery Lunch AND Chocolate Para Fanaticos

Crazy lunch that Jill created a slideshow for in an attempt to capture PART of it. And dinner later included the irresistible Chocolate For Fanatics.

So after the dinner last night that had us both practically falling asleep during the waning courses of the meal, we got up at 6am of course. This was so that we could head to the airport in Santiago and fly to Mendoza for the final stretch of the trip.

The flight was quick and our guide dropped us off at our hotel but our room wasn't yet ready. The road in front of the hotel was one way until last week but now is clearly painted with a yellow line for a lane to go the other way. As our driver turned onto the street to drop us off, cars were driving the wrong way straight at us and he had to honk and wave multiple times for them to move over to the correct side of the line. Ok. Since our room wasn't ready we hung on the free wifi for a bit until he returned to take us to/from Familia Zuccardi, a Bodega (winery) in Mendoza.

What a hilarious ride we had. Anything quoted is from him. "Good wine doesn't make you drunk. If you drink cheap wine, you'll get drunk." Later along the way he asked us to explain "white trash" which had us laughing quite a bit. He asked if "rednecks" was termed from being out in the sun unprotected.

He asked where we were from and when we said Seattle he said "Super Sonics" and he isn't the first to have that strong association. I had to explain that the team was sold and moved (not merged with another team like he thought at first when I explained things) to Oklahoma City. SHOCKED. "Oh My God! For me, Seattle is same as SuperSonics!!"

He asked more questions after the shock wore off. I explained that Howard Schultz sold the team to someone he knew would move the team. "I imagine people want to kill Howard Schultz!" (Re-emphasizing that this is not the opinion of Marc and Jill but of a fan who lives in Mendoza, Argentina) Then later, "Now that you tell me this, I can't take coffee at Starbucks anymore."

So he dropped us off and the insane lunch began. They did a traditional grill of many things with plenty of wine but words can only tell so much. They brought out some white wine (Torrontes and Chardonnay/Viognier) to start and some *amazing* empanadas to start. Then several huge salad plates with delicious food and the red wine started. We had Syrah, Bonarda, and Malbec along with this wonderful food that included them bringing out meat 3 times and they asked if we wanted more later on too. Since we were asking questions about the wine, the sommelier brought out some wonderful Tempranillo too.

After all of this, we got dessert and a dessert wine called Tardio. Keep in mind that this was our lunch for the day. I had a coffee because the food was so good that I figured the coffee would work and I've basically not taken coffee this trip because it has NOT been good. Those are the written words, but perhaps watching the slideshow of this lunch would be better.

Now, we ALSO got a tour of this winery and there was an Irish couple on the tour so we had a great tour with them along with the guide who is from the States but doesn't get to speak English very often anymore. Every winery tour still seems to teach us something. They are experimenting and several of the wines are really good.

We were taken back and given a break at our hotel. We walked around a bit and the city is so busy with locals and just a real town. It was fun to walk around.

Eventually we got taken to our dinner at a place called Francis Mallman 1884. We both were't quite sure where we were being dropped off, but once we walked into the courtyard, it was this amazing building that was impressively restored from the late 19th century. The dining areas were quite cool but I think only Jill (or perhaps some of our photos) can describe them. This meal was wonderful too so let's just say were both full from these two meals.

Jill asked for the dessert menu because she figured something would entice me. She tried to get me to go classic Argentinian with dulce de leche but I couldn't be talked out of Chocolate Para Fanaticos (Chocolate for Fanatics). Three chocolate things appeared on a plate untarnished by fruit as it should be. This plate was as wide as a fork or spoon and definitely longer and full of chocolate goodness.

The taxi home featured a driver who visited Atlantic City and won. He used the proceeds to drive across the country through Chicago ("cold!") and to Vancouver, BC.

26 Feb: Puerto Natales

We departed Rio Serrano at 9am after a decision to make it an 8:45 departure the night before. One thing this group cannot do is depart at the appointed time - it is always about 15-20 minutes after that. Since the group decided not to do a 3.5 hour hike today, I was feeling good and rested for the day.

We stopped several times for photos as we made our way to the Milodon Cave, which was cool to see. After that, we stopped at La Sila de Diablo (The Devil's Chair), a rock formation that looked a lot like a chair that the devil apparently spent a good amount of time sitting on back in the day.

We got to the town of our final stop (Puerto Natales) on this portion of the tour early due to the lack of hike. We all walked along the waterfront and took in the amazing views on a windy day. It was crystal clear which was spectacular.

The timing of getting cell phone service back worked out as it was Harv's birthday and we were able to call him to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was good to chat with him and give him some chuckles from far away.

As we ate lunch at the hotel, the group voted no less than 3 times on either seeing penguins the next day on the way to the airport OR hitting the city of the airport (Punta Arenas) for a walk around the town. On one of the votes, I voted twice just to see if Muti, our guide, was paying attention and he caught me. We finally decided to follow the agenda and go see the penguin sanctuary.

After lunch, Jill and I walked up into town only to discover that if it was not a restaurant, it was not likely open. So a 'locals town' rather than a 'tourist town'. It was a nice change of pace to stroll around anyway. We then headed back to the hotel to rearrange the bags for our 3 days in Mendoza and let the town eat lunch at 2pm or take their siestas.

After packing and a shower, we headed out once again. Now stuff was open and I needed to at least go to the chocolate shop. It appears that I've started to collect a Chocolate Harem (Southern Hemisphere Edition) and we needed to buy some good chocolate as a parting gift on the final night of the dinner. Fortunately, the place was open and the chocolate looked really good. We got some and walked around some more before returning to the hotel for a pre-dinner drink with the gang and just hanging out.

Dinner was good and I busted out the chocolate after the dessert course (which of course included chocolate or vanilla gelato and brownies). A nice way to end the final full day with the group.

24 Feb: Las Torres --> Lago Grey --> Hike --> Rio Serrano

We departed around 8:30 stopping briefly a few times to shoot different angles of Torres del Paine and the surrounding ranges. Our guides went in to get our tickets for our first boat ride of the day and apparently they didn't have our reservation for the boat. This got sorted out, we got on our way to the boat, and then we saw this tiny thing we'd be on plus a small motorized raft to get us to the boat. Once we got on the boat, we rode for almost an hour to get to a huge, beautiful iceberg known as Glacier Grey.

After viewing, we landed on a shore nearby to begin a "4-5 hour" hike. After taking off layers and getting my trekking poles ready, I turned around to find no one but Muti, our guide, waiting for me. Fortunately 5 others were within sight so we caught up quickly. I eventually worked past everyone as they stopped to shed layers that I had already taken off straight off the boat.

I eventually caught the next group, not by my speed but because they (including Jill) stopped to wait for at least some of us. Jill and I continued out on the hike, on of the best and most beautiful of this entire trip. We finished in about 3 hrs and 20 min. We then waited in the Paine Grande Lodge while the group trickled in.

After the group arrived, we stood in line for the hydrofoil ride across Lago Pehoe to a spot we could get back to our hotel. This boat was PACKED with people basically standing for the entire ride for 30+ minutes. It felt really good to land and get off that beast.

Our bus took us about 40 minutes to the NICE hotel with a great view of Paine Massif and the Paine Horns. It is the best hotel in the Patagonia region so far. It had been a long day -- 12 hours from one hotel to the next. No time for a shower before dinner at 8:30pm. Food was good and I plan to take tomorrow off from the hiking tour and just rest and drink lots of water at the hotel with a book and write some postcards.