One thing Sam and I reflect on almost daily is how lucky and grateful we feel about being able to do this trip. However, we wish we could share some of our overlanding experiences with our friends and family. We think it is such a unique way to travel. It is one thing for us to share our blog with our family, or try to convey our journey through stories, but to be honest, to truly understand what our lives are like they would have to travel with us for a few weeks in our XP.
As Christmas was nearing our parents asked us what we wanted. We are at a place where we have everything we need: freedom, happiness, a bad ass camper, our health. We realized we don’t really want material things, what we want is to share this experience with the people we love.
Anna, Sam’s amazing younger sister has been lovingly caring for our cats for the last year and a half. We decided we wanted to figure out a way to bring her and her boyfriend Cody to Patagonia for the holidays which would make it the best Christmas ever for us. Before we left, Anna and Cody had told us they dreamed of visiting Patagonia one day, but doubted it would ever happen. Sam and I decided one evening in Chile that we were going to MAKE it happen.
First we sent emails to Anna and Cody saying if they could get to Argentina, we would cover all their expenses in country. Next we sent emails to Sam’s parents asking for all our Christmas funds to be donated to Anna and Cody’s airline tickets, we contributed some ourselves and they covered the rest, and within a few weeks by some miracle Anna and Cody were booked on a flight to Bariloche, Argentina. I can’t tell you how excited we were!!!!!!
Anna and I. I love looking back at all these pictures, they bring back such great memories.
As soon as I saw them get off the plane I started to cry, it felt surreal that they were here in Patagonia with us. We took them directly to one of the best steak restaurants in Bariloche to give them a true introduction to Argentina with copious amounts of scrumptious meat and Malbec. They were in a bit of a daze at this point after a 36 hour flight, but we were all so excited that the adrenaline got them through the jet lag.
I did not eat much red meat in California or before Argentina on this trip, but it is so good here. So good.
After lunch we decided to leave the city and head directly to the lakes. Of course after three weeks of hot weather, the day they arrived the temperature dropped to 45 degrees!!! It was freezing and our first night camping with them it was so cold we had to spend the entire time in the XP.
Well, we promised a Patagonia summer to be a break for the Utah winter and it was colder our first night in Argentina than it was in Salt Lake. This was Anna our first night.
The next day took them on the seven lakes route and found a great camp spot on Lago Traful where we settled down for a few days to let them catch up on sleep, hike, relax a bit and for Cody to start fishing. I loved this camp site and the weather was kind enough to warm up for us so we could spend all our time outdoors.
Just stopping along the siete lagos route to take a picture. Everywhere we looked, it was spectacular!
Anna decided to do some mountain climbing action shots in her Patagonia gear, we had high hopes for a catalog cover. =).
Lago Traful
Our camp spot for the next few days. The water looks red because of the sand, it got blue further out.
I loved watching Anna and Sam catch up. They have so much fun together.
Our campsite was full of sturdy Patagonia horses. We literally shared our camping space with them for three days.
Sam trying to feed the horse we named Stinky apples. We found horses in Patagonia will not eat apples, they are only fed wild grass and have no interest in carrots or apples. They are truly part wild.
Anna and I watching Cody fish on one of our hikes. I think he caught three trout in an hour.
Cody is a very talented fly fisherman. He has been fly fishing most of his life and he makes it look effortless. I think he caught fish almost every time he went fishing.
I did not know Cody very well before this trip, but I have to say getting to know him was a total pleasure for both me and Sam. I don’t say this about many people I come across, but Cody is an extraordinary person. He really is. One of the things I found so appealing about him is he has no idea how great he is. He is shy and humble. He taught me to slow down on hikes and look for small flowers and insects. He truly respects nature and everything he does reflects it. On hikes I would always see him fill his pockets with little bits of trash he would find and he even would pick up crumbs from our sandwiches so ants would not come into areas they should not be. He was good at everything he tried, but had no idea that the things that came easy for him were skills other people have tried for decades to attain. He was funny, and smart and I am so glad that Sam’s brilliant, sensitive and caring sister has such a partner in life. The four of us were so compatible, for me at least, every minute we spent with them was wonderful and I felt so lucky to get to know both of them better.
Cody caught well over 25 fish, we only ate 3 of them. It felt much better to release them back and see them swim away happy into the crystal clear water.
Our camp horses. Anna grew up riding and owning horses and it made her happy to have such beauties around us all the time.
One day we hiked to a waterfall and had to cross this icy river. The water was so cold that my feet were numb by the time we got across. Serious cold snow melt!
This is the river that fed the lake. Patagonia is so, so beautiful.
The mountain behind us was dusted with snow during the night. Even though the sun was out, summer was just starting in Patagonia.
Sunset over Lago Traful.
Anna and Cody’s tent. We had a great campfire this night!
Lago Villarino and Lago Faulkner
After Lago Traful, we headed to Lago Villarino and Lago Faulkner. Both of these lakes were supposed to have good fishing and they also had a free camping area so we set up and explored another lake.
The small river connecting the two lakes is supposed to be a great trout fishing river. We saw many fisherman trying their luck, but never saw anyone catch anything.
We went for a hike around the lake to look for good fishing spots. Anna and Sam took a nap. I never nap, I have too much energy, I envy people who nap.
Cody literally caught a trout on his first cast! We decided we wanted to try smoking some fish so sadly this one did not swim back into the big blue lake.
But I have to say our Cobb grill did an amazing job with Cody and Sam’s efforts smoking the beautiful pink fleshed trout. It was soooo good!
After a windy night, we decided to keep heading north and on our way passed one of the loveliest rivers in the lake district (this is my opinion only) the Ruca Malen. It is an otherworldly blue, so transparent and iridescently aqua and green it almost glows. I loved this river.
This is one of my favorite pictures we took of this area. I am going to frame it when I get home.
Seriously, no fancy photo filters, just natures beauty.
From here we head into the heart of the national parks for some of my favorite hikes of the entire trip!!!! More to come =).