Scenario: I am on death row.  The prison official asks me what I want for my last meal.

My answer:

“Oooooo anything chocolate please… and preferably in the form of ice cream.  Thanks officer!”

By now you probably can get an idea for how much I absolutely adore chocolate ice cream.  I can eat it anywhere, anytime, and no matter how full I am from a meal, I always have a little side tummy dedicated to dessert.  Some might say I should see a doctor, but I find my ability to house ice cream to be one of my greatest strengths.

My sister-in-law, Maggie, is one of the few people who can keep up with me in this department.  She is always down for eating ice cream, which is awesome because then I don’t feel like a complete fatty eating it by myself.

Being the good sister that she is, she was genuinely concerned about my ability to find ice cream in some of the places Tony and I had on our RTW list. Thus, she did her research on Santiago and found a gelato place, Emporio La Rosa, for Tony and I to try out once we arrived down here.

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End of the Trail at the End of the World

Meg enthusiastically mocks me everytime I say it, but since getting off of the plane in Punta Arenas, Chile, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by the remoteness of Patagonia… We are at the very end of the world!

There, I said it. Maybe now I can try and get past it.

 

Yeah… it’s wayyyy down there. And yes, that is Antarctica just below us.

Coffee break in Punta Arenas

Catching up on the news

After a brief coffee break in Punta Arenas after we landed, we hitched a ride on the last bus to Puerto Natales, which was going to be our launching point into Torres del Paine.

You might have recently heard of about Torres del Paine as a good chunk was burned in a savage forest fire only 3 weeks ago, with many parts still closed to the public. Newsflash: Don’t burn your TP when in a forest… as an Israeli tourist just learned.

While fairly new to me as a must-see destination, it quickly grabbed my imagination as the land that time forgot. For hundreds of miles in any direction, it is mountains, rivers, and shimmering blue lakes.

Torres del Paine – The Towers Trek

The Towers of Torres del Paine

Those three peaks to the right are just 5 hours of trekking away....

With the high expense of getting to the park and our aversion to renting camping gear to stay overnight, we thought it best to get the most bang for our buck and do the route to Las Torres (AKA The Towers) as a day hike.

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This past week has been highly entertaining for me and Tony.  We traveled down to the Patagonia region in Chile with absolutely no plans beyond the day ahead.  We thought by doing this, we would be travelling like true bad-ass nomads…

… Well, the joke is on us now!

Travelling without a plan to some places is perfectly doable, but down in Patagonia, we are learning the hard way that sometimes it is necessary to have a plan.

As our RTW trip progresses, we are learning first-hand lessons on how to travel efficiently. We also have picked up some helpful tips from our favorite travel bloggers.  Here were some great reads this week:

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You know that look other people give when you accidentally, yet very publicly, let a noxious emission slip from between two tightly clenched butt cheeks?

You've seen that face before...

Look familiar?

Of course you do (don’t lie ladies… it happens at least once to everyone).

Well get ready… because this is the exact same look you will get when trying to stumble through a new language while in another country.

You: “Pardoname… Donde es bus.” (Trying to ask for directions to the bus)

Them: …

Yep... very familiar

You: “Puedo comprar dos boletas por el train.” (Trying to buy two tickets for the train)

Them:

John knows all about Fart Faces

You: Accidentally letting a fart slip in public… Whoops!

Them: … 

Whoops... Sorry Kate.

Well that last one is universal. Let it go, people! Sometimes it just can’t be helped!

But my point is that no matter where you go, when you don’t know the language you will be greeted with the same face.

Don’t be intimated!

Don’t be shy!

The key to enjoying your foreign travels is to become comfortable with these faces and to relish in the learning opportunities. Travelers that not only survive, but thrive, on their RTW journey’s attack their language difficulties aggressively and with a good sense of humor… ego be damned.

Realize that:

  1. 95% of most people on planet earth are kind, patient, and willing to help a polite and eager foreigner stumbling through a new language.
  2. That awkward face being made in your direction is 99 parts confusion at your terrible pronunciation and vocab, while only 1 part is mild judgment at your lameness.
  3. Nothing bad happens when people laugh at you… especially when you cannot understand what they are saying!

So get over any embarrassment you might have and get humiliated early and often by trying the new language whenever you can. Believe it or not, it is much harder to be embarrassed when you don’t understand the language.

Don’t believe me? Try letting one rip next time you are in a foreign land and see how little you care what others think.

Or just start speaking the new language… whatever you prefer.

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A Trekking Adventure With AndoAndes

January 18, 2012
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Prior to arriving in Santiago, I did some basic research on the city and thought it was incredibly cool that the city is flanked by the Andes mountain range.  I looked at the stunning pictures of Santiago online and my mind was racing with all of the great photo ops I would have available to me [...]

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Best of the Rest – The Weekly Roundup

January 16, 2012

When you start traveling with no job and no plans… things get interesting. Everyday is a balance between doing and seeing great things, saving money, and researching your next destination. Yesterday for us was a day for saving money and researching…  but things got a little wild. After 2-3 hours of researching Southern Chile and [...]

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Meg Has A Foodgasm At Aquí Está Coco

January 13, 2012
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Before our trip began, Tony and I set a budget for the year and vowed to spend (on average) less than $100 USD per day.  You may think that’s a lot, but once you add in our high-maintenance travel insurance, airfare, and lodging, you really aren’t left with much to spend.  That means dining, entertainment, and all [...]

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Why You Must Shave Your Head For RTW Travel

January 11, 2012
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Fellas, admit it. You got a corporate job after graduation, grew out that beautiful shaved head, and dreamed of the day when you could shave it all off again. No? Just me? I don’t believe it… Almost every guy has had a shaved head at some point in their life and if you have, you know [...]

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Best of the Rest – The Weekly Roundup

January 9, 2012

Tony and I are well into our first week of our RTW trip in Santiago, Chile and loving it! It is so exciting (yet bizzaire) to be in a foreign country with no return ticket back home to reality in XX amount of days. It is even more crazy to have no real plans beyond today. After living the nomad lifestyle [...]

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My First Impressions of Santiago, Chile

January 7, 2012
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Ladies and gentlemen, our RTW trip has officially begun! Tony and I arrived in our first destination, Santiago, two days ago and are loving the nomad lifestyle in this great city. We spent all day yesterday acting like tourists and hitting up all the must-sees of the city.  We always said that we didn’t want to [...]

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