Counting Down

Big progress. I handed in my resignation. I bought my ticket to Central America. Planning to go to Cancun to do some cenote diving. Then Belize to dive the blue hole and hang out with locals and hopefully check out Tikal, Guatemala.

Japan and Thailand next. Going to check out Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Hopefully I can actually make it to a Muy Thai match this time. It's a little scary because it seems so violent but it's a cultural experience I want to witness. Then hopefully I will get to see some sakura in Japan.

Then off to Europe to do some backpacking --Budapest, Vienna, Prague. Amsterdam to see the tres hermanas from my Patagonia trip. Brussels and maybe Paris. Kill some time in London to meet up with the start of the cruise through the Baltic countries / Skandinavia.

Last leg ends with an Intrepid tour through Egypt and Jordan. Can't wait to check out Petra.

Natural Beauties

The first photo is an image of Fitz Roy (the mountain the back). The 8 hour hike was definitely worth the sprained ankle, blood, sweat and tears (slight exaggeration). There are two beautiful milky blue glacier lakes in front of Fitz Roy and the panoramic view was incredible. Joe, he was on my tour, works for Patagonia. His t-shirt with the Patagonia logo is based on the silhouette of Fitz Roy. Notice the similarity?

The second photo is of Torres del Paine. More often than not, Torres is not known to show itself behind the clouds. We were extremely lucky to have had full view of the towers. The temperature was also extremely HOT! People were all getting sunburned. We were constantly reapplying sunscreen. The lake here wasn't as beautiful as the one at Fitz Roy but the towers were more impressive. We sat and admired them for almost an hour before heading back down. Getting down the rock scramble was tricky. Bring hiking poles. They would probably help.

Seafood... mmmm

I´m back in BA now. The dive was fun. Not much to see but I always enjoy going diving. It´s so peaceful in the ocean. I dove in the Beagle Channel. It wasn´t quite a kelp forest but there was a lot of kelp and tons of tiny lobsters and crabs. I saw one king crab. Too bad those little suckers are protected. They would have made a tasty meal. I stayed down much longer than I had expected -- about 55 min. The water was 7 degrees Celcius. I wouldn´t have survived without my wet suit.