5 Continents in 5 Months: the Rest of 2013

Greetings again everyone. It's been another healthy hiatus for the blog, and since I'm currently recovering from laser eye surgery, I figured staring at a computer screen for hours a day was probably best for my recovery. Thank God I've got eye drops. The surgery has literally brought me from this to this. Anywho, I recall last writing about my experiences in the US, where AP and I made it coast-to-coast with a lovely stop in Michigan along the way. Well, after another lovely hitch on the barge, where I successfully manned one single job during the entire month of Ramadan, I flew out to Australia to meet up with AP in her new home of Canberra. All of you travelers and potential travelers will also be happy to know that I've tried to attach links to a lot of the places I've stayed at or eaten at during my travels. Only the ones I'd recommend will be included in this blog post. Hopefully I can contribute positively to somebody's future vacation. Ok, back to the story.

Arriving in Bahrain International Airport, I was forced into airport freak-out mode as I tried checking in for my flight. First, I lacked a hard copy of my Australian visa, which is electronically tied to my passport number. Apparently Jet Airways didn't like that. Then, I discovered that I actually needed an Indian visa, because my flight was from Bahrain to Mumbai to Chennai to Singapore to Sydney to Canberra. It was a ridiculous itinerary to begin with, but it was $400 cheaper than the next flight. Lesson learned: Chennai is in India, and Mumbai has a domestic airport that flies there. Therefore, needed an Indian visa. I didn't have one. Sunnuva bitch. Cancelled my flight. Luckily I found a travel agent at the airport that found me a more direct Bahrain to Abu Dhabi to Sydney to Canberra for $1200. Should've booked that one in the first place! Luckily, it got me in earlier than my previously-(and erroneously-) booked flight.

I made it to Canberra, which is the chilly and elevated capital of Australia, sitting in the heart of its smallest state, Australian Capital Territory. August-time in Canberra is essentially the height of winter for Australia, and the weather/misery reflected as much. After coming from the scalding desert, anything less than 80 degrees felt frigid. Canberra decided to hover, officially, in the high 40's and low-50's for most of my time there, although I was pretty sure it was -37. I triple- and quadruple-layered on a daily basis.  AP had taken a job working as an occupational therapist and most of her clients were government workers. This added to the misery, as the career government workers tended to have similar attitudes toward taxpayer money as a lot of American politicians. Spend, spend, spend! This was also in jeopardy as Australian elections were just around the corner, and the opposition party vowed to rein in spending. It was actually a fairly exciting time to be in Australia's capital, since the election season there is really only about a month. All the debates and ads and mud-slinging is condensed into one solitary 30-day period. It was fantastic. The early runners had some interesting views, but in the end the Australian people elected the Liberal Party to rule, since voters don't necessarily vote for a person, but a party. The parties do announce their candidates in advance of the election of course.

AP and I sampled the finest cuisine Canberra had to offer and caught a bit of culture as well, seeing Phantom of the Opera while it was in town, as well as a student production of another Andrew Lloyd Webber work, Cats. Perhaps it was the students, or possibly even my jetlag, but I fell asleep for at least an hour of the production. Did else anyone notice that Cats doesn't have an actual plot? It's literally just cats running around singing and trying to look sexy the whole time.

After I woke up from my Cats hangover, AP and I rented a car and drove 3 hours up the road to Sydney to take in some of the more cosmopolitan offerings of Australia. Our food safari continued once more, as we dined in Darling Harbour at the Blue Fish, where I discovered my unadulterated love of crab. I don't think I'd ever put myself in a position to try it at any point in my life, and OH what a mistake! We split a giant seafood platter and I'm pretty sure the crab gave me a foodgasm.

Life......Altering

Our next day we did a quick walk from our lovely Westin hotel (whose bed, btw, was like resting in a marshmellow minus the stickiness), and went down to Circular Quay just to check up on the happs down there around Sydney Harbour. We rented a car and drove out to the Blue Mountains, which are a few hours west of Sydney. During my study abroad in Australia back in '07, I'd opted out of a trip to the Blue Mountains due to a whale-sized hangover after a party bus incident. I also had to listen as the kids who DID go regaled us with their descriptions of it being the most beautiful part of Australia they'd seen. Needless to say, I knew I needed to get there sometime. Well, THIS was the time. We drove out to Katoomba, a cute mountain town on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains National Park. AP and I snapped a bunch of pics at the iconic 'Three Sisters' rock formations just outside Katoomba. We then hiked around a bit to get closer to the Sisters, as well as explore the area and get some exercise. The occasional rainstorm and harsh wind did manage to ensure the whole area was very green, if not entirely 'Blue.'

AP and the iconic Three Sisters

Up close with one of the Sisters

 Some decent soup and coffee at Cafe Zuppo in Katoomba and we were headed back to Sydney. We had signed up for a dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour earlier in the day and we were pretty excited for it. Dressed up in our Saturday night's finest, we hopped aboard a boat only to discover we were completely alone in the forward section of the dining room. It was honestly terrifying. The good news is our ship actually headed over to Darling Harbour to pick up some diners there, so our massive dining room was at least slightly more populated and infinitely less awkward. We got good views all around and excellent food.

Decent views

Our next morning, we walked to Sydney Harbour only to discover that there are literally no breakfast places there. It was a bit of a buzzkill, considering how awesome and warm it was at that time. I guess Australians sleep in on Sundays. We did trek over to The Rocks, which is a bit of a historic center in downtown Sydney, and found some coffee and breakfast places bustling with locals and tourists alike. To burn my bacon off, we strolled around the rest of Sydney Harbour, made our way briefly through the Botanical Gardens, walked through Anzac Memorial Park and back to the Westin to pack up. We then headed out to the famed Bondi Beach, to stroll about watching the surfers and tanners and enormously jacked/tattooed Australian guys muddling about. We met up with a family friend of AP's for some late lunch and a few beers. Not too many unfortunately, because we made the long drive back to Canberra, with a lovely weekend at our backs.

Breakfast at The Rocks, the historical district where Europeans first settled in Sydney in the late 18th century

A beautiful day on Sydney Harbour

The world-famous Sydney Opera House. Designed by Jorn Utzon, who was inspired by peeling an orange

@ Bondi Beach. Water so blue. Me so white. 

Our next week in Canberra had me studying for the GMAT (just in case) and AP working during the day. She happens to be a fantastic cook and she slaved up a few amazing meals that made the chills of Canberra totally bearable. I also learned a thing or two about food: like, for instance, avocados have pits. I honestly had never cut an avocado before and had no idea what the hell was inside. When AP asked me to cut one up, I was shocked and violently attacked the center of it before she broke into a hysterical giggle-fest and I fulfilled the Australian view of Americans as fast-food binging apes who never cook for themselves. I suppose my years in Udhailiyah had spoiled me, since we get three-square meals a day. Either way, it's been one of my many food fails over the course of our relationship.

Our subsequent weekend involved another trip north, but this time back to Brisbane. AP was happy to see her fam again, but more importantly, the sunshine. We took a trip out to the Gold Coast, about an hour or two southeast of Brisbane. It's basically the Miami of Australia. There's a lot of high-rise condos and hotels right along really pristine beaches. People are in bikinis everywhere, and as I found out, without bikinis some places too. We happened upon a few beach-goers who were letting their upper women parts hang out for all to see. Lucky for me, gravity hadn't taken much of a toll on them yet.

Hot dogs or white-man legs?

So Miami

The good news is I was treated to a lovely dinner with her folks while she attended a bachelorette party. The next day we took a stroll around the city and re-discovered how nice Brisbane is. Along Southbank, we saw a few street performers, including a man riding a unicycle while juggling flaming sticks. Can't say I wasn't impressed.

Under the bridge by Kangaroo Point

AUSTRALIA DOES HAVE TALENT!

We flew back to Canberra after a pretty awesome little weekend. My next week consisted of doing an online course for my job, while AP continued to toil away at her not-so-favorite place of employment. We sampled a few more great tastes of Canberra, including a pretty spectacular Spanish tapas place called Bodega de Pintxos, in case anyone is ever in Canberra! 

Our final weekend together during those days off, AP, myself and two of her girlfriends decided that we wanted to combine two fantastic individual events, running and dancing, into one all-inclusive Saturday night. In Sydney, they were having a Glow Run, which is a 5k run around Sydney/Darling Harbour, and every kilometer there were huge tents with neon lights and DJ's bumping house music. It was a pretty awesome experience, although I think we were on the older end of the target demographic and the younger kids didn't really seem too interested in running. We passed hundreds of people along the way who were just walking. I hope for their sake they were on drugs and not just comically out of shape. There was a huge stage with bands constantly playing music in the main park where the event was organized and where the finish line was. The Run went off in waves every 5 minutes and each rush was just a giant sea of humanity lunging forward. 

Pre-race gathering/party

Tents along the way

I must say that we performed pretty well. Although all of my timing was unofficial, I think we were roughly 8 minutes/mile. As we came down the home stretch in the Harbour, fireworks just happened to light up our night sky, which made for a pretty spectacular finish. It also gave me a shot of adrenaline and I literally sprinted the last half kilometer. The girls were close behind and we all shared some endorphin-powered dancing before cooling off and slamming burgers to calorie-up. 

That Sunday was goodbye day, or so we thought. As AP and I got to the airport to send me off, we immediately were informed that my United Airlines flight was canceled. Add another footnote to my list of travel hiccups. The plane had a defunct part and they didn't have any spares in Sydney, so it literally had to be flown from the US to Sydney. I was pretty pissed off at first, since it forced me to miss a day of training in the US that was pretty essential for my career progression. More on that later. In the meantime, United Airlines was nice enough to put me (us) up in a hotel close to the airport for the night. AP and I took advantage and went back downtown and had our own little bar crawl and dinner down on the Sydney Harbour. It turned out pretty well. 

She was pretty happy about it

AP took that Monday off work since I wasn't flying until the evening, and we explored the local travel agents and successfully planned our next trip: Chile! We had talked about our options and were leaning toward going to Myanmar and Laos, but then she brought up some flight deals and I saw a picture of the statues on Easter Island and immediately got more excited. AP booked her flight and thus made it official, which helped minimize the normal sadness when we have to say goodbye. This was a pretty happy parting since we got an extra day together AND got our next travel plans together!

I then flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a quick one-week course to learn about my company's newest downhole tool. They'd had spent a LOT of money on this one and the guys who designed the tool and the software taught us the course. The tool, which will remain nameless, would be a pretty integral part of my GFE project, which is necessary for me to get my next promotion. It was pretty cool to see as the technology was absolutely state-of-the-art and I knew it would be an interesting project. After a quick trip to the gun range in Tulsa with my buddy Adzlan, I headed back to the Kingdom for another hitch. 

Upon our arrival, we were treated with the reality that our previous two engineers-in-charge had both departed at about the same time. One of our American buddies had resigned and gone back to study in the US. The other engineer changed positions to be more of a frontline salesman to our client in Saudi. This left a bit of a leadership void, although the two guys who replaced them were very qualified, if not a bit unprepared. That made the hitch interesting, adjusting to new people and attitudes. We also had a bit of a lull in activity for the first month, as I was part of three installations of our fiber optics into new coiled tubing reels, rather than go to field locations for jobs. We did discover there's a mall about 45 minutes away in Hofuf that had both bowling alleys and archery ranges. ARCHERY RANGES! We couldn't resist and four of us decided to skip an evening at the office and test our skills. I quickly discovered I was an absolutely horrible shot, dispelling any medieval knight-in-shining-armor self-delusions I may have had.

Adzlan was better

Don't know what it is, but it was massive

I also celebrated my birthday, which coincided with another of my teammate's, with some huge fish and meat meals in the toolshop. I once again experienced the deliciousness of lamb and the comedy of sheep brains. Happy birthday me. Another happy discovery was a grocery store in Hofuf called Tamimi Markets. Hofuf is about a half hour from our base and Tamimi carried all of the brands I'd become accustomed to back in the US. It made daily life in the base a LOT better since I could feast on some 'normal' food. Right next to Tamimi were two other incredible discoveries - Dairy Queen and Burger Fuel! I honestly had no clue Dairy Queen existed in Saudi and the Burger Fuel joint, of New Zealand origin, was very new in Hofuf. It's safe to say it become a weekly (if not more) stop for us engineers.

The next month was pretty hectic as I spent almost all of my time in the northern part of Saudi, along the Gulf in Manifa and Qatif, two places where I had a lot of experience. Unfortunately, the pace of the operations themselves were notoriously slow, but I was put up in a nice hotel in Al Khobar during the jobs. The number of days I actually slept in that hotel was, much to my dismay, far fewer than I would have preferred. I did discover a delicious shawarma spot close to our jobs in Qatif, and luckily didn't have to spend too much time up in dreary old Manifa.

Genie in a bottle?

Yemeni food never fails

Night shift in Qatif during a logging operation

My project with the new tool was basically put on hold because the tool wouldn't arrive in Saudi for a few more months. I jumped back and forth between Manifa and Qatif a few more times before shipping off to my next training: this time in the UK!

I'd never been to the UK and I was pretty excited for a week-long course in Aberdeen, where we learned the basics about management. The course was designed for people on the brink of becoming managers, or managers who just had never been able to take the course. The weather was pretty pleasant for Scotland in November and the sunshines and sunsets were spectacular. 

Early mornin in Aberdeen

Early evenin' in Aberdeen

Our course was about 25 people, with a lot of us in pretty similar roles and ages. We also found that our class was mostly extroverts, which made it a blast. We ate pretty well most nights and went out to the bars after our last class. Aberdeen was unique in the fact that a lot of their old churches had been converted into bars. The blood of Christ indeed.

Church/bar

Stained glass windows? My buddy Karl-Erik approves

It was the most enjoyable single week I'd had within my career at big blue, and since I was only one of two guys working in the Middle East in the class, I had a pretty fresh perspective to offer regarding cultural diversity. I also was able to meet some pretty awesome guys and gals that I would normally not have had the opportunity to meet. Our last night together never really ended since alcohol began exiting my body in a very undesirable form pretty quickly after I'd gotten back to my hotel . This led me to cancel my early AM flight, since movement was pretty out of the question. By the time I recovered, I gathered my stuff and flew south to London!

I figured since I was already in the UK and was due for days off, London would be a good place to explore, even if it was solo. I stayed right next to Piccadilly Square at Le Meridien and was very pleased to find a pub in London to watch the Lions game that night, even though their second half foreshadowed the rest of their season: bad.

That day and a half, I did as many typically London things as I could fit into such a stretch: walked through Hyde Park, watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, strolled through Trafalgar Square, took a million touristy pictures of Big Ben, visited Westminster Abbey and saw the graves of many a great King and Briton, took a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater (re-created of course), crossed the famous Tower Bridge, rode the Tube about a half-dozen times, and experienced hours of cold, windy, rainy and generally miserable weather. I see why British people frequent the pubs. Overall I was completely pooped, since I walked a considerable distance, but was very thrilled to have checked off a bunch of the tourist stuff off my list. I realized it was definitely not as much fun travelling alone as with people, as evidenced by my superfluous amount of selfies taken but not presented here for the sake of the audience, but I heartily cherished the chance to see London. 

The Tube entrance in Piccadilly

Sidewalk chalk in Trafalgar Square

Large famous clocktower

War memorial in Hyde Park

Autumn in London? Not too shabby

Buckingham Palace!

How British is THAT guy?

Westminster Abbey

The Globe Theater

Tower Bridge (NOT London Bridge!)

Lucky for me, it was the perfect time of the year to go back home: Thanksgiving! I spent a quick week in San Francisco with the folks before heading to Michigan for a fantastic round of Magoo family bonding. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving lived up to its reputation as the biggest drinking night of the year once again. Dick O' Dows in B'ham never seems to disappoint. As is tradition, the young males of the family headed to the Detroit Lions game, who've been playing on Thanksgiving Day since the 1930's. We also happened to witness the LONE victory in the Lions' last 7 games of the season, a pretty impressive drubbing of the Aaron Rodgers-less Green Bay Packers. It put us all in a pretty good mood and we made it home in time for a massive concoction of turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, wine, beer, potatoes, beans, and whatever else my tryptophan-induced food coma forced me to forget.

Matt Stafford is large

My niece is not. But she's definitely cuter

Football continued the next day as my old high school was playing in the state championship game back at Ford Field in Detroit. Our coach was a pretty legendary guy in the state of Michigan, having won more games than any other football coach in state history. His current team was undefeated and coach was retiring at the conclusion of the season, so a bunch of us former players felt we needed to show up and show our support. I saw a bunch of old faces at a pre-game at Cheli's next to the stadium, made a few probably ill-advised wagers on teenagers, and then watched as our team triumphed for their 3rd consecutive state championship.

That evening marked the first time I'd experienced the annual Birmingham Thanksgiving party called the Gobble Wobble. It's literally all the 20-somethings of the area getting together (for charity) and drinking and dancing the night away. Having been absent for many of the Thanksgivings of my 20s, I felt it was time to indulge a bit and participate, before it was too late. All my cousins around my age came with and I met up with a bunch of friends and frat brothers before we all made our way to the bar. The night was truly ravaging from what I remember, and apparently equally great from the parts I don't remember. My cousins happily filled in the blanks later. 

Frat

What's not to love

A fantastic night but also a fantastic reminder of what happens when you are older than your tolerance. The next morning was among the more brutal I'd ever had (inclusive of Aberdeen). More football was on the menu as my alma mater the University of Michigan was playing their arch-rival Ohio State in Ann Arbor and I was due for the game. I painfully caught a ride with my folks and struggled to stay coherent for the trip to Ann Arbor. Immediately upon arriving and parking the car, the previous night's booze decided to take yet another undesirable route out of my body. A few salty chips and bottles of water later and I was as close to normal as could be expected. Michigan Stadium was as raucous as ever, as the Wolverines exchanged leads with their rivals for much of the first half. We had underachieved that season and Ohio State was undefeated, so everyone was extremely thrilled that we kept it close. It came down to the last play as Michigan attempted a 2-point conversion for the win. Unfortunately, a poor play call was probably our undoing as the pass was broken up and we had to take in the loss. Still, it was a fantastic sunny day and the football was riveting throughout.

Michigan Stadium - 114,000 strong

I had the chance to meet up with mom's side of the family that night, which was much needed since I hadn't seen many of them since I moved abroad. It was actually a lot of fun describing life in Saudi and my various travels to the anxious ears of my aunts and uncles. Plus, I got to watch Auburn beat Alabama in just about the most epic way possible. After satisfying a year's worth of football lust in 3 short days, I was definitely ready to move on to the next activity on my days off agenda: traveling to Chile!

I flew the lovely LAN Airlines down to Santiago and immediately upon arrival realized that Michigan is way too cold. 80 and sunny out were par for the course in Santiago and apparel from the flight weren't exactly summery. The city is nestled up against the western edge of the Andes mountains, so prime views were the norm I grabbed a cab to try and locate the hostel where AP had spent the night in the Providencia part of town. I'd heard from a buddy of mine that Chileans spoke almost no English and that I probably needed to brush up on my Spanish. I arrogantly did not heed his advice. My cabbie spoke no English and my Spanish was as rusty as Muhammad Ali during the Larry Holmes fight. Needless to say, we didn't find the place. I think we were in the general vicinity before I just paid the man and walked away with my bags. I had no map of the city, no working cellphone, a vague address that AP had sent me and basically no idea where the hell I was. After walking around a bit, I spotted some tiny Asian girls who had 'English School' on their bags and were all in uniforms. I ran up to them and tried to speak English as slow as I could. One of them seemed to understand me and pointed me in the general direction of the street AP was staying on. After sweating through what seemed like at least another 20 minutes of street and hostel searching, I ended up at a hostel and was only let in through the front door because two elderly German women who arrived at the same time I did happened to be staying there. Then, I finally got to see my girl after a tortuous 3 months. I got changed and AP and I grabbed another cab and headed to the Four Points Sheraton, a place that our cabbie happened to know well.

Our hotel was posted up in a pretty nice part of town, so we took a little walk around, discovering nice restaurants and cute shops all within a 10-minute walk of us. Parts of Santiago are very modern, with contemporary architecture and designs that allow for excellent light and general openness. There are also parts that have traces of old Spanish architecture too. Santiago was quite comparable to Buenos Aires in my mind, although Buenos Aires certainly had more water and beaches than the mountainous Santiago. That first evening, AP and I feasted on fantastic food and drinks, continuing our food safari in another continent. 

The pisco sours aren't only in Peru

Giant calzones....yummm

Rooftop pools are legit too

These puppies rarely see the light of day

Our next day, we rented a car and drove out to the west coast of Chile, to the ocean-side town of Vina Del Mar. It literally means 'Vineyard of the Sea' and there was plenty of good wine at the restaurants we ate at. We stayed at the absolutely fantastic Sheraton Miramar Hotel, which sat at a very strategic point right on the coast, with ridiculous views of the rest of Vina del Mar's coastline, as well as the sea itself. I must congratulate Starwood Hotels on this one, because it was really spectacular. They made great drinks at their bar and the gym had ocean views too!

Ocean view

Sunshine and piscos. What more does a girl need?

Best gym view ever

We feasted at the well-respected Chez Gerald restaurant that evening, and I reaffirmed my adoration of duck. It was honestly one of the tastiest things I've ever had. Add it to the food discoveries I've had with AP.

Downtown Vina del Mar

Drooling as we speak

We did receive a bit of tragic news after dinner though. AP's grandmother had passed away in NY after a long battle with diabetes. The news hit AP understandably hard, as she had known her grandmother really well. Her family put a lot of pressure on her to come home and I think she probably felt guilty as well, being so far away while the rest of her fam was in mourning. It was quite odd how I'd had an almost identical experience when my own grandma passed away while I was in Kenya. I knew exactly how AP felt and I tried to offer her consolation, as well as advice. After a very difficult day thinking about it and talking with her fam again, she decided to stay with me for the rest of our vacation. She had luckily been able to see grams that year and I think she'd made her peace with her. She also knew that her grandmother would have absolutely wanted her to enjoy the rest of such a unique experience in South America, and after having met her grandmother myself, I heartily agreed.

We tried to relax by just strolling around Vina del Mar the next day, taking in the sights as much as we could.  There were huge floral clocks, very few stray dogs, and pretty well kept roads. We couldn't help but notice the German influence on a lot of the houses around, and we learned there were many German settlements in Chile, although most are further south, closer to the Lakes District in Chile. However, Spanish was still spoken everywhere and I think I realized I didn't have enough really to get by and went into a bit of freakout mode, considering we were only in like day 3 of the trip. Either way, some pizza and AP's calm demeanor relaxed me, and we pressed on with our journey.

Center of town

Gorgeous flowers everywhere in town

We drove down to Valparaiso, which was just a few miles down the coast from Vina del Mar. It is famous for its multi-colored and vibrant art and cultural scene. It's the unofficial 'Cultural Capital of Chile.' The only thing I really noticed is that there was nowhere to park. I think we both suffered from a bit of poor trip preparation, since neither her nor I had anything we particularly wanted to see in Valpo. That, coupled with crappy weather, and us ending up in some of the sketchier parts of town (every art scene is adjacent to slums in every city in the world, I swear!), and we decided to driving out of Valpo to our next destination in Algarrobo.

Algarrabo is home to a resort famed for having the world's largest pool, the massive San Alfonso del Mar complex. Wealthy Chileans frequent this spot on the weekends, especially in holiday seasons. AP had seen a pretty awesome picture of the pool and we decided we might as well stay there while in Chile. The reason for having such a huge pool right beside the ocean is that the temperature of ocean water was constantly too cold for swimming and leisurely activities. The wind howled and created large and dangerous waves, which probably didn't help. We arrived and, after some poor communication with the local guards, quickly discovered we were there during low season, which had its pros and cons. We got a huge room for a relatively cheap price and didn't have to worry about parking. But on the downside, there was literally no one else there. The restaurants were closed. The mammoth pool was being cleaned and maintained. The gym was locked. And everyone who worked there spoke zero English. This made it an interesting experience, but a disappointing one as far as activities and socializing went.

It's over a kilometer long and has 66 million gallons of water

Did make for some nice pics though

It also is the deepest pool in the world, with max depth of 115 feet. 

AP and I quickly realized that since we were booked for two nights, we would need to figure out stuff to do. Thank God there was wifi in the lobby and I quickly discovered a wine-tasting tour through the nearby Casablanca Valley. Through a very expensive phone call, I learned that our guide was a British sommelier named Michael who had studied in Chile, met a young Chilean women in Valparaiso, and came back from the UK to marry her and start the wine-tasting business, among other ventures. After a fantastic home-cooked pasta meal from AP that evening and a good night's rest, Michael picked us up the next morning and we all took a little trip out to the fantastic Casablanca Valley. Most of the really really good Chilean wine comes from the more easterly Colchagua Valley, representing most of the fine Malbecs and Cabernet's that reach the US. Most of the other wine comes from Casablanca, Maipo, and Aconcagua Valleys. Michael was an excellent guide, who allowed each of the experts at each vineyard to give us their respective tours and suggestions, and Michael then pointed out specific flavors and scents for us to search for during the tastings. We went to 5 different vineyards throughout our day, and the ones I actually remember were: (1) Emiliana Organic Vineyard, who DID have a lot of organic/sustainable processes in place for a vineyard and whose blends of Carmenere are worth buying (2) Casas del Bosque, whose wine I purchased and heartily endorse (3) House, where we had fantastic wine-food pairings for lunch (4) Bodegas Re , where they have both modern and extremely old-fashion wine-making methods, and apparently one more that I can't remember. I might've gotten a wee tipsy. It was a pretty spectacular day, with great weather, more than enough good wine and food, good company, and a great sunset back at the San Alfonso, where we finished off the leftover pastas.

Can't complain about the scenery

Emiliana had alpacas!

And their wine was pretty good too

Chilean flag ~= Texas flag

Our desserts at House Casa del Vino's wine-food pairing

We hated it, obviously

Bodegas Re had massive clay storage vats, a very old-school approach

Our next day, we drove out from Algarrobo and the San Alfonso and headed back to Santiago. We'd originally gotten our rental car with the help of one of the concierge guys at the Four Points Sheraton, and we were supposed to meet up with the rental car guys at the airport, as we were about to fly south. It was a bit hectic calling the hotel while making repeated laps around the airport. The rental car guys didn't speak any English and the contract was all in Spanish too, so all communication basically had to go through this poor concierge guy. Eventually the rental guys showed up and we passed the inspection and made our way into the airport. Our next stop was the lovely lakeside town of Villarica!

The town of Villarica sits on one end of a huge Patagonian lake and it's sister city of Pucon lies on the other end. They both are nestled up next to the reason we came to this small woodland area: the Volcan Villarica. Yup, a volcano. It's actually an active volcano and we read that people climb it every day, so AP and I were very excited to try our hand at that. We stayed at a ridiculous hotel along the lake, yet another in the Starwood program, called Villarica Park Lake. This hotel had absolutely marvelous menus for dinner in their restaurant, had a nice (although small) workout facility, and fairly good customer service, although English was definitely not the strongest among some of the people at the front desk. Regardless, AP and I took one look outside our room and we were pumped to be there.

We'll take it!

We got in pretty late from Santiago, though the flight down to nearby Temuco gave us amazing views of the many volcanoes in the area. We feasted at the hotel's restaurant and got some quality sleep. Our next day we headed out to Pucon to find our outfitter for our volcano climb, Summit Chile. I knew I'd like their place immediately when I saw they had an outdoor rock-climbing wall built into their office. The couple who owned it were a Canadian woman named Suzi and her Chilean husband, the famed climber and mountaineer Claudio Retamal. They were both absolutely awesome. We picked out and tried on the gear we would need for the climb. It was all pretty straightforward and they didn't technically charge for gear rentals, although I'm sure it was rolled into the price of the climb. The rest of the day Amanda and I just walked around Pucon and took in the sights, including the black volcanic sand beach and the various restaurants that Pucon had to offer. A late afternoon sun-baking session alongside the lake at the hotel helped us relax as well.

Volcan Villarica!

Volcanic sand

Not your normal beach color

Reminds me of Leland

We made sure to go to bed early since we would be grabbed at 5:45 the next morning by Claudio. We packed some snacks and sandwiches and Claudio picked us up right on time and we went to the Summit Chile shop to grab our gear and pick up our other climber, a middle-aged Spaniard named Enrique. The volcano itself is only 9,383 feet tall and can be climbed by anyone with a half-decent level of fitness. We rode up to the base of the volcano and took a chairlift to the lowest edge of the snow-covered part of the volcano. I know it's cheating, but it's what was offered, so suck it. It's pretty popular during ski season, so there were multiple lifts on the volcano, but also an equal number that were no longer in use after being damaged by previous eruptions. We threw on our crampons and Claudio pointed out a few basics about snow climbing, such as 'strength steps' and proper ways of turning and whatnot. He demonstrated proper ice axe grips and usage for self-arresting, similar to the stuff I'd learned during my Sierra Nevada climb a few months prior. We then started off, a slow climb up the volcano. We had pretty clear weather for the first hour, as the sun started rising and heating up the mountain.

She looks ready!

Claudio's ready too

We got some pretty awesome views of the area

Abandoned ski-lift which was damaged in an eruption in 1948

Chillin on an active volcano

We shed a layer and grabbed a snack during our first break, since the sun and our own sweat were warming us up quite nicely. However, quickly soon after the clouds started rolling in. We got a lot colder and the snow slowly turned into a whiteout. We were thick in a cloud and getting snowed on. We literally had no idea where the snow on the mountain stopped and the clouds started.

Clouds they are a-movin'

Comin right for us!

Where doth the cloud stop and the mountain start?!

That made things a bit uncomfortable, but Claudio was confident and competent as always and slowly led us up the volcano that he'd climbed so many times before. He probably knew his own footsteps from a few days before. Regardless of the weather, the closer we got to the summit, the more the clouds dissipated. About 10 minutes after Claudio telling us it would be another 2 hours, we reached the top! Heat/fog/clouds were emanating from the center of the top. The summit was really an elevated rim around the depressed part of the volcano from where lava and sulfur come. The closer we stepped to the center, the stronger the smell and taste of sulfur. In fact, any time the wind changed directions, it became very difficult to breathe, with the sulfur digging its way into our lungs. Luckily that only happened once or twice and only for a few seconds. We also noticed that the wind was very strong on the summit and we had difficulty hearing each other. We all posed for some pictures and AP wrote her grandma's name in the snow at the top, dedicating the climb to her :)

@ the summit, note the fumes

That's about as close as we could get to the inner area. Sulfur was too strong

I'm sure that guy was holding his breath

At least we made it!

Grandma Ro

Our descent back down was pretty pleasant because it gave us a chance to glissade. As a reminder, glissading is literally sliding down the mountain on your ass. Summit Chile had provided us with a flat, plastic glissade seat, which let us go fast and control our speed/direction a bit more. Glissading also requires excellent use of the ice axe for breaking and control. Volcan Villarica is climbed and glissaded so much that there were very well-defined chutes for people to move down quickly. My biggest regret was forgetting the helmet attachment for my GoPro, since such a ride down would've been PERFECT for it. Oh well, lesson learned. Either way, we shot down the mountain on our bums really quickly, had a few non-fatal wipeouts, and made it to the soft stuff. We hiked down when the snow became too thin and eventually ditched our crampons and axes and trekked back to the truck. Volcano complete.

I think I'd just fallen during glissade

Made it down, obvi

Yet another ski-lift not being used

We got back to Summit Chile and booked a trip out to the hot springs for the next day. We were fairly tired after the climb, although total time on the mountain was probably only 4-5 hours. Good exercise and good experience regardless. Plus, I didn't even get sunburnt! We took in some much-needed calories after the climb and had another great dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. 

Our next day we were picked up and driven out about 2 hours southeast of Villarica to the Termas Geometricas, or Hot Springs. Since the whole area is pretty geologically active, there are multiple hot spring areas, but Suzi convinced us that this was the best one. I couldn't disagree. There were at least a dozen pools, with the temperature of the water posted at each pool. The stones used to line the pools were of excellent quality. They also had decent food and snacks for anyone needing a break. We were there for probably 3-4 hours, which made for a tremendously relaxing day. On our ride back, we stopped at a beach in Conaripe, since they too had large black sandy beaches. A friendly dip later and we were headed back to Villarica. 

Sneaky valley for hot springs

Steam!

Cooler water was there too

The decor was classy

Had to take a break

That night AP and I had our Christmas dinner together, since we weren't going to be together on actual Christmas. We exchanged gifts of course and a healthy bottle of wine. 

Our final day in town let us take some more pics around the water and of the volcano, since the views from the town were almost as good as those on the volcano itself. We said our goodbyes and took the 90-minute trip back to Temuco to fly north to Santiago. 

Yay Christmas!

The volcano was almost always visible

AP definitely liked it

That night we just stayed at the Holiday Inn next to the airport in Santiago, since our flight to Easter Island departed early the next morning. I must say, the Holiday Inn was shockingly nice. The dinner we had at their restaurant rivaled any of the meals we'd had previously in Chile. The gym and sunsets weren't too shabby either. 

So we hopped on a 5-hour plane ride to one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world: Easter Island! It's known as 'Isla de Pascua' to the Chileans and 'Rapa Nui' to the locals, who trace their origins to Polynesia. It's smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, more than 2000 miles from Chile and almost 1300 miles from the nearest inhabited land. It's a hair over 60 square miles and has less than 6000 people who still live there. The island is famous for the carved statues that dot the landscape, known as the 'Moai.' The Rapa Nui people started carving them in the mid-13th century and stopped when there was a massive revolution that toppled the upper class rulers on the island in the early 16th century. There wasn't any written language, so historians and archaeologists have found it difficult to determine a lot about the Moai. They know they were built to honor the deceased heads of families, and their construction basically gutted the island of many of its natural resources (trees, people, time). The island apparently was covered in palm trees and coconut trees, but now its expanses of rolling hills and land look more like Scotland, vary bare. 

AP and I arrived and we were greeted by some Rapa Nui girls who put flowers in our hair and lei's around our necks. We also made sure to pay the fee to enter the national park there, where most of the Moai were located. It takes up a sizable portion of the island. We stayed at the Tupa Hotel, which had some nice views of the water and island, and most importantly had wifi in the lobby. Just kidding. Well, about it being the most important part. 

Flowers in her hair!

We walked around the coast until we found some lunch and ventured around looking for Moai and Ahu's, which were the large flat altar-like platforms where the Moai stood. We happened upon a few around town, including a few with eyes, that were supposed to represent them 'coming alive.'

It's alive!

Right in town

Remarkably well-preserved

I think this what the Rapa Nui were going for

At Ahu Tahai, where a few Moai stood

That horse didn't read the 'Do Not Touch' sign

We had dinner at a local place whose name escapes me at the moment, but know that there was pretty good food all over Easter Island, lots of seafood and meat as well. Our next day, we took off on a full-day tour all around the island. We stopped at a bunch of various Ahu's and saw a lot of Moai's that had been knocked over during the revolution of the 'short ears' (lower classes) over the 'long ears' (upper classes). Apparently the island's population went from as high as 20,000 to less than 100 at one point, due to the tremendous loss of the island's resources and the ensuing revolution. The Moai's were toppled as symbolic gestures of insult to the upper classes. 

Toppled

The Moai usually faced the people on the island, 'watching' out for them

The heads were pretty massive

We headed over to Ahu Tongariki, which is where they have the most intact statues, a whopping 15 massive Moai next to each other. There was a massive tsunami that basically wiped a lot of them out, but a Japanese construction firm agreed to help clean up the area and restore the statues to their rightful place. They were extremely photogenic structures, so we had almost an hour to walk around and take pics. 

Fashion icon

Ahu Tongariki

The tallest guy there is about 30 feet high. 

Yup, HIM

The size of the Moai reflected the power/money of the family whose leader they were honoring

Picture perfect

Next we made our way to the quarry, where most of the Moai were carved and from where they were mysteriously moved around the island. Rano Raraku is the name of the quarry, and there were around 400 Moai's around the quarry, in various levels of completion. The largest one ever was still there, although it was still very much within the rock itself, and not ready to be moved. 

Rano Raraku

This guy greeted us at the quarry

Unfinished product

This one was the largest, but never finished

They would start carving on top, then move to the sides and finally finish underneath

A few here were toppled too

 Chemists are researching new coatings to help preserve these Moai

No female Moai were made :(

After the quarry, we snacked on our various treats for lunch and made our way to the northern part of the island. We passed by a few more Ahu's on our way to Anakena Beach, where many Moai are but a few steps from the sandy shore. 

@ Anakena Beach

Sunshine and white people. Do not mix

'Navel of the world'

Our full day tour ended around dinner time, so we had a stroll to the main harbor in Hanga Roa and found a nice spot called Haka Honu right along the water. The view was pretty marvelous and the sun was setting at just about the right time for us to enjoy it. The food was out-of-this-world in terms of quality. I had a surf-and-turf type meal and it was, without a doubt, the best meal I had in Chile.

Before I'd ever come to Easter Island, most of the info I knew about it came from whatever brief aside in a history class I came across, or some info from the book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel.' Additionally, I'd seen a documentary called '180 Degrees South,' about Jeff Johnson, a guy from California, that wanted to re-live the 1960's journey taken by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Doug Tompkins, founder of North Face, to South America to climb Patagonian mountains. It was a pretty cool adventure (and eco-) documentary, and along the way, Jeff has to stop by Easter Island to do some repairs on the boat he'd been sailing south. There, he meets a young Rapa Nui woman named Makohe, who surfs with him and teaches him all about the Moai and Rapa Nui culture in general. The film definitely inspired me and when I saw the picture of a Moai in a travel brochure with Amanda, I knew we had to come here. 

About 10 minutes after AP and I sat down in the Haka Honu restaurant, a Rapa Nui woman came in and started singing very slow peaceful music for those of us in the restaurant (probably 7-8 people) and strumming on her guitar. She was singing in the Rapa Nui language, so AP and I asked her about the meaning of the songs (they were mostly love songs), and carried on a nice little conversation. She then told us all about this movie she was in, entitled '180 Degrees South'!!! I'll be honest, I noticed that she had a familiar face, but I thought there was no chance in hell that of the ~6000 people that lived on the island, the only one who I could possibly recognize would walk into the restaurant that AP and I were eating at that very evening! It was one of my favorite memories from the trip. I talked with her about the film and how she hung out with Yvon and Doug, and she informed us that they were both amazing guys, just really down-to-earth people. Naturally, AP and I took some pics with her and bought a few of her CD's, including one for my buddy John, who introduced me to that documentary. It was such a serendipitous moment and I'll certainly cherish it for the rest of my life. It truly is a small world after all.

Us and Makohe (now known as 'Alicia')

 AP and I walked around a bit the next day, but mostly packed and got ready to fly back to Santiago. I really had a fantastic time on Easter Island. We had a bunch of history thrown at us and amazing food and sights to take in as well. my only regret is not spending at least another day there. I'd heartily recommend a minimum 3 night stay, considering you'd have at least a 5-hour flight to and fro.

As soon as we got back to Santiago, we checked back in at the Four Points, since we knew the place was good and we had gotten to know the staff there a bit. We also found that Friday nights in Santiago are quite popular for the restaurant business, as we struggled to find any place nearby with a table. It took us 7-8 different places before we could locate a very small, and honestly not very good, hole-in-the-wall pasta/pizza place between some of the better restaurants.

Our final day in Santiago had us meeting some familiar peeps as well, as one of AP's best friends was arriving in Chile with her family for an extended vacation. She met us at the hotel and we walked around the nearby Providencia area for a few hours, eventually settling at a lunch place. Then, AP's friend and sister went back to their hotel to sleep, so AP and I went to the best viewpoint in the city, atop the Cerro San Cristobal. We took the Bellavista Funicular, which is like a cable-car up the side of the hill to the top. There, we snapped some nice pics of the city of Santiago, shopped a bit at the standard souvenir shops at such a venue, and walked around the churches up there too. It was a great, personal way to end our trip together. We grabbed a quick drink in one of the many bars in the nearby Bellavista area, and headed off.

Our goodbye was definitely an emotional one because we wouldn't see each other again for 3 months. It's always hard to say goodbye after such a great trip. My lasting impressions of Chile are that the country is pretty modern, extremely beautiful, a bit expensive for backpackers, at times a bit difficult without basic Spanish language knowledge, but overall very enjoyable. I'd recommend it and I certainly plan on going back myself. The Torres del Paine national park is further south, in the true depths of Patagonia. Additionally, the Atacama Desert and the great backpacker town of San Pedro de Atacama would both be fantastic places to visit. Hopefully I can find time in life to undertake such an adventure!

After I got back to the states, I grabbed my visa and the next day flew back to the Kingdom. I was sent almost immediately to a remote location about 3 hours from our base in Udhailiyah, and I stayed there for Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, due to the job constraints and the distance to our nearest accommodation, I think I took one shower in the 5 or 6 days I was out there. It was good a experience as usual. That would be the last operation I took sole control of because the tools for my project had arrived and my focus for the rest of my hitch was almost exclusively them.

Who needs accommodation?

Big time operation at gas well

Best Christmas message ever?

2013 was a pretty awesome year. I met a nice young lady and fell in love. I traveled to even more new countries, and got to know a few of my faves even better. I got to have two awesome climbing adventures - Matterhorn Peak in the Sierra Nevadas and Volcan Villarica in Chile. I grew a lot from a career/development standpoint and learned all about our newest downhole tool. 2014 is shaping up to be quite a year as well. I'll update again as soon as I find the time. Cheers, Magoo