Merry Christmas

San Juan Island Winter

Lime kiln lighthouse on San Juan Island

Holiday Season in Friday Harbor

Headed to the desert!

Summer in Paradise

Hundred dollar cheeseburgers in Port Townsend

Afternoon flight over the San Juans

Cloud surfing from Friday Harbor to Tacoma

Over Bremerton

Flight to Tacoma

Back home..

After 2 or 3 days traveling (hard to keep track) I'm finally home... Looks like something bad...

Owls in Argentina

Looked out the window this morning to see this little guy hanging out in the trees!

This ain't no fish story....

This is without a doubt the biggest Brown Trout I’ve ever caught! The fishnet in the picture is 21 inches long... This fish is longer! By the way, that is my foot in there, and it’s 12 inches long! So proof is in the photo – this was one HUGE fish! It broke my 10lb. line just as I was netting it – so I know it weighs in at over 10 lbs! And check out it’s teeth! Fun day fishing in the creatively named Lago Numero Uno (Literally, Lake No. 1)

Our cabaña in Coyhaique

Another beautiful cabaña in Chile! We are in the city of Coyhaique but we’re headed back to Argentina today. Be sure to scroll down the blog, as I added a lot of photos today!

Harvesting Glacial Ice for the Cooler!

After spending a GRUELING 8 minutes walking to see a glacier and ice field, and the GRUELING 6 minutes back, I decided to snatch a piece of 12,000 year old ice to stuff in the cooler. Turns out, that river was DAMN COLD!

Dada's Big Brown Trout!

Fishing off the cliffs in front of our Hospedaje, Pasarela el Sur, Dada caught a 4 or 5 pounds! It was amazing!

Caught one in Lago General Carrera!

We found a BEAUTIFUL lake right on the border of Chile & Argentina, called Lago Buenos Aires in Argentina, and the same lake is called Lago General Carrera in Chile. It’s the 2nd biggest lake in South America, THE deepest lake in South America, at 1600’ deep! This fish was caught in a river at the eastern end of the lake!

Fly Fishing the Rio Los Antiguos

Today Dada & I hired a guide to take us out fishing. It was amazing! We are in a little town called Los Antiguos, on the south side of the second biggest lake in South America, Lago Buenos Aires. The lake is 100+ miles long, and over 1500 feet deep! Our guides took us about 25 kilometers up the Rio Los Antiguos, and then a 30 minute hike down a crazy canyon, and the fishing began! In 5 hours, we must have each caught around 80 fist. Most were in the 8-10 inch range, a few were 3-5 inches, and I got a few lunkers near 3 lbs!

Attack of the killer Sea Lions!

Today I went scuba diving with the Sea Lions somewhere outside of Puerto Piramides. It was amazing! I was never deeper than 16 feet, but there were 30-40 females and 5 or so males. The males get up to 1100lbs! And after seeing them on the ground, it was hard to believe how graceful they are underwater.

Here's a short video clip of a female biting my camera and my knee!

Sea lions at Punto Piramides

We took a little drive to get off our asses and shake off the afternoon cervezas, and were quite surprised to round a bend in the road and come across this amazing scene!Maybe 500 sea lions on the beach with little pups and lots of birds! And the path to the overlook was paved with 15 million year old sea shell fossils!

New tracker working!

Well, I sure don´t know why the tracker on my webpage isn´t working, but I found another way for you to see where I am and where I have been, complete with photographs along the way! I try to add to it every day, but sometimes I am without internet for several days at a time. You can view the tracker by clicking HERE.

Today I am in Puerto Pyramides, on the southeast coast of The Valdes Peninsula. Two nights ago I was on the north coast, Puento Norte, hanging out with the penguins and their chicks, sea lions and their pups, and some huge elephant seals! Tomorrow I am going SCUBA diving with the sea lions! More photos and hopefully some video to come!

Hanging out with Sea Lions

Day two on the Valdes Peninsula, we went out to play with the Sea Lions! We were literally sitting within 20 feet of these HUGE things! It was amazing! The big males were too busy keeping track of their harems, to take much notice of us. But every once in a while a juvenile male would make a move for some females, and a battle would ensue. A couple of times, the juveniles would come behind us, and the GIANT males would lunge at the juvenile, more or less straight at us! Yikes!

Penguins at the Valdes Peninsula

We went out to the Valdes Peninsula for a few days, to see the wildlife! Our first night was at Punto Norte, at a fantastic place called Estancia Ernestina, where our host, Juan, took us on an evening tour to see the Magellan Penguins...

Made it to the Atlantic Coast

Last night, actually 3am this morning, we made it to Puerto Madryn on the southern end of the beginning of the Peninsula Valdes. It was a LONG drive, but we made it after a 4 hour stop in Tecka to get our ruptured fuel line fixed. Of course we were out of gas now, several hundred miles from anywhere, and due to a national gas crisis, waited in line for an hour to only be sold 50 pesos of gas, about 25 litres. (thats about $18.00us for 7.5 gallons). We seriously didn't think we'd make it. Three hours later, running on fumes, we found another 50 peso stop which got us to Trelew. Another fiasco (I'll write more on that one later) and we made it to a town of hundres of thousands (well, maybe not) of peopleand ony one hotel room available - for over $200US. FOUR times what we've paid anywhere else. Woke up to see this view - and it was all worth it!!

Broken down in Tecka

About 20 km out from Tecka (nowhere) we blew a gas line. I figured out a way to patch it... A little bit! The engine would only idle and no more. We had to stop 3 times to re-patch, and we lost 3/4 tank of gas. Finally made it to Tecka, and now we're waiting for the mechanic. 20 minutes! Well , we've been waiting over 60 minutes so far...

Arrival in El Bolsón, AR

Made the trek from Bariloche to El Bolsón today.. See? I DO drink!

Egypt in South America?

After more than 30 hours traveling (20 in the air!), 6 airports, 4 flights, several busses, and a few taxis, I finally arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. It was a long trip! I am still trying to get over the travel and jetlag. My dad met me at the airport, and we drove thru town and then out to the cabañas... Where did I say I was again? Looks like Cheops lives here. In fact, these buildings are scale versions, at 4% the original size. This place truly is a slice of Argentinean paradise!

The road to Patigonia

The time is coming near when I will depart to South America, for a grand journey through the Southern Patagonia region, and all the way south to Tierra del Fuego. There will (hopefully!) be scuba diving, fly-fishing, camping, stranding orca, penguines, glaciers... Who know's what!? The only question is... With all the electronic gear you know I'm going to take, along with all the fishing and diving gear, do you think it will all fit in my bag?