Traveling Outlaws

La Sportiva Shoes, the good, the bad and the ugly… Visiting La Boca, Puerto Madero

April 18, 2015

by noutlaw

Old Training Ship – about 19 Trips around the world for Argentine Navy.

Ok – I typically don’t write or comment about products in general. But I’ve spent about 1/2 the day dealing with a broken shoe lace and it’s sort of put a twist in my shorts. This is my secon pair of this exact La Sportiva Shoe – the first pair split in the leather so JAX did an exchange for this pair. Personally, my expectation is that a shoe should be designed to last more than three months. My first pair I got a summer out of them doing all sorts of scout related things, but then the leather split right before our trip and they were a no go. Since the shoes fit my feet so well I elected to simply get the same shoe so I didn’t have to spend $125 again. Read More

Buenos Aires – Adventure Continues – over 1/2 way in our travels

April 16, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 4

Argentina

Gavin gets a new hat! People come up to him and start speaking spanish because of his jersey they think he’s a local.

Well it’s official now – we are over 1/2 way on our journey through south america. Technically it was last week (9th) that’s the 1/2 way mark, but last night we were talking about all the things we have done in the first three months, sort of wondering what’s coming in the next three. We leave on Monday to head to Iguazu Falls – should be a three day drive, then back down to Salta Argentina for about a week, then we will cross into the Atacama desert and into Chile on our way to Peru. It’s always sort of stressful to plan out where you think you will be and calculating travel times, distances, where you think you can find gas, etc. But we think we have a tentative plan for the next two or three weeks until we cross into Chile. I think that crossing is at about 14,000 ft. We also have to start dealing with Peru’s altitude issues so will slowly aclimate back to being at higher altitudes. We have been working out regularly by running around our local park, doing pushups, situps, etc. – all hoping that we can do more advanced hikes on the next phase of our journey. Read More

Montevideo and Colonia, Uruguay

April 10, 2015

by Gavin O.

comments 3

Argentina

An old car in Colonia

So, Uruguay. Most people think,”oh, just another country in South America. It is not worth visiting.” Those people have it all wrong. Uruguay is a small country in South America with a population of 3,500,000, with 1,500,000 of those people living in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. With lush forest in the NW near Brazil, it is a great place to vist. Read More

Buenos Aires: Futbol, Polo, Walking Tours, and more…

April 8, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 4

Uncategorized

Well we have been busy here in the big city for about a week now. Today we are heading to Montevideo via the boat – leaving our car here in the garage. For the past week we have been pretty busy doing lots of things and being city dwellers. First off I got a bit of the tourista bug so was down for a day, it’s took a shot at Hayden as well so he was also down for a day – but we are back to normal now… Overall we have been cooking at our house since it has a BBQ (Parilla) up stairs on the roof area. Given that we have been eating out for the past month or so it has been nice to cook and eat our own meals. Ok, back to your normally scheduled “things we did”… Read More

2800km Later on RN3, Buenos Aires (Finally!!!)

March 30, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 4

Uncategorized

Ok we did it – we have finally arrived in Buenos Aires. After driving 2800KM – not including side roads, etc. we have arrived at our lovely townhouse in Palermo Soho – inside of Buenos Aires. The drive was getting very old as nothing was changing. At one point Cindy and I were talking to each other (imagine that) about the drive and she was telling me…. “I’m trying to think of each bush as an individual…” – we had see so many rocky/bushy areas with the occassional Guanaco running around that we were ready for the scenery to change. About 700KM out of Buenos Aires it finally changed and we started getting grass. I had to take a moment to actually say “hey there’s a hill over there”. Read More

There’s this place… Bahia Bustamante, Argentina

March 24, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 10

Argentina

Don’t miss the turn.

Well we have been offline for several days staying at Bahia Bustamante on the coast of Argentina. When you first trying to get here you simply drive along RN/3 (Hwy 3) then you get to a gravel road that cuts off the highway. You do a double take, making sure this is the right place, then realize it must be and start driving down the gravel road. After about 5 KM you are driving through multiple estancia’s – and seeing sheep, Guanaco’s (llama’s), and the occasional Rhea (mini Ostrich) running along the road. It’s a bumpy downhill ride then smooths out as you head towards the ocean – simply wondering where you are going and whwat you will find when you get there. After about 45 minutes of driving on this road (45 KM) you get to Bahia Bustamante. At first glance you feel like you arriving at a closed factory next to a beach with no one there… but as you drive forward you realize you have arrived at this very small town and your home for a couple of days. Special Note: if you find Bahia Bustamante on a map – looking to the East, the next landmass is New Zealand – so we are definately still down here a ways. Realizing that we aren’t even above the tip of Africa after several days of driving was pretty good for the fellas.

Punta Arenas: Exploring this historical city, the Graveyard and our big turn to the North

March 19, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 5

Argentina

We have spent a couple of days in Punta Arenas Chile, exploring and doing some routine items. I chipped my tooth again (sorry no photos) in the same spot where it always does – so found my way to a local dentist office. It was very nice – no “do you have insurance’ – simply – you pay $50 and see the doctor. We have talked with many local people about the healthcare system – some people come to South America to have procedures done. One example, a husband/wife team from New York are physicias (he is Argetine) – she was here and broke her hip. Before the surgery the hospital gave him a list of things (IV, needles, tubing, etc.) and he had to go down to the local pharmacy and buy it all. He said in the US it would have cost $1000, it cost about $20. For her hip, the medical device company came to their hotel and they picked out the make/model of the hip – you pay the company directly and then deliver it to the Dr. for replacement. All in all medical care is good, and cheaper here than the US.

Torres De Paine: What an Amazing Place

March 15, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 4

Chile

Snow covered peaks in the park – they opened up for about 30 minutes and they were spectacular.

We made it successfully to our hotel in Torres Del Paine National Park. This park is a huge place, and it is 75KM from the nearest gas station, so you must fill up before hand. We used almost all of our gas getting there, driving around and back to Puerto Natales. We do have spare gas so I wasn’t worried about it though. The roads are really good compared to others we have been on – not too many pot holes, and really not to hard to drive. We arrived at our hotel which was very nice, almost too nice for having kids at – but we showed up, and promptly proceeded to wash our clothes in the tub/sink and hang them all over our bathroom. Probably a no-no in such a fancy place but we needed clean clothes…

Navimag to Torres Del Paine: 5M Seas, 50 knot winds, incredible views, an extra three days… and more

March 13, 2015

by noutlaw

comments 5

Chile

Arrival in Puerto Natales, Spectacular

Well we have been offline for almost a week now. We took a ship from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales Chile – which goes down the coast “inland” then goes offshore for a stretch of about 14 hours and basically in the sourthern ocean. The boat trip was spectacular, however due to weather we were delayed leaving, delayed in route and delayed getting in. After experiencing the ocean side of the trip I’m glad the captain waited to cross the ocean exposed part. On the trip coming up they had 10+ meter seas (40 ft) and 60+ knot winds – going into the sea and into the winds – i spoke to the medic onboard and every passenger was sick.

Teatro del Lago

March 6, 2015

by Gavin O.

comments 2

Chile

Teatro del Lago Frutillar

So, there is this really cool Theater on the water that really speaks out to me. On the first of March, we went and saw a graduating concert for the students who were enrolled and were presented their Diploma from College of the arts. After all, this theater is also big on educatio. This theater is well known throughout the world. I mean, people have come from every continent in the world to play at this theater. And this is not just for symphonies. It can be used for Ballet, Opera, Bands, Symphonies, Plays and more. And the nice thing is about this theater, is that it has two auditoriums. One really big, and one not so big. We saw our concert in the smaller one, which has a very nice view of the lake and Osorno Volcano.