Brasil

September 3rd - spent the past two days in Valle de Uco and Maipu drinking more wine than Jesus. Will post about that later, but for now, all I have is...












... South America is fucked up.







September 1st - CS and I have been traveling like crazy this week. It's hard to believe that it was only yesterday, but just over the border from Brazil into Argentina, we spent the night at Iguazu Falls. I believe this is one of the natural wonders of the world. Our accommodations were somewhat of an adult tree house. Our room was literally in the middle of the jungle about 200m down a wooden walkway from the main lodge. I only wish we had more time to spend there swinging in the hammock and drinking Quilmes Stout.

So yesterday at the falls we were the obvious Americans with no regard for early morning single digit Celsius. We opted to take the Aventura Nautica, a twelve minute boat ride into the falls. It's one of those overwhelmingly surreal situations where you can't quite absorb what is happening to you in real time. Maybe because A) you're the only idiots on the 20 person capacity boat (literally the first boat tour of the morning) as it is freezing cold, B) it defies all North American safety standards to drive a boat INTO a deadly waterfall and C) it's goddamn beautiful. Look at this shit. It's fucking magic. You can ride a unicorn off the top of the falls too, but they were tired.




September 1st - just arrived in Mendoza via overnight sleeper bus. EVERY bus should be like this bus. Fully reclining seats, complimentary meals, including wine, champagne, and Bourne Identity with spanish subtitles. Today, CS and I are hoping to rent bikes and make our own unofficial winery tour in Maipu. Tomorrow we are trying to hook up with a private driver that was recommended to me by a friend I met in Sau Paulo Brazil. This guy will drive us around to the wineries of our choosing in Cuyo.

A few days ago CS and I were on a protected island about an hour boat ride from Angra dos Reis, Brazil, known as Isla Grande. Crystal clear waters, stray dogs, ominous pirate ships and beach paddle ball abound.






August 29th - returned from Paraty at around noon today and spent the entire day in Copacabana before heading to Ipanema to catch the sunset. Tomorrow CS and I fly to Iguazu Falls and venture to Argentina. Goodbye, Brazil. It's been a great three weeks.






August 27th - be safe in Hurricane Irene, east coast friends. Staying at a great bed and breakfast with CS called Pousada Pardeiro in a very cool colonial fishing town called Paraty. Here's a marmoset I saw a few days ago at the Jesus Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.... or a Paul Magyar sighting? You be the judge. Hey, I hear you get the munchies on that Appalachian Trail...












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Montana

October 9 - I'm currently in Santiago, Chile. I'm staying in some random apartment that is actually quite nice... spending some time in the city and then crossing the Andes via RN 7 again so that I can drop the car in Salta, Argentina.

Here's a photo of an extreme fire Bott and I started on the last night we stayed in Glacier National Park. We got a bit aggressive with it after some dick stole our campsite and we were essentially forced to give it to him because he was old. Old and stupid. Old and stupid and a dick.





Here's a few more from Glacier to lighten the mood.

Backcountry skiers hiking out to a crazy vertical drop at Logan's Pass




Hike to Granite Chalet





Bott photo-ing on Going To The Sun Road







September 25 - I'm pretty far removed from the trip out west in July at this point, but I'm going to post a few oldies from that trip. There may be more later too. Today Magyar and I rented ATVs and ripped around the foothills of Cerro Catedral. Finally getting some post rain clear skies as the ash is likely going to be gone for 3 or 4 more days. Tomorrow we are going to El Bolson to check out the town and hike up to a refugio with intentions of staying in the mountain and returning Tuesday night.



Glacier National Park, Montana. Going To The Sun Road.







A view of Heaven's Peak when hiking a few miles into Swiftcurrent Pass after reaching Granite Chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana.







Bott (Trailboss)






Going To The Sun Road







September 1 - in Mendoza, Argentina currently. Remember that bird that I had on my arm in Bott's Facebook post a few weeks ago? His name is Frankie and this is his headshot. Put a bird on it.





August 22 - in the Sao Paulo airport... leaving for Rio de Janiero in a few minutes. I realized a full trip update with every photo is basically impossible, so i'm going to end up randomly posting things of interest. I have to show you this.





Why am I making you look at a photo of a nearly black Montana sky at 1:30am? Look closely. Bott and I found this sketchy campsite along the side of a river outside Glacier National Park on the second night of the trip. It was recommended by our fly fishing guide, Ben. It was clearly posted with "No Camping" signs, but we couldn't imagine anyone coming down there to say anything by the time we were out of there in the morning. After a few beers and some sort of weird cookie indigenous to Baltimore that was provided to us by our honeymooning neighbors, a storm approached from the east, encroaching on our clear sky. That sky had a nearly full moon. To the south I saw a strange arc shape in the sky coming up from the ground. With some intense staring, I realized it was a rainbow... but at 1:30am? I could see colors. Bott wasn't so sure, so I decided if I took a long exposure photo I might be able to absorb enough light to make it obvious. Is it obvious? Not in this horrible photo... but if I lighten it in photoshop...





How about now?




Dare I say double rainbow?

Upon further research, this is a real phenomenon often referred to as a moonbow, lunar bow, or a white rainbow. They are very seldom witnessed, as the amount of light produced by the rainbow is typically too weak to catch the attention of the human eye. It is even more rare that they occur without a waterfall, as an infrequent set of conditions is necessary. I didn't even know that such a thing existed until I saw it with my own eyes.

I'll write again this week.



August 18... I'm in Sao Paulo, Brazil right now... hungover with Leo... catching some internet for the first time in a while... in the meantime, check out what is possibly my favorite location on earth... Granite Chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana. Go there. It is literally breathtaking.





Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park







I swear I'll do a full post of this trip... hopefully state by state... but for now here's a photo of backcountry skiers at Logan's Pass, Glacier National Park.