Callie's new blog continues the story...

Callie has started a new blog with our recent travels, adventures and other fun stuff (I experienced blog burnout, but Callie is psyched, so...) If you're interested, go to http://daveandcallie.blogspot.com

Ciao,
Dave

St. Looney

After travelling throughout Latin America for much of the winter, the obvious next choice was to head for St. Louis, Missouri... I spent 5 days visiting Callie and checking out the "Gateway to the West"... Well, the arch won out as the most fun activity, but a close second was the downtown record shop adventure, which offered a rich cultural experience. Next on the docket - a SouthEast climbing tour with Callie for the last two weeks of March. BTW, I changed my comments settings so now you can make a comment without doing the silly sign in thing... feel free to slander away!

Argentina

I spent two weeks in the Northern region of Patagonia, Argentina. I based out of the well known resort town of Bariloche. The town has a distinctly European feel with lots of great food (chocolate to the max), fun people and really tasty inexpensive red wine. The town also boasts a great bus system that can get you most anywhere you want to go pretty quickly. I spent a few days touring and hiking around town, about a week climbing up in the mountains South of town and a few days at nearby Mount Tronador. The weather was super stable and warmer than usual. I ended up traveling down there alone as my planned partner got injured the week before the trip, but I was lucky to find a couple of fun people to climb with up in the hills; Ty from Wyoming and Mel from Alaska. All in all it was a great trip (except for the bout with the Argentinian stomach bugs) and I would definitely go back, maybe next time going further south as well... (please excuse the scruffy layout of my blog, but the editing tools available on blogger are quite minimal and a bit testy...)

Costa Rica

Callie and I were in Costa Rica from Dec 31 to Jan 14. We spent most of our days on beaches and in rainforests, with a 3 day stint in a higher altitude "cloud forest" as well. Cruising around on public transportation chewed up some time too (roads are generally pretty slow...). The country is very diverse geographically for such a small land mass with elevations ranging from sea level to almost 12,000'. We saw a lot of great birds (79 species total) and some super fun lizards, monkies, frogs and even a crocodile! We did a little bit of surfing, some jungle "zip lines", rainforest hiking and many long beach walks. Sunset happy hours were also on the agenda. Overall we had a great time! One thing that surprised us was that the locals we met were not that friendly in general (to us or each other)... maybe a few too many tourists?? Off to Vegas this weekend, then Argentina next week!

Potrero Chico Mexico

I was climbing down in Potrero Chico from November 21 - December 2. Turkey day consisted of Chile Rellenos and tequila :-) ... The weather was cooler and less stable than normal which limited climbing on a few days, but luckily there are some great hikes to do as well as some true local culture in nearby Hidalgo for entertainment... The climbing here is good quality limestone with routes as long as 2000'. The scene is very relaxed and climber friendly. We also took a full rest day and travelled to some very nice hot springs about 30 miles away which helped the joints and injuries. With all the

unstable weather, there were lots of cool clouds swirling about the walls most days

Next I'll be travelling to Tennessee and North Carolina to visit my folks. After that, off to Costa Rica...

Zion Canyon

After climbing so much in Joshua Tree, my upper body needed a break (it's tough getting old ya know...), so I headed to Zion Canyon for 2 days of hiking. The weather was perfect, fall colors were still around and there were very few people. Good stuff! Pente really liked the Zion campground... lots of places to scratch and roll in the dirt. I'll be heading home tomorrow for a few days before I head South to El Potrero Mexico. Life is good! :-)

Joshua Tree, CA

After the madness of Vegas it was great to arrive in the desert climbing dirtbag mecca known as Joshua Tree... Here you can live cheap, climb lots and generally detox from the crazy world we live in. I've been going to Josh since '83 and still love it... Great climbing, great weather, beautiful landscapes, super fun people and a laid back scene. This trip I was also fortunate enough to learn of the desert sushi fest, which was a great time... I've been here 9 days now and will likely begin heading NEast Sunday or so... In the meantime, it's a rest day in Josh and many calories are in order...