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Before I left home my local newspaper interviewed me about the trip. I used the opportunity to mention our sponsors, one of which is the underwear company Ex´Officio. Next thing I knew there was an article in the Sunday paper. ¨Jackson Boy to Circle The Globe Wearing One Pair of Underwear¨. My mom was floored. She called the newspaper to demand justice. ¨They have two pairs each, ¨ she growled accusingly. The paper printed a correction. I feel like I´m letting my whole town down. I don´t mind trashing a pair.

We are having a lot of fun grappling with Spanish. On a bus in Patagonia, I initiated a rather laborious conversation with the guy across the aisle. I just wanted to know if he cared to eat the pork that had come on my sandwich. We had a terrible time understanding each other. For several minutes we went back and forth until, in despair, I asked him if he spoke English. ¨I live in England! ¨ he exclaimed with a crisp cockney lilt. We had a good chat. Despite such setbacks, Jeremy and I are definitely improving at Spanish. I learned the word for marriage, ¨matrimonia¨. I aslo learned the word for handcuffs, ¨matrimonia.¨

Mapquest gives an error message (I just checked) if you try to get directions from Argentina to Alaska. So, in case you´re interested in the route, I better share some details. Patagonia refers, fairly generally, to the southern region of South America. If you go far enough south, by default, you go to Patagonia. The Andes mountain range stretches all the way to the Southern tip of South America, even in the extreme south granite skags thousands of meters upward. The lowlands (on the Argentine side where we passed) are reminiscent of Wyoming, not the Tetons part, but the more barren, lonesome part.

Our bus ride from Rio Gallegos to Bariloche (24 hours w/o food –we thought they served food on the bus) was mostly through lonely wasteland where Guanacos and Rheas (mini ostriches) provide the only relief from boredom. For most of the ride we were too far east to see the Andes. The scenery improved in a hurry when we reached the mountains. Bariloche is definitely the South American version of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, complete with several ski resorts.

Bariloche blew me away, but I had no idea what was next. Che Guevara writes in ¨Motorcycle Diaries¨ of his ride through the ¨seven lakes¨ region. Oh my word! The seven lakes route is unreal. I felt like I was on the planet Pandora from Avatar. The lakes themselves are gorgeous, but it´s not just lakes. The forest is a legit rainforest, complete with enormous trees and lush, colorful undergrowth. Granite walls and snow capped peaks jut boldly up from the rainforest into the sky. Below lay the lakes. Most lakes are accompanied by meadows. In each meadow gothic looking skeletons of trees stand guard in their cloaks of Spanish moss. I´m quite enamored with the seven lakes. I wished that our wanderings were less purposeful so that we could stay, camp, and plunge into the wilderness.

We´ve got a long ways to go so we´ll move on in the morning. We´re not sure whether we´re headed: Bolivia or Chile. If we haven´t decided by morning we´ll have to play paper-rock-scissors again. I lost last time but I´ve been lying awake at night contemplating strategy. Jeremy says his brother Justin can beat him nearly every time. I´d like to discuss this with Justin. Our moral is high, hope yours is too.

This is my blog archive. For my most recent blog visit www.thewholeworldround.com
blessings.

El Fin Del Mundo

We´re at the starting line, Ushuia Argentina. The official trip starts tomorrow morning with a 36 hour bus ride. We would rather ¨hacer dedos¨ (hitch hike - translates literally as ¨doing fingers¨), but this part of the world is a bit cold and desolate so we´re going to ride buses a little closer to the equator before trying our ¨dedos¨.

The people here, in the world´s southern most city, are proponants of the upside down world maps that put Antarcitica at the top of the page rather than the bottom. This, ofcourse, is just as fair a representation as the maps that are oriented so that north is at the top of the page. Unfortunately for the Argentinians, history´s more influential cartographers lived in the northern hemisphere and fancied themselves at the top of the page as well. Sorry guys. Anyway, the big upside down map hanging in our hostel claims that Ushuia is the ¨End of the World, Beginning of Everything.¨ This statement may have never been truer than it is in the case of our trip.

The Strait of Magellan, which we will cross tomorrow, was discovered in 1520 by -you´d have never guessed- Ferdinand Magellan in his attempt to do ¨The Whole World Round¨ by sea. He is credited with the first circumnavigation of the globe, although his crew had to finish the trip without him for reasons I feel it is inappropriate to mention in light of my mother´s concern for my own life. Anyway, I find stories of explorers very inspiring, however they also remind me that frontiers can be hard to come by.

The great race to the South Pole between Scott and Amundsen happened not so far from here. Imagine how Scott feld when he arrived at the South Pole only to find Amundsen´s flag which had been placed there a few short days before. The explorers heart yearns for the significance of being the first. It´s a big deal. Even though I don´t yet know of anyone who has done the exact trip we´re doing, the world has been explored and there´s a slew of ¨Lonely Planet¨books to prove it. I may be forced into a career as an astronaut in order to find an satisfactory frontier.

In the mean time, while NASA waits, I´ve developed a method of making everything seem like a frontier. It´s called deliberate ignorance. If I don´t carry a map, a phone, or a ¨Lonely Planet¨ book, my experience will be much like that of the early explorers. Jeremy is an explorer of the highest caliber, but he doesn´t have the same qualms about maps and phones that I do. So we´re practicing a system that I know will work well for both of us. It´s like this: We both assume very somber facial expressions. I –like Lewis and Clark must certainly have done- wave my hands in wild gestures, attempting to ask Jeremy –via sign language- which way I should go. He gives a gruff snort and stares stoicly out over the horizon for several seconds while adjusting his feather, he then squats in the dirt and scratches me a map. We proceed. It´s gonna be good trip.