Hola, Chau. Bueno Aires

And in a blink of an eye, a month passed in Buenos Aires. We arrived at the tail end of summer, catching the last bits of the hot summer months. Today, waiting for our flight to Rio, autumn has certainly set in with scarves, puffies and coats coming out. After spending nearly 3 months in small towns and cities, it was a breath of fresh air (or dog poop?) to spend some time in this massive city. Another welcome experience was having some familiarity from home with visits from friends and reconnecting with old friends in the city.

Here’s a quick recap of the past 7 months:

1. Lima - Lauren and I landed in Lima and spent 1.5 months in the city taking Spanish classes.

2. Cusco & Arequipa - Our friend Kendra came and travelled around the South of Peru. Highlights included seeing Machu Picchu and hiking in the Colca Canyon

3. Rapa Nui (Isla De Pascua, Easter Island) - Still one of the most memorable places I’ve gone to and would highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in Chile!

4. Bariloche & the Nahuel Huapi Traverse - One of the only times I thought I was going to skid down the side of the mountain. The start of our trip down Patagonia.

5. Chilean & Argentinan Patagonia - Our two month journey down through Patagonia, seeing all the major stops. Getting to the end of the world in Ushuaia (brr).

What can I say about Buenos Aires? I loved it. We stayed in the older district of San Telmo where the narrow streets are lined with colonial buildings, cobblestone, coffee shops and bakeries on every block. It was exciting to experience the best parts of city life: late night concerts, bars, amazing restaurants, coffee and people watching. The city has the familiarity of other global cities I’ve been to - New York, Paris, Barcelona - but all set in the context of Latin America. The history of the city is fascinating, as is wandering down the endless streets. I will miss the beautiful architecture, the buzz of the busy streets, buskers on the metro, empanadas galore, one of the coolest drum shows and the amazing wine. I won’t miss having to dodge dog poop on every street block, being sandwiched in the sweaty metro, or flung like a rag doll on the bus.

Life on the road is exciting and it has been a joy to travel around Latin America. The hardest part has been the disconnection from my community back home. The people I’ve met and friendships I’ve created are almost always temporary. This is something I’ve grown to know about travelling after these past years. Being away from Vancouver has me thinking more about the communities I’m a part of and friendships I have back home. Learning about the many ways Latins connect makes may excited to see what practices I can create in my own life and communities.

Things like staying out until ungodly hours, afternoon siestas, long weekend lunches and of course, the parilla (Argentine barbecue). Other ways to become more active in my community come to mind, like finding more long term volunteer opportunities, becoming more civically engaged and getting to know more people in the film community. Having our friends come visit over the month was a reminder of just how important my relationships are.

Del Fin Del Mundo

23,566 KM and we have finally reached the opposite end of the world, Ushuaia, the “southern most city in the world”. Situated on the island of Tierra del Fuego (land of fire), this is our final stop in our almost two month journey down through Patagonia.

To be perfectly honest, the city is an underwhelming mixture of shops selling tourist knick knacks, boutiques and a big hard rock restaurant in the middle of town. Despite its lack of charm, the small city is a welcome respite of civility after spending nearly 20 days camping. Sandwiched between the mountains and sea also welcomes beautiful views.

After completing the Nahuel Huapi Traverse in Bariloche, we spent a good three weeks on the island of Chiloé. Days consisted of baking bread, writing, watching movies and befriending a street dog - Mago. Instead of going to our next destination overland, I proposed on a more adventurous route: taking a 30 hour ferry to the small town of Coyhaique. As expected, we faced a 15 hour delay on our ferry and we ended up staying an extra night in the small port town of Quellon. The ferry ride was spectacular - we saw sea birds, dolphins, a whale’s tale and enjoyed the slow passing of time. We ate empanadas, watched telenovelas and listened to musicians play and dance.

Cerro Castillo

We arrived into port late at night and luckily snagged two seats on a shuttle to Coyhaique.

Off of the typical trail of Patagonia hiking routes, this was one of my favourite hikes during our trip. After taking a 1.5 hour bus ride through the desolate country side, we arrived at the trailhead in Las Horquetas. On the first day, the trail wanders through a private ranch, mostly inhabited by massive cattle. Besides a few hikers, we were outnumbered by the cows. The first day’s camp is in a beautiful valley by the river, reminiscent of the Squamish Valley. The park rangers warned of strong winds through a mountain pass that occur in the late morning. We decided to wake up at pre-dawn and start making our way up the mountain pass to try and get the best weather. After crossing through a forest, the trail leads through a scree and ice pass and then drops into another stunning valley. Luckily for us the weather was perfect and there wasn’t a breeze.

The campsite, perched above the valley, has 180 degree views of hanging glaciers and is a short walk to the laguna under Cerro Castillo Mountain. This was definitely a highlight of my time in Patagonia. Way less crowded than the other hikes, this is gem well worth the effort to get to. The full circuit continues to another campsite to see the backside of Cerro Castillo, but we decided to cut our hike shorter as Lauren’s ankle was giving her problems. We made our way back down to the tiny town of Villa Cerro Castillo where I attempted to reserve a bus spot for the next day. After calling every single bus company and unable to reserve a spot, we decided we might as well try to hitchhike.

David, a PE teacher who lives in Coyhaique, picked us up, as well as another Chilean traveler. The drive home was stunning as we drove out of the mountain range, down a valley and through the plains. We had a great conversation about futbol, Chilean politics and what it’s like to live so far away from a major city. 30 minutes before reaching town, a taxi decided to overtake our car and swerved into a bird. An explosion of multicoloured plumes scattered on the road. David pulled over to go check on the bird. He came back running with the dead bird by the legs with a huge grin on his face: “Cena!” (dinner!). And that was how I rode back to town with a dead pheasant between my legs.

Coyhaique to Chile chico

Returning to Coyhaique and our lovely Airbnb Hosts, we rested and planned our overland travel to El Chaltén. Before the trip, I was a little concerned about the logistics of the crossing, but after asking around it became simpler than I had imagined. From Coyhaique, we took a bus to a ferry and then crossed through the small town of Chile Chico and into Argentina in Los Antiguos. I had major FOMO passing through Chile Chico as it’s a launching point to the newly opened Parque Patagonia. I definitely want to come back and do some multi-day hikes in this region. We connected effortlessly and enjoyed burgers before taking an overnight bus to El Chaltén.

Argentina’s youngest city, El Chalten is home to 800 permanent residents and is the launching point to the famous Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The tiny town was surprising energetic, with tons of tourists walking above coming from and going to hikes. There was a noticeable shift coming from Coyhaique, which consisted mostly of Chilean tourists to El Chalten where French and English seemed to be the dominant languages. I slowly felt sucked back into the realm of tourists as we made our way further south.

El Chalten & El CalafatE

With Lauren’s ankle still injured, I took a 2 night adventure to the mountains alone. There are plenty of day hikes and circuits to tailor a trek however you wish. There are no reservations or camp fees, which was refreshing compared to how Chile’s Parks operate. I made my way to my first campsite at the base of Cerro Torre. In the late afternoon, the busy crowds dispersed and surprisingly, I found myself alone with a beautiful sunset. I woke up early the next day and set off to the second campground at Laguna Tres, at the base of Fitz Roy. I decided to skip the popular sunrise ascent and decided to stay until the sun was going down. After a 40 minute ascent to the base of Fitz Roy, I encountered hordes of tourists with selfies and all. I ate my trail mix and contemplated our obsession with taking photos in front of beautiful vistas. I sat there Judging the people having their photo taken by the lake with their many poses: looking out in contemplation, doing dancer’s pose, smiling with arms out stretched, or standing with enough skin exposed to get hypothermia, until of course, my own hypocritical judgments caught up with me as I snapped away at the towers. Maybe we take photos for our own vanity, or perhaps need to be validated for accomplishing a hike, or just the awe of being by the mountains and not wanting to ever forget. I don’t really know.

Torres Del Paine

Torres Del Paine is arguably the most popular reason travellers come to Patagonia. This massive park has two multi day routes, the “W” or the “O.” Our original plan was to complete the O, a full 8 day circuit around the park. But with Lauren’s lingering ankle pain, we decided to turn around back to town on day 2 of the O and continue on the W in a couple days.

Don’t expect isolated backcountry in this park. Although not as busy as some provincial parks back home, Torres del Paine is definitely well worn. But that’s also one of the special parts about this trek. This was probably one of the most social hikes I’ve done. After hiking with a great group on the O, I was able to rejoin and chat with lots of familiar faces back on the W. Throughout the five days, I saw so much wild life. Luckily enough a hiker ahead of us spotted a puma on a distant hill, making its way down to the forest.

I was sad to leave the desolateness of small towns, endless Pampas, glaciated mountains and the towns overrun with street dogs. But leaving Patagonia only got me more excited to be in the mountains back home when I return and maybe picking up rock climbing for the rest of our trip!

Below’s a cool map showing all the stops along our travels.

going down to patagonia - photos from the Nahuel Huapi Traverse

I’m writing from our lovely airbnb in Coyhaique in the Aysen Region of Chile. It’s the most sparsely populated area in all of Chile (there’s about .85 people / km of land) and the beginning of Ruta 7 of the Careterra Austral. Last month we were in Bariloche, at the northern most part of Patagonia and we’ve been slowly making our way down South. We had 3 weeks in the beautiful island of Chiloe where we settled into a cozy cottage and wrote, watched movies, baked and played with our favourite street dog. From there we begun our adventure further south! From the southern most town of Quellon (and end of the Pan American Highway!!) we took a 30 hour ferry ride to Puerto Chacabuco.

We passed time by watching Chilean Soap Operas, people watching, being serenaded by musicians and eating lots of chocolate. We saw whales, dolphins, and marine birds. There are much easier ways to get to Coyhaique, but we discovered the option to ferry and thought it would be a fun way to see more of the country.

I’ve been super behind with editing photos and videos, so it all might cascade down in a funny backlog in the next while. But here’s a snipped from a trip report I wrote about our Nahuel Huapi Traverse:

Over a milanesa dinner (fried veal cutlet, with melted mozzerla cheese, ham and tomatoes), Lauren and I were laughing hystericaly about the camp showers in Colonia Suiza. I tried to turn on the cold water tap and the faucet handle swung off onto the grimy floor (I promptly decided to switch showers). Delirious and hungry, the warm cottage restaurant in Colonia Suiza was a welcome reprieve from our 19km descent and walk back to town.

To backtrack, after some internet searching, I found out about the Nahuel Huapi Traverse in Bariloche, Argentina. We did not intend to come to Argentina this early, but to renew our Chilean Visa, we had to make a quick dip out.

The classic Nahuel Huapi Traverse is a route that brings you through 4 different refugios (huts) over 5 days- Frey, Jakob, Laguna Negra and Lopez. I decided to adapt our trip and skip a technical traverse and go down through Colonia Suiza and back up through the valley.

Tomorrow we’ll be back in Argentina in El Chalten. Catch you on the flip side!

Rapa Nui (isla de pascua, easter island)

We’re currently settled in a cabin on the island of Chiloé in Chile for the next 10 days. We decided to spend some concentrated time away from a city months ago and just chill in one spot. Creatively, I feel like I’m having the chance to flip a switch and dig deep into some fundamentals. Some goals this year include defining the type of film I want to pursue (subject, genre, themes, commercial content, etc.), film education (LOTS of movies, reading and studying), and defining what my business will look like for the next 5-10 years. What the time in Chiloé has really looked like is spending my time baking bread, sleeping in, watching movies, writing and petting a stray dog that visits every day (his name is Mago - wizard in english).

Regardless, I’m savouring this time as something that doesn’t happen very often in one’s adult life: 3 weeks of self-imposed un-structured time! I created the intentions of how to structure my days at the beginning, but that quickly became a bit more muddled. It’s all good. So here’s a blog post about Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that’s been in my drafts for some time now. Hope you enjoy!

Not initially on our list of places to visit, we got a hot tip from fellow travellers to go to Rapa Nui. A little skeptical at first because of its reputation for being costly, we lucked out and found some flight deals and cheap accommodation. In our little concrete bungalow (sans wifi), we woke up to the sounds of roosters, horses, cows and dogs. Rapa Nui felt like a Hawaii pre-development and if it was colonized by the Spanish instead of the English. It was definitely a little slice of heaven.

Literally in the middle of nowhere, Rapa Nui is one of the most remote places on the earth. 3,500 km from the coast of Chile, it sits in the Pacific Ocean. We rode our (very loud) Yamaha scooter around the island, observing Moai (giant heads) and avoiding the roaming horses and cows. Adventuring around the island was interrupted by periodic tropical showers and afternoon naps. A combination of internet speeds from 1999, a snails pace of life and not much going on, left us with plenty of time to just be.

Being on the island was a stark contrast to back living back home in a hectic, errand-filled, eat at my desk, scheduled life. I don’t think that life on an island is easy at all, but I feel like priorities are a bit different on Rapa Nui. Being in Latin America is definitely reflecting the values that already exist in me that I want to bring home. Things like closing shop on Sunday to be with family, long-ass lunches & siestas and a passionate expression of life.

BTS: The Year that was 2018

While my time in Peru was a time for learning Spanish, discovering more about my roots and connecting to a different home - Chile is feeling much different. The pace of life is slowing down, with days being filled with walking in new streets, cooking at home, and play.

Our days in Valparaiso have mostly been filled with wandering the streets, watching movies and hanging out in the apartment. I don’t feel like full travel mode has settled in - I’m still weary of ‘wasting time’ (is there such a thing?) and am well into editing Sound Water. Although, I have rekindled a childhood love and started playing MTG Arena which has been a beautiful time sink. Anyways, after feeling a tad bit lazy, I thought I’d get back to writing. Prompted by my friend Jess’s email reflecting on the past year, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and do my yearly reflection post.

See my yearly recaps from the past two years:

- 2016 Reflections
- 2017 Reflections

By all accounts, 2018 was epic. I was pushed out of my comfort zone many times, took on entirely new projects, decided to take a stab at making an outdoor adventure film and decided to travel for a year. Here’s the top 4 highlights of the year:

1. THE YEAR DEFINED BY TRAVEL

We packed our bags, sold some things, sublet our apartment and said goodbye to Vancouver for a year. The idea to travel for a year had been in our heads for the past couple years. Originally, we wanted to do this three years ago, but then Lauren got into her Masters program. I think it was for the best. And then this past October when Lauren was finishing her master’s, we knew that this was the perfect time! It’s been 2 months and 3 days since we departed on the trip of a lifetime and boy has it already been something else.

Here are some of the highlights :

• Spending 1.5 months in Lima, taking Spanish School and meeting some super rad new friends.

• Learning about my family’s history, chilling with my parents and eating everything in Peru.

• Realizing how out of shape I was and climbing 1600 meters out of the world’s second deepest Canyon.

• Learning how to make empanadas with two Chilean sisters in Santiago…and having a true Chilean experience when rioters took to the streets

• Attending my first nude drawing (not me ;)) in Valparaiso

• 40+ days of ocean view apartments (thank you Tio & Airbnb!)

• Watching giant seals eat and play by the pier in Valparaiso.

• Having the best travel buddy to do it all with

In the coming months, I’m excited to find myself in more nature, inspired by Latin American Culture and discovering new things around each corner. I’m also hoping to use the time away to find more clarity in film and spend some time writing up some new personal projects.

2. clients & collaborators

Filmmaking is not something done in isolation. My first full year of freelance couldn’t have been possible without my amazing clients, generous collaborators and all of you watching along the way. I’m immensely grateful for the incredibly people I got to work with this year. This year was an absolute blast and I can’t wait to keep creating when I get back!

I made headways working with many new clients this year that have been a goal to work with for some time - Destination BC, Tourism Vancouver, Hypebae, Myodetox and other unlikely clients including Fraser Valley Poultry and Nikkei Place. I had a fun creative challenge being able to participate in VAFF’s We Heart Canada Project and took home the best film of the program.

Here are some of the highlights from the year:

3. going out of my comfort zone

Making Sound Water has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. Things like learning how to backcountry splitboard, developing a pitch and story with Drew, and now in the edit. This project has been so many things, both professionally and personally. Being on the Elaho Glacier for a week was transformative and pushed my physically further than I’ve gone in a long time. What started as an idea between friends is ending with a film screening at the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival in March.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing BTS posts on Social Media. Keep following along for the rest of the Journey! I’m also stoked to share with you a short teaser trailer for the first time:"

4. all of you

Filmmaking is fun and I absolutely love it. But it’s all of you that make life fun and worthwhile. Being away from my friends, family and community, I always come back to how much better things are with people. There are so many more people than pictured below. Thank you and Happy Holidays!