Our 15 favorite things of 2015

Bye bye, little 2015...
You're 5.000 candles in the wind.

As I sit in our little (borrowed) Patagonian home and listen to the night silence, only broken by dogs in the distance... I come to think about the year that's almost over.

It's insanely cliché to write an *end of the year blog post* but d'you know what? I like cliché sometimes. And New Year is a very special day for me and always has been.

I love that for a day I get to fully forget that I'm a skeptic and logical person, and fill my life with awesome nonsense traditions and rituals, and soak myself into magical thinking.

And this 2015 was nothing short of magical.

Even if we faced worries and struggles, we also spent a full year of adventure, and that's something to be proud of. No "new year resolution" of mine could've fantasized of a year as full as the one we just went through.

So in the spirit of New Year, New Beginnings and Magical thinking, here is -in no particular order-...

My favorite 15 things of 2015 (and I doubt I'll ever be as cliché again):

*Hitchhinking through Argentinian Patagonia

The most random of our adventures: getting all the way to the end of the world and back, meeting awesome people, making friends, facing the crazy desert wind and feeling the road belonged to us and us alone.

*The cats of Valparaiso

Valpo is full-on mesmerizing, with its rad street art, its labyrinth-like stairs, the port feeling and the view of the ocean; but as the Crazy Cat Lady I am, the number one highlight from there was the beautiful assortment of multi-colored cuddly cats everywhere.

*The sunset in Uyuni

                                                                                  The best I've ever seen.

*Our amazing San Pedro experience

...That I have no photos of, but if you're curious here's the post where I talk about it. It was mystical, it was wonderful, and it brought me back to me, if that makes any sense.

*My amazing birthday dinner in Montevideo

Chey went crazy to spoil me and we ended up at the best restaurant in the city, having the best dinner of the whole trip (I also got a present and flowers, hey!).

*Getting to spend time with my beloved sisters

Need I say more? The short season we spent here brought the 4 Demattei sisters together for the first time ever, and being here in El Bolson for a while I got precious time with the two of them who live here.

*Astor

The other perk of staying here for a season was borrowing Astor, one of my dad's cats. He's adorable, cuddly, very talkative and my number one (and only) musical fan, who joins me every time I play the ukulele.

*Feeling like a Disney Princess at Iguazú Falls

I mean... the butterflies! They followed me! I just... can't.

*Camping up the mountains with the whole thing for ourselves

The most incredible camping spot, a lake on top of the mountain, a big fire. We also got a fair bit of march flies, but what's life without a little challenge?

*Realizing that distance means nothing

With friends here in Argentina, back in Australia and scattered around other places. The travel factor revealed (again) the most genuine relationships. An I won't say more because I'll get cheesy and believe me, you don't like me when I'm cheesy.

*Sailing the Beagle Canal at the end of the world

A small sailing boat, the icy waters, the wind that I could swear smelled like Antarctica... and Dulce de leche liqueur. What else can you ask of life.

*Our Secret Valley of Awesome in Huaraz

A 9 hour hike got us to the most Disney-ish landscape, where wild horses, cows and chinchhillas frolic. We also frolicked. It was great. Ant to put the cherry on top, on the way back we got a lift from the sweetest Peruvian police officers.

*Paragliding in Lima

Adventure at its finest.

*Seeing a post-zombie-apocalypse world in Río Mayo

One of the funny things about traveling is that sometimes the crappiest bits are the best bits. Don't you agree? Rio Mayo was definitely one of the crappiest, bestest places through the whole trip. And definitely the windiest.

*Peruvian food

My love, there's only you in my life.


And these are Chey's!

*First interactions in Spanish

Ever since we came to El Bolsón, Chey's Spanish keeps getting better and better. He's now able to actually pass like a resident  gringo.

*Summit of Piltri

The first of many mountains we conquered together. And alfajores.

*Uyuni Salt Flats

Seeing the otherworldly landscape of the worlds biggest salt flats, taking those lovely -albeit ridiculous- perspective photos, and (again) seeing the best sunset ever. 

*Iguazú falls

Even if it's a mandatory tourist attraction, there's a good reason for it. One of those "you have to be there to understand" kind of places, because no photo will ever do it justice. And a perfect day too.

*The boat trip through the Beagle Canal

I actually made Chey say his top 15 without telling him mine, so where there's a coincidence it's just because it was that epic. 

*Dancing tango

Embracing the culture and the dance of the embrace, we spent many nights at the local Milonga, where Chey proved that he might be a gringo, but he can dance.

*Paragliding in Lima

Another epic one. See above.

*Secret Valley in Huaraz

See above... hey! we were on the same trip!

*The wine adventure in Mendoza

Riding bikes through the Wine Road while getting more and more tipsy, great weather and the best wine of our lives. 

*The train ride to Uyuni

I like them, but Chey has a fascination with trains. This particular train ride was actually pretty special between the landscape, the tiredness and growing altitude, the time spent in the dining carriage with just the waiter guys and their loud cumbia... It's weird, but it felt just right.

*Hitchiking Patagonia

Another epic one.

*Our kind-of-still-high dinner at the vegan place after San Pedro

The San Pedro ritual itself was transcendental and meaningful, but actually he makes a very valid point. It was a funny (to say the least) dinner, and on top of our state, they brought us that funny yin-yang soup with the flowers!

*Building the deck in Valparaiso

According to Chey, the daily walk, the going to little kiosks to get drinks/lunch and the feeling like a local (and the view!) more than balanced the hard work under the raging sun. And he made a pretty rad deck.

*Rio Mayo

As I said, another proof that experiences don't have to be travel-guide-worthy to be top memories.

*Christmas in August

We were so expecting to get snow in El Bolsón when we got here, at the beginning of winter, but it didn't happen. Only when we had lost all hope, we woke up one morning to big fat snowflakes falling. So we played Frank Sinatra's "Let it snow", and then went up the hills to make the most of it. 

It was a happy year, and here's to a happier 2016! Have a great one, you all, and thank you for following our adventures.

Adri+Chey