Category: Travel

Travelogue: LA and Rose Bowl 2012

Category : Travel
Posted on January 4, 2012 by Nathan Lustig

I made my third trip to LA the past few days and found myself changing my opinion a little bit. The previous two times, I didn’t really like LA that much and actually disliked it for a number of reasons. I had fun both previous times, but mostly because of the people I was with, not what we actually did. This trip, I found myself warming up a bit to LA. Its hard to dislike a place where you can go running on the beach in shorts and a tshirt in the middle of winter.

I still can’t see myself living there. It’s too spread out, traffic is horrendous (1 hour backup getting into LAX at 11pm on a Friday) and its very status conscience. I still don’t like those parts of LA, but I started to discover some of the more laid back, interesting parts of the city. As my friend Weber put it, “LA is a magical place that gets a bad rep in my opinion from a little bad traffic and a few fake people.”

This trip, I mostly stayed in Santa Monica, Venice and Marina de Rey, with a quick trip south to Long Beach and a day in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. I really enjoyed Santa Monica: its reasonably priced, has great restaurants and interesting places to go out. I went to the 3rd street promenade and had some creative food at Misfit. The highlights were a lobster slider with fresh tomato and a creamy aoli and a spicy chorizo mussel dish. Another big plus: most restaurants and bars have GREAT beer on tap. Much bigger variety than in other big cities I go to.

I spent new years in Marina del Rey at a friend’s beach house, then went out to a great bar with over 50 interesting beers on tap at decent prices. I went out in Santa Monica and found people to be more laid back than downtown or Hollywood, which is much more my style. People seemed much more approachable and willing to just have fun.

On new years day, my parents took me whale watching. They’d gone on the same trip last year, but they only saw dolphins. This year, it was a beautiful sunny day and we headed out of Long Beach. We saw huge pods of dolphins as soon as we cleared the breakwater and were steaming out looking for grey whales. The captain sighted a grey whale off in the distance, but got a radio report that there were a group of killer whales five miles away. The passengers voted to go chasing them. 45 mins later, we found them.

We found a big pod including a mom and a young baby. It was incredible to see them up close, surfacing, coming close to the boat. The captain said he’d been doing these tours for 10 years and had only seen killer whales one other time in his life. I apparently have very good luck looking for animals: when I was in south Africa we saw the ONLY cheetah in the national park, and the ranger who was taking us out had never seen him before in his year-plus working there.

On Jan 2nd, I organized a pre Rose Bowl party for 25 friends and family outside the game. We set up shop around 945 in the golf course that’s just north of the stadium with thousands of other tailgaters. I really liked the setup, even though there were thousands of cars, they spread it out enough so that we each had our own spaces. The weather was perfect an it was great to see my friends from all over who I hadn’t seen in a really long.

We spend the day eating, drinking and playing games, then headed into the stadium. I ended up sitting in the Oregon section with two of my friends and although we were the only red people in our section, all of their fans were really nice to us. We had a lot of fun talking back and forth and besides for the final result, I couldn’t have asked for a better game. Just like last year, a few badger mistakes cost them the game. I’d love to see a Wisconsin-Oregon series again like from 2000-2001. We hung out in the golf course for a few hours after the game waiting for the traffic to clear; the weather was perfect.

Although the Badgers lost for the second year in a row, I’ve got a newfound appreciation for LA and am excited to check it out again sometime soon.

Travelogue: Pucón and Lakes Region

Category : Startup Chile, Travel
Posted on June 12, 2011 by Nathan Lustig

My parents came to visit me in Chile at the end of April and we decided to go to Pucón and the lakes region, but I got lazy in my blogging and didn’t write up this post until just now. We started off in sunny Santiago in our tiny little Chevy Spark and took the highway south. The weather was beautiful and we could still see the Andes to the east as we were driving out of the city. The route south is beautiful, starting with vineyards and wine country, later turning into rolling hills and lush greenery. A few hours south of Santiago, the sun started to set, projecting brilliant reds and pinks on the Andes.

We stopped our first night in Chillan, a medium sized town about four hours south of Santiago. We didn’t see much since we were just staying over, but the town center looked really interesting. The next morning, we got up early and started to drive south again. After a few hours, we got off the main highway and drove toward a huge volcano, shrouded in clouds. I hadn’t seen clouds many times since I’d been in Chile, so it was an interesting sight.

As we got closer, the weather started to get worse. We drove through Villarica and it started to drizzle. The clouds obscured the volcano. We knew it was off season and that it might be rainy in Pucón, but we had hoped it would stay dry. After a beautiful drive along the lake we got to Pucón, a small touristy town of about 25,000 people. Since it was off season, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

People had told me that the food in the south was way better than in Santiago and I was not disappointed. The food was amazing! We started out by sharing grilled lamb and halfway through our meal, it started to pore. It was cold out and none of us had any rain gear in the restaurant, so I ran back to the car to drive it around.

One problem. The car didn’t start. I had left the lights on. We tried a push start, but couldn’t get it to work. I asked a police officer if he could give me a jump, he said he didn’t have cables, but taxis did. I asked a collectivo, he said he didn’t have any cables. I talked to four different taxis, all of whom said they couldn’t help me. I even offered to pay. Finally, one taxi told me that if I bought cables he would help me. Five minutes later, I had the cables, but he had driven away. I walked back to the car, cables in hand and luckily a nice guy stopped and agreed to help out. After about an hour, we were on our way. Since the battery was dead, we had to drive around for awhile, which was alright because it was raining. This would become a recurring theme.

We stayed the night in Pucón and walked around as the clouds started to clear. We decided to take a walk on the beach. Just before sunset, it started to drizzle. Luckily, that meant we got to see a rainbow. And not just any rainbow. A double rainbow.

Later that night, we had another amazing meal. This time we split venison stew and a wild boar dish with veggies. It was hearty, warm and filling. Perfect for a cool and rainy night. The next morning, it was raining again and we planned to take a drive toward Argentina, but when I tried to start the car, it was dead. The guy at the hotel jumped us and we decided to drive around to other towns to charge it up again. The weather started to clear in the afternoon and we drove through a bunch of small towns and ended up in Villarica, a less touristy town 20 miles from Pucón. We stayed above an italian restaurant, walked around the city and ate some great fish at a small restaurant.

The next morning, the car started up like a charm and we took a drive toward the Argentina border. We drove through a bunch of smalls towns and were pretty much the only tourists. Each town was a a little different and the weather was perfect. Curarrehue was a hidden gem. We walked around, checked out the Mapuche museum and then walked into a bakery called Pasteleria La Cocina de Elisa on the main plaza for a small snack. We smelled something amazing and I asked what it was. The baker, Elisa Cea Epuin, brought out fresh baked meat empanadas and we decided we had to have some. They were amazing, the best I’ve had in Chile. After we finished, she came out with the fried version. Amazing again. Next, we tried some bakery and check out some local canned fruits and jams. Everything was wild picked, nothing was farmed. After a few minutes, she emerged from the kitchen with some amazing berry spread. The baker had been invited to London and Dublin a few years back to make all of her food at the embassy and I can see why they picked her.

After we finished, we got back to the car and what do you know? Another dead battery. I asked a guy at the only gas station in town and he said he couldn’t help me, but there was a mechanic just down the street. As I walked up, all the workers and truckers stopped and just sort of stared. I don’t think they were expecting a family of tourists. The mechanic was out to lunch, so I went back up to the gas station and sat there until someone agreed to give me a jump again. Thankfully, this was the last time we’d need our jumper cables.

We drove through the beautiful mountain valleys, past crystal clear lakes and shaded passes under the bright sunlight. We came to little town called Huife and decided to turn around. As we were driving back, I saw a sign for a restaurant that was advertising fresh trout, turkey and venison, so we had to stop. We were the only people around, besides the waitress/cook and the food was amazing. Rich, savory and fresh. It was a great decision to stop.

We stayed another night in Pucón and the next day, the weather was really nice and went up the volcano. It is a huge volcano that has a history of erupting, sometimes destroying the surrounding towns. It was cloudy in Pucón, but we emerged from the clouds into bright sunlight about halfway up the volcano. The clouds looked like icing on a cake, covering the valley. We took a hike up the volcano and started when it was bright and sunny. It was amazing to see the evidence of past lava flows and the destruction it wreaked on the vegetation. About an hour later, the pea soup had descended and we couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of our faces. Luckily, the trail was very well marked. The fog was eerie and outlined the trees perfectly.

The next morning, we drove back to Santiago, capping a great trip to the south. Although the weather and car trouble were less than optimal, it was an outstanding trip. I’m really glad my parents got a chance to visit and got to spend some time sharing where I’d been living for the past six months. I really loved the area around Pucón. The combination of lakes, mountains, lush green scenery and amazing food is pretty hard to beat.

Travelogue: Torres del Paine, Patagonia

Category : Travel
Posted on April 30, 2011 by Nathan Lustig

My brother Jake came to visit for a week a few weeks back and we decided to go south to Patagonia since he loves hiking. My friend Tiago came along and we had a great time exploring the amazing beauty of the Magallenes Province.

tiago jake truck — Tiago, Jake and the Machine

We took a 3.5 hour flight south to Punta Arenas and then a 4 hour bus to Puerto Natales. Since we had some no planning and it was the low season, we needed up having to rent a jeep instead of taking the buses. We stayed over in Puerto Natales then set out really early to get to the park. We drove in on a wet, gray day and went past deep blue water and glacier carved landscapes. We arrived at the edge of Lago Pehoé and took the catamaran across the incredibly smooth water. The weather was warm, but rainy and the water was an amazing shade of light blue.

We arrived to the other side and checked into a refugio. It was super nice, but seemed to be expensive, about $50 per night for a bed, but the location was unreal. We walked down the path, through the rain down toward Galcier Grey. Jake and I had to turn around, as it was getting dark, so we didn’t get a close up look at the glacier, but the walk was beautiful. We got back and ate dinner in the warm lodge.

We slept in the next day and woke up to amazing weather. It was a little cooler, but sunny and clear. We took the ferry across the lake, got back in the jeep and drove across crappy roads toward the base of Torres del Paine. The water was unlike any other color I’ve seen, except maybe in the Swiss Alps.

We set off up the path at about 215pm with the goal of walking about 1.5 hours, dropping off our bags at the refugio and then going another 2.5 hours to the top, then back 2 hours down. After one hour, we realized that the refugio was closed for winter and that if we wanted to see the top, we’d have to go all the way up and down before about 8pm when it got dark. A slight hitch in the plan, so we booked it and did a fast pace up and back down. We knew we’d cut it close, but it was our last day so we were willing to push it.

The walk was beautiful. A combo of the pacific northwest and the great smokey mountains, but bigger and more colorful. It was fall, so the trees were red, orange and green. We crossed glacial mountain streams on small wooden bridges and went up and down the small hills through the forrest. We were moving fast and with our packs, so it was pretty tiring. The last hour was 300 meters up in about 1km. It was super steep. After struggling for a bit, I had to take my pack off and walk to the top.

We got to the top and saw the torres with a small glacier lake below. It was a little cloudy, so we didnt see all of it at once, but it was completely worth it. It was amazing to hear the water rushing down the mountain sides directly from the melting glaciers. We hustled back down the valley as the light was beginning to fade. We had to make sure we were mostly out off the trail by the time it got dark since we didn’t have any big lights with us. The sun was setting over the valley and we were getting close to the bottom. The moon rose and the stars were beautiful as we walked the last 20 minutes in the dark. My body ached from the pace, the pack and generally being used to living in the city.

Patagonia is a beautiful special place. I wish I had more time to explore and I would love to come back some day and see the rest of the park, Calafate, Bariloche and the rest of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. We drove back to Natales and ate a lamb grill while waiting for the bus. The town is basically base camp with tons of coffee shops, restaurants and places to buy/rent gear. It was a cool town, but we didn’t get to see much. It was a quick trip to Patagonia, about as short as we could do it. I really enjoyed going out of season, as the weather was perfect for hiking and there were hardly any people. It would have been nice to do a full 5-6 days, but with 3 days actually in the park, it was definitely worth it. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to.

Travelogue: La Serena and Valle del Elqui

Category : Travel
Posted on April 6, 2011 by Nathan Lustig

My friends Forrest and Sarah came to visit all the way from Madison, so Jesse, Forrest, Sarah and I decided to take a trip north to La Serena and Valle del Elqui. La Serena is a town of 150,000 about 4.5 hours north of Santiago. Along with it’s sister city of Coquimbo, it’s located on miles of wide, white sand beaches. It reminded me of Panama City Beach, but not during spring break. Apparently La Serena has eclipsed Viña del Mar as the top beach destination close to Santiago, but since we were there midweek, right after school started again, it was really empty and peaceful.

We stayed at an apartment on the beach that we found on AirBnB. Yanette, the owner, was incredibly nice. She’s been living in La Serena for about 25 years and also owns a wine producing property northeast of the coast. She brought us amazing grapes and raisins as a thank you for renting that were truely the best I’ve ever had. They were sweet, plump and way better than you can get in the US. The grapes we get less sweet, because they have to harvest them earlier to ship them to the US.

The drive up is on a four lane highway, mostly along the coast. It reminds me a bit of highway 1 in California, with lots of hills, twists and turns. The small towns all have goat cheese sandwiches and fruit stands along the highways, while we only have McDonalds and Taco Bell in the US. So much better here. I wish I had rented a little bit better car because it would have been great to go up the hills and around the bends in a real car.

Our first day, we walked down the beach and got lunch at a small restaurant. For $7, we got a seafood empanada FULL of every kind of seafood you could think of. Next, a seafood soup filled with oysters in a spicy cilantro broth. The main course was fried reinata with sweet tomatoes and then dessert was super ripe honeydew melon. Great value and great food.

Next, we went over to the Coquinbo fist market and bought mussels, scallops and a full dorada. The fisherman cut it up into huge filets so we could cook them on the stove top. We also got an assortment of fruit and veggies from a little stand and came back to the beach apartment to cook.

We created an amazing meal. We started with a seafood soup with dorada, assorted seafood, aji, potato, carrots and other veggies. Next, pineapple and pepper ceviche with mussels, scallops and dorada. It was great. The main course was dorada a la plancha with a salt/curry rub, curried veggies and a pineapple salsa. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with a sweet grape and white wine sauce. It was a great way to end the day.

The next day we tried to go to Punta de Chorros to sea an island full of penguins. After a beautiful 2 hour drive through the mountains and across a few dirt roads, our little car finally stopped at a restaurant where we had some fresh fish. The highlight was their home made olive oil, infused with garlic and hot peppers. We each ended up buying a half litre bottle for about $7 to take home. Amazing. Unfortunately, when we got to the fishing dock, the fishermen told us that they couldn’t take us because the sea was too choppy. I think he was just being lazy and didn’t only want to take a group of 4, but it was still a great day. We watched the waves crash on the rugged Pacific coast and then made the drive back to La Serena.

The next morning, we left early and headed into Valle del Elqui. It started out cloudy, but it soon burned off to reveal a narrow valley filled with fruit trees, pisco distilleries and vineyards. Every Chilean I had talked to had told me that I had to go to Valle del Elqui if I was going near La Serena and they were 100% right. It was beautiful.

We stopped in Vicuña, the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral and strolled around their town square. We ate lunch while listening to music in the town square and then had some fresh pecans and homemade icecream from a little shop on the square. We continued onward and finally stopped in Pisco Elqui, the hear of Chile’s pisco growing region. We toured the Mistral pisco distillery and got to see the whole process. The tasting was interesting. The really aged pisco tasted almost like a whiskey and was supposed to be served over ice or alone. I’m used to piscola, so it was quite different. After, we continued down the curvy road to Alcohuaz, doing the last 15k on a tiny dirt road. It was a beautiful drive, ending at an eco lodge called Casona Distante.

This place is amazing. It’s in the middle of nowhere, no cell reception and is beautiful. It’s on 40 acres of land in the middle of the valley and is a functioning grape growing operation. They sell their grapes to Capel to make pisco and still raise animals and other fruit. The lodge is built mostly of wood and the rooms are beautiful. They have an open kitchen where you can watch or help prepare dinner and our chef Alejandro was awesome. We got lessons on Chilean cooking and drink making and talked about food, politics and Chile. His palta (avocado) sour was amazing, especially after adding some aji.

Casona Distante also has a nice observatory and the owner helped us look at nebulae and Saturn. You really can see it’s rings! Looking up into the sky and seeing millions of stars is amazing. The night sky there was only bested by my trip to Bolivia, as we were about 2500 meters higher, so the sky was clearer. The next day, we hung around the lodge and checked out the river that runs through the valley. It was relaxing and beautiful, but unfortunately, we had to go back to Santiago at the end of the day. I would have loved to stay longer, but it wasn’t possible. I highly recommend going to Valle del Elqui for a long weekend, it was one of my favorite places I’ve been so far.