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Patagonia 2018
  • John and Julie
  • John and Julie

Patagonia 2018

Guanacos and glaciers and penguins...oh my! Read more
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  • Trip start
    November 28, 2018
    John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    1Julie in front of the airport's marketing version of Torres del Paine
    One of many skeletal ship sculptures paying homage to the fishing industryYep, people tag concrete walls here, tooOur host's house in front of our AirbnbThe driveway from the gateOur own hobbit habitat--kind of a tiny house!1The outdoor sitting area

    We have arrived!

    November 29, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Yep. After months of planning and many hours shuttling, waiting in airports, flying, and riding in taxis, we have descended on very sunny and windy Punta Arenas, Chile. It's spring here and the lupine, dandelions, peonies, and tulips are blooming and flourishing.

    The trip down was long, but uneventful. Finding cash was a bit of a challenge since several of the ATMs I tried didn't converse in English. But with assistance and good cheer from our taxi driver, I was ultimately successful. I took out $100,000 Chilean pesos, which at today's exchange rate is $149.00 US dollars.

    Our home for the next three nights is very small and primitive, and located in an area of town I'd describe as "urban rustic". We felt it was misrepresented on the Airbnb website, but realize you get what you pay for...and we're choosing not to dwell on its limitations. And our host, Leonor has been more than helpful, staying in touch during our travel and offering a flurry of tips on restaurants and sight seeing locations.

    We walked along the Straight of Magellan (reminds me of the Columbia River) briefly where Julie posed with one of many ship sculptures along the water's edge. And now, after dinner, we're ready to pass out...and Julie's beat me to it. It's five hours later here than in Oregon, so it's very much our bedtime. But it's 10:00 p.m. and the sun is still out!

    A few pics for your perusal:    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    Replica of Magellan's ship Nao Victoria...not-our-cruise ship
    Replica of Darwin's ship HMS BeagleMuseum pic of former native inhabitantToken dog: they're as plentiful as chihuahuas in Mexico, but very mellow. They sleep next to the road as cars1Walking in the forest of Magellanes ReserveIn the parkView of Punta Arenas from on highSeeing where we've been and where we're goingUnidentified fungal objectLocal wildlife

    Learnings

    December 2, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    One of the great things about traveling is learning: encountering new people, languages, foods, and cultures, not to mention sights, smells, etc. I'm also learning--after only one entry--that blogging is a discipline and it's easy to let it go at night when fatigue wins out. 😴

    We're leaving today for EcoCamp Patagonia and will be incommunicado--no wi-fi or cell access until Friday afternoon when we return to Punta Arenas. Major withdrawal! That same day we board our cruise ship for a four-night trip to Ushuaia, Argentina. Again, no communication enroute.

    I'm posting just a few of the photos taken over the past two days.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    2

    EcoCamp at Torres del Paine

    December 2, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    We rode up to Torres del Paine National Park today with other happy ramblers from the UK, the Netherlands, New York, California, and New Zealand--all excited for this next adventure. It took about eight hours of driving from Punta Arenas, including numerous stops for food and photo ops. We saw flamingoes and a large number of guanacos along the way.

    Once at the EcoCamp, a sustainable hotel where we'll be sleeping in insulated geodesic domes for the next five nights, we met our activity guides and had an elegant three-course meal served with liberal amounts of wine. Tomorrow morning we head out at 8:00 a.m for a 20+ kilometer round trip hike to the base of the three spires, the Torres del Paine.

    Torres del Paine translates roughly to blue towers. (They didn't look blue to us but apparently the native people who named them were including the surrounding massif, which does appear blue.)    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    Horses carry supplies to the refugio on the Torrws del Paine trailThe TowersLady SlippersFire Bush

    A Day in the Mountains

    December 3, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    The day dawned wet, so after breakfast our group started out in rain gear. We walked a horizontal trail for 30 minutes or so and then the air cleared and the uphill began. The expression they use to describe the rolling terrain is "Patagonia flat"...because "flat" is a relative term in this mountainous part of the world.

    In actual fact, it was a fairly steep trek to see the Torres del Paine up close. But on the way we saw a variety of flora and fauna along with incredible views in nearly all directions, which softened the impact on knees and hips. In all, Julie and I walked about 21 kilometers.

    Here's a little of what we encountered.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    31

    Grey Glacier

    December 4, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    Julie and I went in separate directions today, she to take on another hiking challenge to Lazo Weber and me to see ice at the Grey Glacier.

    Julie was gone all day. More of the usual (and incredible) natural surroundings to discover, including flowers and guanacos. The hike itself was long and arduous--just how she likes it!.

    My trip involved a van ride to the ferry dock, a short hike to the boat, a relaxing cruise with stunning views of the glacier, and a return to our dome home.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    22See puma bottom right

    Local Fauna

    December 5, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    The great thing about the EcoCamp tour we chose is the flexibility it offers. Wildlife Safari has a daily menu of three different activities to choose from: easy, medium, and hard. After our difficult hike on our first full day at the Camp, I was ready for easy. Not so for You-Know-Who.

    Julie opted for a 13-mile roundtrip hike to Francés Valley: van to ferry to "feets". Steep up and steep down. Tiny alpine geraniums distant glacier and mountain views, botany and geology mini lessons in the field.

    I chose a dawdling fauna tour that began, miraculously, with a far-off puma sighting before we even left camp! Then sundry other wildlife: eagle, armadillo, birds, guanacos--live and dead. Oh, and ancient petroglyphs.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler

    Last Adventure in Chilean Patagonia

    December 6, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Our last day at EcoCamp was an easy drive to Laguna Azul (Blue Lake) and a short hike to a midday barbecue! The lake was a brilliant blue foreground to the stunning mountains behind. On the way to lunch we saw a group of male guanacos harrassing an uninterested female--it being spring here.

    Tomorrow we return to Punta Arenas to board the Ventus Australis for a cruise to Ushuaia, Argentina. Once we leave, we'll be out of touch again until the 11th.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    1

    On the Boat

    December 7, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    EcoCamp was "glamping", I admit, and our new cruise ship makes us feel like we've retired and gone to heaven. Well, in fact, we are retired and for a few days at least, this is the "Good Place."

    The Ventus is a ritzy floating hotel, which we boarded this evening. With only 25 trips on the Captain's Log (I assume there is such a thing), the ship looks, and is, really new--so we quickly spread our things around the cabin to make it feel lived in. Then we popped up to deck five to join the other 124 passengers for official welcomes and introductions, a few safety guidelines, and a brief look at our ocean-going itinerary.

    Our reward for patience was a strenuous four-course meal in the first deck dining room at 9:00 p.m. Julie and I sat at our assigned table with four congenial table mates (two from Australia, one from Hong Kong, and one from Boulder, CO), blissfully catered to by our ever-attentive waiter, Christian, in fine dress whites. "More wine, madam? Red or white?"    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    211

    Pingüinos!

    December 8, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    Our little ship plied the glacier-ground fjords of the Magellan Strait overnight and presented us with our first morning excursion on zodiacs: Ainsworth Bay. Like tenderfoot commandos (in fluorescent orange life jackets), we tentatively stormed the beach in broad daylight to investigate the flora and discuss the climate, all under the watchful eye of Ainsworth Glacier.

    The highlight, though, was seeing the penguins...at Ieast for me. These are photos and a video of some of the 4000 Magellanic (pronounced mah-heh-yahn'-ik in Spanish) penguins living on one of Tucker's Islets in the Magellan Strait. We remained on the zodiac so we wouldn't disturb them, and that accounts for some of the video's bumpiness. They all seemed to be hanging out waiting for the bus!

    So formal in their tuxes and, yes, neighborly, the penguins share their island with a colony of cormorants.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler

    Glaciers Galore

    December 9, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    It was sunny and 53° F at Pia Glacier this afternoon...here in South America just 600 miles from the Antarctic continent! Turns out it's the normal temperature for this time of year. (We could have packed less cold-weather gear.) The active glacier calved a blink-and-you-missed-it offspring, which quickly disappeared in the bay.

    Back on board, we cruised along "glacier alley" on the Beagle Channel. (Darwin fans can guess the origin of its moniker). "Most of these glaciers were named in memory of the nationalities of early European navigators – Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and Holland", says our informative handout.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    Albatross memorial to lost sailors1Clusters of cyttaria ("Indian Bread")

    Fin del Mundo--End of the World

    December 10, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We sailed to Cape Horn overnight and jumped in our zodiacs before breakfast for a stroll on Hornos Island (latitude: -55° 56' 29.99" and longitude: -67° 16' 9.00" W...check it out!). It looked much like the Oregon Coast, complete with drizzle. Seas were surprisingly calm for an area with an historically wild and crazy reputation.

    Later in the day we went ashore at Walaia Bay in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago and learned more about the nomadic Yaghan (Yamana) indigenous people who once lived there and were decimated by pious intentions, European diseases, and conflicting world views--an all too familiar story.

    We have been blessed with great weather to this point. The temperature at 4:00 p.m. was 58°--still normal.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    Not really pregnant
    1

    Ushuaia: Starting Point for Antarctica

    December 11, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    We are in Argentina! We left the ship at about 9:00 a.m., then wandered around near the port to find cash and a SIM card. Ah, the trivial affairs of travel. Meanwhile, the Martial Mountains above watch like silent gods everything that happens on the streets, the harbor and the Beagle Channel beyond

    A brief digression: Using a mobile phone SIM card is not always a straight-forward process. In the latest case, we received the free card after the Movistar agent entered our passport numbers into the government registery. Then we had to find a small grocery store to buy credit so we could make calls and use the Internet. That wasn't easy, but eventually we found one. What doesn't happen automatically, despite their claims, is the account setup on your phone--the APN. It took two days to figure out how to do it after I finally found the info online via wi-fi.

    The rest of today we visited museums, the grocery store, and a couple of restaurants, and admired the rainbow variety of lupine here, the poppies, the Scotch broom or gorse (not sure which) that seems to substitute for forsythia in people's gardens, and dandelions.

    Oh, and did I mention that our Airbnb apartment is fantástico!!    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    1

    On the Loose

    December 12, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We considered our touring options today and decided on a morning walk through town to the maritime and prison museums. The former features naval history with many small models of sailing ships that rounded the Horn or ended their nautical lives as shipwrecks. Amundsen and Shackleton get honorable mention. The latter museum commemorates Ushuaia's first non-native inhabitants, sent by the federal government to build their own prison and establish a presence in the southern part of Argentina...a story somewhat similar to the "civilizing" of Australia.

    Architecture here is mostly nondescript, with a bit of Swiss ski town ambience. Much of the siding and roofing we've seen in Chile and Argentina, especially on older houses, is galvanized steel.

    For a low-key afternoon outing we took a relaxing train ride on El Tren del Fin del Mundo (everything is fin del mundo around here!) through the public part of Tierra del Fuego national park. Most of the park is protected and off limits. The choo-choo was Morris Mini-size (500 mm gauge for you train buffs) with a steamy "little engine that could" covering 14 flat kilometers in two hours. We saw quite a few beautiful but not wild horses in the park that we photographed expressly for Camille.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    The rescue tug St. Christopher wrecked during a salvage operation in 19531Claims it is a distant relative to penguins11Our little apartmentPark across from our Ushuaia apartment

    Last Day in Ushuaia

    December 13, 2018 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Spring rain this morning allowed time just to sit and play cards, and look up at the mountains from the kitchen window. We speculated about what it would be like to live here in winter (when average daily temperatures are 28-37° F and days are very short). Traveling lets you get outside of your normal routines and open up to new experiences, but it also provides incentive to look inside and examine why and how you live your life, what and who you value, and to wonder about the lives of others. Good to do that once in a while.

    We're shifting into transit mode again as tomorrow we fly to Buenas Aires and then on to Montevideo, Uruguay, so this afternoon we walked casually around town, took a few more photos, and shopped a bit. Eventually, the sun came out and it warmed up, so we walked to Maria Lola Restaurant for a fine final dinner and a beautiful sunset.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    1

    On the River of Silver

    December 14, 2018 in Uruguay ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Imagine the common air traveler: Getting to the airport early after a so-so night's sleep waiting for the alarm to sound, waiting in line at the airport to check in, waiting in a security queue, waiting to board the plane then sitting back down to wait another hour when the flight is delayed, waiting...waiting... It doesn't matter where you travel, it's pretty much the same. And I do know...it could be worse. 😏

    But we made it to Montevideo, Uruguay (yay!), a broad city of nearly 1.5 million people on the Río de la Plata (River of Silver)--the widest river in the world--and we are grateful. We were welcomed into the temporary home of our granddaughter, Juliana, who is on a university exchange here. Wonderful to see her after four months away from Corvallis. We caught up over wine and dinner, then dropped hard into slumber, all content.

    Our photo of the day is a downtown Montevideo restaurant recommendation from a fellow flyer.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    Along the Rambla
    21Group photo at Montevideo's version of the "Hollywood" landmark111Palacio SalvioTeatro Solis1

    A Day Around Town

    December 15, 2018 in Uruguay ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We rambled on the Rambla today, which is "the avenue that goes all along the coastline of Montevideo, Uruguay, and also the longest continuous sidewalk in the world." (So sayeth the Wiki.)

    It was a lovely day in this European-feeling city, probably near 75° with definitely enough UV for a sunburn. Hard to believe it's a week before Christmas. Caught a parrot building a nest in a palm tree, walked through a memorial to revered national hero José Gervasio Artigas, self-toured the Teatro Solis opera house, enjoyed casual meals outdoors, and, dare I say, visited a shopping mall. Julie accomplished 12,494 fitness steps!

    Most importantly, it was time spent with Juliana.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    View from the top of Palacio Salvo
    Octopus that ate Palacio Salvo (nah, just ground floor trim)Yep, that's a zeppelin floating by the Palacio Salvo back in the day1

    First Tango in Uruguay

    December 16, 2018 in Uruguay ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    In yesterday's "footprint"--that's FindPenguins speak for "blog entry"--I included a photo of Palacio Salvo. Today we toured that same ornate 30-story building, constructed in just five years and completed in 1928. Afterward, in the ground floor Tango Museum, we learned about the somewhat unseemly origins of this sultry dance and its first composer (his sister helped, but wanted no credit), Uruguayan Matos Rodriguez.

    At a restaurant for lunch, I finally had the chance to use my most practiced Spanish phrase: "¿Dónde está el baño?" I was very proud. 😊

    The day was very warm, probably mid-80s. For our finishing flurry, we headed back to the Rambla to watch the sunset and dip our toes in the river. I thought there'd be just a few observers, but the area was thronged with people riding carnival rides, browsing the wares of craft vendors, wiggling their behinds to some catchy Carnival-style drumming, and lined up at McDonald's for a late-night beef fix.    Read more

  • John and JuliePatagonia 2018Traveler
    View near the Uruguayan Yacht Club
    1BirdPart of an armada of funny little boats1Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia

    Winding Down

    December 17, 2018 in Uruguay ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    All good things come to an end...that's part of what makes them "good things", right? On our last day in Montevideo, it rained most of the morning and we used the downtime to pack and visit with Juliana and Augusto, her "brother" from her host family. Then we took another long walk around town and on the Rambla (got to get those steps in!) and Ubur-ed over to the original and still used football stadium (built in 1930 in just 40 days in time for the first World Cup) and museum celebrating the world's favorite sport.

    OK, World Cup fans. Who scored the winning goal in the historic 1950 Uruguay-Brazil match? Did you guess Uruguay's Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia? He's another national hero.

    Tonight we head home. It's been a whirlwind 20 days for us. We're grateful we could make this once-in-a-lifetime trip. We appreciate so much Juliana's willingness to plan a really interesting Montevideo itinerary and keep an eye on her often out of synch grandparents.

    And we're so honored by all of you who took the time to read this, look at the photos, and include your comments.    Read more

    Trip end
    December 18, 2018
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