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Patagonia 2018

November - December 2018
Guanacos and glaciers and penguins...oh my! Read more
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  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    1
    1
    Day 2

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    1
    Day 5

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    2
    Day 5

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    Day 6

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    31
    Day 7

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    22
    Day 8

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    Day 9

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    1
    Day 10

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    211
    Day 11

    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

  • TravelerPatagonia 2018
    Day 12

    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

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