Penguinos :)

We have returned to Punta Arenas as we're making our way back north.  The main attraction of this place is the Penguino tours to Isla Magdalena.  Since the price is reasonable $30k pesos, we both went on the tour which was about 1.5hr boat ride out to the island.  We were only allowed to walk in the roped off area, but that did allow us to get close to some of the penguins.  These are the Magellanic Penguins which are smaller than the Emperor and King.  Enjoy the pics and my ad-lib for penguin conversation ;)

What to do with all our free time...

Honey I'm home....

I hope these tourists don't see me go in my home ;)

Even penguinos like to sun themselves.  Ohhhh feels so good...!

Enjoying some high winds on the island :)

Fin Del Mundo

Finally after a month of traveling through so many amazing places, we have arrived at the place they call "Fin del Mundo" which translates to "End of the World".  I think Antarctica is the place that deserves that title.  However we have reached Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world.  We also spent a day in Terra del Fuego hiking along a coastal track that reminded me of Monterey area.

Pitiful Glaciar Martial.  Nothing compares to Perito Moreno and Grey now.

Correos (Post office) at Tierra del Fuego

Beautiful coastal walk in Tierra del Fuego

End of the road for those traveling from Alaska down.

My-Day

It comes once a year when you're really special, and that day for me was today.  I can't think of a better place to be for my b-day then in Patagonia doing what I enjoy most.  My goal was to eat some ice cream and Llew treated me for that plus a meal.  We left Puerto Natales and arrived 2.5 hours later in Punta Arenas.  We ate at this artsy place called La Marmita and I had a pumpkin Ravioli dish with ice cream.  Llew had another dish that looked like pot pie without the crust.

I feel really blessed to be 38 years old, without a job and free as a bird.  I imagine its a feeling a bird feels after its been in a cage and is loosed to fly.  The daily life of work, eat, exercise, sleep is now replaced with eat, do whatever activity, find food, make friends, learn Spanish, share on my blog, eat late, sleep. haha!  This can vary a bit but the thing I enjoy most, there is no day that is the same.  New people in each day with new things that are being done.  Its a gypsy's life of sorts, that is very simplistic.  I do miss all of you back home and I'm happy that I can share my travel adventures through this blog.  Thank-you for all your prayers and comments you've posted. :)

Now a special b-day song from my Argentina amigas, Macca and Bianca :)

Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine

Puerto Natales is the staging town for trekking in Torres del Paine.  This national park is suppose to be the ultimate in Patagonia experiences when it comes to trekking and beauty.  I've been told by so many people to not miss going here.  We decided to spend 2 days in PN so we could gather the necessary gear (tent, stove, cooking pot) and food for the adventure to come.  Most people do the trek counter-clockwise and only do the front side which is known as the 'W' trek.  We wanted the full experience and were committed to doing the 'O' trek, which is the whole circuit, but in the clockwise direction.  It may not be a good thing when 2 guys full of energy start thinking of doing things in a more challenging way.  Since we didn't do a lot of research, we obviously didn't know that the steep climb up to Paso John Gardner would be steeper in the clockwise direction. We just thought it would make our packs lighter for some of the longer days later in the trek.  We planned to do the whole thing in 6 days where as most people do it in 8-10 days.  This meant skipping every other campsite.  Were we biting off more than we thought...find out. :)

Our Itinerary
Day 1: Hotel las Torres (trail head) -> Campamento (camp) Italiano
Day 2: Camp Italiano -> Camp Grey
Day 3: Camp Grey -> Camp Perros
Day 4: Camp Perros -> Camp Serón
Day 5: Camp Serón -> Camp Torres
Day 6: Camp Torres -> back to Puerto Natales

I found my own backpack taxi ;)

Day 1: Hotel las Torres -> Camp Italiano

Distance: 16.5km

Projected Time: 7hrs

Our Time: 5.5hrs

Seeing what the weather was like in Puerto Natales (very windy with sporadic rain) and I figured my feet would be wet and cold for days.  Before I got out of bed the rain was coming down hard and we had a 6 block walk to the bus station from the hostel.  I made sure I had a quick breaky of eggs that I had to wolf down as we needed to make the walk to the bus.

Llew trying to look excited. haha!

Some packs that made us laugh.  There were a lot of those, some that towered like the torres above their packer. ;)  We wondered what were people hauling in them.

Since the weather was not the best, our visibility of the peaks were shrouded from our view.  Fortunately when it rained the wind was evaporating it as quickly as it landed so my feet stayed dry. Yay!

LLew trying to standup against the strong wind (not my wind) ;)  Patagonian wind is quite something with gust that regularly come at 60-80km.

Campamento Italiano with its assortment of tents.

We had corn soup that we thickened up with dehydrated potatoes.  We had 1.5 loaves of bread and virtually devoured the loaf with the soup.  That soup was definitely a favorite of ours.

Day 2: Camp Italiano -> Camp Grey

Distance: 29.6km

Projected Time: 11hrs

Our Time: 9hrs

Ah, a nice sleep and a later start to our morning. We day hiked up the valley to Britaníco which gave us amazing views of all the walls surrounding us. Llew was musing how he would love to climb some of these if the weather allowed it. That's something you're not assured of here in Patagonia. We took about 3 hours for our 12km round trip hike up to Britaníco and got back to the camp to pack the tent and load up on some calories before we started the 18.6km trek to Campamento Grey. The weather was really nice and we were enjoying the fantastic views we had of the mountains. We met our buddy Matt (from England whom we have been meeting every place since El Calafate) on the trail and chatted a bit. He’s doing the ‘W’, but we hope to meetup with him when we’re done. The wind picked up in the afternoon and was gusting good before we arrived at Campamento Grande. We still had 11km to do and a very stiff head wind. I had to put on my wind breaker to stay warm and power up on a bar to make any headway up the hill climb. I ate lots of Chaura berries for extra calories. Somehow we made it past the bad parts and got out of the wind and started to see Glaciar Grey in the distance. We arrived at Campamento Grey around 9pm. I’m so glad the days are long and that it doesn’t get dark till after 10pm. We’re camped under beautiful peaks and its nice and calm weather.

Nothing like Patagonian wind!