Except for the Parrots and Volcanos, It Looks Just Like Switzerland!
We had pre-booked all of our reservations through our stay in Chiloé, including the car rental for this last week. We didn’t book any lodging after Chiloé, though, because other than driving through the Lake District, we weren’t exactly sure where we wanted to go. The grand idea was to zig-zag our way back and […]
Don’t Put Your Head into the Water for a Long Time!
Where there are volcanoes, there are thermal baths, and so it is throughout the Lake District. After the volcano climb, we spent the next day soothing tired muscles at one of the many thermal baths outside of Pucón. Los Pozones is a little more rustic than some of the more elite baths, but it suited […]
Volcán Villarrica
I have concluded that there are three types of people. The first is the type that knows their physical strengths and weaknesses and makes appropriate activity choices. If they aren’t fit enough for some activity, they don’t do it. No drama. The second knows their strengths and weaknesses, but they don’t pay attention to them. […]
Glissading!
At some point, hiking up the volcano, I began to think about how I was going to get down. At the turnaround point for those of us who were not going to summit, my legs already felt like jello. At one point, I contemplated just lying down and rolling. The ending could be tough, but […]
Iglesias al Fin del Mundo
Chiloéan history goes something like this: In the early 1600’s, the Jesuits arrived on the island to evangelize the indigenous Huilliche. To accomplish this in such an isolated locale, they established missions at various locations around the island, built churches at each one, and then left some unfortunate layperson there to administer to the flock. […]
Death in the Valley
Monday was our last day in Torres del Paine National Park. We decided to do one last hike. The trail took us up a ravine across a wide valley from the Towers and the Valley de Ascension, providing a dramatic view of the area we had hiked on our second day. We heard that the […]
18 Wheelers, Drunken Truck Drivers, Cattle, Nescafe, and a Little Dice
We boarded the Navimag Ferry in Puerto Natales at midnight on Monday. We were warned that the ferry was not bound to any rigorous schedule but instead to the weather conditions along the route. Given that the ferry is sometimes a day late or even canceled, we were lucky to be delayed only 3 hours. […]
A Stroll Out to Grey’s Glacier
Given the condition of our thighs yesterday, we decided on a benign stroll just a few miles out from town to get a view of Grey’s Glacier. We also decided not to pay the $200 bucks it would have cost to take a boat ride out to the face of the glacier. Having done that […]
Among the Guanacos
In Argentina, we were hard-pressed to get close enough to Guanacos to view them, let alone photograph them. The herds tended to be small and ever-so-flighty. Here in Chile, they are abundant and fearless. On our way hiking yesterday, we stopped the truck to view a herd grazing near the road, not realizing they were […]
Talk Geology To Me, Honey!
After picking up our souped-up, hot little red rental truck in the morning, we made the bumpy, 70km drive to Torres del Paine (Blue Massif) National Park located north of Puerto Natales. It didn’t take but 15 minutes outside of town, and we were a little more appreciative that the rental agency had had the […]