Sunday, December 21, 2008


Greetings from Punta Arenas!!

As you may know, this is our LAST blog for a good bit of time. We are picking up Andy today (hurray!) and tomorrow we are headed into the National Park Torres del Paine for a 7 day backpack which will lead directly into a 3 day sea kayak without returning to a town with internet.
For those of you that may be worried (you know who you are!) we have the satelitte phone with us all of the time, and have always been able to get a signal when we turn it on. Also, there are ranger stations every 5 or so hours along the trail so help is always near by. As well, we are to meet the kayaking company on the morning of the 29th so they have emergency contact information if we do not show....

Now onto our past adventures!
To think that we almost didn´t go to the San Isidro light is ridiculous! It was the most amazing place! Tucked into a protected cove, beneath a beautiful lighthouse, the hostel was filled with warmth and a steady supply of hot coffee to fight off the chilly weather inside. The folks who own the hostel are about the nicest family we have encountered here and the food was to die for (wild salmon anyone? King crab chowder sound ok?) goodness it was awesome complete with down comforters!

We did some trekking, including a long hike to the summit of a coastal range mountain (very very boggy and then foggy on top but incredible none th eless) and sea kayaking and we SAW A WHALE! It was the first one spotted this season and there are usually only 3 or 4 seen in total! We jumped in the zodiak and took off after the HUGE humpback! She/he showed us their tail only once but kept us amazed by surfacing every few minutes and creating beautiful blows!

Also saw sea lions, dolphins, albatross, petrels, penguins....etc etc etc. Totally incredible! Our time there could not have been beat, and instead of droning on about it, here are some photos.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow! So glad you got to see a WHALE! Mom will be jealous :-)
Be glad you are missing the winter hell of 2008!
Miss u and be safe!