In Latin American countries, the traditional spring break is a bit different. It coincides with Easter and is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Since Easter was a bit late this year, so was our week of vacation. We were definitely ready for a break from school, and a relaxing vacation is just what we needed.
A plus of all of Latin America having the same week off is that we were able to spend the week with friends, Alex and Caitlin, who are currently living in Ecuador. Mendoza, Argentina had popped up a few times in conversation, so that's where we decided to go.
Since A & C hadn't been to Buenos Aires yet, we decided to meet up there first. They got there a few days before Jesse and I did, so they went around and did a lot of the things we had done last year. Look under the tag Buenos Aires to read our posts from last year.
We hung out for a few days, did some shopping and had some great Porteno food. Buenos Aires is just an amazing city to be in, and its fun to just walk around and look at the different architecture that each neighborhood brings. It reminds me of New York City in that way- each neighborhood has its own distinct feel and character. This time we stayed in the Recoleta neighborhood in an old apartment building, and spent a whole day in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, which we didn't get to see last time.
I realized as I am writing this post that Jesse didn't take any pictures of our time in BA except for the soccer game that he went to. So I have no pictures to share. :(
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Paraguay Video
With the 200th anniversary of Paraguay's independence from Spain, there have been a lot of tourism and culture videos created to spark patriotism for the celebration in a few weeks. Here is one video that our librarian shared with us. It shows some beautiful scenery and things to do in Paraguay. We actually haven't been or done most of what is displayed, so it was informational for us too! Click on the link below to enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URch_tOeVlo&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URch_tOeVlo&feature=player_embedded
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Dengue Fever!
For the last few weeks, there has been an epidemic of dengue in Paraguay. For those unfamiliar with this disease, it is spread by mosquitoes and is accompanied with high fevers, headache, rash, joint and muscle pain, and with some strands, hemorrhaging, especially in the gums. It can be life-threatening, especially if you've already had dengue before.
There has been a lot of rain lately in Paraguay, which helps the mosquito population. Once a mosquito has bitten an affected person, they can spread the disease by biting another person, and thus, an epidemic has spread. Last week, soldiers and health officials started house searches, looking for stagnant water in some of the neighborhoods with the highest number of cases. Families are liberally spraying their students with Off! before coming to school, and local pharmacies are selling bracelets that have citronella to ward off the insects. At the local park where I run after school, there have been ladies offering to spray patrons with Off! before they enter.
I had one student who had it at the beginning of March and now, many people are afraid that they have it when they exhibit any of the symptoms. My Spanish teacher, Maria Elena, has been telling me that on all the Paraguayan TV stations there have been commercials educating people on dengue prevention. Hopefully, Jesse and I can escape this year without any severe illnesses.
There has been a lot of rain lately in Paraguay, which helps the mosquito population. Once a mosquito has bitten an affected person, they can spread the disease by biting another person, and thus, an epidemic has spread. Last week, soldiers and health officials started house searches, looking for stagnant water in some of the neighborhoods with the highest number of cases. Families are liberally spraying their students with Off! before coming to school, and local pharmacies are selling bracelets that have citronella to ward off the insects. At the local park where I run after school, there have been ladies offering to spray patrons with Off! before they enter.
I had one student who had it at the beginning of March and now, many people are afraid that they have it when they exhibit any of the symptoms. My Spanish teacher, Maria Elena, has been telling me that on all the Paraguayan TV stations there have been commercials educating people on dengue prevention. Hopefully, Jesse and I can escape this year without any severe illnesses.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Shakira, Shakira!
Live music is always a good time, and living abroad can sometimes make it difficult since musicians like we like aren't always coming to Paraguay. Jesse went to a Franz Ferdinand concert last year, and this year, Shakira came! It was her first time in Paraguay, and there was excitement in the air for weeks. Here's a few photos of her concert.
Ziggy Marley (Bob's son) opened for Shakira.
Only downside of the concert, it was on a Tuesday. And we had to work the next day. It was worth it.
Ziggy Marley (Bob's son) opened for Shakira.
Only downside of the concert, it was on a Tuesday. And we had to work the next day. It was worth it.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sailing!!!
As a culminating activity for our trip, we decided to do something neither one of us has ever done before- sailing! All we've ever heard about the end of the world, the Beagle Channel, we wanted to get on the water, and since those big touristy boats aren't really our style, this is what we decided. Once we got out on the water, the view of Ushuaia was amazing!
The boat only had space for 10 tourists, so our little group of five had half the boat. Part of the trip through the channel was getting close to the sea lion island so that we can take a look. We have seen sea lions before in the wild, but never in these numbers!
Even though it was summer, Ushuaia tops out around 50, 55. On the water, there was wind. And splashes of icy water. Despite bundling up, it was cold!!!
The main attraction of our journey through the channel was a trip to H island. This tour company is the only company with permission to land and take tours on the island. The island is the nesting ground for cormorant birds. Here's our trusty vessel.
Here, we are walking on one part of the H, with the other side there.
Cormorant colony! The cormorants use this island to create their nests, which are made out of their poop. The smell was a little overpowering as we neared the colony, but it was pretty amazing to see all the birds.
The Yamana people used this island as a resting area from bad weather, or to spend the night during fishing trips. The Yamana lived on the southern tip of the continent. The Yamana were very interesting because of their lifestyle and how they adapted to life in these extreme conditions. One, they didn't wear any clothes. They covered themselves in animal grease, which prevented body heat from escaping. Since they spend much of their lives in their canoes, they were in a huddled position. Therefore, there was less surface area in contact with the wind. Women were divers for clams and mussels. Since they didn't have any clothes, they were able to quickly raise their body temperature after contact with the 48-50F degree water. They kept warm by constantly having small fires around them, even in their canoes. The name of this region, Tierra del Fuego, is from Magellan spotting their fires.
It was cold, but absolutely beautiful and a wonderful way to end our trip. After we got off the boat, we thawed out with chai lattes, something was quite a treat!
The boat only had space for 10 tourists, so our little group of five had half the boat. Part of the trip through the channel was getting close to the sea lion island so that we can take a look. We have seen sea lions before in the wild, but never in these numbers!
Even though it was summer, Ushuaia tops out around 50, 55. On the water, there was wind. And splashes of icy water. Despite bundling up, it was cold!!!
The main attraction of our journey through the channel was a trip to H island. This tour company is the only company with permission to land and take tours on the island. The island is the nesting ground for cormorant birds. Here's our trusty vessel.
Here, we are walking on one part of the H, with the other side there.
Cormorant colony! The cormorants use this island to create their nests, which are made out of their poop. The smell was a little overpowering as we neared the colony, but it was pretty amazing to see all the birds.
The Yamana people used this island as a resting area from bad weather, or to spend the night during fishing trips. The Yamana lived on the southern tip of the continent. The Yamana were very interesting because of their lifestyle and how they adapted to life in these extreme conditions. One, they didn't wear any clothes. They covered themselves in animal grease, which prevented body heat from escaping. Since they spend much of their lives in their canoes, they were in a huddled position. Therefore, there was less surface area in contact with the wind. Women were divers for clams and mussels. Since they didn't have any clothes, they were able to quickly raise their body temperature after contact with the 48-50F degree water. They kept warm by constantly having small fires around them, even in their canoes. The name of this region, Tierra del Fuego, is from Magellan spotting their fires.
It was cold, but absolutely beautiful and a wonderful way to end our trip. After we got off the boat, we thawed out with chai lattes, something was quite a treat!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Penguins!
Perhaps the most anticipated part of our month-long journey was the opportunity to see penguins in the wild. Most tourists get on a boat and take a tour of the Beagle Channel which includes their boat pulling up on the shore of the penguin island and all of the tourist herding to the front of the boat to take pictures because they are not allowed to get off on the island. This did not sound like fun to us so we instead booked a tour where we could walk around the island and see the penguins up close.
We hopped on a bus on the morning of our second day in Ushuaia and took a windy 1.5 hour drive to the Estancia Harberton where our tour would begin. Along the way we stopped to check out some evidence of the harsh weather conditions that are the norm in Tierra del Fuego. The trees below are perfectly normal Southern Beech trees which had the bad fortune to be growing on the top of a ridge where they are exposed to extremely strong and consistent winds. The winds force them to grow almost parallel to the ground and for this they are called "Flag Trees" by the locals because they appear to be blowing in the wind.
The start of our tour, Estancia Harberton (Estancia roughly means ranch in English), is an interesting place for several reasons. First because it was established by one of the first missionaries (and therefore first foreign people) to settle in Tierra del Fuego and has remained in the Bridges family since 1886. The son of that original missionary, Lucas Bridges, was raised there and did a great job documenting and translating the language and history of the local Yamana people who were an extraordinary example of survival in an extreme climate with very few resources. The Estancia currently houses a small museum of local marine life and some researchers who monitor the local populations of whales, dolphins, penguins and other seagoing birds. Among the collection of things in the museum are skeletons of lots of different types of whales and penguins like the one below.
The researchers also have a "Bone House" where they are in the processes of removing the flesh and skin from the skeletons of various whales, porpoises, dolphins and whatever else they found. The smell in this house was quite interesting as you might imagine, but it was very cool to see the dirty work that goes into preparing all of the clean skeletons you see in museums. I'll spare you the pictures as they are a bit gruesome.
From there we took a walk across the grounds of the Estancia which contain the original buildings built by the Bridges family and hopped onto our little Zodiac to cross to the penguin island in the Beagle Channel.
There are two types of penguins on the island. The first type, of which there are only something like 24 mating pairs, is the Gentoo penguin. These penguins are the 3rd largest in the world behind the Emperor and King penguins and can grow to be up to 3 feet tall. Others of the Gentoo species do live as far south as Antarctica, however the ones we saw will probably never go their in their lifetimes.
The second type of penguin, of which there are thousands on the island, is called the Magellanic penguin. These penguins also never go to Antarctica, but rather migrate between the strait of Magellan (hence the name) and Brazil. They are rather small for penguins as they only get to the range of 2 or 2.5 feet tall.
All over the island the penguins had dug out their burrows as it was mating season. The males dig burrows and then the females choose males to mate with based on the size, location, and quality of their burrows more-so than the "beauty" or other characteristics of the males themselves. We had to walk on designated paths very slowly and carefully so we did not disturb the penguins or their nests. As you can see, they were quite used to their giant visitors and were not too scared of us.
Many of the penguins were in the process of molting during which time they must remain on the island for about 5 days without going into the water to feed while their old feathers fall off. We saw both juveniles (like the one being fed by its mother below) and adults going through the molting process.
You can tell the difference between the juveniles and adults by the coloration of their feathers.
It's hard to show with pictures just how cool this place was so I'll let the two videos below do some of the talking (along with the sound of the wind in both videos). The first video shows a good part of the area where we could walk and you can see both types of penguins with burrows in the area along with a territorial warning call to us from one of the Magellanic penguins.
The second video should give you some idea of the beauty of the Beagle Channel along with the number of penguins running all over the island.
Definitely one of the coolest experiences yet!
We hopped on a bus on the morning of our second day in Ushuaia and took a windy 1.5 hour drive to the Estancia Harberton where our tour would begin. Along the way we stopped to check out some evidence of the harsh weather conditions that are the norm in Tierra del Fuego. The trees below are perfectly normal Southern Beech trees which had the bad fortune to be growing on the top of a ridge where they are exposed to extremely strong and consistent winds. The winds force them to grow almost parallel to the ground and for this they are called "Flag Trees" by the locals because they appear to be blowing in the wind.
The start of our tour, Estancia Harberton (Estancia roughly means ranch in English), is an interesting place for several reasons. First because it was established by one of the first missionaries (and therefore first foreign people) to settle in Tierra del Fuego and has remained in the Bridges family since 1886. The son of that original missionary, Lucas Bridges, was raised there and did a great job documenting and translating the language and history of the local Yamana people who were an extraordinary example of survival in an extreme climate with very few resources. The Estancia currently houses a small museum of local marine life and some researchers who monitor the local populations of whales, dolphins, penguins and other seagoing birds. Among the collection of things in the museum are skeletons of lots of different types of whales and penguins like the one below.
The researchers also have a "Bone House" where they are in the processes of removing the flesh and skin from the skeletons of various whales, porpoises, dolphins and whatever else they found. The smell in this house was quite interesting as you might imagine, but it was very cool to see the dirty work that goes into preparing all of the clean skeletons you see in museums. I'll spare you the pictures as they are a bit gruesome.From there we took a walk across the grounds of the Estancia which contain the original buildings built by the Bridges family and hopped onto our little Zodiac to cross to the penguin island in the Beagle Channel.
There are two types of penguins on the island. The first type, of which there are only something like 24 mating pairs, is the Gentoo penguin. These penguins are the 3rd largest in the world behind the Emperor and King penguins and can grow to be up to 3 feet tall. Others of the Gentoo species do live as far south as Antarctica, however the ones we saw will probably never go their in their lifetimes.
The second type of penguin, of which there are thousands on the island, is called the Magellanic penguin. These penguins also never go to Antarctica, but rather migrate between the strait of Magellan (hence the name) and Brazil. They are rather small for penguins as they only get to the range of 2 or 2.5 feet tall.
All over the island the penguins had dug out their burrows as it was mating season. The males dig burrows and then the females choose males to mate with based on the size, location, and quality of their burrows more-so than the "beauty" or other characteristics of the males themselves. We had to walk on designated paths very slowly and carefully so we did not disturb the penguins or their nests. As you can see, they were quite used to their giant visitors and were not too scared of us.
Many of the penguins were in the process of molting during which time they must remain on the island for about 5 days without going into the water to feed while their old feathers fall off. We saw both juveniles (like the one being fed by its mother below) and adults going through the molting process.
You can tell the difference between the juveniles and adults by the coloration of their feathers.
It's hard to show with pictures just how cool this place was so I'll let the two videos below do some of the talking (along with the sound of the wind in both videos). The first video shows a good part of the area where we could walk and you can see both types of penguins with burrows in the area along with a territorial warning call to us from one of the Magellanic penguins.
The second video should give you some idea of the beauty of the Beagle Channel along with the number of penguins running all over the island.
Definitely one of the coolest experiences yet!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Fin del Mundo- Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego
Ushuaia, Argentina. The end of the world. The southernmost city on Earth. Where mountains meet the Beagle Channel, there is this old port town suddenly transformed into a tourist hub and the embarkation spot for Antarctica cruises. As it was the end of our journey, we wanted to make sure we made the most of our time at the end of the world!
I believe I mentioned it has become a tourist town right? Well, the post above, stating how many kilometers Ushuaia is from other cities is a major picture-taking spot, a few blocks from the main tourist area. The picture below shows some of the mountains that were the backdrop.
The Argentine province where Ushuaia is located is called Tierra del Fuego- Land of Fires. It gets its name from Ferdinand Magellan, when he made his trip around the world. When Magellan sailed around the tip of South America, he saw small fires along the coast, therefore, Tierra del Fuego. When Darwin made his trip down to South America, he called the native peoples who lived here Fuegians. More on them in a later post.
There is a decent sized national park, Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, with part of the park in Argentina and part in Chile. Most of the park is off limits to visitors, however there are some hiking trails. Since we had hiked a lot already, we did some of the easy hikes and enjoyed the scenery.
The park had some amazing lakes and picturesque views for our picnic lunch. A very good use of time for one day in Tierra del Fuego!
I believe I mentioned it has become a tourist town right? Well, the post above, stating how many kilometers Ushuaia is from other cities is a major picture-taking spot, a few blocks from the main tourist area. The picture below shows some of the mountains that were the backdrop.
The Argentine province where Ushuaia is located is called Tierra del Fuego- Land of Fires. It gets its name from Ferdinand Magellan, when he made his trip around the world. When Magellan sailed around the tip of South America, he saw small fires along the coast, therefore, Tierra del Fuego. When Darwin made his trip down to South America, he called the native peoples who lived here Fuegians. More on them in a later post.
There is a decent sized national park, Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, with part of the park in Argentina and part in Chile. Most of the park is off limits to visitors, however there are some hiking trails. Since we had hiked a lot already, we did some of the easy hikes and enjoyed the scenery.
The park had some amazing lakes and picturesque views for our picnic lunch. A very good use of time for one day in Tierra del Fuego!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Torres del Paine
While in El Chalten and El Calafate we were closely monitoring a large bus strike that had shut down southern Chile. This was a concern to us because our next destination was the most popular and probably most spectacular national park in South America which happens to be located just across the Argentine border in Chile. Torres del Paine is quite well known for its hiking and gorgeous mountain scenery so we were very happy to hear that the strike ended in time for us to make our planned visit. You can see the park in a variety of ways but the most popular is the famous W circuit. I painted the W on the map below in yellow so you can see what I am talking about when I refer to what we did each day. The campsites we stayed at are identified with blue circles and labeled with which night we stayed there. The red circle represents the location where I took the video you will find later in this post.
As you can see if you click on and blow up the map above, the hike we did looks roughly like a W. The first day we got dropped off on the right side near the Refugio las Torres and hiked uphill to the Refugio Chileno to set up our tent for the night. This campsite was the worst one in the park with the tents all crowded onto a small flat spot in a valley that acted as a wind tunnel all night, but we decided to camp there anyway because it was looking rainy when we arrived and we wanted to get up early the next morning to see the sunrise on the Torres del Paine. You can see the Refugio in the picture below and the tents are located in the trees just to the left.
The morning of the 2nd day we woke up at 3:30, braved temperatures that were probably in the high 30's or low 40's and strong winds to hike 2.5 hours up to the Base of Las Torres (the right tip of the W on the map). When I say up I do mean up as the entire hike was uphill with the last hour being a scramble over boulders and a very steep incline. The mirador was very cold but absolutely worth it as the view with the sun rising and hitting the Torres was absolutely gorgeous!
After seeing the sunrise, we quickly hiked back downhill to get the blood flowing again and back to our campsite for some hot coffee made with our handy dandy little camp stove (a great investment on mornings like this!) before packing up and heading off toward our camp for day 2. This day would be the longest hike we would do in the park and since much of it was with our full packs weighing somewhere between 30 and 45 pounds it was a challenging day. On the map we went from where we were camped the first night up to the Base of Las Torres, back down to camp, and then all the way over to Refugio Cuernos near the middle of the W. Along the way we saw one lonely guanaco posing for us on the top of a hill...
some beautiful lakes,
and Los Cuernos del Paine (the Horns of Paine). The entire Paine Massif (basically the group of mountains making up the park) are not a full part of the Andes, but rather were formed by some magma that hardened underground into granite and then was pushed above ground due to the uplift that created the rest of the Andes. This is part of why the park is so cool, since there are combinations of different types of rock here that you just don't see very often.
The Cuernos above are mostly granite (the white parts at the bottom) with the tops being made of sedimentary rock (the black parts at the top). The granite was the magma that hardened under the sedimentary rock and was then pushed up. Pretty cool looking right!
The 3rd day we woke up, packed up, and hiked from Refugio Cuernos to the Camp Site Italiano where we quickly set up our tents and dropped our big packs. We then continued on up past Camp Site Britanico to a mirador (lookout point) in the Valle del Frances. While the Torres were gorgeous, this was probably the most beautiful day of our trip as we got to see glaciers, rushing rivers, and a wide variety of different types of mountains. About halfway up the climb, Jenna decided she wanted a jumping photo and proceeded to jump higher than she ever has in her life for this picture!
A little later I took this video (location marked with a red circle on the map) to show the incredible view from this point!
I can't really do justice photographically to the view from the mirador as it was in a glacial valley almost entirely surrounded by mountains but here are a few pictures that show some of it.
The next morning we packed up and headed down toward the Refugio Paine Grande with intentions of hiking with the tents all the way up to Refugio Grey. Unfortunately we got some rain and decided to hide out in the tents at the Paine Grande for the rest of the day. Our fifth day in the park we did a day hike up to Refugio Grey and the Grey Glacier instead. The glacier was beautiful but really not more impressive than the Perrito Moreno glacier so I'll skip the pics of the glacier itself and instead show you me enjoying some crisp, cold, refreshing glacier water,
Amy, Jenna and I posing by an iceberg,
and an incredibly blue iceberg floating in Grey Lake.
We then returned back to the camp at Refugio Paine Grande for some nice showers and beers to enjoy our last night in the park.
As you can see from the picture above, the park was quite popular (Can you find our tent in the picture?) and crowded. This was annoying at times but actually quite interesting because the 3 of us agreed that we had never been somewhere so international in our lives. Every group that we passed on the trails seemed to be speaking a different language, most of which we didn't recognize at all. It certainly made the approximately 75 km (near 47 miles) we walked over the 5 days more interesting!
The last morning we hopped on a boat and crossed Lago Pehoe to catch our bus out of the park. While waiting for our bus back to El Calafate near the Guarderia Laguna Amarga we got one final treat as we saw 7 condors soaring over a mountain searching for food at the same time. Great way to finish our time in the park!
As you can see if you click on and blow up the map above, the hike we did looks roughly like a W. The first day we got dropped off on the right side near the Refugio las Torres and hiked uphill to the Refugio Chileno to set up our tent for the night. This campsite was the worst one in the park with the tents all crowded onto a small flat spot in a valley that acted as a wind tunnel all night, but we decided to camp there anyway because it was looking rainy when we arrived and we wanted to get up early the next morning to see the sunrise on the Torres del Paine. You can see the Refugio in the picture below and the tents are located in the trees just to the left.
The morning of the 2nd day we woke up at 3:30, braved temperatures that were probably in the high 30's or low 40's and strong winds to hike 2.5 hours up to the Base of Las Torres (the right tip of the W on the map). When I say up I do mean up as the entire hike was uphill with the last hour being a scramble over boulders and a very steep incline. The mirador was very cold but absolutely worth it as the view with the sun rising and hitting the Torres was absolutely gorgeous!
After seeing the sunrise, we quickly hiked back downhill to get the blood flowing again and back to our campsite for some hot coffee made with our handy dandy little camp stove (a great investment on mornings like this!) before packing up and heading off toward our camp for day 2. This day would be the longest hike we would do in the park and since much of it was with our full packs weighing somewhere between 30 and 45 pounds it was a challenging day. On the map we went from where we were camped the first night up to the Base of Las Torres, back down to camp, and then all the way over to Refugio Cuernos near the middle of the W. Along the way we saw one lonely guanaco posing for us on the top of a hill...
some beautiful lakes,
and Los Cuernos del Paine (the Horns of Paine). The entire Paine Massif (basically the group of mountains making up the park) are not a full part of the Andes, but rather were formed by some magma that hardened underground into granite and then was pushed above ground due to the uplift that created the rest of the Andes. This is part of why the park is so cool, since there are combinations of different types of rock here that you just don't see very often.
The Cuernos above are mostly granite (the white parts at the bottom) with the tops being made of sedimentary rock (the black parts at the top). The granite was the magma that hardened under the sedimentary rock and was then pushed up. Pretty cool looking right!The 3rd day we woke up, packed up, and hiked from Refugio Cuernos to the Camp Site Italiano where we quickly set up our tents and dropped our big packs. We then continued on up past Camp Site Britanico to a mirador (lookout point) in the Valle del Frances. While the Torres were gorgeous, this was probably the most beautiful day of our trip as we got to see glaciers, rushing rivers, and a wide variety of different types of mountains. About halfway up the climb, Jenna decided she wanted a jumping photo and proceeded to jump higher than she ever has in her life for this picture!
A little later I took this video (location marked with a red circle on the map) to show the incredible view from this point!
I can't really do justice photographically to the view from the mirador as it was in a glacial valley almost entirely surrounded by mountains but here are a few pictures that show some of it.
The next morning we packed up and headed down toward the Refugio Paine Grande with intentions of hiking with the tents all the way up to Refugio Grey. Unfortunately we got some rain and decided to hide out in the tents at the Paine Grande for the rest of the day. Our fifth day in the park we did a day hike up to Refugio Grey and the Grey Glacier instead. The glacier was beautiful but really not more impressive than the Perrito Moreno glacier so I'll skip the pics of the glacier itself and instead show you me enjoying some crisp, cold, refreshing glacier water,
Amy, Jenna and I posing by an iceberg,
and an incredibly blue iceberg floating in Grey Lake.
We then returned back to the camp at Refugio Paine Grande for some nice showers and beers to enjoy our last night in the park.
As you can see from the picture above, the park was quite popular (Can you find our tent in the picture?) and crowded. This was annoying at times but actually quite interesting because the 3 of us agreed that we had never been somewhere so international in our lives. Every group that we passed on the trails seemed to be speaking a different language, most of which we didn't recognize at all. It certainly made the approximately 75 km (near 47 miles) we walked over the 5 days more interesting!The last morning we hopped on a boat and crossed Lago Pehoe to catch our bus out of the park. While waiting for our bus back to El Calafate near the Guarderia Laguna Amarga we got one final treat as we saw 7 condors soaring over a mountain searching for food at the same time. Great way to finish our time in the park!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)