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I can’t tell you how fabulous it was today to come in for lunch and find the group 20-somethings already ensconced and to see them leave in obvious pain. When I asked them how their day was they “confessed” that they’d taken a day to rest up from the previous one. Mind you, this was only their second day at Awasi. This was the first day that we’d taken just a half day of trekking and returned for lunch at the lodge…..aren’t we intrepid?! So, after getting over this feeling of old-age superiority, we headed to our villa and luxuriated in the hot tub again.  Ahhhh.

Our trek today was a mild one outside of the nationa park to the Sierra Bagueles, known for its f0ssil finds. In fact, the area has been purchased from estancia owners by the university at Punta Arenas to protect the find of fossils and an enormous sea dinosaur that was found in a cave. After the first discovery there were many looters who took items — and some of them are now in the British Museum. Today, the area is protected and Awasi has a special arrangement with them to let their tour guides pass into the area. Our walk took us along a very gentle river (with some slippery rocks!) and into gentle hills where we literally picked up fossils by the handful.

One of the souvenirs that Awasi has left for us in the villa is a booklets with native people stories. The myth that Cliff and I liked best was about Dolphins. The story goes that a group of native peoples was captured by the Spanish and were on the way to Spain as slaves. A huge storm overtook their ship and a kind Spanish sailor released them from their chains. They were flung into the ocean and the choice was to go back to the Spanish boat or to remain in the sea. They were far too far from the shore to save themselves, but they remained in the sea rather than return to the ship as slaves.  The story goes that they turned into dolphin — which is why dolphin breathe air and have human-like brain power.  A lovely story we decided. (Except the slavery part).

Wednesday was blustery and a bit rainy. We had a fairly easy day — I’d say a half day. The hot tub was wonderful and I think did us both lots of good. Highlights of the day were a gathering of condors on the ground (fairly unusual according to the guides), rainbows across the mountains, incredible scenery, and the joy of being just three people enjoying the beauty of the little bit of the river we were on. It is amazing to be in such a vast area and to find that you have it (at least the spot you are in) all to yourselves.

Ahhhh.

Cliff and I took a 2 hour horseback ride yesterday. The idea of a horse carrying us across the beautiful landscape — and us NOT hiking through it — sounded like a great idea. But what did we know? Trotting is not for the faint-hearted or butted. I believe I ended the ride about an inch shorter than I started. Having access to areas that you would otherwise not see was a treat. Our horses sauntered through herds of guanaco. Along the trails we saw evidence of “the circle of life” — bony remains of a puma’s dinner.  Mostly guanaco, but one fox still identifiable by its pointed nose an ears. Perhaps I should have paid more attention when our guide Danielle asked if we were afraid of heights. No, we replied — not imagining the very narrow path along a steep bluff leading to a river bed. The horses were thirsty and we were relieved to be on flat ground.

After dismounting (thankfully), we hiked through an area called, appropriately, Guanaco Hill. We were able to nearly walk right up to one of these sweet looking camel-cousins. They merely scooted out of touching distance as we approached and are quite obviously used to people — unlike guanaco we saw (later in the week) in Sierra Baguales that did their sentry calls to let their herd know that danger (us?!) was in the area.

Guanacos slowly edging away.

Lunch was staged at a postcard ready site overlooking appropriately named Lago Azul with the park’s main peak and the Cleopatra’s needles formation in the background. Yellow jackets joined us and I managed to get stung on my wrist. Ouch. (Fully recovered in no time.)

Woke this morning to rain. Our immediate thought: Do you think they’ll cancel today’s trek!? We were both hoping the answer would be yes:-) It stopped raining as we departed our villa for the main lodge and breakfast, so the trek is ON!

Yikes, but we are out of shape. A long, hot soak at the end of the day was definitely therapeutic! The trek yesterday was around a penninsula that juts into the Gray River with prime views of the Gray Glacier. We learned later than the piece of the glacier that’s visible here is a teensy part of the entire thing — it sweeps up from the lake, around the peaks and into vast ice fields.  We did see “icebergs” from the glacier — but they were very small — in Alaska I think they would call them “burgie-bits.” The bright aqua of the bergs and muted hues on the glacier itself were contrasted by the gray of the river which has so much sediment in the water from the glacier that there are no fish in it. Later we stopped at another lake and spotted large salmon near the shore. (We had delicious smoked salmon at our picnic lunch mid-afternoon.)

Info sign at Grey Lake

Cliff & Danielle on stone beach

Burgie bits barely visible.

Hiking around the peninsula

After our very strenuous walk across the mile long rock beach, hike around the peninsula jutting into Grey Lake and then the trek back across the beach….lunch! To soothe our aches and pains, Danielle served Jameson on the rocks as our preprandial.

Cheers!

Picnics are served elegantly.

Tuesday featured the western side of the national park.  The scenery here is quite different from the Lake Sarmiento side. Our villa overlooks Lake Sarmiento with a range of snowy peaks in the distance. The western side is arid with beautiful contrasting colors of wheat gold and chocolate brown. Not nearly as much wildlife spotted there, but the guanacos make regular appearances as do herds of sheep (and rainbows!)

A funny sight as we were driving was a herd of sheep seemingly being driven by rheas in their midst. These flightless birds are pretty speedy and the sheep move out of their path in startled trots. We learned an interesting thing about the rheas. The fathers incubate and then take care of the newborn chicks. After the chicks hatch, lone males are seen with a dozen or more chicks in their wake. The fathers are quite fierce in protecting their broods. Our guide reported seeing one charge after a fox that had its eye on two dawdling chicks — the fox took off.

We did get our dip in the hot tub! Much needed.

Cliff stirred up the water to make sure we wouldn’t end up cooked! A cold water faucet is conveniently provided to cool the water down to a bearable temperature. VERY relaxing.

And, boy, am I glad I got a good pair of hiking boots (thank you REI!). My feet are tired, but not distressed!

As lovely and serene as advertised. There are 11 villas on the property, each one secluded (and, alas, a goodly distance from the main lodge!). Our villa consists of a small sitting room with a fireplace, a large sleeping area with an oversized king-size bed, a well-equipped bath and steps away, a wood-fueled hot tub. We have not tried the hot tub yet — it was too windy and too much of a fire hazard.

Hot tub is on the right.

Speaking of wind. WOW! Our first hike to a glacier-fed lake and a waterfall featured winds of 50+mph. Yes, they could nearly blow you over. I crouched down several times along the way to wait for the wind to subside even a bit. Cliff managed to topple over once due to his backpack acting like a sail — whoops! He got a pretty good sized scratch and assorted abrasions but was not seriously damaged, thank goodness. The hike was 2 1/2 hours long. We are only at about 500 feet altitude so we did not have thin air to contend with, but the terrain was up and down. I think they consider this trail to be low difficulty. We’ve got a “medium” coming up. Yikes.  We hiked to two other sites after lunch — but these were of the 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back variety.  At moments, I thought, well, we’ve seen Patagonia…check — let’s move on to a spa resort.  Five more days filled with treks might be a bit much!

A highlight of the day (other than the scenery, which was magnificent), was a picnic lunch complete with cloth tablecloth, wine glasses and a cheese dish (a cross between quesa fundido and saganaki) cooked on a propane stove. One of the wine glasses cracked in transit, so I drank my delicious red wine from a tin cup meant for the soup!

Scenery is unbelievable (and I hope to get to a connection that allows me to post pictures soon — Awasi is definitely not the place.) I’ve taken several shots on my iPhone that could be used for one of thos Apple billboards that boast “taken with an i6”. They are that spectacular — and obviously did not require any photographic ability at all.  My billboard could say “taken with an i6 by an utter amateur”!

We are the grey-beards among the guests at Awasi. Two couples look to be 10 or 15 years younger than us. The others are, at most, in their early 30’s. One brave family has two little kids — like under 6 — in tow.

Had to add a comment about Awasi hospitality. We arrived at the lodge on Saturday around 3pm — too late for lunch, BUT they have a meal interlude they call “after lunch” (Cliff decided this is something like Pooh’s elevenses.)  Three courses, plus wine, of course.  You can see that we look pretty happy with it!

 

Our location in Patagonia is BELOW the antarctic circle — but all of our time in Chile was at about the same longitude as California.  The “California connection” is not very apparent in Patagonia, but a definite feeling once you are as far north as Santiago, Valparaiso and the wine valleys.

Not quite….after 9 1/2 hours in the air from Miami to Santiago, we had a 3 1/2 hour layover and THEN a 3 1/2 hour flight to Punta Arenas, our overnight stop before heading to Awasi tomorrow.  Our friend Jim Comerford reminded us that he and Cleo made the trip from Chicago!! The good news? It’s just 20 minutes from the Punta Arenas airport to our hotel Rey Don Felipe. The bad news? We have a 5 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow! The hotel here is quite nice and they included a “welcome drink” as part of our package. Cliff enjoyed (maybe?) his and mine. I opted for a nice Chilean Cabernet savignon instead 🙂  Cliff took lots of pictures through the plane window on the way to Punta Arenas….I haven’t quite figured out how to grab them, but will post as soon as I do!

After a semi-misadventure trying to find a restaurant we’d picked out which involved a very steep hike and a walk through some iffy looking neighborhoods, we ended up having dinner at the hotel. It was terrific. I tried conger eel, which the waiter described as being like sea bass. He was right – but the eel tasted better and had a better consistency than a lot of sea bass I’ve had in the past. Cliff opted for lamb shank, also delicious. Promise not to make this a food travelogue…it’s just that day one didn’t have much else to report on!

Cliff enjoying our “welcome drinks.”

Photo below: this is what a conger eel looks like. Don’t think it’ll be an easy sell in the U.S. But very delicious. (Picture courtesy of the Internet!)

We’ve had picture perfect weather here in Marathon for the last several days….made us both think “what in the heck are we leaving for?!!”  Note to self: schedule holidays for Januay and February in the future:-). We head to Chile tomorrow and are in the not-fun state of being nearly packed and hoping we haven’t forgotten anything.  Speaking of which — we both have waterproof pants which we bought for our Alaska trip a couple of years ago — but they are inconveniently located in Chicago at the moment.  Amazon to the rescue.  Can you believe you can order waterproof pants and have them delivered the next day?!

Getting very excited about our upcoming holiday in Chile. We fly from Miami to Santiago and then on to Punta Arenas. This bit of travel takes up nearly a whole day.  The next day we will be picked up for a 3 hour drive to our resort, The Awasi in Patagonia!  We’ll spend a week there doing outdoor things like hike (yikes!), fly fish and perhaps some white water rafting. I’m pretty sure we’ll see — and maybe walk on — glaciers and I’m hoping to see some penguins. After Patagonia, we’ll fly to Puerto Montt and embark on a 5 day car trip through Chile’s lake area plus stops at a famous waterfall, a horse hacienda and Neruda’s seaside home Isla Negra arriving back in Santiago.  Four days of wine touring from there and then back to Miami. Sounds very busy.  Stay tuned. I’ll post when wifi access permits.