Next Stop

From Punta Arenas I headed 3 hours north on bus to Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for visits to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and also Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, in El Calafate, Argentina. (In that area I was so close to Argentina that my phone kept roaming back and forth.)
To maximize what I could see down there and still have a few days up in the Lakes District, I did the one day quick tour of Torres del Paine. I do regret a little going all the way there and not staying longer, but it is what it is, I still have a lot more of Chile to see! The good news is that there are a lot of bus tours available so that people like me can see a lot in one day. 
I was lucky to get a clear day in Puerto Natales since it rains here a lot, but I wish I could have arrived a day earlier to have this day in the park...

The ferry that you see pictured above is an option that many people use to head north or south through Patagonia since bus travel is difficult down there and it's also an amazing way to see that part of the country. I opted for my favorite method of travel, the airplane, so I could later fly from Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt for the last leg of my trip.
After a good night's rest at Casa Cecilia, I woke up to pouring rain and a gloomy outlook about what I wouldn't be able to see in the park. Unfortunately the most unique part of the park is the "torres" or towers, and those are only visible on clear days. Torres del Paine does have its own micro climate, so it was a little clearer once we got closer and the day went on, but still not clear enough to see the towers. Even on a cloudy day without the towers this is an AMAZING place!!! I guess that means I'll have to come back at some point so I can see everything...

Cordillera del Paine and Lago Sarmiento, still pretty cloudy when we arrived

guanacos

The light is so different in so many of these pictures since it seriously changed like every 5 minutes...

Los Cuernos del Paine (horns)

Lago Pehoe

In case you wanted to swim in a glacial lake

Lago Grey and Glacier Grey

Laguna Azul

Caught a rainbow out the bus window as we were leaving

My Uncle Tom's picture, the amazing towers that I couldn't see

Pinguinos

I feel like it's a general consensus that people love penguins. Are they really cute, or is it more of a fascination with how unique they are? Regardless, when you ride 2 hours on a ferry to go see them and take pictures, you realize that there is something special about them that draws you there.
As we approached the island, the guide gave us some general facts about the Magellanic Penguins, named after Ferdinand Magellan of course, who saw them on his first voyage around the bottom of South America. She reminded us to disembark the ferry boat to the left and continue walking since there are plenty of penguins to see everywhere. Nothing can prepare you for just how many penguins there actually are to see until the boat gets close enough...

These particular penguins swim every year all the way from the southern coast of Brazil. The guide also explained that they come all the way down to Chilean Antarctic because of the long daylight hours that are necessary for their breeding process which generally occurs between September and February. When I was there, the chicks were fairly large and losing their baby feathers.

some larger than others

The adults are known for their "tuxedo" look, which also helps disguise them from predators...

They are also a noisy breed, braying away and calling for their mates...

Check out all of the burrows...

These penguins take equal care of both babies so they both have a great chance of survival

Isla Magdalena is a preserved area, so you literally just walked around on a small roped off path observing them in their natural habitat.

I think it's then when you look around and realize that you are hanging out with penguins at the bottom of the world...

And the travel posts begin...

I just returned from my travels, and taking 400 pictures in a little over a week says that the south of Chile is a pretty amazing place. I knew it would be, but there is something about growing up in the Midwestern United States that doesn't really prepare you for glaciers, volcanoes, green colored lakes, and penguins.

The first leg of my trip was a stop in Punta Arenas, where I met up with my aunt and uncle who were finishing up a 3 week trip before heading up through Santiago and back home to Boulder, CO.

Here's a little map here to show you were I was...a long long ways from home!

View For the folks back home... in a larger map

Punta Arenas is an easy jumping off point to head over to the Argentine side of Patagonia (which I didn't do this time) and also to see penguins on Isla Magdalena, a two hour ferry ride away,  I took so many pictures of penguins that they deserve a post of their own.

Since my aunt and uncle were coming off of about 5 days of intensive hiking in Torres del Paine, we spent a lot of time hanging out with great views over the Strait of Magellan looking out into Tierra del Fuego.

A hike around Reserva Forestal Magallanes

Lots of fresh salmon

White fish with quinoa

We ate such delicious lunches that our dinners looked like this: wine, apples, cheese, and crackers

On the cozy "third floor" of the hotel surrounded by windows and light until almost 11pm!

Heading South

Work is slow right now, and since I chose to teach during January, tomorrow I'll be kicking off my February vacation with a 9 day trip to the south of Chile. Second summer of the year equals second summer vacation! The best part is that I found a stash of cash in my bag that I had forgotten that I had hidden there to use for my travels! Stay tuned for lots of pictures when I get back...

Summer

I loooove summer, but it's hot! Just to give you a little idea of HOW hot, you might remember a picture from one of Otto's last haircuts....

pobrecito

This time the official peluquero de perros showed up and went to work. This is the result...

I think he's digging his new hairdo, but his ego is taking a beating. Poor guy's been called a rat, a giant chihuahua, you name it. Most of all he's totally sick of the paparazzi following him around to take pictures of his new look.

What are you eating there?

Mark, this post is for you! When I went to China, I posted so many pictures of food it was ridiculous. The food was so unique and the presentation so beautiful that you couldn't help but get your camera out at every meal. (Carol!) I haven't said much about the food here in Chile and it's mostly because my eating habits aren't really that different than before.
I thought I would really learn how to cook, but as it turns out I really don't put together full meals really well. I check out all of the beautiful fresh fruits and veggies and just start cutting up what sounds good at the time. Yesterday it was a tomato and avocado salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar with the tomatoes from yesterday's feria for 300 pesos a kilo!?!
It's also choclo, or corn season around here too, so the other day Ita brought me a stew-like dish with finely ground corn, white beans, and some other veggies. Many of the veggie dishes that I love are winter foods and are way too hot for the summer.
So, here are some pictures of things that people eat around here, and I'm sure you'll be able to distinguish the things that I eat from the ones I'd never touch!

Can't get enough of this stuff

Peruvian salad

Chilean salad

Aji de gallina, a Peruvian spicy chicken dish that's not made as spicy here in Chile since people like things a bit more bland.

Baked seafood empanadas, one of my favorites

Merluza, a typical whitefish with salad. It's pretty plain so you grab the lemon and squeeze it on everything and then salt away!

Fried conger eel with some kind of puree

Chorillana. Red meat, onions, eggs, fries, etc. Thankfully this is supposed to be for more than one person. Thankfully I don't eat it.

Bistec a lo pobre. Another heart stopper.

Meltdown at the Movies

A few Fridays ago I decided to take my Cinemark coupon for a 1600 peso movie and treat myself to a little matinee. My summer teaching schedule is really light and I knew the following weeks were going to be a whirlwind with having all of my family visitors here. I've seen "Meet the Fockers" playing over and over again on TV recently so I chose "Little Fockers."
After living in a place that's sunny every day, it's really easy for me to say that I have no desire to go back and live in the Chicago climate again, that is until I saw the opening scene of the movie with the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan and then suddenly it becomes the best city in the world to me all over again.
Anyway, despite the title of this post, I didn't have a meltdown over missing Chicago or anything like that...
When I arrived I knew something was amiss since there were no movie titles or times listed up on the board and the only thing visible was the Windows Home Edition screen saver floating and bouncing around. It was the middle of the day and there was only a handful of people waiting, and waiting patiently they were not. There seemed to be 3 teenage girls running the show, and after about 15 minutes the natives were incredibly restless, demanding managers and wanting the problem solved immediately. It was obviously a problem with the computer system, and without it they were unable to sell tickets at that exact moment, and were waiting for a supervisor to come help them implement the old-school paper ticket process.
As this scene unfolded around me, I started to think about how people at home would have reacted under the same circumstances, and decided that they would have behaved even worse. The funniest part was even in all of my "gringa-ness", the women standing around me in line just kept talking to me, imploring me to to participate and chime in about how ridiculous it was, how could they not have a supervisor there, how are the movies going to start on time, why don't they have a backup system for emergencies such as this, blah blah blah.
My favorite part was when the women in front of me pointed to her watch to tell me "she said the supervisor would be here in 5 minutes, and it's been 6..."
When the supervisor finally arrived, he came out and explained that they would be using a paper tickets and that we should form 2 lines depending on what movie we wanted to see, and that's when all hell broke lose. People were yelling and getting out of line to approach the ticket counter and I just stood there with a stupid smile on my face laughing to myself at how upset everyone was over this.
I calmly walked up to the window, bought my cheap ticket to Little Fockers, and made my way to the kettle corn line. In the end, the movie started 30 minutes later than it was supposed to, not enough to even come close to ruining my day.