Wow! That’s all I can say after getting back from this amazing national park. Even though it is overrun with tourists, there is a reason. It was simply the most beautiful national park I have ever seen. The base of the Torres was simply undescribable. These huge towers rise up and there’s a constant sream of water coming down from all over into this beautiful blue lake. I got to the top and my jaw hit the floor…ok the boulder…whatever…it was simply undescribable. My other favorite place was the view from Mirador Glaciar Grey. I have never seen a glaciar like this before. There was this beautiful blue lake and it ended in this giant mass of ice that apparently lasts for 400 kilometers and it is almost completely fat. We saw a ferry go along side the ice and the glaciar was seriously 8 times as high as the ferry…unbelievable. There were also amazing views of just big, beautiful, very blue lakes with snow capped mountains surrounding them. We also hiked down this valley and it ends in sort of bowl shape with granite mountains in all directions…waterfalls everywhere. I could go on and on about the scenery but that is what pictures are for…although the pics of course never do it justice. We hiked with Mounya and this Italian guy named Luca. Mounya was looking for somebody, anybody, to rent a tent with and Luca ended up being the guy. So we camped with them the first two nights and had slightly different interaries the next two days although we still saw each other. We also ran into this family from Alaska by the glaciar that we met on our bus ride to Punta Arenas. That was crazy but did not really suprise me that much since all the tourists flock to this park. We did this hike referred to by hikers as “the W.” It is a very popular 4 to 5 day itenerary that many people do. So we constantly ran into the same people over and over again. So now, we are going to look for a place to watch the superbowl! Go Seahawks! I can’t believe they decided to go to the superbowl when I am on the other side of the world! Oh well…I bet everybody in Seattle has caught major Seahawk fever…meanwhile I am in a place where few have ever even heard of the superbowl…dah! Also, I just want to say that it has been amazing knowing that there are so many people following the site, praying, and thinking about us. Thank you so much for all your loving support of our journey! Love ya’ll!
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Changing Gears
Hey all! So things have shifted a little bit since you last heard from Jordan and I. We took another 16+ hour bus ride to Rio Gallegos, this very bleak looking oil town that did not have much going for at first sight. We didn´t stay long enough to find out though, as within three hours we were on another bus. Our original plan was to head to Ushuaia, which claims to be the southernmost city on the planet. But to get there we had to book our tickets and then wait until the 21st. Not a big thrill considering where we were at. So after weighing our options we got on another bus heading south, this one heading to Punta Arenas. That´s right: we are now in the country of Chile. Getting across the border was interesting, especially since I´d forgotten to mention that I´d been carrying beef jerkey with me. Since this is illegal to take across the border it was confiscated from us. But we were told we could have it back on the condition that we ate it right then and there. Not one to waste food you can guess what we did.
The town is of medium size and sits right next to the Straights of Magellan and is very nice from what we´ve seen so far. Due to phone difficulties we were unable to book a hostel in advance. But no sooner had we got off the bus than we were mobbed by young people advertising various hostels. Before we knew it we were in this young man´s car and he drove us straight to the hostel that´s set up in his aunt Tita´s house. This is by far the nicest place we´ve stayed in so far and one of the cheapest.
Having spent what seems like the majority of our time in transit from place to place since we´ve gotten here and getting a little tired of this we decided to settle down and spend a couple of days here resting and just taking in the local sites. This is the first place we´ve found that we actually felt like we could do this. Jordan thinks he could spend a month here. I give him about a week. Besides, I didn´t come all the way down here to watch TV.
But the rest will definitely be good and it sounds like there are some interesting things to see around here (penguins **wink, wink**). And the place we´re staying at has free internet AND a computer with a USB port! So with any luck you´ll get to see some more pictures soon. And when we´re ready will move on to other areas. Now would be a good time to bone up on our Spanish language skills, which still blow by the way.
Love to all.
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