Not to be confused with Darwin`s Voyage of the Beagle......
Hola from Patagonia - Chile. The land of wild mountains, strange animals and most of all - WIND. It is unbelievable how it can blow here. The good news is that when we did the Circuit route around Torres del Paine the wind was at our backs most of the time over the high areas. It can blow so strong that people were knocked off their feet and skidded around on the ground! Entertainment abound!
Our real high adventures actually began on this trip with the drive in Calgary. My beloved PT Cruiser had a major meltdown while we were at MEC picking up last minute supplies. When oil is running out the bottom of your car faster than you can pour it in.... it is not a good thing. Thank goodness we were only a few minutes from Renfrew and they took Pearl right in. The good news.... I found out last night via email that there was a crack in the lower engine block and the entire issue has been covered under warranty. Guess Beanie can keep on travelling!
After a cluster**** (you fill in the blank) of issues with Air Canada and our flight to Toronto, we ended up with the pleasure of staying in seedy Mississauga hotel for an evening due to missing our connection by 20 minutes..... God (or someone) please bless Air Canada.
Then..... Wayne was almost not allowed to come into Chile due to the fact he had washed his passport..... an issue that still may come to haunt us when we try to leave the country for Argentina on Saturday.
Beanie and I both were almost at the end of our sense of humour supply by this time.
However, everything started to roll into high gear and the trip has been a delight. Highlights so far include an amazing journey on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. Weather, seas and people on this voyage could not have been better. Traveling for three days on a small boat allowed for us to meet like minded travelers of all ages from the globe. The worst part was trying to remember my limited Spanish (listening), while talking in my limited French (to the French folks on board) and listening back in some form of English.... never at a loss for words though, I manage to butcher all the languages and come up with some Spani-Frenchi-Engli statment that even I no longer understand!
The coastline we travelled is so much like BC only no lights, no people and very few boats. We did see three other sailing boats, one of which radioed the bridge (which we had open access to throughout the trip) and asked for weather. It is a mighty big chunk of water that we traveled through with volcanoes thrusting up from the land and enormous glaciers from the Patagonia Icecap spilling into the water. More onboard entertainment was provided by those unlucky souls who didn`t like the four to six meter sea swells too much. Lets just say that there was about 12 hours on board where half the people sat in a comatose position, eyes blank, no food daring to enter their system and a very whitewashed pallor to their skin.
I mentioned the wind already - however, the weather in general is quite variable here. Perhaps a better word would be neurotic. Photo ops for Beanie are limited to moments when you can hear the next gust en-route and have at least 5 seconds to place him and catch the photo. Rain, sleet and snow followed by at least twenty minutes of hot sun seem to be the hourly cycle. Every hour.... on the hour..... makes for damp nights in the tent, but one sure does sleep well at night after days filled of 20 km hikes with fully loaded packs.
Off to Argentina and the end of the earth on Saturday. Best to each of you in your place on this planet. No photos right now - will be posting them upon return to my website, which is currently down due to it.
Safe journeys,
Cheryl, Wayne & Beanie
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