Drew's sabbatical blog
I just did a quick debrief call with the travel company that helped us plan and book our honeymoon, Jacada. They told me they were happily following this blog every day during the trip, which made me smile.
Melanie, Delfina, and everyone on the Jacada team were excellent at what they do. The local guides made the trip special; we got to meet and spend the days with some of the most lovely people in Argentina and Chile.
We had the trip of a lifetime, thank you again Jacada.
I wanted to share a few more pics that I didn’t get a chance to post during the trip.
We are at the airport in Santiago, waiting to board our flight home. It’s sad, but it’s time. Today we had an early wake up, flew from Puerto Natales to Santiago, and had just a few hours to explore the city before returning to the airport.
In the next few days I’ll hopefully post some reflections and more pictures from the trip. For now, I’m too tired. See you stateside.
After yesterday’s big hike (similar distance, but 1,000 vertical feet more than our big one in El Chalten), we needed a less strenuous day. We went horseback riding in the morning, and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hotel and spa. In the lobby we found a coffee table book of Chile’s fanciest hotels, where we learned a little more about this place:
Its architects, Cazú Zegers, Rodrigo Ferrer, and Roberto Benavente, sought to create a structure with a sense of place, a geo-poetic work in which the key element was beech wood worked to resemble the texture of the old-time sheep barns on the ranches where they once dried the wool and leather.”
Destinos de Lujo by Ana María Lopez & Marí Paúl
Tomorrow, we have to start the journey home! Unless we are hired by Kine, the hotel’s cheery Excursion Director. (We have inquired.)
It will be hard to leave this place. It is so special here—both the park and the hotel. But we’ll have a full day in Santiago before our overnight flight, so there will be some time to transition and enjoy a bit more adventure before getting back to Chicago.
Today was the big trek in Torres del Paine. After a ~3.5-hour climb, the clouds opened just enough to see the towers (las torres) for a few minutes while at the lookout. As we finished lunch, the clouds returned and the rain, cold, and wind picked up, making the descent a bit treacherous. But we made it safely, and the day was amazing. Yet another wonderful guide, Diego, made our trip extra special with lots of info about the terrain, flora, and fauna—he’s an avid birder. And also with surprises: delicious fresh coffee at the top, and champagne at the bottom. We learned that paine is native Tehuelche for “sky blue,” so the park’s name is a mix of Spanish and native language meaning something like “Towers of the Blue Sky.” We also learned that another feature, the French Valley, is named for the former landowner, a Frenchman. Apparently this was private land (!) before being donated to the park.
Our hotel, Tierra Patagonia, is mind-bogglingly beautiful, and in perfect harmony with the landscape. This hotel was the inspiration for our whole trip, and it has exceeded our hopes. I’ll post more photos tomorrow, and hopefully learn and share more about its history and architecture. For now, we are recovering with some tub time, sauna, pool, and then off to dinner.
Arriving in Chile, we had an extremely lucky day. We went out for a short hike, and immediately saw a baby armadillo, followed by two pumas (aka mountain lions), and a flock of flamingos. Armadillos are rarer to see than pumas here, but seeing two pumas together is even rarer. On the hike, we saw a huge avalanche, that looked and sounded like a huge waterfall.
Tomorrow we’re doing one of the big hikes in the park, and we can’t wait. The granite peaks here are stunning, we can see them from our hotel. It’s a rainy day tomorrow, so we may not have a great view on the hike. We’ll see!
Our day began with a drive around Estancia 25 de Mayo, a huge ranch named for Argentinian Independence Day. It’s also home to a 2,000 year-old native tribal gravesite, and the oldest settler house in the area. Our guide Christian is a former pro skater who was roommates in California with Chad Muska (the one with the backpack, remember?). Now he’s a nature guide and absolutely loves his job. Every plant and animal he showed us, it was like he was seeing it for the first time. We had a blast with him. He drove an old forest green Land Rover, a totally mechanical car with no electronics at all. Going uphill the engine chirped and squealed. “That’s the stereo today,” said Christian. There are guanacos everywhere, even though the properties are all fenced off, they just jump over the fences and roam and graze freely. “The guanacos are the real landowners,” said Christian. The tour finished at La Seccion, “the section house,” which is like a guest house / owner’s weekend house at the estancia.
Christian dropped us off Calafate Coffee Roasters, where we enjoyed excellent coffee and atmosphere. We wanted to buy some of the cool mugs but were worried they wouldn’t survive the trip. Tipping in US dollars never gets old here—even one or two dollars gets a big reaction from people. They thank you sincerely. They may show their coworkers, who also thank you. Or sometimes they pocket it right away without showing anyone. Either way, there’s a constant sense of an economy hungry for dollars, and of people hungry for financial stability. Putting dollars into the economy at the very micro level feels meaningful. When we tipped our guide Christian, he looked at us intently and said, “I will save this.”
We finished the day at the hot tub and then dinner, both at the hotel. Tomorrow we cross into Chile and head for Torres Del Paine, our final, and maybe most epic, stop on the trip.
sabbatiblog 