Back from Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego

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Hola!

I just got back from the national park, which was amazing. I didn´t know what to expect as i hadn´t read too much information or seen many pictures but it was amazing. I wish I could put up pictures but I seem to have forgotten my cord to hook my camera up to the computer. sorry. Yesterday we hiked a very easy but very beautiful trail along Bahia Lapataia and then camped overnight. The place where we camped was cool. It looked like they mowed the grass there because there were so many rabbits. The amount of wildlife we saw was amazing. Tons of different types of birds including parakeets, flightless ducks that paddle with their wings when you scare them, huge bright red headed woodpeckers, and today an enormous condor, lots more too. Also, we saw a big beaver, a fox, oh and some fairly small raptor that we saw was eating a duck egg, which was interesting. Saw some questionably wild horses, the weird thing was that everything wasn´t that scared of people even though there weren´t very many people there.

So today we climbed Cerro Guanaco, which was crazy. The trail was only about 4 km or so but climed almost 1000m. At first it was fine but very steed and then once we got up to where the snow was melting it was very muddy, then we had do get through a big peat bog and that was about halfway (timewise at least). So then we had to climb to the peak, which was a crazy hike up loose rock and across huge very steep snowbanks for what on the way up seemed like forever. The top was definitely worth it though because you could see everything. It was amazing. The view was unquestionably the most beautiful that I have ever hiked to. Wish I could put at least one picture. So tomorrow we head north to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares to see Glaciar Moreno and try to do some hiking/maybe camping at the base of Fitz Roy (but certainly not climb it).

So I can try to catch you up on more to the past as well. Buenos Aires was nice, definately a big city, nobody goes to sleep at what I was raised to believe was a reasonable hour. Our last night there we just stayed out til three because our flight left at 5:30 and when we were walking back around two or so, there were still people over 60 walking around. The architecture there is amazing and the food was good, but the beer certainly sucks for the most part. Met an interesting girl from Brasil who just got back from working on a cruise ship for 8 months and was taking a break to ¨"learn spanish" because the company needed a good excuse, even though she was already pretty good at spanish. Also a cool South African guy who had been travelling around the world for 2 and a half years but really working rather than purely travelling he would go somewhere new and work there for a while until he moved onto the next place.

So then we came down to Ushuaia and when we got off the plane the wind was blowing about 30mph or so so it felt freezing but the wind has been pretty tame since then and it has been surprisingly warm and the days have been beautiful. Went to eat the famous centolla (king crab) last night and spent quite a lot on dinner which was great. Had like a seafood medley of tons of king crab and mussels and shrimp, all of which were fabulous and which I could barely finish. Had a great Cape Horn stout with it which is brewed in Ushuaia and was a great beer. Brewed with glaciar water and patagonian hops.

So thats about it for now. Hope everyone is well.

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Comments

[Carolyn]

Are there penguins??