Patagonia Dreaming

Hi friends and family! We are ending our second week in Patagonia, and every day has been an adventure. We started with a week on the Chilean side, which confirmed that we will be spending much more time in that gorgeous country after this trip. It also helped that we had an amazing guide and driver team to help us explore as much as possible of Torres del Paine National Park. Prepare yourself for a lot of photos because, well, its Patagonia.

We started with a day hiking through diverse geological features, including saber-tooth tiger and mylodon caves. Here is our guide, Tim, with Ginny and Baker, talking through how to belly-crawl into the saber-tooth tiger cave. Ginny threw on a headlamp and went for it. She's such a little badass.

The mylodon cave sounded fairly lame when I first heard about it, but it took my breath away. Just the sheer size of the cave was incredible! If you look closely, you can see Baker in a green shirt on the other side of the cave. I mean, it was huge.

Then our awesome driver Luis took us all to the kids' favorite place we've stayed, a property with campers along the Rio Serrano. We played tag and ran relay races in our bare feet, enjoying the Patagonian sunshine. It felt like heaven.

From there we went on a not-so-fun boat ride (Ginny, seasick, poor kid) to the Grey Glacier. It was our first peek as these magnificent chunks of ice. Growing up with alpine glaciers on Rainier as my reference for glaciers, I just had never imagined these tidewater glaciers could be so big. The Grey Glacier is tiny compared to what we would see in Argentina, but it's still 6 km wide and 30 m high. Mind blown.

The next day we left our beloved camper and set out for Patagonia Bagual, a small estancia in the middle of nowhere with amazing views of the three torres (towers) that give Torres del Paine its name. En route we drove through an incredible wind storm that sent a rock flying into and shattering our back window. The kids thought it was awesome.

We spent the night in a little cabin on the property called the Casa Negra, and the next morning, we woke up to snow!!

After the kids made their snowmen, we dropped below the snow level for a hike up Sierra Masle above Laguna Azul. Oddly enough, I was the only one who fell while navigating the mud. It wasn't my finest moment.

That afternoon, Ryan and I ditched the kids and climbed the hill behind the estancia. The views were just incredible. In the evening, the kids practiced slack lining while eating pizza and playing with the farm dogs. Life felt really simple and easy and just good. I didn't want the evening to end. And I didn't want our time in Chile to end.

But then it was time to leave Patagonia Bagual and head back to Puerto Natales for our transfer to the Argentinian side. We were sad to leave, but lucky for us, Chilean Patagonia had one more surprise in store. We stopped for a final hike to see Los Cuernos del Paine, the famous horn-like formations in Torres del Paine. We started hiking in the sun and by the time we reached the viewpoint, the skies had unleashed fierce winds and sideways rain. We took a quick pic and then started the 2-mile trek back to the trailhead.

The storm grew quickly on the return hike. It was miserable. I threw Lu on my back and started running, but my cotton Vuori joggers got so heavy with water that they kept falling off. Ryan had taken my pack, which he then had to move to his front to carry Baker on his back when Baker's feet got too cold to walk. Ginny suffered in silence because there was no one to help her.

And with that, we crossed the Argentinian border for the seventh time. This time we were coming to visit the big glaciers. Our first stop was Calafate, an adorable town on the shores of Lago Argentina, the second largest lake in South America. We hit up the Glaciarium, a museum devoted to the glacier of Patagonia. The best part was the ice bar--a freezing room made of ice, pumping Jock Jams, with disco lights and cups made of ice. I loved everything about it.

We also met an awesome family with three girls who are traveling the world together! It was fun to connect with people sharing such a similar experience. They were all lovely, and we hope to meet up with them in Sydney over New Years.

Then we drove from Calafate to another estancia close to the Perito Moreno glacier. We heard about a puma carcass on the shores of a nearby lake, so we hiked out and found it! Seeing the jaws of this apex predator was so cool. The kids had a lot of questions, so we spent quite a while with the puma.

The following day we boarded a small boat to visit the Perito Moreno glacier, famous for its huge chunks of ice crashing into the lake below. (And Baker found a condor feather!)

The glacier is incomprehensibly massive (bigger than Buenos Aires) and, as Ginny explained in her blog, is one of few in balance. We hiked around the glacier, getting views of its north and south faces. It was spectacular.

We spent the rest of our time at the estancia riding horses and playing "Puma Pounce" in the yard. For those not in the know, Puma Pounce is where I and/or Ryan are guanacos (large wild llamas) and the kids are pumas chasing and then eating us. Lulu is a baby puma called "Baby Fumes" who is particularly vicious. It might be my favorite kid game ever. Baker also cuddled every farm dog he could find.

Now we are in El Chalten, the trekking capital of Argentina. We're about to head out on our first hike here, which hopefully will end with a view of Fitz Roy. But, it's Patagonia, so who knows! Whatever it is, we'll be ready.

All my love,

Madeline