Month: April 2012

We arrive in Buenos Aires at about 1am and are greeted at the airport by a wonderful taxi driver arranged by our BA tour guide, Marcelo. He drives like a sane man–imagine that! We are grateful for his careful driving. Our destination is the CE Hotel de Diseño. Originally we had booked an apartment. But… Continue reading 30 April 2012

We wake up to a very cold morning in Punta Arenas. We had hoped that some shops would be open but it’s Sunday so there will be no shopping for us. Rex and Jonathan are leaving early for their long trip back home. Fortunately I found an ATM last night (and two “thank you” cards)… Continue reading 29 April 2012

It is a full day’s drive to our destination, Punta Arenas, at the southern end of Chile on the Straights of Magellan. We will fly out tomorrow afternoon. We stop at Puerto Natales for a very nice seafood lunch. Howard and I have bay scallops and they are quite good. We do a little shopping… Continue reading 28 April 2012

Howard has caught my cold and is inclined to stay at the resort today and look through his pictures. I’m happy to do that too. Breakfast is not especially great. There is instant coffee–ick. But Rex has his coffee press so we get a bit of tasty Peets coffee to wake us up. Howard takes… Continue reading 27 April 2012

The photographers get out before sunrise hoping to catch the first light on the mountains. The photo-shoot is not as great as they’d hoped but they’ll have more opportunities tomorrow when we’re closer to the mountains. We have a wonderful breakfast that includes delicious cherimoya and strawberry juices; pastries including a wonderful strawberry tart; eggs… Continue reading 26 April 2012

The photographers visit Laguna Nuñez Bird Preserve before dawn and get some great bird shots. We have a full day’s drive to our next stop, Estancia Cerro Guido. As we take off we all say silly things like: We’re off like a herd of turtles! We’re off laughing and scratching! But Jonathan says: Off like… Continue reading 25 April 2012

We depart Hotel Nothofagus for the town of El Calafate and the Parque National Los Glaciares (Glaciers National Park). We first stop at the Parque Nacional Bernardo O’Higgins ranger’s station in El Chalten to get a map of the park as a souvenir. The ranger is not just going to give us a map; he… Continue reading 24 April 2012

We are happy to sleep in this morning and forego the sunrise photo-shoot. It was so cold yesterday and Howard says he can’t do any better than the photos he got then. When the die-hard photographers get back, they confess that the light was not as good as the day before so we are happy… Continue reading 23 April 2012

We all wake up early to photograph the incredible Fitzroy peak and the surrounding mountains at sunrise. We all must squiggle under a fence to get to a good photo location. It is REALLY cold and once we’re set up we have to wait an hour for the peaks to finally glow pink from the… Continue reading 22 April 2012

We have a very light breakfast but the thin little croissants are quite good. There are packaged muffins that we stick in our pockets. We are are grateful we have them to snack on later in the morning. The petroglyph group sets off. Jonathan has a cryptic map and we hope it will get us… Continue reading 21 April 2012