|
Earliest entries at the bottom, most recent at the top 23d
of December and back in Santiago at the hotel where we will be until flying
out early Xmas day, assuming the rest goes as planned. It
has all gone by too quickly, and we have seen so much that it will take
a while to sort it all out in our weary little minds. The
few samples of photos below may offer a small insight into the range of
places and things we have been. In
recent days, while on the ship, we had a view of this old wreck that was
on a reef of some sort. If I remember correctly it had been there for about
40 years. This was located
in one of the channels between Pto Natales and Pto Montt. http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/shipwreck21st.jpg We
had seen these older wrecks on the Straits of Magellan a few days earlier,
at Estancia San Gregorio http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/sangregoriowrecks.jpg Condors
and penguins: http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/condor.jpg
this is a condor we saw in Villa Tehuelches, I think it was, between Pto
Natales and Punta Arenas. We were on our way to the penguin rookery at
the time, where we went to see the Magellanic penguins. Here are a few
of those pinguinos: http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/otwaypinguinera.jpg Here
is the usual gringo view of the edge of Puerto Natales, from whence we
sailed north to Puerto Montt http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/natalesmuelle.jpg and
a view from the ship on the first morning as we sailed north from Puerto
Natales. We spent 4 nights aboard. Here
is a view of the ship at the pier in Pto Natales http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/roromagallanes.jpg 15th
of December, 2003 = We have reached Punta Arenas and are headed for a shot
at the First Narrows of the straits of Magellan tomorrow. The place we
are staying in Punta Arenas is comfortable and reasonably priced. A
view of building in Punta Arenas, near the Hotel de la Avenida where we
stayed. A most pleasant place to stay. Have
no idea what this building is: http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/ptarensbldg.jpg Still
planning for ship return from Pto Natales to Pto Montt leaving on Friday. http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/natales1.jpg
this is a typical building in the town of Puerto Natales
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/tdpcuernos.jpg
The horns of Paine http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/tdpguanaco.jpg
A typical guanaco poseur
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/tdpnandu.jpg
Ostrich-like ñandu in the Torres del Paine park
We
are now in Puerto Natales, back in We
stayed in cabañas toward the edge of the town of http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/ventisquero.jpg
The Perito Moreno glacier to the west of the Argentine town of Calafate
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/fronteragaucho.jpg
Gauchos at the frontier no-man’s land between the Argentine and Chilean
customs checkpoints near Cancha Carrera/Cerro Castillo http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/neumaticodestroz.jpg
tire destroyed on the blue Galloper during visit fo Perito Moreno glacier
Anyway
we made our way across about 120 miles of gravel road that roughly paralleled
the Now
if we can get some more photos loaded up.
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/rrruta40.jpg
Been there, done that. http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/dualsporter1.jpg
Done that, too.
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/dualsport2.jpg
And that. Latest
photos here on 9 December. http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/sundancelupen.jpg
lupen near the Butch Cassidy cabins http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/Buhos.jpg
owls found at the site of the Butch Cassidy cabins in http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/7deccarreaysta.jpg
scene along the Carretera Austral en route to Coyhaique
http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/tunnelgps.jpg
on the way to Coyhaique, showing the GPS unit and the rockslide shed http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/aysenvalle.jpg
the Aysen valley approaching the ascent to Coyhaique http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/carretausbridge.jpg
crossing a bridge on the Carretera Austral http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/carrretaustraltypical.jpg
typical scene along the Carretera Austral http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/llamalajunta.jpg
llama at the hotel at La Junta – not native to the area but kept there
as pets http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/polluxfalls.jpg
Pollux falls south of Coyhaique 8
Dec in the afternoon now. Just returned from local airport 40 minutes from
Coyhaique to find that no documents could be found via the LANChile cargo
service.There is some improvement
in the performance of the blue Galloper vehicle after the team in that
vehicle did some cleaning of the diesel injection system. We
are talking about continuing the trip on pavement for more miles but fewer
chances to rip open the bad tiresin
out of the way places. A side option is to re-integrate a return from the
southernmost point by ship. http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/cholalakes.jpg
- this is just south of the Argentine townn of http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/trewliew.jpg
- this is crossing from the Argentine areaa near Esquel toward the Chilean
town of http://www.oocities.org/ar/patagoniax6/lagoyelcho.jpgthis
is along Lago Yelcho in We
have collectively taken several hundred photos and many are better than
these but they do provide some suggestion that we are still alive. Sorry
for the sparse communications ... I am normally more than busy with trying
to solve the problems as they come up and this is the first time I have
been able to really sit down for a few minutes with the laptop to hammer
out some material and resize some photos for the web. ________________________________________________________________ We
spent two days riding the gravel road called the Carretera Austral, suffering
one flat tire on the blue Galloper along the way, only to discover that
we had not been provided the key to the lock which holds the outside-mounted
spare very securely to the rack. Fortunately we had insisted on two spares
in spite of the room that this required, and the second spare carried inside
was not the best of all spares. It did make it the rest of that day and
the next but the original tire that it replaced was in sad shape, had been
patched many times before, and would probably not serve much longer if
patched again.This is in addition
to the problem of the bad smoking situation with the engine of the blue
Galloper and the evident lack of a functioning turbo on that vehicle. Rain
plagued us part of yesterday as we drove up the corkscrew to Quelat national
park through which the road passes, but on the descent on the southern
side it cleared up and we had some splendid views of the surrounding mountains
with recent snows, as well as a glacier here and there. Today
is a bit of a layback day to try to recovered the documentation for the
blue Galloper, which is being air expressed from The
older Runyards seem to be concerning themselves with taking massive quantities
of digital photos, and it times the number of stops for photos seems to
keep us from making much forward progress. I
will try to put up some photos on this site as time allows.This
is more of a campaign than a vacation, as our good readers may have imagined. 30 November - We
have a few hours of layover here in the new part of the San José
CR terminal, still tired after the overnighter from LAX. There was
a screwup in ticketing with TACA (Take A Chance Airline; Try Another Carrier,
Antonio) and after standing at the counter for over an hour, we ended
up with tickets and seats in first class, which pretty much saved the day,
or night. The meal was beyond the description of "snack" that
came on the TACA schedule. The beef dinner was an excellent
filet mignon.
But no mere meal can overcome the discomfort of trying to sleep in airplane
seats, even if first class. We have been zombies most
of the day here at the terminal, with this 6-hour layover. Fortunately
the carpeting is clean enough to allow a bit of napping on the floor.
Just before leaving
From here we fly to |
