Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Just across the water from Termas de Puyuhuapi (a 10-minute speed boat ride and a 15 minute bus ride) is the Parque Nacional Quelat, a beautiful park full of humongous nalca plants and large tepa trees and some nice hiking. The park is generally very difficult to access, as it’s somewhere in the middle of the Carretera Austral — dirt road for over 1000 km. But visitors to the Termas have easy access, and they run at least one organized excursion out there every day. Our excursion was a hike on the “Glacier Viewpoint Trail” — which took us to an amazing viewpoint from which we could see a hanging glacier.

Coyhaique is home to 37,000 people, and is the capital of Patagonia. It’s a cute enough town, but one that few people have much reason to visit, especially considering that it is isolated from the rest of Chile — reachable only by a plane flight to Balmaceda or a 1,000 km drive on a dirt road from Puerto Montt. But you might want to make the trip for the amazing ceviche, at Hotel El Reloj:

Yum.

(Yeah, I know it’s weird to take pictures of your food. But this was pretty.)

Buenos Aires has a decent zoo; and like everything in BA, admission was cheap!

The strange thing about the zoo though, was that some of the animals were just running around freely. For example, these little rodents were out and about, and we even saw people purchasing rodent food and feeding them from their hands:

But the BA zoo also had your fun typical zoo animals, like the elephants and brown bears and peacocks.

I was proud of this shot of the peacock:

It was fun taking Kenny to the zoo, because he got very excited — it was like taking a kid to the zoo. He gets the same look on his face when we talk about getting ice cream.

We found a fabulous restaurant in Buenos Aires called La Farmacia (thanks Lonely Planet). If you ever find yourself in San Telmo, I recommend it.

This restaurant was the site of Kenny’s first Argentinian steak:

I even tried a bite (it was good, but I still maintain my status as a non-mammal-eater). I enjoyed my salmon ravioli just as much:

Kenny and I depart on our South American adventure tomorrow night. It’s going to be a trip with many parts (and something like 11 flight segments in total). Here’s the basic breakdown:

Thurs 12/15-Fri 12/16. Redeye from Seattle–>Miami. Sleep a lot. Hang out in Miami with Kenny’s mom, and likely go somewhere nice for an early b-day dinner for Kenny.

Sat, 12/17-Fri, 12/23. In Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls. We’ll start with a day and a half in BA, explore the town, possibly take a tango lesson. Then we fly to Iguazu Falls for a few days to check out what is supposed to be one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. Then back to Buenos Aires, where we’ll go to a futbol game and attend Marcelo’s wedding.

Sat, 12/24-Wed, 12/28. After our stint in Argentina, we’ll make our way from BA to Santiago to Coyhaique to Puyuhuapi (whew!), where we’ll spend a few days getting pampered at a spa in Northern Patagonia. We’ll also take a catamaran out to the San Rafael Glacier, and do some kayaking, hiking, and other outdoorsy things that we Seattle residents tend to enjoy.

Thurs, 12/29-Sun, 1/1. We’ll spend a day getting ourselves from Puyuhuapi to Chaiten, as we make our way to the Fu. The Rio Futeleufu is considered one of the best rivers in the world for whitewater rafting. We’ll have to do some serious acrobatics to get ourselves there, crossing our fingers the whole way in hopes that we don’t miss some connection or other.

Mon, 1/2-Wed, 1/4. Fly from Chaiten to Puerto Varas, and spend a few days hiking and hanging out by the lake. We’re staying in a silly B&B owned by a tall blonde German woman.

Thurs, 1/5. Start the journey home. This includes a few hours in Santiago, and then a flight back to Miami via Panama City.

Fri, 1/6-Sun, 1/8. Spend two days in Miami before flying back to Seattle. This includes the crazy engagement party that Judy and Ilene are throwing for us. Get back to Seattle on Sunday afternoon and try to get some rest before work on Monday…

I’m going to try to post some pictures along the way, but no promises… ;)