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The Beagle Channel boat tour included lots of birds, floating within 5 feet of a sea lion island, seeing the famous "lighthouse at the end of the world," free tea and cookies, and walking on a Yámana island that Darwin passed, commenting "look at all that smoke!" Flora, fauna, and history...a perfect cap-off for our amazing Ushuaia journey.
Feeling fit and ready to take on the world one trek at a time, we decided it was the moment of truth: we needed to hike AND conquer the 'W' in Torres del Paine national park in Chile. We started the trek with 40/50ish pound backpacks and decided to see the Torres first, which we luckily did because after the first day came the constant rain. We should have known the sunny weather was too perfect for this park that's known for it's unexpected wind and rainstorms. We trekked up, down, up, down, and unfortunately had to call it quits one day in advance- too much wetness, too many clouds, and sadly a lot of burned nature. 3 months ago, a man from Israel tried to light his toilet paper on fire in 40 mph wind. Hmmm...Bad idea? He didn't quite realize that his attempt at keeping sanitary would end up catching and destroying 10% of the national park... Altogether, the 35+ miles left us sore and proud. We came, we saw, we conquered what nature allowed us.
From Puerto Natales we started our journey back north. Hopscotching from one city to the next, we ended back in P.N. Los Alerces (right outside Cholila and our first stop on the Patagonia vaca) where Sarge fished, we rested, and, gloriously enough, we weren't rained on.
6 nights in the park, and we're back in Cholila! Our surprise visit yesterday ended in us walking up the mountain only to find an asado with mountain climbing friends in process. We were handed sausage, steak, red wine, and artesanal beer...if that's not the best welcoming gift, I don't know what is...
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Keating Pepper Do you guys want to build a house and live there? We miss you and love you. KP