Merry Christmas wishes from Puerto Montt Chile. Just arrived here after a 7 hour bus ride over the Andes mountain from Bariloche Argentina. Beautiful. Rivers, waterfalls, volcanoes covered with snow. All along the highways are lupine blooming in purple, pink and white. Masses, thousands of them, covering entire hillsides. And yellow scotch broom and trees covered with red flowers (Notros, the national tree of Argentina; it also has white blossoms in the fall) Have not yet seen an Andean condor, but did see Zorro de Darwin (a fox, rather rare) the other morning while eating breakfast. We have been in Argentinian Patagonia (really the Lake District) for the past month. I love the area. It reminds me of Colorado, with rivers and mountains, only the trout are about twice as large, and the pink flamingoes and bamboo let you know you are not in the Rockies. It has been too cloudy to see the night skis, but I bet they are amazing. I would love to spend more time here. The people are incerdibly friendly and so happy to find Americans that speak a little Spanish so they can converse. (It is rare to find anyone who speaks English there). I have finally figured out the Spanish pronunciation there, lots of ch and zh sounds for y and ll.
Tomorrow we get on a ferry and start a four day journey south to the Tierra del Fuego area, the end of the world. The passage is through the archipelago part of southern Chile, past islands, glaciers and near the mountains. Look for pictures in a few days.
¡Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!
have you departed for the end of world yet?
ReplyDeleteHi, Patrick and Dawn, Been reading your posts. Your travels sound exciting and beautiful. Being at the end of the world at the end of the year is very apropos.
ReplyDeleteSanta brought Shelley and me ipods so we are finding our way to music and podcasts. There is an instructional Spanish language podcast coming out of Scotland that is entertaining and instructive, but I can't help but wonder what it would sound like to learn Spanish with a Scottish accent! Shelley went to Ithaca to see friends and family, so we sent her off with lots to listen to on the plane. I'm minding the pups and will go to see Nora, Thomas, and Martin for Christmas dinner. Rode my bike yesterday to and around the Rose Bowl. We also got tix to see the Parade on New Year's day (and I think there may be a football game between USC and UMich, or is it the Mountaineers??? hmmm, can't recall). So we are really getting into the spirit of things here.
I'm so glad to see you are having such a wonderful trip. Feliz Navidad y prospero Ano Nuevo. Un abrazo.