Catching Up

Sorry I dropped off the radar for the past week.  Peter stayed in Brazil with friends while I attended to my elderly mother.  When I arrived in the U.S., she was listless, sleepy, and sort of out of it.  I thought at 96, we had finally lost her.  I sat and held her hand and cried for 24 hours.  But after feeding her like a baby, engaging her mind a little, and most importantly, CHANGED HER MEDICATION, she rallied and is with us again.  I now think she will be with us for a few more months.  I think her body will not last throughout this year, but this has helped me prepare for the inevitable.

I fly back to Peter tomorrow and we will be attending a balloon meet at Torres next week.

My mother is in serious decline

Fun and games...  I am trying to change flight tickets to get back to the U.S.  I am leaving Peter in Brazil, staying with some wonderful friends of ours. My 96 year old mother has a failing body and an alert mind. I will go back to put her into a nursing home, but she is very unhappy about the situation.

Beautiful scenery and another glacier

We are in the Paine National Park.  Tours are either in a van looking at wildlife, or walking through beautiful countryside.  Resort is at the foot of a mountain... Quite spectacular.  Wildlife in abundance is the Guanaco.. A sort of  cross between a llama and an alpaca.

I am having trouble downloading photos onto this blog.  I will try when I have a better wifi connection.

Park Paine National

Saw a spectacular glacier today. Took lots of pictures.  Then had a 'Pisco Sour' on ice made from a berg that had fallen off the glacier.  This is a very alcoholic drink that tastes wonderful.  The entire day was taken up of driving through wonderful countryside, glacier, very cold winds, and finished back at the resort with excellent wine and dinner.

Traveling through Patagonia

Stayed at a very interesting hotel that once was the private house of a wealthy man.
We traveled most of the day in a small van, on our way to a national park.  We were taken to lunch at a sheep ranch, and had the most delicious lamb which had been slowly roasted outdoors on a spit.  Scenery changed from flat grazing land to hills to snow capped mountains.  It was all quite spectacular.

Lots of Penguins

Today we 'zodiaced' to the island of Magellan to walk amongst the penguins.  We learned all about penguin society.  Most of the penguins had already left the island as their chicks were raised and had flown the coop.  But there were still several hundred adults left who were still moulting and couldn't go out to sea until this process was finished.

We were delayed coming into the port of Punto Arenes due to high winds.  Once in port, we were taken to a lovely old hotel for the night.  The wind is strong and bitterly cold.

Glaciers

Today, we took a zodiac trip to two glaciers.  It was fascinating, but also very cold.  And to get to the glacier, the zodiac had to go through some ice flows.  On the ship, we watched several documentaries about the area and listened to some lectures on the flora and fauna.  It was all most enjoyable.

Wulaia Bay

Again, we left our small ship via zodiac, and landed at Wulaia Bay, full of history. Darwin talks about this Bay in his book.  Really had an interesting afternoon.  Bay was windy and cold and we were served hot chocolate with a dash of whiskey.  I can't begin to tell you how fantastic this drink is.  It will become one of our favourites!

Cape Horn

The ship we are on has around 100 passengers.  Rooms and meals are great.  This morning, we went down to the southernmost island of Cape Horn.  We disembarked on small zodiac boats and went ashore.  Unbelievably windy and God forsaken place.  We visited a lighthouse on the island, and met  the family that lives there!

In the afternoon, we saw some documentaries.  I learned about the Yamana People, Chili's aborigines, wiped out by white people and missionaries.

Patagonia

We are in Ushuaia, the most Southern city in the world located at the southern tip of Argentina. We board a ship tomorrow and start our trip down around Cape Horn, then northwards through fiords and glaciers.

Went to the unusual town of Tigre today.

Went to an area called The Delta today, town of Tigre built on a myriad of islands formed by the river delta.  No roads... only rivers, streams and canals.  When you think of 'car', think boat.  Kids go to school on the schoolbus boat, garbage collection boats, super market boats that go from island to island, etc.  We saw the slums and the wealthy section, with mansions and helicopters to go to work in Buenos Airies! It was a great day whizzing through all of this on a Zodiac!