Tierra del Fuego

a 36 hr voyage through unimaginal beauty! I am sitting here in a little internet cafe literally at the end of the World, the town of Puerto Williams. We had a very memorable ferry trip all throught the Magellanes and Beagle Chanels, seeing more glaciers and fjords then we ever dreamed of. The sheer beauty of which took our breath away (the cold wind too). We were lucky to get our cabin with the bunkbeds, otherwise there was no comfort, just lots of freight and only about 20 passengers. We had to fight for our cabin, as they gave it to someone else, because we did not come by the day before to pay in cash, not knowing that they were not going to use our credit card that held the reservation. So, we were super glad we got on, it was the best part of our trip so far.
The boat often was accompanied by lots of seals, sealions and orcas.
Regarding the pix, they won´t let me download stuff on their computers here, because of virus scare, so you have to wait till we get home.
Off to explore Isla Navareno. !! (Also need to find out how we get across the Beagle Chanel to get to Ushuaia tomorrow, to catch our flight the El Calafate , Argentina. More from there next time. Adios. (no time to hit the spell check!)

First Rainy day !

Just a quick note, we´re about to get on the ferry to Puerto Williams (Terra del Fuego). We are so excited, especially since we almost did not make it. They gave our seat away to someone else, there was some misunderstandings with the payment. After much arguing, they let us on and we are ready to sail into the cold waters of the Magellanes Channel, hoping to have great views of the glaciers on the way.
We are willing this rain to stop and the sun to accompany us.
Got to run.

Arrived in Patagonia !

After a week of non availability of internet, we have now arrived in Punta Arenas, the gateway to Southern Patagonia. Since my first post, we have traveled many miles and seen an amazing array of beautiful countryside. I do want to mention first, that we happily are in posession of our luggage, it arrived at our hotel in Santiago minutes after my last post.
Our bus ride to Temuca (9 hrs) was uneventful, comfortable and relaxing after two days of sight seeing in the city, with blisters to prove it.
In Temuco we rented a car and started our journey through the Lake Region, with Pucon being the first stop. A beautiful resort with snow capped Volcanos all around it. A stop at the local kayak shop to find out that Marlow was a good friend of theirs and they were happy to meet his folks (small world!)
After visiting more lakes, waterfalls and enjoying an incredible boat trip on beautiful Lago Todos de Santos, we ended up at Swiss'-Chilean Hostel amidst a field of cows, still having the view of the Volcano in the back ground. Two days later we drove to the beautiful island of Chiloe, with it´s remote beaches and colorful stilt houses. Today we drove back to Puerto Montt where we took our flight to Punta Arenas. Tomorrow night we will start our 35 hr. ferry ride to Cape Horn, really looking forward to that.
Hopefully next time I email, I can download some pictures. No promise, as things are not as easy as I thought. Signing off for today and more next time.

1st blog coming from Santiago

We finally made it to Santiago, after lots of delays due to Tornados around Atlanta, which resulted in us getting a direct flight in stead of via Dallas, only with a five hour delay. Happy to get there any way we could, we were rewarded with our suitcase being left behind.
Took the bus to Valparaiso and really enjoyed that eclectic coastal harbour town perched on the mountain side, with it's funiculares taking you up the steep hills. The next day *today* we visited it's neighboring town Vina del Mar, which was also fascinating, but much more modern. Then it was back to Santiago via TurBus and on to the Happy House Hostaol via the Metro. After sightseeing in Santiago we were hoping that our suitcase would have been delivered to the hotel, but no such luck. Hopefully there will be better news tomorrow or at least by my next blog. We will have to do some creative dressing to get through the next day and the current heatwave here in Santiago doesn't help our situation.
I am pretty tired and my feet are killing me, so signing off, good night.