Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Who Is This Fourth Man? --- Oral Roberts



This is a wonderful testimony of who Jesus is in every book of the Bible.  I wanted to post it so I could watch it over and over.

Friday, February 22, 2019

Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine National Park was amazing!  The vastness of Patagonia is unimaginable until you see it with the naked eye.

Our hotel was situated in a valley.  It is the larger building with a green roof a little left of center.

The view from our room was always changing.  Here it is at sunrise.


Once we were checked into the hotel we went to explore the property.  They were rounding up cattle to be branded a short distance from the hotel.

The property also bordered a river so we walked along it for awhile.



The next day we were driven to a different area of the Park where we crossed a suspension bridge (6 at a time)


Then walked across this large expanse of beach by the lake


And hiked up a hill (This is our Patagonian guide, Francisco, or Pancho for short)


until we reached a viewing point for the glacier which the guide said was actually 10 miles away.  It looks much closer, don't you think?


When we returned to the hotel we watched the cowboys branding the calves.


The next day we set out for the east side of the park which is drier than the west.  Along the way we saw beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls and awesome mountain peaks.







We also saw herds of guanacos.


We were very blessed to even get to see a puma near our bus.  Our guide said this is only the 3rd time he has seen one on the tours he has done and never so close.  

One of the most fun and memorable things we did was to experience the ferocious Patagonian wind.
Our group was told to take a knee if it got too strong to stand up, and it did!  The guide estimated the wind was gusting to probably about 60-70 mph which lasted only a few minutes.  He said they have up to 120 mph gusts.  I can't imagine!




On the third day, as we were preparing to leave, there was a beautiful double rainbow outside our window.

More tomorrow.  Santiago was our last stop.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Puerto Natales

Our hotel and the view from our room in Puerto Natales.



The day after we arrived we took a catamaran to see the Balmaceda Glacier.  Once we were in range we got off the boat and hiked to the glacier's edge.











After spending 2 nights in Puerto Natales we went to Torres del Paine National Park for a 3 night stay.  This was our favorite part of the trip.  I will post photos tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Punta Arenas

   We arrived in Punta Arenas on Feb. 8 for a two night stay.  This is the view from our room in the hotel there. It is overlooking the Strait of Magellan.

The next day we took a boat ride to Magdalena Island to see the colony of penguins that live there.

We passed Marta Island which was covered in cormorants.   There were many sea lions at the base.



We had lunch at Lomito's restaurant.  See the railings in the foreground?  Our guide said these were installed so people had something to hang onto when the wind gusted so strongly.  He said the gusts could be over 120 mph!



In the afternoon we walked around the area. The cemetery, said to be one of the 10 most important in the world, was located a few blocks from our hotel so we explored it for awhile.


The next morning we headed to Puerto Natales, our next 2-day stop.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Puerto Varas, Chile

Country Guy and I just returned from a two week Odysseys Unlimited Patagoina Explorer Tour in Chile.  (Hence the lack of blog-posting for awhile.)  I thought I would share a few photos for those of you who knew we were going and are wondering what we were doing down there.We had a view of the Osorno Volcano from our hotel room in Puerto Varas (our first stop.)  The weather was beautiful!  We were told that often the volcano is hidden in rain clouds. but every day we were in Chile we had some sunshine.

The day after we arrived in Puerto Varas we went on a fun hike in Vincent Perez Rosales National Park where we saw this impressive waterfall and rushing river.

The next day we were treated to a demonstration by Chilean cowboys.  Their beautiful horses are taught to run sideways!

Tomorrow I will post photos taken at our next stop -- Punta Arenas.