Summer Solstice Take 2

Yesterday we took a bus out to Parque National Tierra del Fuego, about 20 minutes outside of Usuaia. It was a bit rainy when we arrived and chose our campsite, but the drizzle, the mountains, and the lake made it all ok.

Fortunately, the rain stopped as we began our hike. Daves camera is currently filled with pictures of bunnies, which are an invasive species that seem to be taking over the area. We walked through ever changing forests along Lago Roca. The climate here is what our boat guide called "fridge climate", so there is no bacteria here. Therefore, all of the trees take forever to decompose. The trees are also covered with old mans beard, which we thought felt a lot like Daves beard. I did a blind test to see if I could tell the difference, and found out that no, I could not!

We ended up at an orange metal pyramid sort of thing covered with graffiti. We knew this hike went to the Chile border and were warned that if you attempt to cross, you could be arrested. However, the orange structure did not have any sign on it. We envisioned Chilean military hidden amongst the trees and decided to head back. After our hike, we found out that it was indeed the border marker.

This morning, we woke up to a gentle pitter patter of more rain on our tent, but it was nothing that stopped us from enjoying the day. We hiked a series of easy trails, one of which brought us up to a beautiful lookout point over a lake and the enterance to the Beagle Channel. We had a nice lunch up there with some things we brought: tuna sandwiches and dulce de leche with apples. Our bus back to Ushuaia wasn't quite so on-time (about an hour late) so we danced some lindy hop in the rain to keep ourselves warm.

Tomorrow we're heading to Puerto Natales and we just made reservations at a really friendly hostel, where they help you plan out your whole trip to Torres del Paine. We'll be spending 4 nights and 5 days camping amidst some of the most awe-inspiring nature in the world. This is also going to be the first time for both of us that we'll be away from our families for Christmas, and we'll miss them very much. We will, however, be bringing along an ipod with a tiny speaker so that we can play some cheesy christmas music in our tent, lest we forget to embrace the holiday spirit.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanza / Festivus! May the snow gods be merciful. hehe.