 los caminantes by Sara Barth & Erich Pfuehler Hola Todos! I made it to South America safe and sound. After three thoroughly enjoyable days (with a few bumps finding food and travel agencies open on a Saturday), we headed south to Puerto Montt, where we are now. We begin our Patagonia experience soon. While I hope to send a more extensive e-mail soon, this is a copy of an e-mail we sent from our joint account today. Hope you all are well! Erich Hola from the Chilean Lake District! Please forgive us for the group message, but given our inconsistent access to email, it is the easiest way to keep everybody updated. Let us know if you would prefer not to get our blurbs. This one is also unusually long because we have been remiss about emailing. Erich recently arrived safe and sound in Santiago Chile to consistently warm, sunny days (it is summer here in the southern hemisphere). Santiago is a big, relatively sophisticated South American city (the capital of Chile) with a mix of Spanish colonial style architecture and more modern looking buildings. It has its fair share of McDonalds, Burger Kings, etc. However, it still feels distinctly un-American and relatively few people speak English (our Spanish is having to improve rapidly). Although there is some sort of minor political scandal going on here right now, Chile is one of South America´s most stable (economically and politically) countries. We have yet to see some of the grinding poverty that we expect to see in other parts of South America. After a few days for Erich to rest and recuperate from his flight and more importantly, from the dread "apartment packing", we took a flight to Puerto Montt. It is a port town, south of Santiago, in Chile´s Lake District. Today, we will make our arrangements for touring this beautiful, mountainous region. The mountains and water make the climate much cooler. Prior to Erich´s arrival, Sara spent several weeks in January traveling by boat with her parents and sister to Antarctica. It started with a hair-raising flight to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands (it was so windy that the plane´s wings were see-sawing even as the wheels touched the ground -- ¡oy vey, caramba! ). It is hard to understand why the Brits and Argentinians are so embattled over this desolate, wind-swept land. Of course, given our bizarre national preoccupation with Cuba, we have no right to comment. The funniest thing were the little signs - the telly and the radio tuned to BBC and the sandwiches with the crust cutt off - that remind you that Falklanders consider themselves Brits. The Falkland Islands were the start of our wildlife adventures. They are home to several types of penguins (Rockhoppers, Magellenic, and gentoo), as well as elephant seals, fur seals, and other species. Our route took us from the Falklands to South Georgia, the land now infamous because of the Ernest Shackelton expedition. We landed on the spit of land where Shackleton´s men camped and we hiked the last four miles of the hike Shackelton made trying (ultimately successfully) to save them. It is a harsh, unforgiving setting and hard to believe that those men "endured". In South Georgia, we also experienced "catabatic winds" -- winds that race down the mountains, picking up speed as they go. Our boat pulled into a harbor, surrounded by steep icy cliffs and was suddenly facing wind gusts of 70-80 knots coming down the mountain. You could see the gusts coming because they whipped the water up into water spouts and you could hear them howling. Incredible. Despite that one eye-opening weather experience and some 20-30 foot waves early in the voyage, we were blessed with amazing (and very unusual) weather. We had better weather -- sunny, clear, warm, and calm -- than you were having in the U.S. One of the most amazing things we witnessed in S. Georgia was the courtship of the wandering albatross. They are giant birds, with unbelievable wingspans. They spend most of their lives far out at sea riding the thermals and unfortunately, getting killed by longline hooks. They come ashore, however, to nest and to court one another, which they do by dancing round one another with their giant wings spread out and clicking their beaks like castenets. A remarkable spectacle. From South Georgia we headed to the Antarctic peninsula. It is a land that invokes superlatives. The mountains, ice sheets, glaciers, and ocean are stunning and vast. Aside from the primitive research (and seemingly psuedo military) camps that Chile, Argentina, Britain, and the U.S. have established, there is no sign of human habitation. None. And there never has been. It feels much more remote and inhospitable than even the Arctic. The scenery was bested by the wildlife, which included whales (breaching humpbacks, racing pods of minke whales, beaked whales, sei and fin whales, and right whales), seals (fur, crabeater, elephant, Weddell, and leopard), killer whales (which were popping up straight out of the water to eye the terrified seals on the ice bergs), penguins galore (chinstrap, gentoo, rockhopper, Adelie), and many seabirds. Finally, the icebergs. Amazing shapes, sizes, and colors, including a huge table berg that was nearly two miles long and over 150 feet high. Enough fresh water to make somebody think it might hold the solution to our western water needs. Nobody mention it to Senator Boxer! After the Antarctica trip, Sara traveled to the north of Chile with her mother for a week in the high altitudes of the Atacama Desert. What a change from Antarctica! It is a land of high volcanic peaks (over 14,000 feet), that are barren of vegetation, but multi-colored because of their rich mineral content. The lakes in the region have a salt content many times higher than the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Despite that, they are home to three species of flamingos (Andean, Chilean, and James). And the mountains are home to llamas, vicunas, and other animals. While there, we visited the Tatio Geysers (which the Chileans pronounce geezers) where roiling water bubbles to the earth´s surface. We were interested to learn that the one the Chileans call the "French Geyser" (or geezer) got its name because of the French tourist who took a fatal step too close to it. We weren´t interested in establishing a U.S. geyser. So far, our travels have been great. We feel well. We feel safe. And Washington, D.C. feels VERY far behind (although, the Chilean papers are filled with pictures of Bush, Powell, and Saddam). The Chileans we have spoken with think war with Iraq is crazy. Generally speaking, however, we have been getting little news and certainly no personal gossip. So please keep emailing us so we can keep in touch with you all. Miss you. Love, Sara and Erich |
Bariloche,
Argentina and Parque Nacional Nahue l Huapi Torres del Paine Top Ten Ways We Know We Are No Longer in the U.S. Hola from the Chilean Lake District Erich and Sara's report from Puerto Montt and Chiloe
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