January 4 2020
By Siri
This month we have done a lot of walking through Chile and Argentina. In Patagonia we did lots of hiking. From the Patagonian forests of tall trees and pretty water falls to the grassy shrubby steppe, there are miles under our feet. They say they have four seasons in one day in Patagonia and it is true. We hiked in all kinds of weather – Rain, snow, sun, fog.
We did some challenging hikes to the bottom of Mt Fitz Roy (named after the captain of the Beagle – Darwin comes up everywhere) and Torres de Paine; both had a turquoise grey lake just below the spires and a little bit of snow. These hikes are 10 to 11 km each way and take you through the forest and near the end above the tree line to very step sections where you go up 1,300 feet in the last kilometer! I enjoyed the Fits Roy hike the most; the flowers smell so sweet and give a nice sent to the air, the glaciers are beautiful with lots of vibrant blue colors (like literally the blue is like something out of a Disney movie) and best of all, I got to play in snow yeess. Ps: my brother did not get tp come on the Fitz Roy hike because he had hurt his hamstring muscle.
At the very end we visited Buenos Aires. Now I only spent 2 days there. We arrived near midnight and then had to wait a crazy 1.5 hours for our luggage so after crawling into bed at about 2am we slept in late, at least I did. We enjoyed a scrumptious brunch at my now my favorite café in Buenos Aires, La Pandera Rosa. My recommendation is the of Nutella and fruit on a Belgian waffle. Our first day was also New Year’s Eve and we walked around the town. There are lively street cafes with music and there is so much great colorful street/graffiti art on the sides of the old buildings that it is like walking through a modern art museum. That evening the mood was very different because my dad flew back to Seattle and then all the shops and restaurants closed at 4pm for the New Years. The next day the streets were quiet with everything closed so we went for a walk, and gradually ran into more and more families doing the same. We headed for Bosque del Paloma which is a big park in the city and one of the few places open on New Year’s day to visit. My brother wanted to jog and so meanwhile my mom and I rented a funny bike car or pedal go-cart to pedal around a lake in the park. That night was January first, we took a non-stop flight to New Zealand and we landed on January third. We lost January second flying past Antarctica somewhere