Day 6 - Queulat National Park

Last weekend on the Sunday, we went on another day long trip. This one was to Queulat National Park, and it also took 4 hours. We had to wake up at the same time because it was at 7:30 am. Sebastiano was our driver again and he arrived about 20 minutes early to give us seats at the front of the mini bus. However, we were not ready at this time and we told him to pick up the other passengers.

Once we were on the bus, we started driving. On the trip yesterday, we were driving on gravel roads most of the time because there was no pavement the way we drove. But on this trip we were only on gravel for about 40 minutes.

We stopped at a field of lupins (which is a type of plant) because we saw a fox really close to the side of the road. We watched it for a bit, but then it ran away. Once we got to the national park, we had a toilet break as usual then we regrouped. Then we went on a walk through the bushes and across a wobbly swing bridge that was over a rushing glacier-fed river.

At the end of the walk there was a lake with a boat that would take you to the hanging glacier that was there. However, the wait for the boat was at least one and a half hours so we couldn't do that.

We walked back along the trail and had a picnic lunch. There was sandwiches, eggs, cookies, salad and juice. After lunch we headed back and got home at around 8:30, much earlier than yesterday.

Day 5 - The Marbulous Caves

Last weekend, we went on a day long adventure to the Marble Caves. The Marble Caves are on Lago General Carrera (Lago means lake). We had to wake up really early because we were getting picked up in a mini bus at 7:30 in the morning. The bus ride was 4 hours long, but we had lots of stops along the way. Our tour guide and driver was Sebastiano.

The stops were mainly for photos, but one stop was because we picked up some of the wrong passengers. We needed to stop in a town called El Blanco, and waited for another mini bus to arrive to pick up the passengers we stole from them. Then we waited a bit longer for a taxi to arrive with the passengers we forgot to pick up.

Once we got to Puerto Rio Tranquilo (the town next to the lake), we had a bathroom break, then headed down to the lake. At the lake we were given life jackets and we hopped into a boat. The boat was pretty small, only fitting 10 people sitting and the two people leading the tour were standing.

The Marble Caves are an island that has been eroded away by the water in the lake. This creates caves and interesting patterns on the marble. We boated around the island for a while then we came back to land.

Then we had "lunch" (even though it was 4:50). It was three courses, the first was soup, the second was lamb, and the last was jelly. After that we had a shopping break, but we didn't buy anything. We then got back in the bus and headed home.

On the way back we spotted a native deer, so we pulled over to take photos. There was another bus and car that also stopped to take pictures. When we got home it was 11:00pm so we decided to got straight to sleep.

Day 4 - Dinner at the Castle

Yesterday we went on a trip to Villa Cerro Castillo with lots of people from the conference. There were four buses because of how many people were going on the trip. The bus ride took two and a half hours but we had a few stops along the way to take photos of the scenery.

We stopped at a waterfall that was coming out of melting snowfields. There we walked up to the waterfall and had a look at it. It was cold! There were patches of snow all around and I threw snow balls at my family. My hands got very chilly. The mountain was called Cerro Castillo or Castle Hill because it was very spiky and rugged at the top, and the one opposite was called Statue Hill because there were huge rock cones sticking up like sentinels.

Once we got to the village of Villa Cerro Castillo, we got out of the bus and had a quick look around. We spotted a fire where they were barbequing some lamb for our dinner. There was a small market in the square where they were selling wool things, and they were also serving snacks and an alcoholic drink called "Pisco Sour" before dinner there (but I didn't get one).

For dinner we had BBQ lamb and potatoes and salad. The potatoes were really big. After dinner we got dessert, which was custard with raspberry juice over the top. After dinner there was local music, which was music with accordions and singing.

There was a big mountain there but it was hidden behind a hill that was in-front of it, so we could only see just the tip of it when we were looking at it from the right spot.

Day 3 - Why We Came To Chile

Today I am going to be talking about why we came to Chile. We came to Coyhaique was because my mum and dad were attending a conference here. The conference is about Astrobiology, a combination of Astronomy, Biology and Geophysics. My mum made a poster for this event. Her poster is about comets in the protoplanetary disk around a young star that can be seen from the southern hemisphere called beta Pictoris.

The conference is being held at a hotel called Dreams Hotel Patagonia. It is on the third floor of the hotel. The hotel is a 15 minute walk away from out house, and we have come here every day so far. The conference has a room filled with the posters that people have made. The main event in the conference is the presentations. The presentations are pretty much just 20 - 25 minute long speeches about Astrobiology.

The reason we are staying so long after the conference is because my mum and dad came to work in the European Southern Observatory (ESO for short) in Santiago.

Day 2 - Lots Of Dogs

We have been in Coyhaique for a few days now, and I have been noticing the number of dogs. Pretty much every street that you walk down, you will find a dog. Most of the dogs are big, shaggy dogs and they all seem quite happy and friendly. On our first day we found 4 dogs lying down in a row on the same street as our house. There is always a dog or two playing in the fountain in the middle of town. One day we found a little kid lying down on top of one of the sleeping dogs near our house.

Yesterday when we were on a bus, we looked out the window and saw four dogs in front of a car barking at it. The dogs were lucky it was a red light. A few days ago we saw another seemingly suicidal dog run onto the road several times chasing cars, and the cars don't stop for them here - they must be used to crazy dogs.

Another time when we were walking to the conference center, we saw the first and only cat so far in Chile. It had it's knees sticking up weirdly, I think this was because there was a dog that was just staring at it.

Day 1 - Jet Lagged

Our adventure starts in Patagonian Chile, in the Aysen district of southern Chile, in a town called Coyhaique.... minus luggage.

The journey took 31 hours including waiting time. In Sydney airport, we waited for five hours before getting on another plane. The plane was off over an hour late, so in Santiago we only had 10 minutes to get from one plane to the next - we were escorted through customs and security, but we had so little time to board the next plane that we didn't have time to collect our luggage.

We then flew for an hour and a half over lots of fiords, lakes and snowy mountains to Puerto Montt and most people got off the plane there. Then more people got on, and we flew another hour and a half south to Balmaceda, which was quite small and remote-looking. We got on a bus to Coyhaique and that took an hour. The scenery looked a lot like New Zealand: cows, sheep, fields and snowy mountains.

The time in Chile is 16 hours behind the time in New Zealand, combine that with 31 hours of traveling, no time to sleep except on planes and you have a recipe for jet lag. We arrived at around 6 pm, got some food and went to sleep because we were tired. That's why there was no blog yesterday.

Introducing the Explorer

Yes, our explorer Patrick is back with his big-boy pants on.

Having navigated Korea (South Korea to be exact) and Wisconsin, USA, our intrepid explorer Patrick, travels to the far off land of Chile, land of fiords, forests, tall mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, deserts, and telescopes - some of biggest and best telescopes in the world.