The Land of Fire (and some rain)

Hello again

Week one- done. The last few days we´ve done some pretty incredible hikes- 4 days ago we did one called Laguna Esmerelda and then 3 days ago we went into Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire National Park) and hiked a trail called Callo Guanaco. I was quite proud of myself because it was a hard hike and I was able to keep up with the boys. It was about 10 km (which is about 6 miles), and the mountain was pretty steep.

Yesterday and today we did our first overnight hike (my first ever of the sort), and it made Callo Guanaco seem like nothing. The trail was called Passo de la Oveja (I confess that I still don´t know what an oveja is), and it was about 16 km. I´m not exactly sure how much of that we did yesterday-the boys say it was about 14 km- but we hiked for 12 hours straight, with a one hour lunch break in the middle at Laguna del Caminante. My body is pretty sore, but I feel good. The views along the way were spectacular, and I wonder whether I´ll think that each place is the most beautiful place we´ve seen. That´s to say, I wonder whether each site will simply be more breathtaking than the one before. I was just talking to a guy who did a bunch of other hikes on his way down here, and he says that this is nothing. I have no idea what to anticipate, but I guess that´s part of the fun.

Anyway, I´m still working on getting my pictures up online. Right now I´m pretty exhausted, so I´m going to go rest a bit, grab a bite to eat, and maybe later Í´ll post them if I can. Tomorrow morning we head into Chile to a town called Punta Arenas. Apparently the big attractions are some penguins and a duty-free shopping area. Woo!