Patagonia March 2016

We arrived in Santiago on the 23rd of March. Now, check out this orchestrated triple play of flights into Santiago. I left SLC and was to land at 9:10AM. Ryan and Becky Thomas (my life time friend from high school and college) were flying from Las Vegas and were to land at 9:25AM. And Mat, who was already in South America, more specifically Argentina was to land at 9:35AM. Crazy right. BUT! Even trickier, we were all to board our next flight at 11:30AM and that was with going through customs and storing part of our luggage. We made it and it was an amazing feat.

Here we are actually all getting on the plane and heading to Patagonia. True story.



We stayed in a little town Puerto Natales and rested up.  It was a three hour drive from the airport and I think I had been traveling over 36 hours by then. Sweater teeth and all.







The next morning we stretched our achy bones and took another 1 1/2 hrs car ride to Torres del Paine, the national park of Patagonia.  My first impression was "eh.'" I felt like it was very similar to SLC, but when you physically got in there you recognized the glaciers and their grandness.



We had a tour guide Jose with us the entire time which made it nice and my job easy.  He planned the hikes, the food, and the lodging. Beautiful.



We took a ferry to a refugio which is an upscale version of a hostel.  Here is our bunk room for the night and common area.  I will spare you the hair coated, toilet paper overflowing communal bathroom.









Over the next few days we did some hiking, fishing, kayaking, wanaku chasing and plenty of laughing.  This guy, Mr. Mat,  did it all wearing his fashionable hiking boot. So bleh that he broke his foot two weeks prior due to a skiing race.  He did not complain and pressed on.











Fishing was a little tricky with the swollen ankle, but the show went on.



We had a little competition that if you caught the biggest fish, everyone would buy you your favorite treat.

The salmon were tired from traveling and it was almost the end of their season.  Ryan ended up faking us out running with a giant king salmon in his hands, "I won! I caught the biggest fish!" Turns out the salmon was so tired he just picked it up right out of the water because it was so tired.

Jorge was our tour guide of the day and he and his cousin fixed a fabulous lunch for us!





Beautiful right? I was so grateful.  It's nice to not have to worry about food and just to show up and have it ready and waiting was a treat.





Jorge's cousin was a musician and played a little ditty for us while we ate. Mat took a turn too!





This was the bird's eye view we had leaving the campground after lunch.



While Jorge showed the Mat and Ryan a "quiet" fly fishing spot, Becky and I went on our own adventure to try to find the guanacas--lama-like animals roaming the meadows.







Kayaking was day 3 and the suits alone took half the day to put on. Going to the bathroom was not an easy task either.





Once we got the hang of it, team Harris did pretty well.



It was fantastic being all pocahontas like on the open water.







Once again, lunch was prepared for us. Jose knows we love chocolate so there was an awesome assortment.



After kayaking I felt free! I felt the need to do a modern dance in my one piece suit. It just came from within. I can't explain it. It just flows out of me.