First of all I just want to say how happy I am to hear from you all! I miss all of you guys and think of you while I´m traveling. It´s a lot of fun for me to write this blogs and share my adventures with you. Also, thanks for being patient between the entries. We do not always have a computer around to use, and we spend a lot of time hiking in the mountains away from towns.
Nathan and I just got back from an eight day trek, or hike, through the Torres del Paine National Park. I´ll talk more about our trip in the next entry, but first I´d like to answer some of your questions.
A lot of you asked about the weather down here. Now that we are in Patagonia, the most southerly region of South America, it´s getting pretty chilly. Right now we are in the town of Puerto Natales, Chile, and the latitude here is about 51 degrees south of the equator. The equator is at 0 degrees latitude. As you move further from the equator your latitude gets higher and the climate gets colder. So here at 51 degrees below the equator it stays cool even in the summer time. We have to wear hats and coats almost everyday!
The most amazing thing about the weather here though is the wind. It is one of the windiest places on earth, and some friends I have met here have told me about being knocked off their feet by gusts of wind. Actually, there have been a couple times in the mountains when I was almost blown over, too, but fortunately I caught myself!
A lot of you also asked about the plane ride down here. Actually, it was a very smooth flight, even though it was very long, but I always seem to be nervous in planes. So for me, yes the flight was a little scary!
Some others asked about the kinds of animals we have seen. There are so many cool animals living down here and we have been lucky enough to see some of them. Though we have not seen any snakes or lizards yet, they do live down here.
One of my favorite animal spottings has been of the Andean Condor. On our hike in Torres del Paine we saw several of these gliding along the wind currents next to cliffs. They are huge birds whose wingspan can reach up to 3 meters, or about 9 feet!
Another animal we saw in the park was the Guanaco. These are a species of llama that can stand up to 4 feet tall, weigh up to 200 pounds, and run as fast as 35 miles per hour! As we drove into the park we saw herds of them grazing in the plains. They like to live in arid (dry) regions of the Andes mountains and Patagonia.
When we were camping a couple weeks ago in the town of Chalten, Argentina, we spotted this little guy in the grass near the river. It´s called a Pichi (pronounced pee-chee) and is a lot like an armadillo.
We have also seen woodpeckers, flamingoes, geese, choico (a Patagonian ostrich) and lots of other birds. Puma and foxes make their home in Patagonia as well, though we have not been lucky enough to see either of these yet!
I hope this answers your questions! Please feel free to ask all the questions you´d like and to make comments, too. I love to hear from people back home. I miss you all and when we get back to the United States I´ll definitely come visit you all in Circleville!
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