This is moonrise on a tiny island on Lago Pehoe inside of Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile. The wind the following morning almost blew Liam off the footbridge back to the mainland.

Here is proof of Liam´s climbing prowess. He was handling these rocks like Messner. As you can see from our clothing in these two photos, it was windy and cold...and this is summer in Chilean Patagonia. Got dark at 10:30 pm and light at 5:00 am. The wind was vicious all over southern Patagonia.

Here I am in front of the famed "Torres" in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Liam was a champion trekker. He trekked uphill three hours the first day, where we stayed at a "refugio" with bunk beds and then summitted this trail with me the following day, over a very steep boulder trail. After we got down from the boulder field, he fell asleep on my shoulders almost immediately and I carried him two hours back to the refugio. Ouch, me old back.

One of the advantages (and disadvantages) of having a rental car, is that you can stop the car whenever your five-year old requests that you stop. Here, we stumbled upon 3 Rheas, South American ostriches. I reminded Liam that we´d seen a documentary about how the claws on these flightless birds were like those of velociraptors and could slash you...to which he responded: "Actually Dad, they were talking about the Cassowary, not the Rhea." And then, he proceeded to chase the 3 Rhea through the tundra for 20 minutes or so. This is in Patagonian Chile, right outside of Torres del Paine (the background mountains are the center of that park).

This lovely spot on Lago Mascardi is 25 kilometers up a dirt road in an Argentine national park outside of Bariloche, in the northern Patagonian region. We stayed at this spot for three days, where they plied us with freshly grilled beef and lamb on a twice daily basis. We tried our hand at trout fishing on this lake...but the guide sucked, so I didn´t catch anything... Liam "landed" a baby trout and "released" him.

Liam trying on a dead Guanaco´s jaw for size in the altaplano between El Calafate, Argentina and Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. We had a five day "father and son" trip to southern Patagonia to explore the cold, windswept and icy region. In this mini-hike, we found several dozen guanaco skeletons, some long-dead, some freshly killed. Since many where found near a fence, we assumed that the Puma ran them to the fence where the grasseaters were trapped.

Blog Downtime

The blog has been silent for a spell, as our laptop up and quit on us. In the interim period, we have had the good fortune to visit both northern and southern Patagonia. If I can get one of these internet cafes to let me download some pics, I´ll be posting again soon.