Penguins!!!!

After a series of long over night bus rides and some random towns along the way, we have made it up the coast of Argentina. We stopped at Puenta Madryn, as its knowns as a famous breeding spot for whales, dolphins and penguins in the spring. I obviously took a penguin tour to see the Magenellic penguins at a place called Punta Tombo. There were literally thousands of them walking around, building nests, mating and laying eggs, it was incredible. We got soo close to them ( your unfortunatly not allowed to touch them, but for good reasons), and lucky for me my camera died right at the end of the excursion ( i have like 500 penguin photos, ill only post 1 or 2 I promise). Along the way we got on a boat to visit a colony of little black and white dolphins. They are only found in these waters of Argentina! They were super cool to watch aswell! We arrived to Mar Del Plata last night, looks like an awesome beach town, as we are finally back into some warm weather! Off to the capitol tomorrow for a few days.See you all soon! xox J

Santiago and beyond!

I know its only been 10 days since my last post, but we have covered sooo much ground, it feels like forever ago! Last week we spent a day and night in Santiago, Chiles capitol city. To be honest it felt just like an big city, Toronto or Vancouver, but with everything in spanish and a chilean flag on every building! We saw the main sights and partied with the 5 people from the UK we met in Valparaiso, who came with us to this awesome hostel that was an old mansion! Speaking of partying, the wine here is soooo cheap, 3 bucks Canadian for 2L box, and its tastes like a $20 bottle, even better! From there we headed to Pucon, an awesome little country town with a large volcano, which due to timing, we were unable to climb. Unfortunately my dreams of snowboarding in Chile were also shattered, as the ski season ended a few weeks earlier than usual...all well, it gives me an excuse to come back :)
Puerto Montt was our next stop to catch the Navimag. There was not much going on in this town, so we caught a lateshow at the cinema, saw Planet of the Apes, in english with spanish subtitles! We spent Thanksgiving weekend on the Navimag ferry from P. Montt to P. Natales. 4 days on the ship went by so fast! The scenery was amazing, and we had great company, some people we met earlier travelling, the 6 of us had a great time!! We saw tons of birds, and some penguins swimming, iceburgs in the distance, it was a great way to see patagonia!
We just got back from a day trip to see Torres del Paine, the famous Patagonian rock formation. If we had more time, we would have joined our wolfpack in doing the W trek, 4 days through Torres del Paine national park, to see the mountains and glacier. However, this day trip was awesome, they took us to cave where they found remains of an extinct mammal from the iceage. We then visited the famous granite towers, they are beautiful, snow and glacier capped in front of clear blue lakes that show a perfect reflection. There wasnt a cloud in the sky all day, just beautiful. Just when we thought things couldnt get better, we stopped at Grey Lake and got to see the Grey Glacier and its iceburgs- that I can say is the most beautiful landscape scene I have ever seen.Unfortunately this glacier is disappearing at 4 m per year, they think it will be gone in about 10 years:(. This place is unreal, its definitely a highlight for me, and I will definitely be back to southern Chile and Patagonia someday! ( when I win the lottery to head to Anarctica:) ) Off to Argentina tomorrow, we have alot of ground to cover in the next 10 days! Miss you all xox

The West Coast!

Chile is unreal! I know I said Arica had beautiful beaches, but I think Iquique may have topped them! Honestly, instead of Cuba or Dominican, I think Iquique should be everyones next vacation destination! We spent 3 days in Iquique, hanging out on the beach and watching the locals surf ( the waves were wayyy to big for lessons). Our hostal was practically on the beach, with a roof top patio to watch the sunset. We then headed to Copiapo, the town of the mining disaster, but only for the day as we caught an over night bus to La Serena. As of right now there nothign to see at the mine anyways, but I hear there may be an upcoming movie?! Spent another 3 days in La Serena. One day we walked 4 hours down the beach and ended up at the next town Coquimbo- a dog followed us for most the trek, it was quite entertaining. Beautiful scenery all the time. Last night we headed up to this Observatory about an hour from La Sererna. It was awesome- the skies are so clear here you can see soo many more stars than at home. The milky way, 2 other galaxies, and Jupiter were very neat to see through the telescopes ( yes I am aware this just further confirms my science nerd status lol)
Today we arrived in Valparaiso, a very unique town, on the coast, close to Santiago. All the houses are built along the cliffs, and all brightly painted different colours- a very artsy town- I like it. We plan to head to its sister town, Vina Del Mar tomorrow, the beaches and surf are supposed to be great! Another update- we added another adventure to the mix, next Friday we are getting on the Navimag, a ferry boat for 4 days that takes you from Peurto Montt to Peurto Natales. This region Patagonia is supposed to be amazing, something you can´t miss if you down here; glaciers, penguins and whales oh my! :) We heard about it from the New Zealand teachers we met in Arica, turns out we will be joining them again in Peurto Montt next week for the tour!
Happy October everyone! Glad to hear so many of you are enjoying the blog, time well spent! Love ya! xo J