NOOOO!!

So, apparently Brooke & I woke up this morning and our itinerary told us we are suppose to get to Santiago today and fly back at 9pm?? MUST be a typo. We are so sad. BUT, once we get home where the Internet is fast, we will post pictures and share more of our adventures. We have a long journey home ahead of us... we will be in touch soon and by this time tomorrow, our cell phones will work so you can call us both and tell us how much you missed us :)

Vina del Mar!

We´re at the beach! We made it to Vina del Mar Saturday night (after yet another flight delay). We picked up our car in Santiago and drove to Vina. Our car is a tiny red Toyota Yaris we named Guido! The drive was gorgeous- mountains, vineyards and then the view of the coast! Vina del Mar is nestled up against the mountains and quite hilly (reminds us of San Francisco streets).
Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon laying out at the beach in Renaca, which is a small town north of Vina del Mar that feels like a mini Cancun. I (Brooke) have never seen such big waves as we did yesterday. They were huge!
Sarah and I decided that we didn´t want to go back to Santiago so we´re staying in Vina del Mar tonight ( we want more beach time!) and tomorrow we´ll take a bus directly to the airport to head back home (so sad to be leaving!!!). Being at the beach has been a perfect way to end this awesome trip!

New Photos

Hi all! This is Sarah. We are in Puerto Natales... waiting for our next bus to take us to Punta Arenas. We were unable to catch the 6:30 bus (it was full), so we will jump on the 7:30 bus, so we stopped at an Internet Cafe. Brooke can´t get her pics to upload, and I changed out my memory card (the other one is tucked away), but here are just a few more pics from our trip!


On the dock ... this is the glacier we trekked!








Here is the glacier from the balconies. We heard 12 drops of the ice, but only saw one piece fall! This was basically the view we had during our picnic lunch outside :)






This is a picture of Torres del Paine! This is the mountain we climbed!








I have posted a couple more pictures on my Facebook, the public link is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019559&id=1189218832&l=d888f

Amazing day!!!!!

Hey everyone, this is Brooke. Today we hiked up to the base of the Torres del Paine. We couldn´t have asked for better weather, it was a perfect day for hiking. The hike took about 4 hours of steep climbing. We hiked through every type of terrain possible. Sarah, who had never hiked a mountain before and is scared of heights, did almost have an anxiety attack on the edge of a narrow path but she made it all the way and I´m so proud of her for conquering her fears. We passed through wide open pastures, narrow paths on the edge where if you slipped you were going way down into the Rio Ascencio, thick forests, and then at the top we had to scale up in sand and boulders. What a workout, but it was so worth it as the three ¨towers¨ appeared out of nowhere. Just stunning. There was also a glacial lake underneath them. We had lunch and wandered around for an hour before heading back to our hosteria. All in all, it took 7 hours of hiking. Tonight to celebrate, we had veal steak and a few beers back at the hosteria and now we´re exhausted and calling it a night.
Tomorrow we take a bus to Punta Arenas where we only stay for the night as we fly back up to Santiago Saturday morning.

Torres del Paine!

We are here! Long day traveling, so we took a little afternooon nap - but we made it! This place is literally in the middle of no where! Our resort is at the bottom of the mountains and I feel like we are in a movie! We will try to post pics, but so far, this computer is super slow just entering this! Hope you are all doing well! - Sarah

El Calafate!

Hello (this is Brooke)! We have been in El Calafate for the past two days and I´m in heaven (think Sarah is too!). Absolutely love this tiny mountain town in the middle of nowhere. The town has one main street, but it is filled with charm and has tons of restaurants and bars. Today we did our ¨mini-trek¨ on the Perito Moreno Glacier (about 1.5 hours west of town)- WOW! What an amazing sight. It was just a perfect day- great weather, great people and an unforgettable excursion. (I even met a couple from Milwaukee!). We took a boat across the glacial lake and after a history lesson on the glacier, put on crampons and hiked on the glacier for about 2 hours. And it wasn´t a flat hike- lots of ups and downs. Just amazing- too hard to explain in words, hopefully we can upload photos to show you all how gorgeous it was. To top off the hike on the ice, our guides surprised us with Famous Grouse whiskey! (for those who know me, I´m not a whiskey girl, put couldn´t pass it up). We also had the Argentine favorite- dulce de leche chocolate cookies.
Our hostel offers everyone an option to buy the ¨asado¨ dinner, so we had that tonight. It was the typical Argentine BBQ and it was scrumptious- grilled veggies and lots of beef! This hostel is a lot of fun- lots of energy and a super staff.
This is definitely the highlight of the trip for both of us (wish we could stay here for weeks), but tomorrow we head to Torres del Paine National Park. We have heard nothing but the best reviews òf this park, so we´re both looking forward to it even though we´re sad to leave El Calafate.

On our way to El Calafate!

Hello everyone! Today has been challenging, but also super lucky! Brooke and I went down to Recoletta this morning and had coffee and empenadas and checked out BA for the last time. Our flight to El Calafate was at 3:40pm, so we walked back to our hotel, took a cab and then after checking in, we realized we were at the wrong airport. Apparently, the airport changed (not our fault) - and the only contact info they had was our travel agent in WI who was unable to contact us, long story short, we had to jump another taxi that was $180 pesos, ha!, and go across town. But, our flight had been delayed until 5pm, so we are all good! Either way, we will be heading down to the tip of the continent in about an hour or so! We are at a Internet Cafe now in the airport, and limited to 30 minutes. If we have remaining time, we will post photos! Ciao!