Adventures with the Goldmans

Ok, so it has been really hard keeping up with the blog on this trip. For our Africa trip, we had spent most of the summer making all the hotel and flight arrangements ahead of time. With our South America trip, we have just been flying by the seat of our pants and booking the hotels and flights as we go. I am hoping to write updates and all now that we are back but here is a quick run-down of where we have been.

Today we drove from Torres Del Paine, Chile to El Calafate, Argentina - the drive took around 4-5 hours. I thought Namibia was remote, this brings it to a whole new level. No other cars, no gas stations, the only bathroom was taking a "pit stop" on the side of the road. So glad we had a full tank of gas and plenty of water. After about 90 minutes of driving, we hit the boarder crossing for Argentina. We assumed there might be a small store with some snacks and drinks, but we were wrong. We kept driving and driving with endless rolling hills, llamas and crazy winds! We finally reached the small city we were staying in - El Calafate. The main street area was super cute with lots of little shops, restaurants and touristy spots. We stayed in an Air BnB that overlooked the town. It was about 15 minute walk down the hill to town. The highlight for the boys stay here was the Yeti Ice bar that they made Paul and I go into. In the bar, the boys got solid glacier ice and they poured Coca-cola into it which turned into a frosty in less than 30 seconds. The boys were thrilled and LOVED it! Paul and I enjoyed watching the smile on their faces and taking pictures with a fake yeti! 

We flew from Santiago down to Punta Arenas, Chile. We originally booked a hotel room in this town but as we were getting off the plane, all of us almost fell over from the giant gust of wind. It was 50 degrees but felt like 20 degrees because the of the wind coming off the Antarctic ocean. This town has a boardwalk that parallels the Magellan Strait. Super cool - literally, super freezing cold! We decided to high tail it North to see if it got any warmer. We headed towards Puerto Natales about a 2-3 hour drive North of where we landed. Once we finally got to Puerto Natales, we drove around the cute town and decided to stay here for the night. We had to stop at several different hotels to finally find a spot to crash. Once we checked in, we took a nice, long walk into town. The next day we had around a 2 hour drive to Torres Del Paine. This park was unbelievable! We booked a hotel in the Rio Serreno Valley and the first day we took a nice, easy hike along the river. The next morning, we woke up and asked Nash to open the blinds. When he did, we had the most amazing view of the Patagonia mountains! After breakfast we decided to head into the park and do a hike. We started at the base of a waterfall and then hiked about 4 miles roundtrip to a beautiful view of the peaks of Patagonia. After our hike, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the back of the car and then we took off towards Grey Lake. Nash took a nice long nap and woke up right when we were getting to Grey Lake Lodge. At the Lodge we had to check in at 3 pm for our 4'oclock boat tour to the glacier. After Paul checked us all in and got our tickets, we had to hike about 40 minutes to get to the boat. The hike wasn't hard but it wasn't easy either. We had to traverse through gravel and moving rocks with a view of a giant iceberg. It was incredible. Once on board, we listened to the safety briefing and then were on our way to visit some amazing glaciers. On the way back, the boat made a stop to drop off and pick off passangers that have been hiking for 4/5/6 days along the glaciers. Once we got back to the drop off location, we still had the 40-50 minute hike back out to our car. The boys saw a small ice berg and decided it would be a lot of fun to destroy it by throwing rocks at it. This was actually really fun and we ended up playing around the iceberg area for around an hour. Once we finally made it back, we were the last car in the parking lot. We started our drive from the parking lot through the park back to our hotel. We knew this was around an hour drive with no cell phone service at it was around 7:30 pm. We assumed the boys would fall asleep on this drive but they were so excited about this amazing day, they couldn't fall asleep. Once we were almost to the park gate, we notice several cars were pulled over on the side of the road. We couldn't tell what the cars were doing and we saw a few people with binoculars. We stopped and looked around for a bit and still were unsure what was happening. As we slowly passed the car in front of us, Paul suddenly spotted the puma sitting in the tall grass to the left of us. We stopped our car, put on our flashers and got on top of the car to get a better view. The puma seemed to be stalking a group of horses but the horses just galloped on past the cat without so much of a glimpse of fear. At this pont, we were completely unsure of what the puma was doing. Then the beautiful creature decided to cross the road a few cars in front of us. Paul used his African safari knowledge and drove ahead and waited for the puma to come to us. We got the most amazing view of the puma walking along the gully directly beside us. We kept telling the kids to stay in the car and be quiet. We did not expect to see such amazing wildlife here! What a day we had!!!! Unbelievable!

Today is our last day in the Zapallar beach area. The boys used their charm and enthusiasm to get the surf instructors to come in early for one last lesson. We have to check out of our rental house at noon- the boys surf lesson was from 10-11:45 so we had to hustle to get packed up and out. The boys had the BEST experience with these Chilean surfers! Towards the end of his lesson, Nash actually got a jellyfish sting on his right hand. With the wet suit on, only his hands and feet are exposed. Of course he took it like a champ and didn’t really flinch! 

At the beach town we are currently staying in, Maitencillo, we passed so many different restaurants and surf schools along the boardwalk. You could order empanadas, lattes and ice cream and get surf lessons all at the same spot.  We could not resist getting the boys lessons while we are here. For USD $30 per kid, Finn and Nash each got a private 90 minute lesson along with a board and wet suit rental.  I was super nervous about the boys having surf lessons with jellyfish invested waters along with ocean temperatures in the low 60's. Not to mention it never gets warmer than around 72 ish degrees. Not exactly hot enough to tempt me to go in for a swim. Fortunately, the boys are braver and more adventurous than I am. They absoultely loved it and decided to go back 5 more days in a row. The last two days, they would take back-to-back lessons - 3 hours straight in that freezing cold water. They wanted to keep going longer but their instructors were exhausted and shivering. I can not believe how comfortable they both are in the ocean. Towards the end of each lesson, they were comfortable enough jumping on each others boards and jumping back from leading with their left to right foot. 

Finn has eaten so many palta (avocado) since we have been here! I asked for an ensalada with avocado and tomatoes and it came out just palta! Finn yells, YES, I'll eat all of that salad!

With zero expectations and no plans in site, we headed off from Santiago towards the coast.  The only thing we knew was Valparsia was the 2nd largest city in Chile and a place "not to be missed". When we had planned to come to South America, I had read that Valparesia was amazing and one of the best beach towns to check out in S.A. As we drove from Santiago through many winelands, we could see all the damage and destruction from the recent fires. The vineyards were beautiful, as you would expect. Gorgeous green fields, perfectly spaced out vines, the whole nine yards. As we got closer to Valapersia, we started to notice more and more liter on the side of the road. Santiago was a very clean, modern city and so far, it looks like we are headed in a completely different direction. The closer we got to the city, the more and more we felt like we were heading for a city in a third world country. Lots of graffiti, beggars, barb wire surrounding most buildings, people in the middle of intersections doing juggling and other tricks for money. As we drove through the city, we quickly realized this area wasn't for us, so we continued driving North.