There were two cards on the bedside this morning when she woke up.
Also one Swarovski bag with this year's Christmas Star; this was the reason that Pete's camera backpack had been searched (very discreetly) at Heathrow airport - thereafter the star found its way into a secret compartment of the main luggage!
It is a little cloudy and we hope that the sun will come out soon, but there seems to be no wind.
Pete was still coughing a bit in the shower and the forecast is for wind of less than 10kph and temperature a heady 7 degrees.
We enjoyed another delicious breakfast and said farewell to Val and Pat, who were off to El Calafate, so we suggested that they look out for the Bentley drivers. An email was sent to Peter and Margaret in response to their message; we have no cellphone service here, no TV and only occasional internet - absolute bliss (except for the avid sports fans of course!)
At 9.30, Kate and Susie, together with Ian from Toronto and Daniela, our Canadian Guide, joined us for our "Full Paine" excursion, which was to last all day. We had ordered our sandwiches the evening before and were given a snack bag with drinks and chocolate bars, whilst our sandwiches were stored in a cool-box.We set off and stopped to walk around a lake to see Black-necked Swans and Flamingos. and Alison managed to catch a shot of the flamingos flying overhead.
Our next stop was at Lago Pehoe, where there were more stunning views of the snow-capped peaks.
The we drove on to the Salto Grande waterfall; this is known to be a very windy site, but today was mild and overcast, but with very little wind and no rain.We continued driving alongside the Rio Paine, stopping off at Weber Bridge and then on to the Park Administration Centre for a comfort break and to look around the displays.
We also had our sandwiches, of course.
We then drove to the Lago Grey Hotel to check in for our boat trip and walked for about 10minutes along the lakeshore to wait for the tender which was to take us to our catamaran for the 3-hour trip to and from the Glacier face. The lake was strewn with icebergs of amazing shapes and with deep blue colouring where the light had penetrated the ice.
We were told that the water in the lake was 3 degrees and we were fully kitted out with hat and gloves (except when filming of course).
On the way, we picked up some kayakers. Alison went mad with the camera and took over 100 photos, while Pete was videoing away, so you will not see all of them here; we are just glad that we put a bigger chip in both cameras! Poor Ian flattened his camera battery!
The mountains were markedly striped with granite and sedimentary strata and amazingly photogenic.
We took about an hour to reach the glacier face which was about 30 meters high and met the lake in three separate fingers of ice.
On our route back home, we stopped again at Lago Pehoe as the wind had dropped, the water was very still and the reflections perfect - some of our best pictures so far!
As we neared the Hotel Las Torres were beautifully silhouetted against the setting sun, which frustratingly had decided to show its face just as we left Lago Grey.
We arrived back at 20:30, 11 hours after we left; just time for a quick change and into the restaurant for a buffet dinner; for some reason the waiter served us a "celebratory" Pisco Sour and then we had a very dry and light chardonnay with our meal.
We both decided that we did not need desserts, so went back to the bar for coffee and to do the blog. Alison ordered the coffee and Pete went into the room for the Netbook and diary.
He returned with a slate containing two Tiramisu "birthday cakes" and a bottle of bubbly and two glasses! There was no time for blogging as Ian, Katy and Susie joined us in the Bar to help us enjoy the evening whilst the harpist played on.
No TV + No Internet = QQ
ReplyDelete