salt lake

atacama

we swapped the cold weather, patagonian lamb and mountains for extreme of a different sort. the atacama desert was the stuff of legends, having only read about death valley and its many curiosities. after a week in patagonia, it made sense to complete our time in chile with the desert. this time, the mister had wised up to my sun-averse ways and in our first meeting with the guide, made his brief, well, brief. "my wife does not do well in the sun." you should've seen the guide's face. he must've thought we were crazy to be in the hottest, driest desert in the world and not want to be in the sun. to his credit and sheer professionalism (we've not had the pleasure of being with a better guide) managed to keep me out of the sun for three whole days. in the desert. this is a feat so amazing i cannot begin to describe how good he was. somehow he found and plotted walks and trials that were IN THE SHADE or had the sun on our backs. madness. pure skill. i was beyond thrilled. so indeed, it is possible to go to the atacama and not leave charred to crisp. 

the amphitheatre in the valley of the moon

sunset over death valley

glamping!

retreat at dusk

torres

climbing the base of the tower was supposed to be the culmination and highlight of our trip. for health and safety, C had to make sure we were physically fit and able to do the hike without any drama. what he didn't account for was drama of the non-physical kind. it's not something i'm proud of but i may have had a mini-meltdown at the prospect of walking as far as we did under the unrelenting sun. do not like the sun. do not wish to be under it. was so angry that i ran up the mountain because the only way to shorten the hike was to do it faster. this was a bit ridiculous and i ended up feeling terrible that C was struggling to keep up because he had the unenviable task of carrying all the barang barang and i was, well, just carrying myself. i also felt bad because it must've been awkward for him to be in the middle of a warring couple. ok, only i was warring. it was quite one-sided because, bless him, the mister has the patience of a saint. and is lovely and calm and very very forgiving of my many misdemeanours. 

(it looks like we were play fighting, but no. i was really mad!)

the days blurred into one

couldn't tire of the view. and we had a couple of days of excursions that have now blurred into one. spent a day with the gauchos and went riding, climbed a random ridge and saw the chinese teeth (?!) and resisted pilfering shark teeth fossils from the mountaintop. amazing plate movement for what was once seabed to be dredged all the way to the top. O level physical geography came flooding back to me, all right. oh the 4x4s were cool and we'd literally drive through rivers to save time because it's this mass expanse of wilderness and we wanted more time for walking.

day 1

the mister was fashionable. 

we'd a hearty breakfast overlooking the tower

driver drove guide and us somewhere and dropped us in the wilderness. very bear grylls.

saw cool orchids (guide is trained botanist happy to educate us hapless cityfolk)

views weren't bad

more cool orchids, think this one is called lady's slipper

the mister looked like he was on an outdoor clothing photoshoot

i might've dragged my feet

we didn't get lost

C leading the way

ok this was pretty amazing

relieved to be back at the lodge

rewarded with bubbles and hot tub

patagonia

london -> madrid -> sao paolo -> santiago -> puntas arenas -> 4h drive to national park. safe to say, it took us almost two days to get to patagonia! one of the things about being based in london is the desire to go west. the mister, bless him, is well aware that i'm far from the most robust of travellers. air travel is something to be endured, and i'm quite happy within a 2h radius from london. so to his credit, he does all he can to make it worth the squeeze. when we finally made it to the lodge, it was nice to know mentally that we'd be staying put for a week. a week! unheard of it my previously ADD husband's mind. credit to the lodge for having enough activities to keep us entertained for all that time. it was a beautifully done up, lots of natural material and natural light, panoramic views and all the creature comforts one could wish for. although i did make a point to go on a iphone fast and only checked in every couple of days. making it sound like a bigger deal than it actually was but when one's an internet junkie like me, baby steps...

sao paolo

backlog travelogue but hey, better later than never! the mister had been wanting to go to patagonia since our first south american foray during his grad trip years ago but it took some time to finally get there. flew BA (yay for miles and companion voucher for free flights) and nothing worked. no in flight entertainment because the system was down, the seat didn't recline, the reading light didn't work so one can imagine this was a great 13h (?) start to the holiday. thankfully, i'm like a parrot and sleep once it's darks so with my trusty eye mask, disaster averted. to be fair, the fabulous flight attendant tried to make up for the BAs numerous shortcomings by plying me with double doses of alcohol. questionable coping mechanism right there but hey, whatever floats your boat.

hit the ground running bright and early in sao paolo and were met by L who is so gosh darn movie star handsome he has a nickname that can't be repeated in polite company. seriously. that guy is posterboy for their MBA class and has the clean cut good looks coupled with rogue-ish charm of presidential candidate, albeit less slimy uncle, more young upstart with ideals sort. anyhoos we'd a rapid half day in sao paolo with L before narrowly making out flight (uber fail, cab broke down twice en route to the airport. are you kidding meee...)

L is born and bred brazilian with italian heritage, we share the same values of family and food being paramount in life. so it was only natural that he knew the best places to go, was the best tour guide giving us a running commentary of the three business districts and demographs, culture. all the things that tickle our brains and i felt so familiar with the city after having a whistle-stop tour through it in the sunshine, amidst the capirinha haze. which was, also, life-changing. cashew fruit? amazing.