As I briefly mentioned earlier, we spent our Christmas vacation in Chile, in the Futaleufu region of Patagonia. It was an action-packed trip filled with white-water kayaking and rafting, hiking, and horseback riding. We spent lots of time on the crystal clear water -- so clean that you can drink it straight from any river or lake without a filter or iodine pill. Delicious! It was remarkable how everything is super-sized in Patagonia; that made distances hard to judge.
At any rate, I missed some fabulous photo-ops, like the horse who'd wandered inside the roadside bus stop (we were en-route to a put-in and couldn't pull over) and the river side scenery (rather hard to stop paddling/steering in rapids to take a picture). If I ever do anything like this again, I will investigate a GoPro camera for the top of my helmet so I can video while we navigate the rapids. I'd also double the number of days I'm there so I can wander around with my camera, just to take pictures. Still, I did manage to get some pictures I'm happy to share with you. Here are a few of my favorite scenery photos. Later in the week, I'll post some people pictures, textures, and the few plants and animals I was able to capture.
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| Sunken boat at the pier at Lago Lonconau |
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| Pier adornment on Lago Lonconau |
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| Looking back at Tres Monjas across the Futaleufu, from base camp |
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| Looking west from our cabin after a morning rain |
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The turquoise water of the Futaleufu at the bottom of the Class 5 rapid, Zeta.
(We portaged around this very dangerous rapid.) |
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| It was difficult to capture any sunsets because we rarely had clouds. This was at 10:00 pm; the sun's not completely down until about 10:45! |
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| Clouds formations seen as we kayaked the Espolon River. This was the last day and it got too cloudy for a sunset picture that evening. |
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A hidden pasture discovered on a morning hike
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