Happily Ever After!
I have been at a loss for words to express our excitement for this day! We are getting married!!
When we arrived in Punta Arenas, two days after departing from Puerto Natales, we decided to go on a hike at the tip of the South America mainland. Our amazing hostel host, Eduardo, gave us directions to a remote trail along the beach and we spent the afternoon of January 4th reaching the trail.
January 5, 2012 was a special day for many reasons. The sun was shining with a light breeze, such a rare occasion in Patagonia! We visited a Refugio along the beach where sweet kids who were working for the summer gave us the keys to the light house- this light house was the Eastern entrance to the Magellan straight which all ships pass as they navigate around the continent. Normally, you can not enter, but we were excited to climb to the top and look out at the spectacular view as ships sailed past.
We thanked the staff for the special treat and walked down the beach to a trail which climbs to the top of Mt. Tam, about 2,600ft, at the tip of continental South America. This same mountain was climbed by the famous Charles Darwin around 1831 and overlooks the straight that the explorer Magellan sailed across 500 years ago.
When we reached the top, we celebrated with our normal pictures, hooting and hollering. It was Justin’s mom’s beautiful birthday. We thought of her, smiling down on us from above – we miss you dearly.
“Shoot… The memory card is full,” Justin shouted in the powerful wind.
We hiked a bit of the ways down the side of the mountain to hide from the wind and ate a snack while he changed cards.
“Come on, let’s go back to the top!” he said excitedly.
When we arrived back at the top, a small pocket of snow was headed our way. I pointed to it and told Justin we did not have much time until the next cloud of snow and wind would roll through. He seemed preoccupied and was adamant that we take one more set of pictures at the top. I positioned myself and waited… And well.. You know the rest!!
We danced in the snow storm and laughed as we hopped along the muddy trail back to sea level where we set up camp with an ocean front view.
Spinach pasta (our nightly 400grams of spaghetti) with roasted red sauce (tomato sauce packet), wild boar (sliced salami), freshly grated Parmesan cheese (20 grams of packaged Parmesano cheese), and a flaky piece of bread (it was pretty flaky), made for a perfect celebratory dinner, oh and don’t forget the 190 gram chocolate almond bar after. Our bodies deserved the treatment after such a feat.
With smiles on our face, we skipped back into Punta Arenas this morning to share our exciting news and clean up for a nice dinner on the town.
