Day 5 in Chile (October 30, 2013)

This was the day that we went for conference excursion. Our excursion was supposed to be kicked off by 8:00am but the bus did not arrive on time and we had to wait for the bus to come which took more than 30min. We were also told that it is normal in Patagonia province for not being on time for every appointment. For me it is okey because I know where I came from, you know what I’m referring.

 Going to the grey lake

Our first stop of our excursion was at the beach in the valley called Grey Lake that has very interesting iceberg. Unlike the usual icebergs, the iceberg that we saw here was clearly blue with amazingly different structural shapes. In general, Grey Lake is a glacially fed lake in Torres del Paine National Park. 

 Magnificent iceberg and background structure!

 Never seen such clean lake!

Our second stop was the Salto Grande waterfall on the Paine River, after the Nordenskjöld Lake, within the park. In the vicinity of Salto Grande are a variety of natural vegetation forms as well as certain wildlife species, including the wild Guanaco.

 Salto Grande water fall, decorated with renbow

 VIP SAMBA team behind the Salto Grande water fall!

 What can we say with this!

The third stop was the cascades Paine that come from the Southern Patagonia Ice Field and flow towards the northeast. Our next stop was at the Laguna Azul to see the flamingos, though we found none unfortunately. The last stop of excursion was Laguna Amarga, and finally return back to our hotel that is surrounded by Rio Serrano river. What a wonderful day!

 cascades Paine river!

 wild Guanaco, grazing around!

  Laguna Azul lake, which is deserted of flamingo! 

Laguna Amarga lake!

Day 4 in Chile (October 29, 2013)

This afternoon I went hiking with small group. It was on the average of 35-45 degree elevation hiking. We just made it to the top of the mountain, and the view from the top looks marvelous. Well! The hiking was not easy but it was really fun. It was really long and that took us nearly 2hrs to go upto the end, i.e., up to a lake on top of the mountain.

We also went out for dinner outside the hotel for the first time. I have chicken pizza and it was really good. Now here I’m preparing myself for tomorrow’s full day excursion.

 Looking the Rio Serrano river from the midway of our hiking to the top

 Ok! we got to the top and cooling down inside the magic lake (end of our hiking)

Day 3 in Chile (October 28, 2013)

Every afternoon we have free time to explore, and today I went to river side walk with two other colleagues. It was really fun and good exercise. One of our colleagues got back earlier as he has a talk in late afternoon. Two of us continue exploring and went into the bush. Apart from got blocked by small lakes or rivers here and there, we got our self-stranded in the middle of cows and bulls. We were trying to cross in between but one of the big bulls stared at us, watching our movement very carefully. Then we decided to go to other root, but we got more there too; and we decided to confront them. I just got a steak for just in case but they got scared of us, and finally we made to our hotel safely.

 Remembering my childhood life, watching my horses as a kid!

 Amazingly wondering with mother nature!

Day 2 in Chile (October 27, 2013)

It is so beautiful outside when you look out from my room. Since the conference starts late in the afternoon, I had nothing to do today except working on my pending scientific research work. So, I brought my computer down at the lobby (that is where we get off and on very slow interenet connection) and did so many stuff on my work. In the afternoon, after lunch, I went out for a walk with James and the weather was terribly windy and cold. 

 A view looking out from my room

Day 1 in Chile (October 26, 2013)

My flight from BOS to MIA was on time. Although I had enough time to catch my next flight in Miami, I was greeted by LAN airline crew just out my gate of arrival from BOS and handed me another boarding pass thst folded inside a folder that reads as “express”. Then I went to my gate to catch my flight to Santiago. On my flight to Santiago, fortunately, I was sitting with one of the LAN airline pilot who is returning back home from USA. Every crew member in the plane knew him and treated us like a king, including first class wine service. He is a very nice gentleman who has very good general knowledge about the current situation around the world. I also did learn a lot of histories from him, including the story about the war between Chile and Peru back in 1870s, in which the war concluded with victory to the Chilean by controlling the entire Peru, including the capital Lima. He also told me that the two countries currently have a water dispute. Chile also has port dispute with Bolivia, which is pending at the international tribunal court. Not a surprise if the 3^rd world war, if it happen, will be due to water dispute. Another history that I learnt from this gentleman was the bitter disagreement between Argentina and Chile over the three small islands in Antarctica, in which Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England wanted the war to happen very badly just to punish Argentina using Chile to perform the dirty job for her. However, thanks to the late John Paul the 2^nd, the war did not happen and instead they solved their difference peacefully, which was a bitter humiliation for Madam Thatcher.  

 Interesting landscape from top near Santiago airport.

We landed at Santiago airport safely. Right after I went out my gate I follow the connection flight direction, and I met ‘Mr confuser’, airport crew, and I asked him if the connection flight direction also include domestic flight and he said “YES” and asked me to follow the direction. I did follow the direction and passed the security, which I was in hurry, but it happen to be only international connection and I had to returned back all the way down; and it also cost me another big price; i.e., I lost my fitbit devise at the security check point. Finally, I passed though immigration, which required a landing fee of $160, and made it to my gate to catch my flight to Punta Arenas, and that was where I reunited with my UCLA folks. Here I’m now on the plane heading to Punt Arenas. 

 Santiago airport

We arrived in Punta Arenas on time and safely. Everything was perfect. There were about 18 people, who came for the same meeting, on the same plane. Two min-buses were waiting for us. The weather in Punta Arenas is terribly cold with 20-30MPH wind speed. We board onto our bus and start driving to our destination, one of the most naturally beautiful places in Chile, called Torres Del Paine National park. We were told that it is 4hrs drive from Punta Arenas. Well! Practically it took us a little over 5hrs drive, including about 30min stopover at Hotel Posada Rio Rubens for lunch. Anyway, we started driving at about 3:20pm and we got to our hotel at about 9:00pm. Although most of us were exhausted due to the long hours flight, we managed to witness the amazing land scape structure of Chile on our way to the national park. We also saw a lot of unattended animals, mostly sheeps and I asked Victor (one of the Chilean scientists), who was with us, if these sheeps are wild or not. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know as it was his first time to this part of Chile. Just to say a little bit about this national park, it covers a total area of 227000 hectares and was created in May 1959 and in April 1978 it was included on a UNESCO Biosphere reserve list. The park has different micro-climates that create an interesting biodiversity with different native species. 

 Restaurant that we lunch on our way to Torres Del Paine National park

 One of the gorgeous landscape that we saw on our way to the park

 Some of the views of Torres Del Paine National park

We finally arrived to our hotel, one of the resort hotel (Hotel Rio Serrano) in the park. The rooms are gorgeous. We just had a wonderfully delicious buffet dinner, and I can’t wait to crash my bed. Good night for today!