Walkies and relaxing at Mirador Guadal

This lodge is by far my favourite of the trip so far and it would be very easy to spend the day relaxing, listening to the waves on the lake lapping and staring at the incredible view.

But obviously there is a big hill that needed to be climbed, through a beautiful forest and up to 1400m



On the way we saw a black headed eagle, lots of ibis, some cows and a gaucho with his horses

It was a hard climb which is just what Rusty loves to do



Above the tree line was a fossil filled plateau from when the Atlantic deposited sea shells millions of years ago



The views were incredible with a 360 degree view of mountains


Brief attempt at romance...

Then back to the lodge for the relaxation part of the day (and packing again).
There are no words...
But oh wow




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Santiago

Image
The flight was very, very long but I managed to get some sleep (and watched 4 episodes of The Crown) without passing out, yippee.  The view of the Andes as we descended into Santiago was spectacular but hopefully the photo quality will improve! Santiago airport was a bit chaotic but friendly and our taxi driver was a sweetiepie. Our hotel is an Art Deco beauty with allegedly the oldest lift in Chile. The room has a pretty good view too I always think it’s a good idea to go for a walk after a long flight, but a rather dehydrated and grumpy hubby wasn’t as keen on the walk up to a viewpoint in 30c - oopsie  After a much needed afternoon nap/zonk out, we went walkies again and ended up back in the rooftop bar at the hotel well out of the noisy, smoggy, traffic filled streets beneath. Sauvignon and tapas are always a good end to a long day
Read more

Flight (or not) of the condors

Image
We got up at 5am to head out to a huge farm on the Argentinian border. It is owned by Alejandro, a conservationist rancher who takes visitors to the top of a ridge early in the morning to watch condors taking off from their roosting sites. We were expecting it to be cold and windy but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the condors seemed to be happy basking on the rocks rather than showing off their gliding skills. We spent a very happy 4 hours sitting on top of the ridge looking at stunning wilderness getting hotter and hotter in inappropriate clothing  We saw an  Andean hummingbird, 2 eagles, swallows, finches, a Gaucho on horseback and numerous horse flies but no sign of a condor in flight. And then finally they arrived, 8 condors flying over and around,  we could hear the wind in their wings - an utterly magical experience Vertigoed hubby had to keep his eyes closed as we drove down off the ridge and went to an open area which was a meeting place for Stone Age people. Lunch was an
Read more

Off to Atacama

Image
There is no escaping the vast distances to travel in Chile, so the journey started with a 5 hour bumpy, bum numbing drive to Balmaceda airport.  The morning light on the lake was gorgeous.  We said goodbye to the utterly filthy tank and thanked him for not suffering any punctures. Balmaceda airport appeared to be chaos but was surprisingly efficient, the plane left on time and the luggage actually appeared in Santiago! This evening’s view isn’t quite the same...  The airport Holiday Inn was efficient and comfortable so we had a good dinner and sleep then a 5 minute walk to yet another check in queue.  Definitely too much time in airports and too many backpackers who seem to have run out of deodorant. The view from the plane changed drastically... My suitcase decided it wanted to come on a later flight from Santiago but this has to be the best customer service ever from an airline - I love Chile! After yet another drive through some impressive scenery, we finally arrived at the hotel. I
Read more