Mexico as a Family

On our days in Punta Arenas, the wind and rain were so strong that the boats were canceled, so we explored the town. (In fact, more than one local told us to be very careful because the high winds could knock down tree branches.) First, before the rain got too bad, we went to Nao Victoria Museum, which is right on the Straits of Magellan and has life size replicas of the Victoria, the boat from Magellan's fleet that made it all the way around the world, and the Beagle, the ship that Darwin rode on. ( Video explain Straits of Magella , Video explaining Magellan's voyage .) You can see the gray water of the Straits and climb in the boats to get a better feel for what it was like for them, and there were big, peeling posters in Spanish and English with lots of information about their voyages. There was a also a smaller model of a ship that saved some people who tried to go to Antarctica, which was such a great underdog story.  We also walked around town in Punta Areans, checking o...

 Guys. We're in Patagonia.  We weren’t sure what we were going to do with the week before I start working with folks at University of Chile, but we knew something outside of Santiago, since we could do Santiago on evenings and weekends. We looked at the Atacama Desert, but we were all pretty dry from the Mexico City air and our skin was a little worn out from all of the sun of the past two months. (I see you and your tiny violins. Dealing with children and sun is hard, ok? Sunscreen application can be a full contact sport.) And, when are we going to get to go to the bottom of the Earth again?  So, with less than a week, the family that plans vacation with spreadsheets months in advance planned a trip to the tip of the Americas in between plane and bus rides. (Ok, there was a Google doc.) We flew into Punta Arenas. Here are some pictures from the plane. Then we took a 3 hour bus to Puerto Natales where we got in at 10 at night into a tiny hostel that was more like a homest...