After spending a day exploring a colony of penguins resident for the summer at the extremes of Patagonia, we boarded a plane from Punta Arenas to begin our circuitous journey back to the Northwest. An overnight in Santiago at possibly one of the worst hostels we’ve encountered—and that is not spoken lightly—and then this afternoon we’re off with a hop, skip and a jump via Sao Paolo and Chicago before we finally alight for our next round of spring and summer in the ambient climate of Portland.

Unfortunately, the weather turned ugly halfway through our trip. While we managed to avoid getting thoroughly soaked, our photographic opportunities were sadly hampered. Nevertheless, the places we hiked were breathtaking in beauty, grandeur and magnitude. All told, we covered 40 miles in four days–and are off for a full day of kayaking tomorrow to speed the recovery process.

Day two of our journey brought us to the emerald Lago Pehoe and the vaulting peaks of Los Cuernos (the horns) right at our doorstep. We opted to skip the gale-force winds that tore ceaselessly off the frozen slopes, and stayed in the luxury of the Refugio at the lake´s edge. The following picture is the view from our room that we awoke to before taking off for a 14-mile trek into la Valle de Frances.

Our trip into Torres Del Paine National Park commenced with a boat ride across Lago Gray and some up-close-and-personal time with Glaciar Gray. The glacier was cooperative to calve towering chunks into the lake, complete with echoing resonance, throughout the afternoon and night. We camped within earshot of the glacier, then set out the next morning on the first day of our trekking adventure.