I’m having difficulty deciding where I want to put my art energies. Should I spend more time sketching and using an ink pen? Or should I watercolor paint with an aqua brush or regular paint brushes?
Most days I take a walk outdoors. On this day I noticed a horse being readied by a man for a trail ride. There is not usually a horse in our neighborhood, so I took a photo of it. I continued my walk and passed a sculpture of a horse. That set my decision to sketch and paint horses today!And so I did, as you will soon see.
I also decided my real art interest is simply taking on a challenge … on this day horses. I tell myself also: with each sketch I learn something new … and that’s a good thing! Some of my best work is yet to come? Maybe so, but only if I keep at it all!
Ready for a trail ride.
Walk past this sculpture often; time to sketch and paint it!
Arizona weather, especially in southern Arizona, does not provide many clues to what season we are in. Happily though we planted some pistache trees on our property. At times, these trees can provide some colorful leaves. Its deciduous leaves turn beautiful red and orange colors.
Colorful leaves!
Being from northeastern USA though, I equate colorful tree leaves with the fall season. When living there, quite often we would take a road trip to visit areas with beautiful fall colors! Yet here I am in Arizona, in January and February, with these colorful tree leaves! The calendar indicates winter … we are currently after December 21. The weather though, and reality here … I’m enjoying fall! I don’t care what month it is; hope you enjoy the colors too!
Fall in January and February in southern Arizona, according to our leaves!
Travel involves so much energy that at the end of the day I never seem to accomplish all I wish. Sketching happened to be one of the activities not done while on the road during this last trip. However, after each trip or major event, I like to sketch in my “events book”. So I did that for this trip. Plus I loved the look of the “boina” or “Gaucho hat” on the guys; I’ll sketch them too! At Rapa Nui, we had our trip guide and a local guide, so they are included in my sketch book too. Not the best sketches, but a way to keep memories and a final look at my Argentina and Chile trip. Now to travel on in 2026!
It is wonderful to see different scenery and eat new foods, but another fun aspect of travel is to meet people while on the road. People, and the opportunity to interact with people, add a dimension to the travel experience no photo or travel book can provide.
Let’s me start with my fellow travelers. They come from different USA states, with varying personalities and travel experiences. This allows me to enjoy understanding their perspective as we all look at new experiences while traveling together. It’s enlightening and I appreciate the daily interaction. What’s best too is the fact we have each other’s back while traveling; keep each other on-time, safe, aware of details and learning new things. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised when some of my fellow travelers joined in looking for birds while on a hike! It is always great to have more eyes on the scene. Maybe they enjoyed the opportunity to learn about some new birds too? Hope so!
Then there are the people I just happen to meet. Tables in South America are closer in hotels and restaurants than one would find in the USA. As a result, I met an older man at breakfast one morning … actually it was a couple of mornings since I arrived early to my tour. This 83 year old man from New York City was reading Agatha Christie. Somehow we started to talk and I learn he was to meet his friend for travel in Chile, yet his friend died a few days ago. The friend was almost 20 years younger than him. So now this man was here to attend a funeral.
I am a good listener and I think it is why we talked again the next morning at breakfast. Yet I learned much from him. He had traveled for a month in Japan visiting 9 cities recently and hired Uber drivers per city. I walked away from the conversation realizing 83 years old is still young! Wow! (And then my fellow travelers show up and there are three 80 plus year old people!)
Someday I hope to get my touring bicycle out and ride again, whether across a state or country, whatever. So whenever I see touring bicyclists I am always drawn to find out about their adventure. Here I was on Chiloé Island, Chile talking with bicyclists from Belgium! They were bicycling 5 weeks in Chile, their last week on Chiloé Island and having a wonderful time. Amazing!
Bicyclists from Belgium; one fully loaded bicycle!
Many people make a tour interesting. We had a couple of home-hosted meals and spent time with a family for a day so we could talk with local people. Whether it’s the couple explaining how to tango and showing us their professional dancing ability, or an indigenous person talking about their culture and goals to protect their sovereignty, or an employee demonstrating how to make a Pisco sour … they all add to my travel experience. Plus with the help of our trip guide, when necessary to translate another, we have an opportunity to learn quite a lot. In many locations we also had local guides, so plenty to ask of them!
Demonstration on how to make a Pisco sour.
Mapuche tribe member and our guide translating for him.
And then sometimes you see something you have never seen before. So I include this; as we are carted off to a boat for observation of penguins, etc at Puñihuil Wildlife Reserve. (It is the only place where Magellanic and Humboldt penguins nest near each other.) Anyway, it was fascinating how half of our group stood on a platform that was rolled out to the boat. We could then board the boat and not get our feet wet! These employees are rolling people out to a boat, and back from the boat, numerous times in a day. Fascinating! Never saw this before and appreciated having dry feet.
Rest of group rolling toward the boat.
Now boarding the boat with dry feet!
Sure there were beautiful scenes, but it was about sharing them with others as we stood together looking at it. There were also individual moments when a conversation started with someone I never knew. It’s a joy to interact with people; it adds to my travel experience and I am always grateful!
I am amazed for a trip, not being a birding trip, I saw 61 different species of birds while visiting Argentina! No surprise then for 37 bird species to be new ones for my life list of birds! Yes!
Here are some of the birds I saw. The Patagonian mockingbird reminded me of mockingbirds at my home. They are constantly calling and changing their calls.
Patagonian mockingbird
An easy gull to identify:
Brown-hooded gull
Shovelers have a distinct bill. I just needed to learn the one I saw is a red shoveler:
Red shoveler
Arriving at a lagoon, I saw this swan and immediately knew it was a new species for me!
Coscoroba swan, the smallest of swan species
I loved looking at this bird’s eye:
Spectacled tyrant
This bird I almost didn’t capture with my camera and knew it would be a new species for me:
Look closely in center for tufted tit-tyrant
I’ve seen ibises, but here was a black-faced ibis:
Black-faced ibis
There were many other birds I photographed; however, I would have loved my larger zoom lens to truly have better photos. Yet, it was not birding trip so I think my smaller zoom did okay! A great trip with my fellow travelers sharing in the joy of seeing birds as we learned about each country we visited. What fun each day! If you missed the birds I saw in Chile, then click here.
This was not a birding trip. I purposely chose an adventure where I could learn about the Chilean culture, eat the food, interact with local people and learn the history of the country. Yet, I did observe 55 different bird species while in Chile; 36 of them new to me! So here are a few I saw.
I know house sparrows can be found throughout the world; however, I saw this very cute sparrow and wondered what it was. A rufous-collared sparrow … a bird I will see often.
Rufous-collared sparrow
There are some birds you have an idea of what they may be because of their sounds/calls. These two I knew immediately: Chilean mockingbird and monk parakeet.
Chilean mockingbird
Monk parakeet
One day I took a walk to a park, not really expecting to see anything new. Along a grassy edge of a pond I saw this bird and guessed it to be a rail. Yes it was! A plumbeous rail:
Plumbeous rail
While on Rapa Nui, Easter Island, there was a bird I wanted to keep my eyes open for before I left the islands. I mentioned it to a park guide and our local guide. Both said it is a difficult bird to see. However with more eyes searching, a day later a fellow traveler pointed to a bird and the guides confirmed its identification.A fellow traveler, Charlie, captured this photo of the bird for me. It is a Chilean tinamou.
Chilean tinamou, photo courtesy of Charlie G.
We have caracaras and finches flying around in southwest USA; however, here was a Chimango caracara and a diuca finch. I’ll see them often.
Chimango caracara
Diurca finch
We hopped a raft and saw birds on a rocky island offshore from the Chilean coast. My first time seeing a flightless steamer duck, 2 more types of penguins, and a kelp goose.
Flightless steamer duck
Humboldt penguins
MagellanicPenguin
Kelp goose
I already knew of 2 types of cormorants and now I was to learn of 2 more … Guanay cormorant and a red-legged cormorant.
Guanay cormorant
Red-legged cormorant
It’s interesting when you get other people noticing birds and they are sharing their observations with you. Many times it happened; however, two in particular stick out for me. A fellow traveler was eating breakfast and noticed a bird out the window. She shares the information with me so I went to look at the bird. Realizing I had never seen this bird before, I took a quick photo and we used Merlin Bird ID app to identify it as a rufous-tailed plant cutter:
Rufous-tailed plantcutter
My trip guide knew I was a birder. He would often ask about a bird as he learned with some of my identifications. One morning I got a text about his observation of a woodpecker. Off I went and found the bird in a slightly different location. This beautiful Magellanic woodpecker was an arm’s length away from me when I crept up to get this photo:
Magellanic woodpecker
Amazing bird sightings for a trip that was not a birding trip! I loved Chile. The pace of life was calming, especially on Rapa Nui and Chiloé Island. I loved the fact drivers of vehicles would stop whenever one stepped onto the road. At times they even flashed their lights ahead of the fact so you knew they were stopping. The fish and wine were delicious, even the Pisco sour! Of course the mountains in Torres del Paine were wonderful to see and I wished we could have even done more hiking … yet without a 40 plus mph wind, if that was possible. Maybe not, as it is Patagonia! Visit Chile if you ever get an opportunity!
The next day we drove to Iguazú National Park to see the falls from the Argentinian side. Tourists are efficiently moved from one station to another on a single gauge railroad train. We hopped out to walk the Superior Trail. Later I walked the Inferior Trail while others took the boat ride into the mist of the falls.
There are 275 waterfalls within Iguazú Falls.A small part of Iguazú Falls with rainbow!Boat ride to the fallsIn the mist!
Our early arrival at the park allowed us easy viewing of the falls. In the area were coatis that look like cute animals, but they are not! These animals jumped on bags and tables wherever they smelled a snack or saw food! Warning signs were posted. These animals really wrecked a family’s picnic lunch!
Coatis… watch out!
I saw an unusual reptile which I first thought was a Gila monster. It was not. A black-and-white tegu just happened to be at the side of the trail:
Tegu
I wish everyone a happy new year as I return to my usual twice a week blog posts and enjoy time at home! May 2026 see you with good health and happiness! Namaste!
We left Torres del Paine National Park, Chile to drive to El Calafate, Argentina, but first I must share a photo of the view we saw when leaving the park!
Waving goodbye to park and rainbow!
It was a beautiful end to our park visit! We had quick border crossings at Chile and then Argentina and arrived along the bank of Argentina Lake at the town of Calafate. So, 12 years ago there was a population of about 5 thousand people. Now, 30 thousand! The town thrives on tourism! It looked so different to me since my last visit!
Our group visited a local estancia/Patagonian ranch to learn about the gaucho lifestyle. Our host talked of his family’s history on this ranch where he grew up, demonstrated the sheep herding routine with his dog and hand-shearing of sheep. While this happened, the BBQ fire was cooking the lamb we would eat a couple of hours later.
As he talked, he drank mate, from a gourd with a filtered, metal straw. Mate contains antioxidants and is a social ritual in this country.Lamb BBQ cookingLamb with vegetables served at our lunch at the ranch.We learned and tried to throw the bola. It is a weapon to entangle the legs of the animal you need to get. Quite a challenge throwing the bola with any accuracy and distance.At the ranch sheep area.
Back at Calafate, a couple of my fellow travelers joined me on a birding hike. The wind was constantly blowing so it was impossible to use Merlin ID for sound recordings. Fortunately I had my camera to photograph many. Of the 22 birds species we saw at Laguna Nimez Reserve, 11 were new birds for my life list. I’ll have a blog posts simply on birds another time.
Entrance to trail. A NGO has helped protect this lake frontage from wild dogs for the last 12 years. As we looked beyond the fencing, 2 dogs were wanting to get at the birds within.Important protecting this area for birds!
The mountain-lover in me was thrilled to see these mountains Torres del Paine National Park with its 3 granite peaks, “blue towers”, was fantastic! So many travelers do not see the towers because clouds stop their view. All of our days at the national parks we skirted away from rain and were so fortunate. The wind however was another story!
Torres del Paine National Park
I remember Patagonia with wind. While hiking on 3 different trails, we experienced many levels of wind in our face and at our back, pushing us every which way at times. One day we had a hike and it was beautiful scenery with wind. The next day we had a hike to Salto Grande, a glacier-blue green waterfall, and we had less wind, but still wind.
Another hike we saw Grey Glacier and the wind was a monster!! We hiked down to the beach, yes with wind. Hiked across the beach with wind at our back and pushing me sideways at times. A fellow traveler grabbed me at one moment while I was going sideways. We then hiked a rocky trail to its end. Now to hike back, the beach part was the worst! Forty-one mph winds slamming our body! Even when without those gusts, the wind was constant and at us. My body was warm and air temperature was okay, but the wind made it cooler. It was then I doubled up on my hat as the wind made the air colder on my head. My mountain windbreaker jacket was perfect and we got nice, varied views of the glacier. Between the 2 days with 3 hikes, I think we did about 12 miles total. As I sit and write this, the wind is still blowing and I think it gets stronger as the day goes on.
Grey Glacier in the distance. Guide measured 41 mph wind speed.
Torres del Paine National Park was established in 1959 and is an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. We did see guanacos and on our way to the park we saw Andean condors. We stayed at Grey Hotel which has comfortable rooms, nice dining area, bar and small gift shop. WiFi is at the reception area and not consistent in rooms. But rooms do have nice hot showers!
There are hikes and the “W” and “O” were most talked about as they are multi-day hikes to huts or tenting along the way. The “O” circuit was the trail where people lost their lives. They were in backcountry and were hit with sudden snow storm and winds at 70mph at least from what I understand. It was hard enough on a good weather day for me to maneuver in 40 mph wind. I cannot imagine how disorienting it would be with higher winds and snow!
I saw a beautiful bird here. It was within an arm’s length of me.
Magellanic woodpecker
I am so happy to have finally visited this national park. We had flown from Puerto Varas to Punta Arenas and drove hours to get here, but worth it! Why have I not thought ahead and continued this trip to Antarctica? I guess it will be Mendoza, Argentina, Atacama Desert in Chile and onto Antarctica the next time I head to South America. Although a fellow traveler told be of a place to visit in Bolivia … wow! So many places to experience and people to interact with as I learn about their culture.
Next we drive from Chile to Argentina across the Patagonian steppe. I am visiting El Calafate, Argentina again. I wonder how it has changed since I was last there in 2013? Will write again in a couple of days.
I love mountains!
Update: I just heard 2 of three trails our group hiked have been closed by the national park because winds are over 60 mph. We truly are weather-fortunate!!
After an hour’s drive from Puerto Varas, we took a ferry to Chiloé Island. It actually is an archipelago of 40 islands many miles south on the west coast of Chile. We headed to Castro, the major town in the middle of the 19 mile long island. The controversial bridge being built, since the 1970’s, is still not completely built. Locals seem to not want the bridge as they fear it will change the island vibe.
Everything operates on “island time” here, meaning nothing is rushed. Whether waiting for service or talking with a local, all will be accomplished eventually. It was a change of pace I enjoyed.
It was great seeing birds at Puñihuil Wildlife Reserve. To get closer to the reserve, were carted off to a boat in the water. Never got our feet wet! From there we boated near some rocky islands to view Humboldt and Magellanic penguins! We saw many other birds, plus a sea lion and 3 otters!
Notice the stand they pushed us out to the boat on!Humboldt penguinsSleepy sea lion!
We stopped at a market and saw some HUGE, truly huge garlic … size of my 2 fists! Eventually we got to the town of Castro and our hotel. Beautiful view of the bay, part of the Pacific Ocean, and in the distance we can see some houses on stilts.
