Seed Creatures

Solar Eclipse for the llama

Gold is the sweat of the Sun

Silver is the tears of the Moon

and during a Solar Eclipse 

our ancestors to come visit us

This one is about my trip to the Patagonia earlier this month. We were lucky enough to witness a solar eclipse while surrounded by wild llama's all looking on along with us in wonder.

Opportunity often knocks twice.

Yesterday Roxane took me to  visit Pratt art school.

I was entranced by the entrance doors and had to sketch them this morning.

Last days in Santiago

A Local Church

Our waitress who was nice enough to admire my journal!

Her friend the Mosaic artist who was taking a break.

Subway riding to the Precolombian museum.

artifacts

A stop for Lunch. The man just behind Alex looks a lot like Lucas.

And here are photos of Hotel Le Reve where we spent our last night. 

Day Thirteen Lago Tamango in Cerro Castillo

Our last two days were spent at Lago Tamango over looking the Cerro Castillo mountains

 This is the place that reminded me our my childhood summer cabin at Richmond Shores, Mass.

Lake Tamago

 It rained most of the day so we walked on the country roads

Did some wash and dried it by the fire

Alex got carried away and put his underwear on top of the wood stove. It kinda sorta melted.

Here he is trying to scrap the melted parts off the top!

And now the sun came out and gave us both our wonder back.

Here is a sketch a did while looking out the window

And here is Graciela the caretaker preparing some trout that her husband caught that morning

And so after two days we flew back to Santiago for 36 hours of city time!

Day Twelve: Heading North Again

It was hard leaving the Parque. 

And the traffic was bad ass.

I would miss the lamas

But to cheer us up we picked up three delightful hitchhikers from the USA

Natalie (Washington D.C), Ellie (Mercer Island) and Lyndsey (California)

They also made it into my sketch journal!

Day Eleven: The Eclispe

10:34 in the morning on our second day, led by Pedro, a prominent astronomer, we witnessed a solar annular eclipse.  He handed out special sunblocking glasses and explained to us that the moon would briefly align between the earth and the sun. And so for a period of 30 minutes or the sun light would darken and we would feel a chill. To witness this even with fellow nature lovers in this special Parque was a highlight for me. Alex shared our binoculars and that helped to see the eclipse larger with a cast of green light. 

Gathering for the big event.

Our fearless leader Pedro

Taking a brief look with the special glasses 

Johanna is second to the left. She is the Parque manager and became a fast friend.

After the eclipse we took another hike. Shorter this time, but still spectacular

Day Ten: Parque Patagonia

We made it to Parque Patagonia

As far south as we would go during this vacation

The lap of luxury

In the valley of wilderness

We found the unbelievable comfort and kindness

And cozy rooms to read in. 

Day one was a 14.5 mile challenge.

After a steady climb, Lakes! 10 of them!!

Unusual forest trees. Almost no Pines.

A caracara bird!

The Parque Glacier

 Officially my longest hike!

We ate great that night and I felt rather plucky about the whole thing!