Reet Cronk is teaching at Harding University in Latin America this semester. She will be sharing about her experience traveling with HULA in a series of posts.
When one thinks about Latin America, the images of white sand beaches in the resorts of Mexico might come to mind, or maybe the images of a third world impoverished city—but for us “HULA”gans, we now have a completely new and different collection of images that we associate with Latin America. We now picture the iconic mountains of Torres Del Paine (Chile’s national park), the glaciers and pebbled shore line of the Grey Lake in the Patagonia or the amazingly vast and different ecosystems.
The climb up the Mirador Condor, “the lookout” in Patagonia, perfectly encapsulated everything beautiful about the Patagonia. When we climbed up, everybody was at a different level of speed and fitness, and yet, when we all reached the top as a group, it was well worth staying together. We all got to witness the breathtaking view at the same time. The view from the top made it possible for us to fully assess what it is we were really looking at. From this perspective, one could appreciate the layers of the Patagonia—the top layer is comprised of magnificent and untouchable snow-capped-mountains, the middle layer (where we were standing) of hills and mounds and the bottom layer, the swirling waters of the waterfalls and the swiftly moving rapids, all giving way to the calm lakes beneath us. In this place, at this time, it was impossible not to have your breath taken away — a recurring theme in the Patagonia.
Each day while we were in the Patagonia — n Chile or Argentina — we experienced something different. Whether it was the mountains, beaches, waterfalls, or the penguins, llamas or guanacos — each person here now has a new memory and perspective to carry with us. I’ve heard it said that the best journeys answer questions you didn’t even think to ask—and ours has just begun.
