by Maile Bowles | Jan 24, 2019 | Misc
Hawaii is a beautiful place to be! All of the people are so nice, but the food, not so much. I’m not a big fan of sea food, so I might be the only one who doesn’t enjoy the fresh fish. Boogie Boarding is a blast! I have to admit, there was a huge wave that I was to late for, so instead of going with the wave, I went into it. I got scratched up and knocked off my board. Other than that, I’d say that I did pretty well. (Except when Alex would crash into me on purpose!) Surfing is also a nice way to enjoy this gorgeous weather. I saw a turtle while surfing which gave me a kick. I’m so sad that in two days, I’m going to go home, but I’m overly excited to see my beautiful dog, Kona, which I find kind of funny since we are in the town of Kona!🤣
by Maile Bowles | Feb 14, 2018 | Antarctica, Maile
Antarctica is beautiful. Every day, the maids would put my stuffed animals in a cute fashion on my bed. Also, we won the flag that was sailing above our boat. We got as many of the staff members that we could to sign it. We also saw MILLIONS of penguins. My favorite was the chinstrap.
by Maile Bowles | Feb 7, 2018 | Maile, South America
Cerro Fitz Roy, near El Chalten.
I thought that all the hikes we did were spiffy. My favorite part was when we hiked on the glacier, Perito Moreno. We had to wear crampons–I felt like I was wearing lead boots. My Mom thought that we would be hiking on complete ice but, wrong, no points for Mom. There were many streams of water on the glacier. My Dad said that it was like hiking on a snow cone. I saw one of the hiking trails going vertical, and with crampons on we were able to climb it. After we took the crampons off, I felt like I was walking on air! Then we went on a small little trail to get to a lookout. We were able to see huge chunks of ice fall off of the glacier.
by Maile Bowles | Feb 5, 2018 | Maile, South America
         Patagonia is a beautiful and exciting place to be. Patagonia is a huge area in the southern parts of Argentina and Chile. It has many gorgeous hikes with beautiful glaciers. One of the most famous parks in Patagonia is Torres Del Paine in southern Chile. One of the most famous hikes in the park is known as the “W”. It’s known as the “W” because if you look at a map it looks like a W because you are going up three different valleys. Our goal was to do this hike. From the moment we entered the park, we started to see new and strange animals. One of my new favorite animals is a creature called a guanaco. Guanacos are basically wild llamas. Also, there are wild horses, however, we never saw any. Pumas are another common animal in the park. The pumas hunt guanacos and rabbits.
Guanaco
Unfortunately, we didn’t see them. On our first hike in Torres Del Paine, The French Valley, we saw a gorgeous glacier with waterfalls running off it. There are many lakes up in the mountains because of the glaciers melting. On our way back, our guide, Mariana, told us that the reasons all the trees were dead was because of a fire a tourist made because he was camping in an area he wasn’t supposed to, then he tried to burn some toilet paper but the wind was so strong it caught lots of trees on fire. In the end, he was fined only $600 even though he burned 50,000 acres. Also, once we went around one hill, the wind kicked in. It was blowing me away so much, that Mariana had to grab me to keep me from going off the trail. The wind was going 30 miles per hour and the strong gusts of wind were 60 miles per hour.
Very windy on the trail.
After a long day of hiking we went and ate dinner at the Refugio, then had a nice scalding hot shower. My Mom said that it was the hottest shower she had ever had in her life. The rooms had three bunk beds that you would share with other people, but our room was just us and Mariana. I skipped the second hike because the wind was constantly going 60 miles per hour and I knew I would slow everyone else down, so I stayed inside with my Mom, who had injured her knee. The third hike was very fun. We hiked up to see the towers that gave the park its name.
Gazing at the towers.
We saw a huge glacier. We also saw many avalanches on the glaciers. It’s a normal thing for avalanches, though. The waterfalls from the glaciers formed a lake at the base of the towers. We saw two men get in the ice-cold water for a picture. We stayed at a hotel called Eco Camp. It was a collection of green domes that are used as hotel rooms. In our dome, the loft which was where Alex and I slept was burning hot. We would open the windows, but we could not open them that wide because of the wind. We had a very spiffy dome. It’s called Eco Camp because they try to be ecologically friendly. We did a lot of hiking and now I think my legs are broken.
The French Valley.
by Maile Bowles | Jan 21, 2018 | Maile, South America
I love zip lining! At my home in St. George, we have a zip line that we take down most of the year because it goes straight through our backyard. Whenever I get the option to zip line on vacation, I take it. Zip lining is the best way to see a forest in my opinion. To get to the zip lining company, we had to drive around a beautiful lake. They packed us in like sardines into a jeep and took off up the mountain driving way to fast. I didn’t like the jeep because I hit my head every time we went over a rock. My mom didn’t zip line because she is afraid of heights. Instead, she took some nice videos from the ground. I felt like I was flying through the beauty of nature. On one of the zip lines, I got hit in the face, arms, and legs with tree branches.
Flying through the trees in Bariloche.
