Reaching for the sky!

On Thursday, we went for climbing to a place about an hour away from the Parque Nacional El Leoncito.  As we drove into the silent canyon, we got blown away by the stunning view of towering red, sand stone pillars. The scale of the rocks around us was unimaginable! 

We parked by the refuge, walked along for a bit to find....nothing. This got us a bit worried that we are in the wrong place but Dan then found that the routes we were hoping to climb were just around the corner.

We started with a route called Puma, which my dad leaded and I seconded. It was harder than it looked at the beginning but then got easier because then became a gentler slope. I can tell you that much though: for my first South American climb, it was an incredibly fun climb! Ismene and Ioanna followed on and climbed it as well.

Dan, Ismene and I also did a second climb which was easier to start but had a bit of a sting in the tail at the end. So basically, more like a Wasp rather than a Puma :)

In our last evening, we went to one of the observatories in the national park. Unfortunately, it was closed because it was cloudy that day. It was a huge disappointment because we had all been looking forward to it especially given the stars we've been enjoying every night since we arrived.

We did, however, visit another observatory in the morning which was also inside the national park. This observatory had the biggest telescope in Argentina.

We didn't get to see the sun but it was an amazing experience to see inside an observatory and get a feel of what astronomers do. 

Off for a long day's driving now to see the dinosaurs in Ischigualasto National Park...

PS. The other really cool thing that we did last night was setting up Ismene's camera trap (a birthday gift for her 7th birthday). You will not believe it but we actually caught on camera two animals. We think the first one is a Mara (a big hopping rodent) and the second one we think could be a dog, but we think it was an Argentinian Grey Fox. Decide for yourselves after you watch the videos.