Off to South America!

Greetings, Stuffie Friends! It’s your favorite squirrel, Scottie! Life has been so busy here in Minnesota with spring coming and trips to the Cities, Ohio, and even South Carolina. We’ve had so many vacations that we forgot all about sharing our Spring Break adventure to Patagonia in the south of Chile.

There was limited space on the flight, so choices had to be made as to who got to go. Obviously, Amelia and I had priority, since we’re the oldest. And Amelia wanted to do some scouting to see about the possibility of expanding her airline. After that, we needed to study the geography and learn more about the trip. We learned that Spanish is the language spoken, so Ferdinand got a seat. We heard there would be mountains and a shoreline some strong winds, so we wanted to be sure we were warm enough. That meant Flambe was the natural fourth member of our team.

(Sharp eyes may have counted 5 Stuffies in that comfy carrier. Don’t worry, we’ll introduce our new friend on the next post.)

Once we arrived in Chile, we headed straight south. We quickly discovered that the closer you get to the South Pole in Spring, the colder it gets. Luckily, we found shelter from the snowstorm. And, thank goodness we had Flambe along…

We had a wonderful time at Nae Victoria, a ship museum. They had 1:1 scale replicas (that means copies) of lots of famous ships. We saw a lifeboat used to save all the men of Shackleton’s trip to the South Pole. We saw the ship Magellan sailed through the straits (a gap between land where water currents flow). He went around the world from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean right here! They even named the Strait after him.

We also saw the HMS Beagle. We wonder if it was named after a dog? Maybe Snoopy? It’s the ship Charles Darwin used to explore all kinds of places. Some of his discoveries nearby resulted in his writings on the Theory of Evolution.  

You might think this would be a boring stop where you just walk around and look at ships. But you’d be wrong. They let us climb aboard the ships and experience what life must have been hundreds of years ago on the open seas, where they could only navigate by the stars and the sun. Amelia suggested they could have just befriended some geese. It would have been a lot easier.

We actually met one of the mates below deck who was having a sip of grog and invited us to join him. We took one sniff of his bottle and said “No, thank you.” He seemed a little surprised, but grateful not to have to share.

Another ship’s highlight was the cannon on Magellan’s ship. I tried to shoot some cannonballs, but there wasn’t any gunpowder. And no amount of Flambe’s breath was enough to ignite the spark. Guess it was all for the best. We settled for shouting “BOOM!” and pretending that it scared the pirates away.

All of that work aboard ships was exhausting and being on the high seas really brings out a friend’s appetite. Luckily, Ferdinand’s nose led us a really good traditional restaurant where they had super good food. Notable was the giant hot dog with guacamole and cream… yum!

Speaking of yummy food, we found the breakfasts especially satisfying. One pastry apiece? Thanks so much! We could get used to this life.

We’ll fill you in on the rest of our trip and introduce you to the latest member of our group soon. All of these food pictures are making me hungry. Till next time!

-Scottie, Amelia, Ferdinand, and Flambe