February 6, 2025

Torres del Paine National Park, Southern Patagonia, Chile

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

They call this National Park the 8th Wonder of the World  and I don't disagree! It was stunning! Lakes, glaciers, majestic peaks it was sooo hard to edit my photos down to these select beauties. Photos changed so much, depending on clouds, sun and fading light in just one spot! You'll notice a lot of burned tree pieces littering some of the landscapes. These are from a huge fire, in December 2011, that burned 70,000 hectares in the Park due to an Israeli tourist who was camping in the park and took a poop in a brown paper bag, (as one does when camping) but he decided to set it on fire in lieu of carrying it out or burying it, like your suppose too! He confessed when he saw how much damage his stupidity caused.


Besides amazing scenery there was a plethora of wildlife. The birds were the easiest to spot, and later in the day we saw a ton of guanaco (kind of like their deer). Interestingly the guanaco travel in packs - with an alpha male and several females and their babies. The young males, who want to become alpha's, travel together until they mature and come up on a pack where they want to challenge the reigning alpha. The winning male in these battles will bite the balls off the defeated male, rendering him a eunuch! Those eunuch guanaco, then travel alone and become Puma bait! We saw a couple of these

eunuch's while we were searching for the elusive pumas. All too no avail. Our guide was diligent with us, having just seen some earlier in the week with another tour group. There is a section of the park where the pumas hunt the guanaco's, it is fairly wide open with few places to hide. We searched a few hours until dusk and 3 of us even came back out at 5 a.m. to give it another look before sunrise, as the Puma are nocturnal hunters. The images at the end were our inspirations from our so called friends and the good spirited guide, who really wanted to make our trip the best!

By Pat Patrick • October 12, 2026
Just the other day a friend asked me if I got enough down time while living this lifestyle. My answer was "you have to make it !" In the beginning, it was go, go, go, every port. We had lots of FOMO ( fear of missing out ) and we tried to cram in as much as possible at every port. Sea days, were our only down time and there were never enough. It was a tad exhausting. Now two years into this life, I can say there are some ports that just don't call me and I opt to get other things done. Kuantan, Malaysia was one of the Ports. I never got off the ship, either day we were here. I intended to this morning, but we had storms with loud thunder late into the night and then was awoken by a crew alarm around 6:45am. My energy was low, there were shuttle issues, town was an hour ride away and there is alot of air pollution, ( due to neighboring Indonesia burning organic materials, in preparation for the upcoming monsoon season ). So I bagged my plans and continued working on my never ending TO DO LIST!
By Pat Patrick • October 11, 2026
During our two years of sailing we have had several Shipmates come and go for a variety of reasons. Their health, has sadly been the reason for many departures. Cindy Harvey , would have loved to have lived out her days here on the Odyssey and even bought a second cabin and had an adjoining door added, to have a care provider, stay with her full time. However, Cindy's limited mobility, pain and confinement got to be too much - so she left us a few months ago. She went to an assisted living facility, on the coast of Oregon, to be near her family. Tragically she fell, was trying to recover, slipped into a coma and sadly passed away this week.
By Pat Patrick • October 8, 2026
The Sanctuary of Truth Museum is the world's largest hand carved wooden castle, located on the coast of Pattaya, Chonburi Province, Thailand . Conceived in 1981 by Thai visionary Khun Lek Viriyaphun the structure is built entirely from 4 types of wood - Teak, Mai Daeng, Mai Takien & Mai Panchaat and put together using Thai nailless wood joinery - mainly dovetails, carrying poles and tongue & groove. We started the tour in the workshop where the artisan, mainly woman, were hard at work. Since conception, the Museum has been an active construction site, thus we all wore hardhats! The artisans continue handcarving sculptures and columns, daily and will most likely continue for years to come.