Tag Archives: CPCD

Here are a couple CPCDs from Hosteria Lago Pehoe, our home base in Patagonian Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. By now, everyone should know what a CPCD is. If not, here’s your explanation.

The first CPCD is from the hotel itself while the second is from above looking down on it and the island upon which it sits. To say this location has a great view is to do an injustice to the very phrase. It’s impossibly beautiful.

Now as many of you may know, I’ve been in Patagonia for the past couple of weeks, this time with my new friends from Sydney, Australia: Lucie, Ian, and Sue. They have hired me to guide them to the best locations for 10 days as a mere warm up for the next 19 days they’ll be spending on a photography cruise to Antarctica – the lucky bastards. You see, I’ve also learned a few things from them as well. For example, bastard is a term of endearment in Australia, as well as the universally-recognized insult. Who knew? I personally love the ambiguity of the dual meanings.

I also learned about seppos, bogans, dunnies and other colorful Australian lingo unique to the land Down Under. Then there’s the quirky linguistic tradition of rhyming slang as in, “I think I’ll head to the rubbity tonight to get meself bloody pissed.” Rubbity is short for rub a dub dub three men in a tub which rhymes with pub. Yeah I know, I don’t get it either, but it was great fun having them try to explain it to me.

On the last day of the tour, I recalled something they told me earlier in the week, that if anything happened to one of them – illness, severe injury, death – that I should take their place on the subsequent Antarctic cruise. At that very moment, Ian was negotiating some awfully sketchy rocks above Salto Grande, a powerful waterfall not far from Lago Pehoe. Now I wasn’t wishing any unfortunate luck on him at that moment since a few missteps and fall could have meant a not-too-pleasant death. Still, I would have taken his place on the cruise nonetheless. Sure, I would have felt bad about it and I would explore the magic of Antarctica with a few tears and a heavy heart. But it would have been the right thing to do. After all, he’s a real photographer through and through and I know the bastard would have wanted it that way.

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It’s still not too late to join us on your annual Ultimate Patagonia Workshop and Tour on March 18-27.