It’s February school vacation week, and most of our friends have been indulging in pedicures and manicures for trips to the Caribbean and Florida. We have spent the past weeks shopping for…. RAIN PANTS! And hiking boots. And sweat-free socks. But though we are not glamorous, we are happy, happy, happy because we are going to Patagonia …

We land in Buenos Aires, and the elegant Hotel Elevage has a nice triple room for me, my husband Chris, and my 16-year-old daughter Caitlin. Joy of joys, it’s ready, even though it’s morning. We try to nap, but only the teenager manages to sleep. And sleep. And sleep. Chris and I give up on her and go out into the pouring rain for a …

A driver and guide pick us up for our flight to Ushuaia. On the way, the guide says Buenos Aires has started raising the tolls during the hours when the city is most crowded, a sort of energy tax to persuade residents to take public transportation. A green behavior shaper! Unfortunately, he says, they don’t have much of a bus/train system …

During the night we travel through a passage of open water unprotected by islands, as the captain had warned us the evening before, and sure enough, the waves are high. The motion wakes us up, and we peer out our cabin windows into nothingness. We lay down and let the boat rock us back to sleep until 6 a.m. when we have to get up for Cape Horn. …

Today we are gliding through narrow passages with the islands quite close on either side of us, majestic ancient hulks of rocks slathered in green, sometimes with rivulets of water running down. Seagulls swoop around the boat. Clouds hover on top of the rocks. It rains a little and is windy. Chris, the dewy Irish-American, is out on the deck, …

The alarm rings at 6 a.m. and one word gets us up: PENGUINS! It’s our expedition to Isla Magdalena, where between 100,000 and 150,000 Magellan penguins live.

It is raining a little (don’t care: rain pants!) as we file into the zodiacs, with the island a big brown hill topped by a white steepled lighthouse. It is open water in the …

In the morning we have breakfast in the hotel’s lovely tearoom-like dining room. Historic pictures of Patagonia line the walls.

Maria, our guide for the day, whisks us out to the airport, where we pick up Nicola and Tertius from South Africa and Celine and Christophe from Switzerland. Then we head to Puerto Natales, the closest town to …

I wake up at dawn as Chris heads for the bano, and through the door I spot -- golden sunlight! I dash out of the tent to see the park’s three famous towers aglow. Mariana and Ronaldo are out in front of their dome and we all silently make crazy cheering motions for the sun.

I take a walk behind the camp and scare up 2 hares, which are so …

Today we are to go to the northeast part of the park for more wildlife viewing and a trek. Celine, instead, signs on for a 4-hour-in, 4-hour-out trek toward the towers. You apparently do it somewhat on your own, though you’re with other people who are also trekking.

We drive to a beautiful green/blue lake with flamingos, and I see one fly, …