Partaking in Patagonia

So, we eventually made it to the tip of South America. After over 100 hours in busses (we´re still tallying up the total, Argentina lies ahead) our asses needed some walking. We went to the southern-most city on the continent, Punta Arenas, to see a penguin colony. From there... treks in Torres del Paine (Chile) and Glacier National Park (Argentina). It is COLD down here, and suppsedly summer. We trekked a total of 200 miles all told, and saw maybe a grand total of 12 hours of sunny skies. Mostly we shivered in freezing rain, snow, 100mph wind gusts, and cloudiness. Walking was our savior, nothing like some body heat to keep the icy grip of a Patgonian summer at bay. I have to admit, Colorado winters are more agreeable than Patagonian summers.

Despite (or maybe partly because of) the weather, our adventures were of course top-rate. Patagonia in one word can be described as BLUE. It is an exquisite glacial/alpine/forest/dry plains environment with amazing diversity within compact zones. For a relatively small area (the mountain uplifts are like islands in flat plains), there exists a multitude of microclimates and ecostysems. That was probably the coolest part, within a 4-hour walking day one can experience all four seasons and various types of ecosystems. It changes fast and abruptly.

Between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes down here lies the Southern Ice Field, the largest expanse of landice and glaciers outside of Antarctica, formed by moist Pacific air and cold temperatures. Brian was in glacial heaven. The water is still potable, you can dip your bottle right in the stream and drink up, as it comes directly from close-by glaciers (as long as you don´t think too hard about the climbers up above peeing and pooping near their snow caves on the glacier above). No, really, it´s potable. Given that our guts now have resistance to almost any foreign attack (we suffered a lot to acquire this ablility!!), we drank without a worry. Hmmmm....so far so good!


Isla Magdalena in Punta Arenas where the penguins live.

There is no zoom here, yup, you can theoretically touch them they are so close. They don´t seem peeved at all by human presence. There is a walkway where visitors are supposed to stay, so it´s not so harmfull to the little guys as far as I can tell. They just stare at you in this cute way with tilted heads and then go about their business.

The island has something like 160,000 penguins on it.

The start of the circuit trek in Torres del Paine.

Wild daisies. Karen, it made me think of YOU!

First view of the Glacier Gray at the top of a pass on the Torres del Paine circuit trek. Brrrr.

Glacier Gray in Torres del Paine. After reaching the pass, you walk alongside the glacier for hours. It´s three miles wide and spectacluar.

Glacier Gray unloading into Lago Gray.

Didn´t I say BLUE?? And windy?

The infamous Cuernos in Torres del Paine. The black is sedimentary rock that has yet to erode on top of the granite.

Cerro Torre (the pointy one), one of the hardest peaks to climb in the world. Only a handfull of people have ever made it, and only about 20 people try every year. It has as 10% death rate. Fun.

Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy). The bank of clouds behind it are comming from the Southern Ice Field just behind the mountain. The wind is constant here and you are lucky if you can see this peak for just a few hours a week. We got lucky.

The vast expanse of the Argentine pampa. The Chaltén (Fitz Roy) and Cerro Torre peaks rise up abruptly out of this plain.

Glacier Perrito Moreno in Argentina. It is constantly cracking and cleaving off; you can get a feel for it´s size by closing your eyes and just listening.

Brian´s preppy-trekker hybrid look. I don´t know why Gucci hsan´t found him yet!