Big Ice, Leche de Glaciar

During our Patagonia trip, Annie and I visited many big glaciers, all part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. The streams, rivers and lakes of Patagonia are filled with pure, azure glacial runoff. You can stick your head right in lake and start drinking. Locally, they refer to the milky blue glacial water as "leche de glaciar" or milk of the glacier, due to its milk appearance. It looks this way due to the high mineral content in the melted runoff.

In this image, Annie is hiking down the valley to the Cerro Torre glacier, where we did a trek on the ice with crampons. We hiked about 3.5 steep hours and crossed one river via Tyrolean traverse and balanced on boulders to cross another, before arriving at the glacier. It was a 12 hour day, followed by about 12 cold cervezas.

And ... here's Annie, getting ready to attack the ice, complete with crampons

This is our guide, Diego, trying to stay dry on a river traverse. The guides enjoy dunking each other on this traverse by pulling the line up and down as someone attempts to cross. It was Diego's birthday on this day, so it seemed appropriate that he should get wet. I'm sure it was all very safe and calculated ...


This is a shot of the Perito Moreno glacier, which puts on a show 24/7 for spectators, dropping thousands of tons of ice into the lake for onlookers. This photos doesn't do it justice, the wall is 80 feet high, towering over a lake filled with ice bergs. When chunks come crashing down, the valley thunders and waves of whitewater rip across the lake.

Patagonian sunrises

This is the old Refugio Pehoe on Lago Pehoe; it's now a park ranger station. I took this photo on February 14, Valentine's day, early in the morning. We'd hiked under gray skies and drizzle for about 10 hours the previous day, so wakening to blue skies was a big treat.

I caught this sunrise near our campsite in the Mt. Fitzroy region, near El Chalten, Argentina. This was literally the view out our tent door. As usual, Fitzroy was acting a bit camera shy.

This is the legendary Torres del Paine, the Towers of Paine, and the namesake of the Chilean national park. While the towers are impressive, I've always found the Cuernos del Paine, much more dramatic peaks, with their starkly constrasting black and white granite.

Anyhow, we left camp in darkness, rain and snow at 4:30 am for the opportunity to see the light show on the Torres, however they were being camera shy. This is one of the clearest shots I was able to capture on that morning. It was an amazing moment as we stood for an hour in horizontal snow, hoping for the summit to clear. The entire valley was aglow with red and orange.

Flamingos at Laguna de Nime

We flew from Ushuaia to El Calafate this morning and went for a little walk at a nearby wildlife preserve at Laguna Nime. There were birds of every color, shape and size enjoying the waters at the edge of Lago Argentina. We got fairly close to a flock of flamingos before they burst into the air, bright pink and black wings against the bluest waters. The photo doesn't do them much justice. I'm quickly learning that this place is far beyond any photo--impossible to capture in two dimensions.

El fin del mundo, Ushuaia

I had my first sips of mate on Friday while exploring the Beagle Channel on a small boat Friday afternoon. Despite clouds and drizzly weather, we opted to take our chances and see what we could. We hopped on the "Che" con Capitan Leo for a four-hour tour. We had a great time, saw plenty of Sea Lions and comorants. Our crew was big fans of Manu Chao, so we rocked out for awhile, sipping hefeweizen on tap and enjoying the wet (and surprisingly wind-less) weather.

On Saturday we explored Tierra del Fuego national park and hiked about 8 miles through beautiful forests along the beaches of the Bahia de Lapatia. The area was stunning, thick forests running all the way to the cobalt blue waters and surrounded by massive peaks.

Mas tango y La Boca

Here are a few more shots from the La Boca barrio we visited on Wednesday. More of the tango dancers and a few shots of this colorful neighborhood. We've been eating up a storm so far on this trip, so we're looking forward to some outdoor activity once we head wayyyy south tomorrow to cooler temps in Ushuia.

If you're interested in dining details, check out Annie's words and photos on all the yummy food at patagoniawino.blogspot.com ... Gotta go eat ... Ciao, ciao

Tango en La Boca

We endured several deadly cab rides across Buenos Aires today for a few hours strolling the vibrant alleys of La Boca. Street tango, a rainbow of corrugated aluminum and empenadas were on the menu.

Chillin in the heat: Buenos Aires

We arrived in BA this morning and promptly made our way to the pool at the Home Hotel in Palermo Viejo. The neighborhood is gushing with the signature porteno chic flavor we were looking for--plenty of world class dining and drinking, modern and classic architecture and Argentine hospitality.

The pool and courtyard was a great spot to relax and enjoy a few Quilmes (Argentine cerveza), while we waited for our room to be prepped. After a few hours of semi-lucid relaxation, we visited the Lobby Vinoteca for a few glasses of vino tinto and a four-course lunch. Mmmmmmm. Then a four-hour siesta ....