Patagonia

Wow. I understand why there is an entire brand named after this place. After much hassle of making and breaking plans (what else is new!), we finally decided on how we would get there. Rather than spend a few hundred on a 28 hour bus ride down Route 40, we decided to spend a few hundred on a 3 hour flight. Good idea we think. So we headed straight to Buenos Aires from Mendoza on an overnight bus, spent about a week in BA (will blog about BA later), then hopped the flight to El Calafate in southern Patagonia. Lets just get it out of the way, El Calafate sucks. It is stupidly overpriced. But its certainly not the town that draws you here so it doesn't quite matter.  Eighty km outside El Calafate is what really counts.  We took an early morning bus to Glacier Perito Moreno (one of 3 Patagonia glaciers that are not retreating) and were thoroughly amazed. The bus finally rounded the corner giving us our first glance at the amazing glacier and we really couldn't believe our eyes. Perito Moreno is gigantic- 30km long, 5km wide and 170m deep! We faced the advancing edge of the glacier so had incredible views of calving icebergs and could see the glacier for miles into the horizon, without being able to see the other side due to the sheer size of it. At the calving edge, the glacier stood 60 meters above Lago Argentino, which was a beautiful milky turquoise color. Each iceberg that broke off, no matter how small, caused really loud cracking and creaking noises. We spent all day staring at the glacier from all different angles, trying to guess which piece would break off next. Some of the icebergs were huge, like the size of a large car. And in the sun, the glacier reflected a deep shade of blue allowing for some pretty amazing photos. Check them out. From faraway, I swore the top of the glacier looked like a fancy cake full of white icing. Perito Moreno was pretty amazing. May I suggest you visit for yourselves? And when you do, please bring us. Oh, and there's a hole in the ozone over Patagonia, during Patagonia summer, so wear, and reapply that sunscreen.

Our second and third days in Patagonia were spent at the lagoon and at Lago Argentino, both a 20 minute walk outside of town. Again, both were simply amazing. As usual, we aquired a dog freind to walk with us and hang by our sides all day. The lagoon was full of gorgeous daisies and a reddish colored wheat grass that we have about a million pictures of. The water was such a deep shade of blue and glistened in the sun in such a way that can't be described. This of course contrasted the turquoise blue of the waer in the lake. The lagoon was home to flamingos(!!!) and the lake was home to ice bergs that had made their way all the way from the glacier. Normally you wouldn't consider flamingos and ice bergs in the same body of water, but it happens here. I can't really describe the beauty of this place very well, so I won't. Click the photos link, then the Patagonia album and let the pictures do the describing for you. Enjoy! Love, P & M