Goodbye, Patagonia

On our last day in "real" Patagonia (technically, I think the Lakes District is considered Patagonia by the Argentinian government, probably just so they can label wine as Patagonian!), we traveled back to Punta Arenas, where we had flown in nearly a month before. Our bus made it into town with just enough time to run to the docks and catch a boat, all so we could fulfill Allison's final Patagonian wish:

PENGUINS. PENGUINS. PENGUINS.

We sat down for another (knee-agonizing) 2 hours to make it to Isla Magdalena. Totally worth it.

There are 69,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic Penguins on the island. I tried to fit them all in this picture, but some were hiding in their burrows.

A set of penguin chicks, looking very cute. They're starting to lose their gray fuzz and develop the distinctive black-and-white feathering of adult penguins.

I stared at the pengüinos, and some of them stared back.

8 January 2010

Picture of the day: sunset over Lago Nordenskjold and the Valle de Francés, a few steps from our campsite on the third night.

7 January 2010

Picture(s) of the day: Glaciar Francés, right next to our campsite the second night. We kept hearing claps of thunder every 20 minutes, and wondering what in the world it could be, since Patagonia almost never gets thunderstorms. The next day, we figured it out: avalanches! (Check out the second picture to see a nice avalanche we finally got a shot of.)

6 January 2010

Picture of the day: the mountains around the Valle de Francés.

This was the third, and most beautiful, day of the trek. We hiked up the Valle de Francés, which was stunning in a way that is hard to capture in photos. On one side was huge, Andes-like mountains with hanging glaciars. On the other side was sheer rock mountains, too steep to hold snow. It was like someone pushed together Rocky Mountain National Park and Yosemite National Park into one very small valley.

5 January 2010

Picture of the day: Glaciar Grey stretching back to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field.

We spent our first night of our trek on a beach next to this glaciar. Not surprisingly, it was a bit cold that night!

ALIVE!! (take 2)

We survived our second trek, the famous "W" in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.

And by survived, I mean barely survived. There was a nasty incident with getting very, very ill at one of the most distant points of the trail (apparently there's been a breakout of norovirus or some other similar nasty at all the campsites on trail for the past 2 weeks). However, Allison is a total champ who can hike 11 km--that's 4.5 hours!!--with a full pack to get back to civilization, even if she's been throwing up all night. We found out later that a group of 20 people had been evacuated the same night from the park to the hospital at Puerto Natales. (Wimps.)

However, most of the trek until the last day was beautiful weather, beautiful views, and wonderful hiking. We knew we were going to have a good time when we arrived at the park, got on the catamaran to get to our first trailhead, and were rewarded with this view:

Los Cuernos behind Lago Pehoé

4 January 2010

Picture(s) of the day: Glaciar Perito Moreno, one of the major glaciars feeding Lago Argentino.

While most glaciars in the world are receding, this glaciar is one of the few that is actually growing. It also is one of the fastest-moving in the world, advancing about 6 feet per day. We spent a few hours on walkways above the glaciar, watching huge pieces (i.e., the size of small buildings) of ice calve into the water.

3 January 2010

Picture of the day: a tree growing sideways after being permanently bent by the wind, on an estancia outside El Calafate.

Yes, it's seriously windy here.

2 January 2010

Picture of the day: Lago Argentino.

After hiking in El Chaltén, we returned to El Calafate, 220 kilometers southeast. Despite being a short bus ride away, the climate is completely different. While both places are quite windy, El Chaltén receives all the precipitation that falls on the Andes. El Calafate, on the other hand, is definitely in the desert-like Patagonian Steppes. It sits on Lago Argentino, the largest lake in the country. The lake is the same shade of turquoise as the water in the Florida Keys. (Not as warm, though--the color is due to the glacial melt!)

1 January 2010

Picture of the day: looking down into a glacial crevice.

Ice trekking

Because spending 3 days hauling around a 35-pound pack around the base of Fitz Roy didn't give us enough mountaineering cred, we decided to do an ice trek on our fourth day.

Obviously.

Our guide met us at the base camp at 10:00 am, and we spent the next 5 hours walking to a nearby glaciar, strapping on crampons, and walking around on the ice. It was (in Allison's opinion) totally terrifying, and also (in both of our opinions) very exhilarating.

Allison, climbing through a hole in the ice on the glaciar. Note the crampons on the feet.

We also got the chance to try our hand at ice climbing. Necessary equipment: crampons, 2 ice axes, and a good helmet. We're both actually pretty decent at it! Too bad there aren't more glaciars for us to climb in DC.

Jacob climbing the ice wall.

We then ended our day by going back to camp, packing up the tent, and hauling our gear 3 hours back to El Chaltén. After a quick shower, it was time for a fancy New Years Eve dinner, a bottle of wine, and too much champagne. I think we clearly earned it.

31 December 2009

Picture of the day: walking through the lenga forest.

29 December 2009

Picture of the day: Cerro Fitz Roy and Poincenot rising above the Lago de los Tres.

Long walk up a very big mountain, but totally worth it.

30 December 2009

Picture of the day: Lago Sucio--the bluest lake I've ever seen--with Fitz Roy in back.

The climb up to this lake was more of a rock scramble, but we were rewarded with a peaceful lake with no one else around. (We later found out that the trail to this lake has been closed for a year or two. No wonder we were all alone!)

28 December 2009

Picture of the day: the bridge over Río Electrico at the start of our trek.

ALIVE

Well, we survived our first trek in Patagonia, in the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares. (Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like: the national park of the glaciars. The park straddles the Hielo Sur, an enormous ice field that stretches for hundreds of kilometers north to south, and glaciars spill out of the ice field into lakes and streams.) It got pretty cold but we still have all our fingers and toes. We also were pretty lucky with the weather-- it was snowing (!!) when we left, which wasn't promising, but for two of the four days we had sun and clear views of the mountains. Many beautiful pictures to come over the next few days.

The trail leading to Piedra de Fraile, where we spent our first night.

Looking up the river towards Lago Electrico. If you go all the way up the valley, you can walk onto the glaciar and up onto the Hielo Sur. We saw a few people heading out with packs and sleds to spend a few days trekking on the ice--made us feel like amateurs!

27 December 2009

Picture of the day: the view of Monte Fitz Roy from El Chaltén.

After leaving Ushuaia, we had only the briefest stopover in El Calafate before coming to El Chaltén, about 180 km north. The clouds cleared briefly while we were walking to the internet cafe, letting us grab a shot of the elusive Monte Fitz Roy.

Blogmistress note: we´ll be hiking for the next four days, so don´t expect any posts for bit. Chau!

26 December 2009

Picture of the day: the beginning of the trail to Glaciar Martial, reached after walking up a ski slope (the aerosilla was closed for Christmas!).

After stuffing ourselves silly with Christmas dinner, we took a nice gentle (hah!) walk up a ski slope to a glaciar... then up on the glaciar. Yeah, we broke the rules--we're rebels like that.

25 December 2009

Picture of the day: the view of Ushuaia and Isla Hoste beyond, from the roof of the hotel where we spent our Christmas.

On our cruise, we met a lovely Australian couple (hi, Christian and Katie!) who were nice enough to invite us over for Christmas. They cooked unbelievably tasty Argentinian steaks, asparagus, potato salad... and of course, great wine. Not a bad way to spend the holiday.

24 December 2009

Picture of the day: water running through the soft soil of the peat bog.

We spent our first full day in Ushuaia trying to hike to what Lonely Planet described as a "lovely alpine glacial lake". Despite what the guide said, there was really no trail to speak of, and so instead we spent 6 hours slogging through a lovely valley... filled with peat moss.