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.

Water water everywhere

Thought you were done with pictures from our cruise through the Beagle Channel and surrounding archipelago? Not so, I'm afraid. We took close to 500 pictures. (Hey, digital cameras make taking photos cheap!) Plus, we are lining up several posts so that you all are entertained while we hike around Tierra del Fuego.

The most surprising thing about the islands at the very southern tip of Patagonia has got to be the waterfalls. I had assumed we'd see glaciers and snow and ice; waterfalls, not so much. But all that snowmelt has got to go somewhere:

Several waterfalls cascading down the side of a small island.

A bigger waterfall, below a larger icefield.

A view of the ship, below a large snow field.

You know you're on a luxury ship when they serve you whiskey (or coke!) after every excursion... chilled by glacier ice, of course.