After seeing the glacier, I spent the night in a very tourist town called El Calafate, that offers little other than access to the glacier and the Fitz Roy mountain range from the town of El Chalten. My plan was to head to El Chalten for a few days of hiking before catching a flight up to Esquel in the lakes region. Over breakfast that morning, however, I started chatting with an Argentine guy about whether he had been to Chalten and if it was easy to camp (all hostels were filled). I was excited to see the Fitz Roy range [View Full Entry]

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Today I caught a bus from Puerto Natales, Chile, across the border to the Argentine town of El Calafate onto the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. The location of the glacier make it remarkably easy to see, so at any given time there are hundreds of people wandering around the 7 different levels of viewing platforms. It´s incredibly active, so for the 3 hours I was there watching the glacier, I regularly witnessed building-sized chunks of ice calve off the glacier´s 150 ft face into the water of Lago Argentino below. It periodically advances, touching the mainland, separating the lake into two. [View Full Entry]

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This past week I was occupied with an eight-day trek in the Torres del Paine National Park in southern Patagonia, Chile. Torres is known for having cold, windy, rainy weather, and it definitely lived up to its reputation. Just approaching the park the enormous peaks appear to be surrounded by swirling black clouds, I started the trek out by hiking up to the base of the Torres, a series of 3 granite peaks. I met a few Argentines on the way up, and they insisted on stopping to drink mate on the way up, so we didn´t make it to the [View Full Entry]

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Today I did a tour of the summer breeding grounds of Magellan penguins. It was about a two hour drive away and we then got aboard a zodiac to take us to the island in the middle of the Beagle Canal. Almost all of the penguins are Magallan, but there are 12 pair of Gentoo on the island as well. [View Full Entry]

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I just spent the last 3 days doing a hike called the Paso de la Oveja that goes around the mountain range behind Ushuaia, joined by Claudia (German) and Fred (French). We had wonderful weather the first day and ended up camping at Laguna Caminante, another gorgeous alpine lake. That evening some guys camping next to us invited us over to share their fire and drink yet more mate. They turned out to be a group of priests in their mid-30s from Buenos Aires—the county here is just filled with surprises. The following night my trekking book let us down, and [View Full Entry]

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The flight into Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, was amazing and gave me wonderful views of unique string bogs (see Wikipedia) from the air. My first few days were sunny with no wind and in the low 70s. I´m staying at the Southern Cross Hostel which is actually an extension of Israel, packed with 23-year olds who have just completed their military service. My first full day I decided to do a hike to the Laguna Esmeralda which gets its name from the green color of its waters. To get to the trailhead I hitched a ride with Jorge, [View Full Entry]

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Before heading down to the southernmost city in the world, I hung out in the Paris of the South, Buenos Aires, for two days. My hostel was filled with 20-year old Auzzies and Brits who kept true to the Argentine night life that starts around 2 in the morning. Walking around the streets the first day I gave myself a nice sunburn--it really didn´t occur to me to put on sun block and after winter in Wisconsin, it wasn´t such a bad feeling. Buenos Aires really is a beautiful city and I´ve found people to be quite friendly. Yesterday I walked [View Full Entry]

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Leaving in two days for a 3 month trek through Patagonia, I can't stop thinking of little things that still need to be addressed. Have I returned all my library books? What about my taxes? Will Robin kill my plants? Ah heck, none of that will matter in a short time. The most important things to focus on are /which/ 3 t'shirts to bring for this 3 month journey and whether the catfood stove will hold up under Patagonia winds. [View Full Entry]

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