The thing about maps is that the trails look so short on paper. I arrived in El Chalten on a blue sky day at about 6:30 in the morning after a 30 hour bus ride. After finding a hostel, I glanced at a map, picked a likely destination and started walking. Tee shirt and jeans were comfortable and the day looked great. I didn´t know much about the place... my new travel philosophy is founded on last years pre-trip Internet experience - I got so much information off the web last year that I felt I´d already been there so I never went. I knew that El Chalten was a place to hike but not much more... at the trail-head I took a digital photo of the map and headed out. Water bottle in my right ... read more

I spent 6 days hiking around El Bolson. Each night sleeping in a different refugio. Refugios are rustic buildings and the surrounding areas that function as combination campsites-dorms-restaurant-kitchen facilities and crash pads. Basically they are little communities in the wilderness populated by a couple caretakers and a daily rotation of trekkers. They are located in areas of interest along trails in the mountains - next to a lake or near a canyon or a glacier route. Each refugio has workers who greet visitors, get them registered and setup for the night. Most sell pizza or some other main meal, wine or locally brewed beer. Some have hot showers. Bread and jam are usually available for breakfast. Theoretically you can walk from refugio to refugio with nothing more than a sleeping bag staying on the floor in ... read more

I watched families walking through the penguin colony, families of humans... and I thought, what would it be like as an Argentinean kid to grow up thinking 200,000 breeding penguins are just a regular summer vacation experience. Cool... Normal vs. extraordinary, depends on your perspective and life experiences I guess. I also kept thinking of the lone wolves I´d seen scavenging empty beaches in Alaska - this place would be a banquette. You can walk up to many of these penguins and they really don´t seem to care. There are predators here, and apparently some are serious problems but I saw no sign of predation. With all the juveniles and offspring there are maybe as many as 800,000 Magellanic penguins in the Punta Tombo colony. They nest mostly in the scrubland so you... read more

Order a Ferrari, then step across the street and buy a weed whacker. This is diversity. Everything you need or want in walking distance. At home in Alaska I have to get on a small plane just to browse a bookstore or visit a bakery. In Buenos Aires it´s all here, at your toe-tips. Lets take a walk around one city block, four sides of a square - a single block on Avenue Uruguay, and a rather small one at that. The hardware store across from the Ferrari dealership has it all, we can buy a weed whacker or an ax or a drill. If we forget something that´s OK because we will pass two or three other hardware stores along the way. Turning the corner a narrow entrance-way leads to the offices and classrooms of ... read more