In Argentina!

Hey everyone! We´re in El Calafate, tourist capital of Patagonian Argentina, and home to the world-famous Perito Moreno glacier. Spent the morning at the glacier, staring anxiously at it (hoping to see a big chunk or two fall off) in a miserably cold drizzle. It´s nice to be warm and dry.

Getting here has been quite the experience. We left the estancia at 5:45 Tuesday morning for Cochrane, where we caught a bus south. The bus ride, unsurprisingly, was a long (7 hour) ride on narrow dirt roads. At one point, the road dead-ended and we had to take a 40 minute ferry ride! There´s no road like this anywhere else in the Americas. It poured rain for most of the ride, so the scenery was spectular, but in a misty/ethereal kind of way.

On Wednesday, we hopped on a boat from Villa O´Higgins on a long journey into Argentina. The weather had cleared, and we had a spectacular ride to an area close to the border. Views of the southern ice field, illuminated by golden morning light were the real highlight. Arrived on the other side of the lake, unloaded most of our heaviest belongings on a horse (yes, a horse), and started walking. About 10km later, we reached the Chile/Argentina border which is demarcated by a) two highway signs welcoming you to both Chile and Argentina (depending on which direction you´re heading), and b) a metal marker that says Chile on one side and Argentina on the other. The nice road we had been following turned into a muddy horse trail at the border. Apparently, Argentina doesn´t like visitors.

After another 10km, we arrived at Lago del Desierto, where we managed to catch the ferry. The best part about this, besides for the fact that we arrived in time for the ferry and got great views of glaciers along the way, was that we were able to barter the price down, saving us about 50 bucks. I love saving money.

I´m running out of time, so time for the highlights:

Spent a few days in El Chaltén, home of Mount Fitzroy. In short, it´s a freaking unbelievable mountain chain. Cerro Torre, in particular, is an incredible, jagged spire that seems to defy gravity. Yesterday, Mack, Jon, and I woke up at 4am, hiked for 3 hours, and arrived in time to watch sun rise on the Cerro Torre and Fitzroy ranges. Words just don´t describe it--these mountains look as if someone drew them in; as if some cartoonist had received the instructions: we need a mountain chain, something really tall and spiky and covered in ice. Make it look kind of unreal.

And damn. It was unreal. A true once-in-a-lifetime experience. The pictures, unfortunately, won´t begin to do it justice.

So now, I´m in El Calafate, and we´re headed toward Torres del Paine tomorrow. Looking forward to getting away from all the tourists and doing a little more hiking.

Hope you´re all well! Missing you!
Justin