Patagonian Journey Begins

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  El Calafate, Argentina
Friday, January 13, 2006

A short flight from Ushuaia into El Calafate, a town of 12,000 people and 5,000 touristas. We immediately dropped our gear and headed out to the West to hike Torres del Paine National Park, and see the famous Moreno glacier.

We took a 90 minute bus ride into the mountains, heading upland into the National Park. The dusty landscape gave way to Beech forest of twisted and bent trees shaped by the wind that roars down from the mountains. The mountains towered above and as wel ascended the glacier became visible. When we finally stopped at the shores of lago Moreno, we set out along the mountainside trail for a 60 minute hike to the galcier front.

The Moreno glacier is famous for moving at a brisk 2.5 metres per day. Over the course of several years, the glacier will advance into the lake and cut it into 2, with a giant ice dam being formed between the lake halves. As the meltwater collects in the upper half of the lake, the pressure builds until the water forces open the ice dam with massive force.

I have some excellent photos of the glacier, which claves every few minutes. The movement of the glacier and the cracking and shearing of the oce thunders off the valley walls, and reminds me of those summertime thunderstorms that we get in Windsor, where the thunder rolls along slowly and builds to a crashing sound.

We stayed for about an hour at the glacier face watching as chunks of the glacier fell into the lake, sending waves up onto shore.

We continued on foot through the valley and into the beech forest, making our way up the cliff face and back around to the southern lake (lago).

01 - El Calafate

Here, we boarded a ferry that took us up to the glacier edge. I have some more excellent photos of the glacier from up close, with its towering ridges and peaks coming into perspective. Also, the feshly exposes ice glows an amazing shade of blue. I have some shots of that also, as it seems completely unreal.

We ended the day back in El Calafate, with an early start the morning of the 14th.

One post script for El Calafate....on my walkabout of the town (which is full of great bars and restaurants blaring music, people eating at sidewalk cafes, etc), I managed to pick up a stray puppy. I made the mistake of petting it and feeding it a bit of my granola bar. The puppy followed me across town, and wouldn´t leave my side. I finally had to turn around and go all the way back to where I found it. It wouldnt stay behind, so I pawned it off on some unsuspecting Swedish tourists. We nicknamed the dog ¨´Pepito´and he has become our official mascot for this leg of the tour.

So far, the laundry pile is getting pretty high, and pretty stinky. We were compelled to leave half our provisions behind in Ushuaia as we could only bring what we could carry on our backs. So, I have a 5 day supply of underwear, socks and shirts, and considerably less of everything else. Let´s hope this gets us through to the laundry on day 5 of the Patagonia leg!!

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02 - Mountains behind El calafate	03 - Azure lake at El Calafate	04 - Wetlands, El Calafate	05 - A Tasteful Christmas Display
06 - The road west to Glacier National Park	07 - Distant Mountains, Glacier National Park	08 - Condor overlooking the highway	09 - Moreno Glacier
10 - Blue Ice, Moreno Glacier	11 - Moreno Glacier Face	12 - View of Moreno from Above	13 - Forest Descent
14 - Me, at Moreno	15 - Splash!	16 - The group treks onward	17 - Up close with the Glacier Face
18 - Scoured rocks	19 - The Glacier up close	20 - Another up-close from Moreno Glacier

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