Officially Fall down here.
-C
Pam & JT in Argentina, Part 2
We stayed in BA with our gracious hosts for the weekend and then bright and early on Monday morning we headed to the airport to fly to El Calafate. Once there we rented a car (Chevy – Siempre Con Vos!) and drove out the Perito Moreno Glacier. They have built an expansive steps and balcony system into the mountain around the glacier so you walk around and check out the ridiculously large piece of ice. This is one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing so chunks of ice regularly crack and fall into the glacial lake. What this means is that we would be standing there and it would be so quiet and peaceful and then we would hear a crack and try to find where it was coming from and see a huge piece of ice crash into the water, making a sound that you would never think could be made by ice and water. Probably one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen. We couldn’t react quick enough to get an action shot (not for lack of a lot of trying) but we have plenty of still pictures.
Trying to capture the full breadth of the glacier:
A couple of days before our arrival, a full arch formed by the glacier over the lake collapsed. Glaciology 101: Since the glacier is still growing this cycle repeats itself every 4 years. The glacier advances and attaches itself to land, then the water from the lake flows underneath and creates the archway. Eventually the arch becomes weak and it all collapses into the lake. This happened at 4 am like 4 days before we go there so we could still see all of the ice floating in the water.
Before:
After:
Pam and JT at the Glacier
Just missed a piece of ice falling cracking off and failing into the water, but you can still see the after effects of the crash in the water around it.
The next day we woke up early (this was standard in Patagonia) and hopped on a bus to El Chalten which is the hiking capital of Patagonia – or as the welcome sign to the town proclaims: Capital Nacional de Trekking (even JT can translate that). It is on the northern side of Los Glaciares National Park, which makes it the perfect base for a number of different hikes and climbs. We were staying there for three days and had planned on going on two day hikes and doing an ice trekking excursion on the Glacier Viedma, but as they say in all of the guide books you have to ready to change your plans on the fly because of the insanely unpredictable weather in this region of the world (seriously, look it up on map and you’ll see how far away from home we were).
El Chalten is a super small town that’s basically completely devoted to the hikers and climbers. It’s all hotels, hostels and restaurants (and friendly dogs – just don’t let them follow you onto the trails).
On our first day we hiked the Laguna Torre trail, hoping to catch a glimpse of Cerro Torre, which is one of two famous mountains in this region of Patagonia. While the weather was cooperating as far as it wasn’t pouring, the clouds in the sky were hiding all of the mountains. The mountain you can see in this picture is not Cerro Torre, its Cerro Grande. Cerro Torre is to the right behind the clouds.
On the hike a portion of the land was all burnt out from a forest fire a couple of years ago. Our guide told us that the fire was started by a cigarette butt, only burned about 30 minutes before it was put out by the rain but it will take about 250 years for the trees to fully grow back. This is apparently nothing to the forest fire that destroyed a large portion of Torres del Paine national park to the south. Only you can prevent forest fires!
The destination of this hike was the Laguna Torre, which is the glacial lake at the foot of Cerro Torre. This was the beach portion of our vacation, except in this case the beach we went to had giant ice cubes in it. You’ll notice two common themes in the below picture caused by the insanely windy conditions of El Chalten: 1. Pam’s crazy hair and 2. JT’s inflatable MC Hammer pants.
On our second day we were scheduled to go on an ice trek of the Glacier Viedma but there was one problem… well actually two, the gale force winds (literally) and the 20 foot swells in “Lake” Viedma. The lake was angry that day my friends, like Ariel when he sees pedestrians in BA that don’t clean up after their dogs on the street. The boat ride to the glacier literally felt like a scene out of the Perfect Storm. Everyone on the boat was just looking at each other thinking “is this normal” (afterwards the tour guide confirmed what everyone already assumed: No). While Pam contemplated if it was possible to swim to shore before hypothermia set in, JT took a nap. Once they cancelled the ice trek they pulled the boat up in front of the glacier to let us go outside and take pictures.
When it was JT’s turn to take a picture with the glacier the wind decided to gust and rip his sunglasses off his face and into Lago Viedma, or so he thought. After a few choice words he stomped his way back down to the cabin of the boat only find that the back of the boat had “caught” his sunglasses. This is JT happy (with sunglasses in hand):
On the boat ride back to the dock we encountered some rogue ice sculptures
Since the ice trek was cancelled we had an unexpected free day, we consulted the guide book to find another day hike (there are a bunch to choose from, and you all are well signed, so that you can navigate any of them by yourself). We decided upon the Loma del Pliegue Tumbado hike as the book said the hike offered great panoramic views on a clear day and was relatively easy. One of those two statements was absolutely correct, the other, not so much. The hike wound up being about 3+ hours of walking directly uphill through a range of different environments. It was pretty brutal but so so so very worth it in the end.
This is the view from the top. The body of water you see below is Laguna Torre, which is where we had hiked to the day before. The mountain on the right is Mt. Fitz Roy, which is the tallest mountain in Patagonia and the basis for the Patagonia brand logo (check it out). The mountain on the left is Cerro Torre, which was completely hidden by the clouds the day before.
The view from the top was amazing and ridiculous. The 360 views of the area were a mix of actual glaciers, glacier capped mountains, desert, lakes and forest. Since we will not be able to find the right words to do it justice so we’ll just show you more pictures.
This was the cow we encounter on the way up the mountain. Upon hearing her Mooooo Pam asked “Do cows like people?” Pam maintains this is and remains a reasonable question.
We celebrated completing this hike by drinking authentic Patagonian beer. For a small hiking/climbing town – there are a number of good food options in Chalten!
On our last day in Chalten we woke up early (again – pattern) and JT looked out the window of the hotel room and noticed a completely clear sky. This was good sign because that morning we were embarking on the Laguna Capri hike to seek out the best views of Mt. Fitz Roy (fun fact: Mt. Fitz Roy is named after Robert Fitzroy, who was the captain of the HMS Beagle during Darwin’s famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands).
The perfect weather on this day led to some amazing views of the mountain. Again, since a picture is worth 1,000 words (and in this case maybe more), we’re going to choose pictures over words …
And that about sums up our trip to Patagonia. We wished we could stay longer as there was so much more to see and do, but we like to think that we made the absolute most of every day there, and it was time to get back to Buenos Aires and the lovely Haendler flat and more good times with Cassie and Rel.
Back in Buenos Aires we did more of the same, very good eating and exploring the city, and taking our trip to Tigre (when you go and visit Ariel and Cassie – be sure to complement their wine rack).
Even two months later we have trouble describing how phenomenal this trip was. Not only all of the amazing sites we saw but also the experience of being there with such good friends, and having a chance to see how happy they are and how they have built a great home and life for themselves in BA. Cassie and Ariel are amazing hosts and such great tour guides, we cannot possibly thank them enough. From the days spent wandering the streets of the city, to our pingüino pool party and eating empanadas and drinking wine on the balcony, to our staying up until 5am to watch a replay of an Argentina-Japan fútbol match. Ariel blends so seamlessly into the Argentine culture it is sometimes amazing to remember he’s from Connecticut. And watching how Cassie has so embraced this experience, to hear her slip seamlessly from speaking fluent Spanish to droppin’ ya’lls was amazing beyond words. The best way to sum up our emotions would be ridiculous, jealous and incredible happiness to be able to share even just a small part of this experience with them.
We encourage all of you reading this to book your trip on TAM airlines (or any airline of your choice, but TAM had a pretty decent in-flight movie selection and some slightly offensive avatars giving the animated safety presentation in English) to BA. Whether you choose to go stay in BA, go to Patagonia, Mendoza, Uruguay or anywhere in the region – you are guaranteed a once in a lifetime experience.
We left with sad faces and two questions: Where are you going next? Or, when can we come back?
-Pam & JT
