What a Big Hunk... of Ice!

After our wonderful hike in Torres del Paine, we crossed the border to the Argentinean side of Patagonia and went to El Calafate, which is a jumping off point for outdoor adventures for Glacier National Park. Just one hour from town is the Perito Moreno Glacier. When we got there the weather wasn't the best, to say the least! Here's a look:

Snow, wind, cold and Chad at Perito Moreno Glacier from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

Here's an panoramic video of the glacier (thank you, Wikipedia):


And a home video:

That's one big ice cube! Perito Moreno Glacier from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

This is a view of the glacier from the visitor's center:

(Many thanks to Wikipedia for the great photo!)The park is great because you can view the glacier from a peninsula opposite it on boardwalks that have benches to stop and watch.

The weather cleared up for a while and we were able to take some better photos.

Here's one side of the glacier, you can see a boat to give you a perspective how big the glacier is:

The glacier is huge- 19 miles long and averages 3 miles wide. It's almost 100 square miles in all, and it's also 558 feet deep!

Not only is it huge, but it's incredibly beautiful. Here's a close up of the glacier ice. Photos really don't do it justice. The variety and intensity of the shades of blue are breathtaking. Looking into the cracks of the glacier reminded me gazing into a campfire with its glowing colors at the heart.

Looking at the glacier is superb as it is, but another wonder is to see and hear it move. Most of the glaciers in Patagonia are receding, but this is one of 3 that's advancing. Perito Moreno is constantly moving and big chunks of the glacier calve into the Argentina River below, creating a loud thundering noise and huge waves.

Sometimes the glacier advances to the land and forms a dam. The pressure builds up and eventually breaks through. It ruptures every 4 to 5 years. We only saw pieces fall, but someone caught the rupture from 2006 on video:


Wow!

We didn't see any calving of that grandeur, but we did see quite a few chunks crash into the river in the 4 hours we were there.

Here's a picture of the same area from the video when we were there. It ruptured again last year, but you can see that the glacier has moved quite a bit since the was taken in 2006.

The word "awesome" is often overused but you can't help but feeling in awe watching the Perito Moreno glacier.

Towering Peaks, Long Hikes, and Wily Foxes ... Torres Del Paine NP, Chile

When you have a dream to do something, it helps to make a dreamboard with images of what you want. For over a year prior to our trip, we described to each other where we were going to be seated on the plane on the way to Spain and South America and how we would feel. We've also had a picture of a backpacking tour of Patagonia (the southern part of Chile and Argentina) that we've looked at many times daily. (Some of you might have seen it yourselves on a pit stop at our place.) Alas, our dreams were realized. We sat in the plane seats we visualized, and here we were in Patagonia! The first stop on our backpacking adventure was Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.

We made the necessary preparations in Puerto Natales (the nearest town to the park): We rented a tent, bought a bus ticket to the entrance to the park, and prepared our meals. Chad is a huge fan of peanut butter and jelly, and he was so excited to find peanut butter at the supermarket that he went a bit overboard with the sandwiches he prepared:

Yes, those are ALL PB&J sandwiches! Needless to say, we ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly and too much bread and cheese (since we didn't take a camping stove).

We planned to hike the "W," which is the shape of the route, in either four or five days, depending on how we felt. Our route was from east to west (3 - 2 - 1).


We started with a hike to the most famous vista in the park, los Torres (the towers), on the first day. It was a day of hiking uphill. Chad made a video as we climbed up the trail.



Up, up to visit the Torres from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

The background noise is the wind, which was a constant companion through our tour of Patagonia. On our last day, in fact, we felt gusts up to 40mph.

In the park there are refugios (shelters), like the one in the picture below, located at various points along the trails. The rooms in the refugios are bunk style and are booked months in advance. They also have hot meals and refreshments, which is most welcome for hikers coming off the sometimes windy and cold trail.

We didn't like the rigid schedule that months of forward planning would require, so we chose the mostly free tent campsites where we could eat our petrified peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ("Yummmmmm" ~ Chad)

These are the famous "Torres".

We were rewarded with this amazing vista after our final climb.

We found a comfy rock, chilled, and soaked in the splendor. We stayed until the sun set over the top of the peaks. We were practically the last ones there - in total silence in our sanctuary.

After sunset we walked back down to our campsite, ate dinner of leftover pizza (oh yeah!), and fell asleep early.

Day 2 was a little chilly starting off. Kari "mountain woman" Carson, her nickname for the trip by Chad, is shown here crossing one of the many streams in the park.

Day 2 was more relaxed, flat hiking than Day 1. The park is filled with gorgous glacier lakes. Some are the turquoise-blue (typically closer to the glaciers), some are jade-green, and others, like the one below, are crystal clear and create perfect reflections of the mountains and skies above.

With the strong winds of the area, amazing varieties of cloud formations are created. We took pictures of a few of our favorites.

"The Flying Dragon"

"The Thoughts of a Mountain"

Day 2 was also our first sighting of the other famous peaks, "Los Cuernos" or "The Horns". Chad is translating the name for everyone below:

This was another view of the Horns we skirted all day. They look different from every angle.

The Horns again, with the setting sun hitting them from the west.

Day three was our climb up the middle of "The W", if you're keeping track on our map above. This part of the trail was called "Valle del Frances" or Valley of the French. Chad was looking for all of the French people along the way, but all we saw were a few Germans and a couple of Americans. Go figure.

This picture below was at the start of the climb. The peak is called Paine Grande, and the white parts are big glaciers that thundered the entire night before as ice and snow crashed down the mountain in avalanches. It was a thrilling sound and sight.

The wind in this valley was particularly strong. Do you have a guess as to which direction the wind blows from?? Poor little trees.

In this video you can get an even better feel for the wind in the valley:

Wind in Patagonia - Torres del Paine National Park from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

At the top of the valley we had more stunning views, this time of the back side of the Torres we saw yesterday.


We also got to walk in snow. Here's Chad's big snow shoes, oops ... I mean feet, while taking a rest.

Hiking back down the Valley of the French

19 Mile Day! Day 3 turned out to be a lot longer than we orignally planned. By the end of the day we had hiked about 19 miles (we still can't explain why we kept walking)! Much of the 2nd half of the day was in drizzling, soaking rain as well. We left in the morning at 8AM and arrived at Refugio Grey - near the Glacier in the picture below - at 8:30 p.m.! Our feet and bodies were sore!

We ate a well earned hot meal at the refugio, and returned to our tent to crash.

Glacier Grey and Lake Gray - the site of our night 3 campsite.

Thanksgiving Day and the Feast of the Fox:

We're showing you the picture below to give you a little idea of some of the food we lugged around in our packs all over Torres Del Paine. We knew that we'd be celebrating Thanksgiving Day somewhere in the park, so since we couldn't haul a turkey around - the dried sausage and cheese was the next best luxury. You also of course remember our multitude of PB&J sandwiches, along with bags of trail mix, granola bars, and our prize possession: a big milk chocalate bar.

We were prepared for our Thanksgiving feast ... but our friend the fox had other plans during the eve of Thanksgiving ...

After our long 19 mile day 3 hike, we were tired and made a camping cardinal sin - we left our food outside the tent. Even so, we did leave it in Kari's backpacked, zipped and sealed.

When we awoke Thanksgiving morning Kari went outside to check on our things and discovered our backback was MISSING. She searched all over the camp site, asked other campers, but it was no where to be found. We couldn't imagine someone else stealing and having to haul it out of the wilderness.

Then we saw a glint of plastic in the woods. We followed trails of the carnage and discovered Kari's backpack - neatly unzipped - with every single bit of the food eaten (including our beloved chocolate!)

We were devastated of course, but we were relieved that Kari's bag apparently hadn't been damaged. The ranger at the campsite told us that a fox, appropriately called el ZORRO in Spanish, had been the culprit. I bought the cheapest thing I could find at the camp store - more bread and cheese, alas. Kari chewed her slightly stale bread with a sad look on her face ;)

As we packed and prepared to leave, Kari learned that the sly Zorro did leave his mark. He chewed threw one of Kari's backback straps. As this is crucial for carrying a 25 lb pack (or lighter without the food now), we wouldn't get far like that. The ranger lent us a needle and thread, and Kari stiched up her strap as well as possible.

As we walked out and left the park that day, we looked for a fat fox napping under a tree somewhere, recovering from the Thanksgiving feast of lifetime, but we only had beautiful views of glaciers, peaks, and lakes, along with a strong Patagonian tail wind to send us on our way.

What an adventure!

Bottom of the World - Punta Arenas, Chile

In one of our very first conversations we talked about traveling from Alaska to the southern tip of South America, so after spending a month and a half in Peru, we headed to south. To save a week of travel, which the trip would have been by bus, we flew to Punta Arenas, Chile. Punta Arenas felt like an old west frontier town. Located on the stormy Strait of Magellan, the town's small, rectangular buildings huddle together and hold on for dear life to save themselves from huge gusts of wind coming from the west across the Pacific Ocean. As you'd expect in this kind of environment, the people seemed to be independent and hard-working. The food, like hot, steamy seafood chowders, is warming and comforting. It reminded us a lot of Alaska.

The weather changes drastically and fast in this part of the world. The first day we woke to rainy and windy weather. We ducked into a cafe for some sweets and to catch up on things back home (thanks to a decent WiFi connection). While we were there, it snowed and the temperature dropped. Then, just as we were about to leave, the sky cleared up for us and the sun came out. We took a short walk up to a overlook with a great view of the city and of the Magellan Strait. Before the building of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s, all ships traveled through this channel of water (about 1.2 miles wide at narrowest point) when crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of South America.

Here's a vista of Punta Arenas and the Magellan Straight on the horizon:


Conditions are harsh in Patagonia, so things that actually grow in the area flourish. We saw the biggest dandelions we've ever seen in our lives. These were the first of many we saw during the rest of our travels in Patagonia.


There wasn't a lot to do in the town. Our host at the hostel recommended we visit the cemetery. Yes, another cemetery on vacation! The cemetery was different than most in the U.S. It is very common for families to build mausoleums for their family's final resting place.


There are also very colorful vaults. Family members take flowers and decorate the outside of their loved one's vault.

Punta Arenas isn't a dead city. It is alive and kicking... literally! Check out these soccer fields next to the cemetery:

There was another, more lively tourist must-do outside the city of Punta Arenas... visit the Magellanic penguin colony. We were expecting to see penguins on the ice like in the movie March of the Penguins, but these were a different kind of penguin and there was no ice.

Here are our versions of the march:

March of the Penguins from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

March of the penguins - part 2 from Chad Carson on Vimeo.

We got really close to the penguins, and in fact, some of the penguins cross the visitor trails on their way to the ocean.

It was so fun to watch them waddle around!

This one reminded Kari of an ultimate frisbee player who laid out to catch the disk. We couldn't find the disk, though, so it must have been resting.

There were many burrows in the area (about 20 per 100 square meters). An interesting thing about these penguins is that the males and females take turns incubating the eggs (on about 2 week shifts) while the other goes to find food. They have the same partner for their whole life (average is 25 years). Males return to the same burrow every year, and the female is able to find the male based on his call. Here's a picture of their burrow:

The penguins swim about 50 miles off the coast for their food, and the distance is increasing as climate changes are displacing fish populations. Here are some on the coast after dinner with their flock:

There were actually many other animals we saw at the reserve- rabbits, skunks and this flightless emu-like bird called a rhea. Chad had flashbacks of his days chasing emus around his family's farm!

After a couple of days catching up with things in Punta Arenas, we took a five hour bus ride north to Puerto Natales, which was a jumping off point to Torres del Paine National Park.