Finally! My vacation report (I've only been home for 3 weeks!):
Narrowly missing the snow storm delays out of Dulles Airport, I arrived in balmy Buenos Aires with my 3 other adventure pals. We walked around the Microcentro part of the city and had our first (of many) Argentinian steaks. The next day, we jetted off to El Calafate. We were told that Aerolinas Argentina, the airline for our internal flights, had a 33 pound weight limit for our checked in luggage and 20 pound weight limit for carry-on. Kevin found this disturbing and grumbled,”What far-flung rock are you going to that has airplanes with lawn-mower engines?” Here’s a pic of that plane—it’s got at least a couple of lawn mower engines:
From El Calafate, we drive 4.5 hours on the infamous Ruta 40 (it is famed to be a bumpy gravel road with very few travelers) to El Chalten. Instead, Ruta 40 was a recently paved, smooth asphalt highway. Nonetheless, it was our first glimpse of the vastness of Patagonia.
In El Chalten, we rest up at the charming El Pilar before setting out for 4 days of hiking and camping. Dinner was a luscious rib eye with Malbec. This steak & Malbec, lamb & Malbec, more Malbec theme repeats itself throughout the vacation. I feel like a character in a Hemingway novel.
Welcome to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares! Please leave your cat at home!
The first day started with a lovely walk through a beech forest. Then lo and behold! Mount Fitz Roy (the captain of the HMS Beagle) or Cerro Chalten (meaning “Smoking Mountain” in native Telhueche language).
And those mighty glaciers? Excellent sources of clean drinking water. Go ahead! Dip your Nalgene into any glacial stream and drink it down. Against everything I’ve ever learned/done/practiced about camping and hiking in North America, I take sip and hold back fears of Giardia and ameobic dysentery. It’s the freshest tasting water EVER! How convenient to not have to carry a water filter or iodine tablets.
A climb up to Lagos de los Tres for a lunch break brings greater rewards than a mere ham and cheese sandwich!
Every 15-30 minutes ice calves from the glacier and falls into the lake. It sounds like thunder.
I carried around 20 pounds of camera equipment---and holy cow! was it worth it!
After a 9 hours of hiking, we set down at Lago Capri. Our campsite: Our tents have been pitched, sleeping bags and pads laid out, and our cook, Fabrizio (Yes, we had a camp cook!) is making us dinner. No searching for firewood to make freeze dried beef stroganoff! This is truly luxury camping!!
All supplies brought in by your friendly neighborhood llamas. Horses are not allowed in the park because their hooves cause too much trail damage.
Other hikers tell us about puma sightings that day. At 2am that night, while I’m out peeing in the woods, I have visions of being found dead with puma teeth marks in my neck and my pants around my ankles. My hiking buddies gathered around my carcass saying,” That’s how she would’ve liked to go.”
Sunset and sunrise views of Fitz Roy and Lake Capri:
Day 2 of hiking...We set off around Lake Capri.
A great place to fill up water bottles and take a postcard picture:
Today’s hike is “easy”: a mere 8 hours to check out Cerro Torre and its glaciers:
In 1970, climbers brought a gas-powered compressor up there to drill in bolts for the ascent. The route is called the Compressor Route and it’s apparently still up there.
Second camp. An El Zorro Gris (Patagonian grey fox) strolled through looking for Clif Bars, but no pumas.
3rd day’s hike to Glaciar Grande (part of the Torre glacier). A river crossing:
When I asked the guides why no bridge has built, they answer, “We don’t want just anyone walking on the glacier!” Now I feel so priviledged!
When we get to the glacier, the rain starts coming down steadily. No problemo! Crampons on…ice climbing awaits! I’ve gone ice climbing in the ice, but never on a glacier (just frozen waterfalls). Climbing glacial ice is like climbing Styrofoam. No hammering your ice axes or crampon points into rock hard ice. Too bad there aren’t glaciers in the Adirondacks!
Around the 8th hour of this 11 hour day of hiking, my blistered feet started talking…no more like shouting expletives. On a bathroom break, my friend Terry spots the most wonderous thing of the day: a Magellanic woodpecker family. A momma, papa, and baby woodpecker all chirping back and forth to each other just yards from us. All the pain left my body! What an unforgettable experience!!
Day 4 of hiking: a 8 hour jaunt up Lomo de Pliegue Tombado. The view was worth the climb. Cerro Torre on the left with Fitz Roy in the clouds on the right. The ground is littered with fossils of shells and sea creatures from long ago. I want so badly to bring one home, but stick to the Leave No Trace. That night we drag ourselves into town, board a bus to El Calafate and sleep in real beds. Ahhh…
Perito Moreno Glacier adventures awaited us the next morning. After 4 days of hiking, a relaxing boat ride and stroll on the glacier offered a welcomed break. Once again the glacier calves huge hunks of ice into the lake with thunderous booms that follow.
A quick visit to the crampon fitting station and off we go crunch crunch crunch on the glacier.
A table with glasses in the middle of the glacier? What could this be? What else but drinking whisky! I found it all to be strange and comical.
We had one day for downtime in El Calafate. I should've rested and nursed myself back to health (I got a cold on the second day of this trip---I covered the Patagonian countryside with my green nasal discharge and lung butter!) But no, we rented mountain bikes and found the Laguna Nimez Preserve just outside of town. A marshy, daisy-covered area with a small lake of ducks and flamingoes---A truly lovely birding place!
And what else would one expect to find in a Nature Preserve? Stray horses!
Part II: Coastal Patagonia. Now we’re in Puerto Madryn on Bahia Nuevo---every Dec about 700 Southern Right Whales gather here to breed. I believe a return visit is on the horizon. For today's boat ride, dolphins are on the menu.
Not to be a dolphin snob...I've seen them in clear, blue tropical waters of the Gulf of Siam, the Indian Ocean, and the waters around the Galapagos Islands. Bottlenose dolphins: 6-13 feet long, travelling in pods of 6-100 individuals. Today's dolphin du jour is the Commerson's dolphin: a 3 foot long little guy who travels in pods of 3-4. This I gotta see.
We pile into a raft with a monsterous engine with 30 other Argentinian tourists and head out to the open waters. The sea was murky, grey with huge swells. The crew tell us to be patient as our captain has no sonar and finds the dolphins by SIGHT. Really?! Here's my conversation with my buddy, Mikey:
Me: I DARE this guy (the captain) to find in this choppy, opaque, murky ocean a 3 foot long FISH!
Mikey: It's a mammal.
Me: Whatever.
The rest of the day was spent at Punta Tombo: a 1.9 mile by 1964 feet peninsula that juts into the Atlantic Ocean made of gravel, clay, and sand. From Sept through April, about 250,000 Magellanic penguins go there to make more Magellenic penguins (typically 1-2 chicks per couple). Add up the penguin math and that's almost 1,000,000 pinguinos!
I think one would have to be heartless to not find these little ones utterly adorable. I took excess numbers of pictures of them (they are birds afterall). There's a link at the end of this report to my pics if you'd like to view them.
We stayed on Peninsula Valdez at Estancia Rincon Chico...which is also a merino wool sheep ranch. I learned ALOT about merino wool sheep ranching from our guide, Marcella (whose family owns a ranch) and Augustin, the owner of Rincon Chico. He took us in his jeep to the beachfront of the ranch---an area with fossils from 20 million years ago and a colony of Southern elephant seals. Now how many of us can say our backyards have merino wool sheep, fossils of an ancient sea, and elephant seals?
We got to sit just 10 feet away from a male elephant seal. I named him Oscar. Augustin proceeded to tell us all about elephants seals (his colony is part of a research study). What a very fascinating and amazing fellow was Oscar! He weighed about 6000 pounds and could dive to depths of 1500 meters for up to 2 hours to hunt for squid. That's 150 ATA (atmospheres)! This animal truly fights pure physics when he dives; and the physiologic adaptations to his hyperbaric lifestyle are no less than amazing.
Part III: Iguazu Falls. Folks, we are no longer in Patagonia. In fact, we are on the border of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Gone are the arid steppes. We are in the jungle...with massive waterfalls. My first impression was "This is like Niagra Falls on steroids!"
The thundering waters were jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring. But then, there were SWARMS of gorgeous butterflies flying all around us too.
This little guy: Mariposa #88 hitched a ride on John's back pack...
Then if the butterflies and the waterfalls weren't enough, a crinkle of my Clif Bar wrapper brings a few Plush necked jays out of the jungle...
Oh yeah...and more gargantuan waterfalls! This part is called Devil's Throat:
We spent our time in the jungle on a zip line above the forest canopy (no pics! sorry!), on a boat ride right into the crashing waters (not your Maid of the Mist for sure!)...
Our last day in Iguazu was spent birdwatching with our incredibly knowledgable guide, Daniel Somay. As you all know, I really love birding. One of the best parts about birding trips is meeting and hanging out with other people who get up at the crack of dawn, look into a scope, and excitedly whisper,"OMG! It's a blue-footed, purple-throated, crested worm pecker!!" My kindred spirits! We don't go far into the jungle as the jungle is typically a dark place with dense foliage that makes birding quite challenging. Nope, some of the best birds are seen from parking lots and snack bars. Here are a few:
A scaly head parrot and Cinnamon eared Aracari (that toucan).
A scaly headed parrot eating guava.
Our guide Daniel tells us to go to his friend's home...She has a garden and feeders that attract hummingbirds. He's called her and she's expecting us after lunch. We walk through residential Puerto Iguazu to Marie Castillo's home, AKA Jardin de los Picaflores. Mrs. Castillo warmly welcomes us into her home and garden. She doesn't speak much English, but my Spanish-fu was pretty good by the end of this trip. We sit under a shady tree in her garden while HUNDREDS of hummingbirds buzz around us. We talk to Mrs. Castillo for more than 2 hours about hummingbirds. They fly just inches from us and perch their jewel-toned bodies just one foot away from our faces. Their names Mango, Emerald, Jacobin, and Woodnymph. So charming! A tiny bird named Mango!
If you didn't get enough pictures of birds, elephant seals, or butterflies...here's a link to the rest of the pics: kitboo.smugmug.com/Other/Argentina-...x3a-XL.jpg
Comments
I screwed up the link to the rest of the pictures. Here it is: http://kitboo.smugmug.com/Other/Argentina-2010/11508781_C8Q3o#820050387_nmx3a
There isn't one thing about that vacation I wouldn't love! INCREDIBLE! You are a wonderful photographer. The trip is brought to life. I am so going with you and Nemo, wherever that is.
Tom
Kitima,
Simply spectacular! Thanks for sharing that with us. You've had some serious fun this year with your MTB'ing excursions and now this trip.
This was classic Kitboo humor:
I have visions of being found dead with puma teeth marks in my neck and my pants around my ankles. My hiking buddies gathered around my carcass saying,” That’s how she would’ve liked to go.”
Dave
Amazing trip and fantastic pictures. This just raised the bar how to write trip reports.
I am so jealous, that looks like so much fun and thanks for sharing. Man I could see myself campside cooking with views like that.
I also created a link HERE to the rest of the pictures
Absolutely amazing! Thank you for sharing. Visiting Patagonia is a life long dream of mine. At one point in my life I had aspirations of summiting Fitz Roy. As I quickly grow older I don't know if that will every be achieved. Just reading your descriptions and seeing your photos make me want to a travel agent.
Thanks again!
Pete
Wow! Great words, great pictures, great trip. Thanks.
Dreaming of vacations like this....after IMSG.
Wow!!! looks like one helluva trip!!! thanks for sharing such awesome photo's!
I am speechless!! Stunning, stunning photos and narrative to boot. Count me in with Nemo & Linda. Who needs damn IM with trips like that!!
There just aren't words to describe how amazing your trip must have been! I can only imagine what it must have been like in person. You take some awesome pics and love the comentary. Oscar looks like he might have had a rough night before his portrait session
This is just another illustration of what a great place EN - in the last few months I have been to New Zealand, Guatemala and now Argentina! Who could ask for more?
Sometimes in the course of reading through others pics and reports, I just glance, but yours held me spell bound and I read and looked at every one!! Amazing, a camping trip in Patagonia, an adventure most of us just dream about! Thank you for sharing, like Linda said your photography skills are excellent. I would love to go on adventure like this, maybe someday
I would love every part of this.
Was it a package deal or did all of you set this up? Seems very well organized.
Very nice! Would love to go there someday.
That looked like a great trip. As others have said the pictures were amazing. Yes the 20lbs of camera equipment definitely paid off.
Gordon
Thanks for sharing.
Wei
Penguinos! Penguinos!
@Michele: My friend Mikey arrange this trip with a tour company, Adventure Life (the same folks that we went to Galapagos with). Having been there, I think that Argentina would be easy to plan our your own. The great thing about the tour was arranging our bird guide at the last minute and then having him arrange for an afternoon at the humminbird garden. I'm not sure I wouldn't found that on my own.