Patagonia - not just a clothing brand.

Seeing the Andes from the window of our plane definetly got us excited to do some hiking. We were surprised by how closely the El Calafate climate resembles that of the east side of Sierra Nevada. In fact, the setting looks just like Bishop, CA but with bigger mountains.


The security for domestic flights is like it used to be in the US.  There is one person looking at all the luggage passing through the x-ray machine (no need to take your computer out, no need to take your shoes off or worry about liquids) and you walk through the metal detector.  If it goes off they pat you down and that is it. Easy!

The first thing we did after we got settled in El Calafate is sign up for a whirlwind tourist package to see Glacier Perito Moreno.  We caught a bus and then a boat to do a short glacier trek then back on a boat to a different lookout.  The glacier is amazingly huge. You can see the whole extent starting in the distand mountains and ending in a milky-green lake where it calves (gigantic chunks break off) frequently.  Amongst the glacier guides we had celebrity status being from Yosemite. They all talked about how they wanted to climb El Capitan and definitely treated us differently than the other people on the walk.

At the end of the tour they served the whole tour group Jameson Irish Whiskey on the "rocks" (crushed glacial ice).
On the trail back to the boat Tamara met a five week old cat which she named Negrita. She wanted to take her with us as a "travel cat."  She now lives in Tamara's backpack above her sleeping bag and next to her sleeping pad.  It hasn't been a problem yet but we are a bit worried about traveling though Chilean customs.

Next, we took a bus to El Chalten, a town inside of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, where the spires of Fitz Roy tower over the town. Our friend from Yosemite, Jon Jon, was supposed to be somewhere in the town, but he didn't have good internet access, so we arrived regretting that we had not kept in better contact. But the very next person we encountered walking down the street, was our tall gringo friend Jon Jon. I know its a small town but it was a pretty amazing coincidence. 

After making the appropriate preparations (Above, see Tamara shopping for essential backpacking food. Faty is actually the brand name of lard.) we set out on our four day backpacking trip near Fitz Roy which was kinda amazing.  The weather didn't fully cooperate with lots of rain and insane wind but we managed and it helped keep the crowds down.

Tamara with El Chalten in background

Mt. Fitz Roy

Tomorrow we are on a 8:30am bus headed to Puerto Natales, Chile.  From there we will spend the night before catching yet another bus headed to Torre del Pine National Park.  We hope to get in eight days of "treking" there before catching the NAVIMAG boat for a four day trip ending in Puerto Montt.