From South to North

We have made it back from South America in the best shape of our lives. We had many challenging days of hiking amidst 60 mph winds, sleet storms, blizzards, and aching feet. But the views (when we had them) were spectacular and made the difficulties worthwhile. These pictures are not entirely in order, the first is Mom, Dad and me at Perito Moreno glacier just outside of El Calafate, Argentina. We took a boat tour around one side of the glacier and even then we did not appreciate the size of this massive glacier. It was 14 km long (approximately 8.4 miles) and at its widest point about 9 km wide (5.4 miles), it was also really active, calving all the time because it moves about 2 meters a day, about 6 ft! We got to see some of this action but the glacier seemed to wait until just after I had put my camera away to allow a piece to break off, so rude.

Our second hike in Torres del Paine national park left mom's and my feet in agony. Sure an 18 km hike doesn't sound so bad...until you're doing one everyday, including rock scrambles and lots of up and downhill. We decided it was important to document the invalid feet, post-hike. Not long after this picture was taken, having decided that our call for hunger was greater than the pain in our feet, we went to dinner and returned for a friendly game of Rummy. Our campsite in this particular area was in a valley constantly flayed by wind and one massive gust shook our tent to the core. All of the sudden I noticed the rain-fly was hitting the tent and I believed the stakes had been ripped out of the ground. WRONG we opened the tent to find the stakes and skirt of the rain-fly securely in place while the remainder of it was flapping wildly in the wind and our guide was staring mouth open wide with the site manager. The wind had ripped our rip-stop nylon tent! Needless to say, sleep did not come too easy that night.

This picture was taken of Los Cuernos-The Horns, in Torres del Paine. Our campsite was across the lake from these mountains and our dining area had an amazing view of them every night.

And the last picture is from Buenos Aires, our last night there before heading to southern Argentina to being our hiking expedition. Our hostess at the Bed and Breakfast in Palermo directed us to a Tango show that included dinner and a FREE TANGO LESSON!! Mom and Dad even gave Tango a try, I have the pictures and a video for proof. The show was pretty amazing and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Buenos Aires was definitely a unique city with a much greater European influence than I had anticipated. The sidewalks were a bit gone to seed and we found ourselves fearful we were going to sprain an ankle before having made it to Southern Patagonia! All the same, we are happy to be back at home and we have many more stories to share from our journey.