Today, we left El Chalten and headed to El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier.  It took us 3 hours to get back to El Calafate.  We dropped our luggage at the hotel and drove for another 1 1/2 hours to one of the most important tourist attractions in Argentinian Patagonia: The Perito Moreno glacier.  This ice formation is smaller (only 97 sq. miles by 19 miles in length) than the Viedma Glacier; but, larger that the entire city of Buenos Aires!  It actually is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This imposing ice field is on Lake Argentino, the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water and the largest lake in Patagonia.  It is considered the eighth natural wonder of the world because of the fabulous view it offers. It is one of the most visited places in Argentina.  So far, we have seen the Grey Glacier in Torre Del Pines and the Viadma Glacier in El Chalten; however, the magnificent Moreno far surpasses both of these glaciers.

The Perito Moreno is one of the many glaciers that form the Los Glaciares National Park.  An interesting fact we learned was that all the glaciers in the park form the Patagonian Continental Ice (17,000 kilometers long) which is one of the largest drinking water supplies in the world.  90% of the world’s fresh water is found in glacial areas. After Antarctica and Greenland, it is the region of Patagonia.

Unlike 95% of the earth’s glaciers that are gradually disappearing, the Perito Moreno glacier is one of the few advancing glaciers of the world and the only one in Patagonia! It advances approximately 100 meters a year.  It seemed like there were miles of platforms, stairs and viewpoints once we arrived at the glacier.  The size, height, width, color and sound of this crystal mass makes your senses come alive.  It is one of the few places that a picture does not do this colossal structure justice.  You have to see it in person to believe it. Within twenty minutes of our arrival, we suddenly heard a deep rumble and then a thunderous crackling sound.  An enormous chunk of ice broke off the glacier collapsing into the water.  This is know as “calving”.  It was absolutely awe-inspiring.  This calving process happened twice in twenty minutes and we caught pictures of it, as well!  The term “calving” is because cows have calves and glaciers calve icebergs – fascinating!

We will be signing off for 3 days; as we are on our way to Marrakesh via one night in Buenos Aires, and an overnight flight to Madrid and then on to Marrakesh the same day.   See you in Morocco on Thursday.

After a small 8 mile hike to Laguna Capri and Chorillo del Salto (waterfall) yesterday, it was our day to climb the famous Laguna de Los Tres, a hike that takes you as close as possible to the Fitz Roy.  It is one of the classic and unforgettable treks in Southern Patagonia. The trailhead, a stones throw from our hotel, really consists of two hikes: The first is a three-hour plus climb to a camping area called Camp Poincenot. It was a constant climb for the first hour and then we trekked through a “beach forest” that occasionally straddled the Rio de Las Vueltras River for the next couple of hours. The second part of this hike is the big challenge – especiallly for two 60+ year olds who haven’t hiked in a number of months.   What makes it so challenging is not only the very steepness of the climb (1500 vertical feet over a mile trail); but, the rocks you have to step around, the boulders you have to climb over and the gravel you have to navigate past without sliding back down the mountain.  As you are doing all this, you have to sidestep hikers coming down this very narrow trail. We were very lucky that it was a fairly cloudy day without any wind or rain.  Patagonia winds can be severe and any percipitation would have sent us sliding on the rocks.  The park ranger’s office instructed us to not attempt this section of the climb with wind or rain.   After a long, grueling hour+, we were finally at the top and handsomely rewarded with the views. The peaks of the Fitz Roy and the Laguna de los Tres (glacial lake) were absolutely dazzling and made this arduous climb well-worth every bead of sweat that fell from our foreheads.  We were ecstatic that the peaks were not covered with clouds.  After a twenty minute rest, including lunch and photos, we very carefully stepped our way down due to the uneven, precipitous terrain. With hiking poles, it was an easier effort than ascending.

We had started our climb around 9:00 a.m. and arrived back at the hotel at 5:00 – just in time for a cold Argentinean lager we both gulped down within minutes. It was a great day and we had a fabulous gourmet meal at a restaurant down the street.  Argentina certainly lives up to its reputation of having fabulous beef, lamb and Malbec. In this tiny remote village of El Chalten we have had the very best meals in all of our travels throughout South America. We are very curious how this tiny town, filled with young people staying in hostels and dining at a few pizza parlors would have such incredible food.

It is our last day in this delightful frontier town. The fabulous trekking and post-card worthy landscape makes the four plane rides we had to take to get here well worth it. We have also been blessed with great weather. We were told that it is very common to have two straight weeks of wind, rain and/or low-hanging clouds.

After two days of trekking a total of about 25 miles, we decided to give our legs a rest and visit the Viedma Glacier.  Located within the Los Glaciares National Park, the Viedma is the largest glacier in Argentina and is approximately 400 years old. It has an area of 380 square miles and flows directly from the South Patgonic Ice Field to the aqua-marine colored Viedma Lake. The front of the glacier rises about 130 feet above the level of the lake.

We met the catamaran at the lake dock and waited for the crowd to exit off the boat. To our surprise, there were only about 6 other people who boarded the vessel. We met up again with the delightful young couple who we met last night at the restaurant and we immediately started chatting up a storm.

The boat ride to the glacier was about an hour. Viedma Lake is sizeable (about 428 square miles) and one must take a boat to the glacier.  It cannot be seen from any other viewpoint except by air or water.  Once we arrived at the glacier, we could see the imposing peak of Mt. Huemal.  The face of the glacier is a vibrant blue ice wall. The majestic color is caused by the lack of oxygen in the ice. The infamous Patagonia winds were fierce on the water making it difficult to stay on the top deck for any length of time.  At times, it felt like we could be swept off the boat.

There are three well-known hikes in El Chalten. The most famous is the Laguna de los Tres which is also the longest at 14+ miles and the most challenging. The second most popular is the Laguna Torre and lastly the Loma del Pliegue Tumbado which is 12 miles but it is only a partially marked trail due to it’s rocky surrounding. For not having existed a mere 30 years ago, the little village of El Chalten has a well-established reputation as the trekking capital of Argentina, with numerous trails accessible right from the center of town.

It was a fairly nice day and we opted to do the Laguna Torre hike as our “break-in” hike. We started the uphill climb which has a 250 meter vertical. We both hate anybody passing us while hiking on the trail and were quite euphoric when we began to pass everyone in sight. There were no “major” climbs along the way with the exception of the two-hour round trip extension hike once we reached the lake. The hike took us through a beautiful beach forest along the Fitz Roy River. The scenic glacial river is an interesting green-gray color.   It is potable and delicious!

The most treacherous part of the hike were the major tree roots and loose rocks. We hiked for around 2.5 hours until we reached the Laguna Torre, a glacial lake in front of Cerro Torre, a jagged mountain peak. Still feeling jubilant that we shaved off 30 minutes from the designated hiking time to this point, we opted to continue for another hour. We hiked on a very challenging, narrow, very rocky ridge along the lake in order to get closer to the glacier.  We were warned by the forest ranger at the beginning of this trek that we should not attempt this part of the climb if it is windy.  In Patagonia, high winds are the norm and can be very dangerous.  It is not uncommon to have four seasons in one day!  Fortunately, today was very calm and we eagerly continued this extension of the main Laguna Torre trek.  At this point, we were feeling a little weary; as, an older German couple sped right by us. How could they? Are we that out of shape? We finally arrived high above the striking, thunderous glacier and time for a lunch break. The view from this point was well-worth the dangerous slog.

The scenery at Glacier National Park is spectacular with blue lakes, rushing streams and towering pinnacles all of which constantly change in varying light.  Just like in Torre del Pines, we saw little wild life on this trek-not even a single bird!  After a 20-minute lunch, we started the 3 hour trek down the mountain.  Needless to say, our legs felt like rubber.  Our egos were shattered, as we let a number of young folk pass us on the trail!  That evening, we had a superb meal at a charming restaurant in town.  It was an amazing day in paradise.

After a 3 month break, we are off again to complete our world tour!

After a long ( and delayed) journey from SLC with 3 flights, we arrived over 24 hours later on Sunday in Buenos Aires for our one night stand before our Monday 3-hour flight south to El Calafate (FTE). Our BA hotel was very nice, close to a very active shopping area and, luckily, near a great boutique restaurant that was open on Sunday (most in the area were not). The lamb & fish were delicious.

The Monday mid-day plane to El Calafate was delayed at the last minute (I guess those pre-flight tests work).  After a two+ hour delay, we finally arrived in El Calafate. Upon arrival, we stood with two other couples waiting to get our Hertz car rental. When it became our turn, the agent told us that our reservation had been cancelled and no cars were available (you would think that he knew that 40 minutes earlier).  Later, on TripAdvisor, we learned that this was not uncommon with Hertz in El Calafate. The airport was empty, we had 23 km to our hotel and our whole Patagonia trip centered around hiking in El Chalten, a 3 hour drive away. All of the national chains had no cars. We finally were able to get a taxi from town to pick us up and take us to our hotel. By 8:00 p.m., all other car agencies in town were closed. The next morning were able to find a car (dented hood – must have hit an animal, scratches & nicks abound!) from a local independent. Our 3 hour drive was tedious (36 mph speed limit) but beautiful as we arrived in El Chalten, a town that is only 30 years old and considered a trekking mecca.  El Chalten is pretty much cut off from the rest of the world and is still a wilderness frontier town (with terrible internet service!).   The town generates it’s own electricity with a couple of diesel generators and the sewage system is limited which means no flushing toilet paper down the toilet!

The town is the gateway to Argentina’s Glacier National Park, home of Fitz Roy, a granite slab sticking up over 11,000 feet into the sky. This young town is filled with hostels, bars, restaurants and a few hotels as we know them. Most of the visitors are young, don’t have a car and walk everywhere (including in the middle of the few paved roads in town). Credit cards are rarely accepted (didn’t know that in advance) and there is only one ATM that works. Our first dinner out deprived us of all of our pesos except for 4 ($.30) and we had to ask about an ATM. We now visit it daily to retrieve our $75 limit!

As soon as we arrived, we donned our hiking clothes and off we went to hike the Los Condores & Los Aguilas trails – two one-hour hikes that offer fabulous views of the town valley & that of Lake Viedma.

In our last few days in Buenos Aires, we decided to visit two museums – one honoring a national hero, Evita Peron, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MALBA) rated as the best museum in the city with a large collection of South American art.  The Evita museum chronicles her life, through films, photographs & a collection of personal items, as a performer and as an advocate of the workers & the poor when her husband was the Argentinean president. The museum was somewhat interesting but with limited English information, it was not as impactful for us as it could have been.  Interestingly, the fabulous outfits Evita wore on tours of Europe in the 1940’s looked quite up-to-date and very chic-especially her beautiful shoes.  Evita Peron is still idolized by many Argentenians as we experienced the other day a parade in her honor in front of the pink presidential palace.  The MALBA museum was quite interesting but we don’t have the same appreciation of the genre as others may. Sometimes the paragraph describing the artist’s concepts were almost incomprehensible.   The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, research and promote Latin American art from the onset of the 20th century to the present.  An interesting fact is that the contemporary and unique design of the museum was made through an “open call” contest with 450 proposals from 45 countries.  The selection was left to an international jury who awarded 1st prize to three young (you guessed it) Argentinian architects!  We had lunch at the museum cafe which was top notch.

We also went to the Sunday market in the “communa” of San Telmo, one of the 44 neighborhoods in BA.  The market, which sells mainly cutsie artisans and antiques, was very large and stretched for blocks.  We had little interest in 99% of the products that were available; however, it was fun to experience the live music and hustle and bustle of this popular event.  It was a very crowded market and the travel sites all extensively discuss the dangers of pick pocketers.  It really didn’t appear to be an issue. In our walking, the police (both federal & city) are highly visible

It has been very intriguing to experience the Christmas season in Buenos Aires.  There are few holiday decorations throughout the city and one can hardly tell that Christmas is only a week away.  We found this very surprising since the country is predominately Catholic and the churches in the city have lines out the door on Sundays.  We were at a lovely mall right in the city on Sunday and it was very quiet.  Perhaps, the Portenos stay home on Sundays or the economy is in such disarray that the Argentinians can’t afford purchasing gifts.

The  first part of the “40th Anniversary World Tour” has been the most awesome experience of our life so far.  We have learned so much and have truly experienced many cultures as we tried to take our time and truly “live” in each country.  We head back to the states on Tuesday for ski season and restart our trip back here in Buenos Aires and the Argentinian part of Patagonia  in mid-March.  It’s time to sign-off and say “until next time”.

D & L

On Friday we decided to head up the coast to a small resort town on the river delta. Tigre is the rowing capital of Argentina as the delta is filled with small islands with several rivers and numerous channels.  The  somewhat picturesque town of Tigre is a bit of a hodgepodge with faded glamour.  It is about 12 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.  Our one hour train ride (cost: $0.60) included 16 stops on the way! The very modern, clean, air-conditioned cars were filled (a train leaves every 15 minutes) and punctuated with entrepreneurial singers, sellers of food, key chains, headphones and some limited beggars.  The singers’ were quite entertaining; and initially we thought the train had piped-in music.  The train wound its way through some very cute suburban towns as well as an area that had a number of tennis clubs with a combined total of probably 50 clay courts – we have never seen so many courts.

Upon arrival, we took a boat ride around the delta in the brown muddy river.  Beyond the first section of the Rio Parana, which is very wide, you almost feel like you have stumbled into a tributary of the Amazon.  All water to the residents is from the very murky  Parana Delta which is filtered and used for everything but drinking water.  Children go to school by boat buses and deliveries and getting to and from town is by the “locals” water taxi.  The most magnificent and very impressive structure in this town showed up within minutes of the boat ride.  It was the town’s former casino, the Tigre Club, now the Museo De Arte.  The traditional and mostly shabby houses on stilts peep out from the vegetation along the river bank.  There are also a number of petrol stations and old restaurants & hotels that line the edge of the river.  There is even a mobile library.  Our boat cruise was a non-event as was the subsequent “sightseeing” bus trip around the town.  From everything we had previously read about Tigre, we kind of knew the area’s limitations before we visited;but, we were curious on why it it such a popular tourist destination.  There is a large amusement and water park on the rivers edge; perhaps this park explains the areas popularity.  The Tigre is actually a favorite weekend destination for Portenos and is home to about 3,000 full-time islanders. Other than our 7+ mile walk to from the train station, the train ride was the highlight of this adventure.

Buenos Aires is made up of 40+ “communas”.  Palermo, where we are staying, is similar to the upper west side of Manhattan.  It is the most popular area, trendy and contains more clothing boutiques and restaurants than any other part of the city.  Recoleta, closer to the water, is similar to the upper east side of Manhattan.  It has classic buildings, including some embassies, and small high-end shops & art galleries.  The city has a significant Italian influence in the architecture, food & a cafes on every corner (also lots of pasta & gelato), staccato Spanish (that sounds like Italian) and hand gestures.  On one of our “free” walking tours, we were given a lesson in “Argentinean” hand gestures and the “art” of ordering various types of coffee.  It was hilarious.

On Wednesday, we went for about a 15- mile round-trip “hike” across BA to the commune of San Telmo.  (We love to walk and it helps us get to know a city in record time.)  Enchanting cobblestone streets & antique shops abound in this precinct of Buenos Aires.  The antique shops are the bario’s main vein.  We expect to return to San Telmo on Sunday to visit their Sunday markets and watch the street tango dancers.  On our way to San Telmo, we walked through the port area of Puerto Madero which has the highest real estate prices in South America.  The port is full of high-end restaurants coupled with low & high-rise condominiums.  We enjoyed a delightful lunch along the port area.  It was interesting that there weren’t that many boats in the port area- clearly very few compared to NZ & Australia.

We walked back from San Telmo through the city plaza in front of the pink palace. There are, on average, 3 demonstrations a day in this area.   We arrived with all of the political parties demonstrating with drums, songs & banners prior to the inauguration on Thursday (tomorrow).  The election was a 52:48% split so every one is still pushing their agenda. There was a lot of passion in the plaza today. On Thursday,  we were fortunate enough to catch the new president leaving one of the buildings near the Pink Palace.  There was a large crowd with lots of police and security; however, we were able to slither through the crowds to near the front of the line.  There was tremendous passion on Inauguration Day with intense chanting throughout the crowd.  We honestly thought we were Argentenian with all the excitement surrounding us!

Our 2nd day (Monday) in Buenos Aires took us on another walking tour to see the downtown buildings including the pink presidential palace (no one knows why it was painted pink). Unfortunately, we couldn’t tour the building as this is transition week when the current socialist president is leaving office and the new right-wing president is moving in. While we were at the plaza, we also witnessed the stealing of a tourist’s jewelry by a motorcycle riding duo. Pick pocketing & petty theft seem to be the most common crimes.

When we arrived on Saturday we learned that Tuesday’s religious holiday created a 4 -day weekend for most.  Many shops were closed these days as we wandered through the city.  Traffic was much lighter – a big benefit. The big negative was that most ATMs were out of cash!  It appears that most Portenos (locals from BA) are on a cash basis for their purchases; so, there are always extensive lines at the bank ATMs throughout the city.  Many restaurants do not accept credit cards.

The other issue is the exchange rate. The fixed rate is 9.7 pesos per dollar. The legal “blue” market rate for US $100 bills is above 14 pesos per USD. Today, the official price for our “credit card” lunch was $80 vs. $53 if we had paid with U.S. dollars.  The new government is expected to eliminate the fixed rate.  Inflation currently runs at 30%.  We were anticipating that due to the struggling economy in Buenos Aires and the exchange rate, prices would be quite low in Buenos Aires.  Not so, prices are sky high!  Not only is food and clothing higher than in the U.S. but there is also a 21% tax on clothing and other items.  The only thing that is inexpensive is Argentinean wine!

After 3 1/2 months of mostly eating out every meal, we were looking forward to taking off our tourist hats, shopping at the markets and grocery stores and living the Argentian way.  Grocery shopping has been quite challenging.   Grocery stores have limited selections for everything.  You can’t even find Greek yogurt in the refrigerated section.  The Argentine diet consist mostly of beef, beef and more beef along with some chicken.  Any fish,with the exception of canned tuna cannot be found at any store in the city.  There is only one fish market in the entire city which is quite far from our place in Palermo Soho.  If there is fish on a restaurant menu, it will be salmon which will be much higher priced than any beef dish.  The variety of fruits and vegetables is also quite limited.  We think it is because they most likely do not import any of these items due to the country’s economic situation.  Surprisingly, the numerous small fruits and vegetable stores throughout the city charge much lower prices than the grocery stores.  Another interesting fact is that there are absolutely no spices sold in any grocery stores.  You can’t even find pepper in the grocery stores or on a table in a restaurant, just salt.  Large “beefy” portions are the signature statement for Argentinean cuisine.