Sunday: We arrived by bus in the town of El Calafate on the Argentina side as our first base for some incredible hiking. The town sees many tourists and has lots of shops, inns, hostels, etc but it is not very interesting really. It sits on a huge glacial lake that you cannot see from town but is beautiful to drive by. We had very delicious beef here for meals too!
We spent a day at Perito Moreno Glacier which was spectacular, hiked along the lake and got distant views of another glacier, and took a 2nd boat ride up to a glacier. The day was tough because it was raining or sleeting all day and by the boat ride time, we were all tired of being wet and freezing. It has been the only all-day terrible weather so far.
Did I mention WIND? It is so windy all the time in Patagonia that sometimes it is a relief to be inside a building or a bus. It's a harsh climate now and it is almost summer! Winters must be rough, altho there is less wind in winter.
DAYLIGHT is long here at 53 degrees south latitude, it gets dark after 11:00 pm and light by 5:00 am. That is nice.
We saw lots of guanacos roaming the plains (like llamas but smaller and so cute) and some Reyes (small ostrich-like birds). Also some cara cara birds which are big hawks and a few condors way up high in the sky. There are pumas but they are rarely seen. Huge ranches (estancias) raise sheep or cattle so we saw those while driving.
We fill our water bottles from mountain streams regularly. ... there are no large animals to contaminate the water. Seems odd (but awesome) since we cannot drink from streams in Colorado mountains.
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