Sunday, December 3, 2017

Patagonia - A World Apart

Santiago -- Again

We ended up flying into or out of Santiago SIX times on this trip.  Michael was on a first name basis with his airport wheelchair pushers ("Ah, es SeƱor Miguel !").  I must say that traveling with someone in a wheelchair has its pluses.  Front of security, front of immigration, front of customs front of boarding and sometimes front of plane.  I don't advocate intentionally crippling yourself, but if you are maimed its nice to be pampered (well by air travel standards).

So, here we were back in Santiago with another couple of days before the tour left for Patagonia.  We had investigated several cool little neighborhoods on our prior trip and decided to press on with our investigations.  One of our favorites was Lastarria which features cobblestone streets, lots of little bars and restaurants and an "away from the city" vibe even though you are right in the middle of the city.  We had climbed Cerro Santa Lucia (they LIED about an elevator) for a view of the city and by the time Michael hobbled down we were ready for lunch.  We ducked into a tiny French Restaurant called Les Assassins that could have been in the 2nd arrondisment in Paris and had a hearty country French meal.  One good thing about traveling now is that you can find a broad sample of cuisines almost anywhere you go.  Which is good, because after eating 20 straight days of variants of  overly grilled meat, one is ready for a change of pace.  Not to complain.

An interesting architectural feature on a building in Lastarria.

This series of trompe l'oeil on this building in Lastarria...




stands in sharp contrast to these murals in Lastarria.





We were here too early for this tour.

More colorful graffiti.


A castle like structure in Cerro Santa Lucia.

Given the fierce countenance on this statue of an indigenous person, it is no wonder the Incas never managed to subdue them.

Another quirky little neighborhood was Barrio Paris-Londres (referred to as Santiago's Little Europe) which features small mansions lining cobblestone streets.  The neighborhood was developed in the 1920s by some notable architects on vegetable patches and gardens once belonging to a convent.  If I lived in Santiago, I'd live there.  Well, we ambled around the city a bit more and then it was time to grab the plane for Patagonia.

An English building in in Barrio Paris-Londres...

and a French building.

This building connector in the barrio was notable.

A church from the 19th century in the barrio.

A Patagonia Primer

Fun Facts: 1) It is about 1400 air miles from Santiago -- far; 2) It spans both Argentina and Chile's southern portions; 3)  It is hellaciously windy -- can get up to 120 mph without a storm; 4)  there are millions of sheep/not so many people; 5) It used to have these megafauna beasts that were impressive; 6) current beasts are impressive; 7) Andes and glaciers are totally amazing.  There is basically no history to recount due to late settlement, few people and general disinterest.  Well, they had the Falkland War but that was just silly.  Oh, it was settled late because the Mapuche indigenous people were pretty war-like.  So much so that they held off the Incas who were no slouches.

In many ways Patagonia reminded me a lot of New Zealand in terms of the topography and isolation of much of the area.  Also, the sheep.  Oh and they have had their problems with feral animals like New Zealand.  Some bright guy brought 50 beavers to Patagonia in 1946.  They liked it and now there are 200,000.  People have suggested importing bears (they LOVE beaver for dinner) but general sentiment is against it.  Oh, and they have wild boar which are just so unpleasant.  But tasty.

Meanwhile, their native animals are pretty slick.  Let's start with the confusing camelids.  These include the Vicuna, Llama, Alpaca and Guanaco.  First, they all sort of look the same and they can breed with one another producing offspring that just confuse things further.  They originated (or were first located) in North America but just decided to move it on south to the Andes.  We saw some domesticated Llamas and Alpacas but no Vicuna because they only live over 11,000 feet and it's cold up there.  We saw LOTS of Guanacos roaming free and they were not at all phased by our presence.
In fact here is a quote from our itinerary:  "On to Laguna Amarga and Sarmiento Lake to meet the native fauna including herds of Guanacos, foxes and perhaps Pumas.  The animals are not afraid of humans so you can get up-close to take fantastic photos" -- like one of you being eaten by a Puma. Geez.

But it didn't stop with the camelids.  We saw condors, native deer, a zillion types of birds -- including the Rhea.  The Rhea looks like a small ostrich or a cassowary -- except it doesn't want to kill you like a cassowary does.  What makes them so cool is how enlightened they are about bird-child rearing. Females waltz around and dump one or two eggs and just totally ignore them and move on. Meanwhile, a male has been diligently digging a hole awaiting egg arrival.  They seem to all lay their eggs at once and the male scurries around rolling each egg into the hole with his beak.  After he has rolled 40-50 eggs into the hole he incubates them and -- voila-- a new generation is born.  So, how do they pick the male?  I mean are all the other males off the hook?  How could this evolutionary quirk come to be?  Don't those Moms care AT ALL?  Our guide was not forthcoming on this topic. Sigh.

I know you want to know about the Megafauna.  There was a park that had great sculptures of them but it was raining and we were driving past on a bus so you'll have to look up the pictures yourself. These animals lived during the last ice age and overlapped with people moving down the continent to Patagonia for a period of time.  I would have been very scared.   Among my favorite megafauna species:  the giant sloth, the giant Jaguar, and the one ton short-faced bear.  It was like six times the size of a grizzly.  Yikes.  Well, I guess everybody had megafauna so I shouldn't be shocked that Patagonia did.  Don't know about Saber Tooth Tigers -- probably.

The Landscape, The Glaciers, The Glory of it All

I keep trying to write about all the amazing landscape in Patagonia but it is just so overwhelming. You are constantly being blown away (sometimes literally) by the snow covered Andes, the ice blue glacial lakes,  the fiords, the glaciers, the waterfalls and the grasslands that trying to cover it in prose just doesn't cut it.  SO.. We will use Michael's marvy photos with captions to try to lay it out for you.
This was the tiller (yes a tiller) used to steer one of Magellan's ships shown in this reproduction in Punto Aranas on the Magellan Strait.

A picture of the reproduction. It is difficult to imagine the courage (or idiocy) required to sail something like this around the world.

This is a reproduction of the boat Edward Shackleton used to sail 720 nautical miles from Elephant Island to the island of South Georgia. If you have not read it, I highly recommend reading: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.

In our continuing effort to document the "love lock" craze, yet another photo with a twist... a wrench attached with the lock. 

Llamas spotted as we left Punto Aranas on our way to Puerto Natales.


The scenic mountain views in Puerto Natales.


An Upland Goose in Puerto Natales.

Patagonian cormorants spotted on our boat ride on the Puerto Natales fjord...

and these sea lions.


One of the glaciers on the fjord which no longer reaches the fjord...

while this one still does.

Do you think this fungus is trying to spell something?

Black necked swans spotted in the water as we left Puerto Natales.

The next two photos show the scenic mountains as we left Puerto Natales before reaching Torres del Paine National Park.

The glacial lakes and the mountain views in Torres del Paine were breathtaking...

especially the view of Cuernos del Paine (also known as Cuernos del Diablo) shown in this next series of photos.





We spotted these Chilean deer hiding in the bushes. The one has obviously been tagged.

Another glacier feeding this lake in Torres del Paine.

The meandering river fed by the glaciers in Torres del Paine.

A chimango caracara spotted in the Park.

The glaciers gave an amazing blue color to the water in the lake.

An austral thrush also spotted in the Park.

One of the waterfalls on this glacial river which feeds the lake.


The colors in this rock formation were worthy of a photo.

These next two photos show the meandering river...

and the hotel where we stayed in Torres del Paine.

This is the guanaco that Deirdre references above.

Torres del Paine also had some interesting flora.

The peaks surrounded by clouds.

Another amazing waterfall on a separate river feeding the lake.
These next series of photos captured the mountain peaks in the early morning as the sun rose.




Cows grazing with the mountain peaks in the background.  This was shot from our hotel room.

While taking photos I ran into this young couple from Charlestown, MA (Heather & Dan), proving what a small world it really is.
On our way out of the Park, we spotted this rhea.

Lambs over an open pit fire, being cooked for our lunch.
This gaucho appears to be supervising the cooking...

while this gaucho does all the work of tending the fire.

These next series of photos are view from the estancia where we stopped for lunch.


All the yellow wild flowers you see in this picture are dandelions.



When we left Torres del Paine for El Calafate, Argentina we went to see the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park. The wall of the glacier is over 240 feet tall.

The glacier is 30 km (19 miles) in length and covers 250 square kilometers (97 sq mi). It is moving at a rate of 6 to 9 feet per day, yet is stable due to the 400 inches of rainfall at the top of the glacier per year. At 10 inches of snow per inch of rain, you can see why the glacier is not losing mass.

This grey-hooded sierra finch was spotted below the walkway...

and this rufous collared sparrow was perched on a branch.

Ice which has calved from the glacier feeds Lago Argentina.


This boat below the glacier adds perspective to its size.

I caught this wave from a chunk of ice that calved from the glacier.

The ice formations were interesting...

and with a little imagination this look like a whale breaching the surface.

A photo of the southern crested caracara,...

 an Andean condor...

and two views of a black faced ibis.


The rock formations in Los Glaciares also proved interesting.

On the second day we took a boat ride to see amazing icebergs calved from other glaciers around Lago Argentina.

A pictures of friends we made from Brentwood, TN.

It was difficult to picture the size of these huge chunks of ice.



Another glacier feeding the lake with a close-up of the ice formations on the glacier.




Another couple we met on the tour from Philadelphia.

This glacier has receded so that it no longer reaches the lake.


More interesting rock formations spotted on our way back to El Calafate.




A Little Unworldly

One last aside about Patagonia.  It is an absolute fave destination for UFOs.  There are more unexplained sightings there than anywhere else in the world.  Which is more impressive because there are so many fewer people there than elsewhere in the world.  So they are probably only getting a fraction of the "visits" recorded.  As you may remember, Lake Chapala also lays claim to many UFO events (see older blog with a photo of one we've seen) so we had a great time trading UFO tails with our local Patagonia guide.

Back to Buenos Aires and Passing Thru Panama

We're starting to move northward in the direction of home.  We have a free day in Buenos Aires so we decide to take a ferry to Colonia in Uruguay.  I mean, why not?  It's only an hour away and Colonia is a charming little colonial town.  We arrive and claim our title as "official old people" by renting a golf cart.  Michael is limping quite a bit and those cobblestones are hell. We wander the day away and prepare for our departure to Panama City -- our last leg on the trip home.  Back to the Hotel Tantalo where we are showed to a much more sedate (while still purple) room than on our first visit. We are very excited to go see the Frank Gehry designed Biomuseum that had been closed on our first pass through.  It is not to be however. On our last day of the trip, Michael goes down hard with a disgusting gastrointestinal thing -- he swears food poisoning.  Luckily it lets up a bit before we have to grab the plane and we arrive in one piece.  However, his illness lingers and I develop a lovely case of bronchitis that lasts two weeks.  By mid November we reenter the world.  





A map of the La Plata river showing Buenos Aires below the word "Riviere" and Colonia on the opposite side.

Colonia also has colorful buildings...

as well as old buildings.

This was the original entrance gate to Colonia...

and the lighthouse.

The tree lined streets of Colonia form a tunnel above the streets




So that's it.  Definitely a fun trip.  If you are going to do it, do it sooner rather than later.  The glaciers are shrinking and our stamina is ebbing so make hay while the sun shines.  Take care and, if we don't get another blog out before then, we hope your Holidays are wonderful and that you have a happy, healthy 2018.