Ice Queens

Thanks for all your well wishes for our Lady of the Poolside Acrobatics! The good news is the stitches are out and the greenish yellow that covers half of Chrissie's cabeza has a word of its own in spanish that I can't even remember even though the doctor said it three times!

BTW, it's only 150 pesos (less than $30 USD) for a house call in El Calafate. The US could learn a few things from the cowboy medicine of Argentina. It may seem archaic, but it's affordable and it works.

So we've gone from the jungles and hospitals of Iguazu to the steppes and glaciers of Patagonia. And yes, this is our Lady of the Poolside Acrobatics taking a try at ice climbing sin helmet!

I'm not sure words can describe what we've adventured over the last few days. We arrived in a town that reminds me of the reservations of New Mexico complete with half built houses, lots of roaming dogs, wind, lots of touristy shops and very friendly people.

The next day we hopped on a boat with about 300 other people to see "todos glaciers." We headed across Argentina's largest lago and up one of the arms of the lake to slowly see bits of ice floating and then come upon an entire ice field. Part of our journey to the largest glacier, Uppsala, was blocked because of the ice flow.

But what we saw were a magnifient field of sparkling blues and azules. We even saw a small piece of glacier (about the size of a house) turn on itself, which means it did a summersault for us.

 We then toured to the front of Perito Moreno's north face. Once again, no words but remarkable. We watched large chunks of the flow fall into the lake with a crash and make waves big enough to body surf! Perito Moreno is as large as Buenos Aires.

Yesterday we hit the road early with about 50 of our closest friends and visited the south face of Perito and then took a nice trek on the ice complete with crampons (ice shoes). It was magnifico!

In about 4 hours we're off to Puerto Natales for our trek into the W. Please check out amigo Bob's blog about the hike. We're really looking forward to it.

No more from us for about a week. Until then, enjoy a few photos from our time here in the glaciers!

PS. I thought my photography of food had ended in BA until we ordered this lemon cake last night. Best I've had in ages. Perfect crumb, perfect curd, perfect in every way and made by a chica! Que rica!

PPSS if you eat the calafate berry, it is said you that you will return to Patagonia. Chrissie and I ate many! Very yummy...kind of like a blueberry.