Eden and Josh

March 7 we arrived in El Calafate and plan to visit the famed 25-km long Perito Moreno glaciar tomorrow. This glaciar is considered stable and is advancing at approximately 2m/day. It calves in spectacular fashion regularly. We hope to get wet! (Not quite... we´ll be quite far away).

On Feb 27 we hopped a bus to Puerto Natales to prepare for our 8 to 10-day trek in Torres del Paine National Park. The ¨circuit¨, which circumnavigates most of the park, is considered one of the premier treks in the MUNDO. The entire park was declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve and is home to guanaco, rhea, huemul (endangered Patagonian deer), puma, and condors. The landscape varies from Patagonian steppe, mature beech forest, hanging glaciers, the massive 17-km long Glaciar Grey, and several milky-blue lakes and rivers, as well as the three famed 3000 m high towers of granite that give the park it´s name

This 150-km long trek was the longest that we had ever attempted so we had to ration our food carefully. On a typical day we each ate 40g of oatmeal with jam for breakfast, 50g of raisins, 100g of peanuts, 2 granola bars, 40g of cheese, and 45g of chocolate for lunch and snacks, and 100g of pasta for dinner.

Hoping to include a few long side trips with the circuit, and thanks to long daylight hours, we decided to hike further each day so we wouldn´t run out of food. We left the park on the 7th day, tired and stinky.

On Feb 25 we boarded a 10+ hour bus to Punta Arenas and spent a couple of days exploring the port town. It was once a very important city during the wool boom of the late 1800s and still maintains approximately 150 buildings from that era. The city was once quite grand, and while experiencing some renewal, its glory days are past.

After Antarctica, we returned to our campsite in Ushuaia and prepared for the next trek. The following day, Feb 19, we hired a taxi to the Valdivieso trailhead to begin a challenging 4-day journey.

The largely unmarked trail passes through two wild valleys and a number of difficult mountain ¨passes.¨ The passes were almost as high as the peaks themselves.

Some of the sites included peat bogs and moors, beaver dams, meandering rivers, glaciated peaks, alpine valleys, azure-blue lagoons, Fuegian beech forests, and soaring Andean condors.

The difficult hike was a highlight of our trip so far, except for our encounter with an extremely viscious dog at the end.