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First stop, Santiago, Chile! We had a pretty short time
there... Here's a view from the top of some big hill in town.
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The first day or two were largely spent driving south;
along the way we stopped at a penguin colony!
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So, these are Magellanic penguins (_everything_ here
was either a Magellanic whatever or an Austral whatever...)
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The gray fuzzy ones are babies (duh!)... This one was
getting scolded, it looked like.
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Here are some hiding right by the boardwalk...
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Among our first views of the Paine Massif on our way to
Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
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Guanacos! (closely related to the Mexican Whooping
Llama, Jeff...)
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Our first hike in Torres del Paine: in and back from
the refugio to the famous Towers... first through some rolling hills...
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Then into this beautiful valley with (finally!) some
_trees_! (I was very happy about the trees...)
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Rounding the bend for our first glimpse of the
towers... These are the central and north towers.
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Neshe along the way.
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Nearing the top viewpoint: several hundred vertical
feet of moraine to scramble over -- gave me flashbacks to the Cho La in
Nepal, but oh, that was about 13,000 ft. higher!
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The Towers! I knew I should've brought a warming
filter. Anyway it was snowing up there and we were _really_ lucky to
get this view. Awesome!
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Off to the left of the same scene; I just thought the
lighting was cool.
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A closer look at the towers.
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Neshe and Sandford at the top!
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I think this was early on the 2nd day's walk, to the
next refugio. I loved the color of the lakes!
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We also had clearer weather that 2nd day...
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Pretty flowers... I don't remember what they were
called.
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Along the hike up the French Valley, I believe this
would be day 3? Windy!
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At the highest viewpoint we went to along the French
Valley... I think you can just see Neshe's head in the bottom of the
picture to prove how incredibly windy it was!!
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Another view of the same. Despite the wind noise, we
could also hear occasional avalanches, glacier sounds, and the like.
The French Glacier is what you're looking at.
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View down the other way from that same viewpoint. I
love the different colors of the lakes!
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Probably the next day... We were impressed by the waves
that could be kicked up by the wind on this lake...
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A hike out and back to view Grey Glacier, see the three
tongues of it coming out into this lake? It was _so_ cold, windy, and
rainy that day that we turned back at the closer viewpoint, but still
got this view. Still looking for that warming filter!
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Along the way back, a look at icebergs floating in Lago
Grey.
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Later that evening, I believe... The sky put on a nice
show for us from the refugio.
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And here's a map of what we just did in Torres del
Paine National Park!
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This was just at a rest stop we made on the bus going
from Torres del Paine park to the Perito Moreno glacier, just happened
to see this fox sitting beatifully in front of the mountains...
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Here he is again... I don't remember now whether he was
a red fox or a gray fox, though they have both down here. Looks kinda
red?
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And these are rheas (might as well be ostriches, I
don't know the difference); see the mom and several babies following
her? (I can't believe this is the only decent picture I got of them;
they were all over!)
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A last look at the Paine massif as we drove away...
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Approaching the Perito Moreno Glacier!
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A closer look at the ice.
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This was _so_ cool. It's huge! I regret that I don't
have written down the dimensions. But trust me. Huge!
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I'm rather pleased with my composition on this one ;)
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Ah! More Patagonian weather! We are now in Argentina,
hiking to a would-be view of Mt. FitzRoy. I'm told it's back there
somewhere...
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Along the approach... Yup, it's definitely back there
behind the clouds... At least we had this fine glacier to look at too.
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Here it is again! This is from our close viewpoint by a
lake basically at its base.
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...And finally, along the return route, Fitz Roy made
its appearance. (the one on the right. To the left I believe is
Poincenot).
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And then we took a day trip to go walk on a glacier!!
Fun and beautiful!! This guy comes down off the Southern
Patagonian Icecap, snaking its way toward the lake that it fills.
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On the glacier...
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A "glacial erratic" (boulder carried along by the
glacier to be dropped off someplace odd...)
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Don't fall in!
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Next stop, Ushuaia, the "southernmost city in the
world" to see some of Tierra del Fuego. Here are some penguins in a
tourist shop...
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We just had one hiking day in Tierra del Fuego,
basically walked along the Beagle Channel (looking for "DARWIN WAS
HERE" graffiti, mostly...)
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Very peaceful along the water...
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Feeling artsy today.
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More art.
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Some geese along the way.
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Lots of trees along this one--definitely my favorite
vegetation of the trip.
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Next day we took a half-day cruise on the Beagle
Channel to see birds and seals and stuff. Here are some seabirds.
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Here's Magneto and my video camera, on the boat.
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Another boat was watching too, here are several seals
or sea lions...
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The black and white birds are cormorants, believe it or
not.
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More of the same. The seals (or whatever) were quite
active and made a lot of rude noises!
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We flew up to Buenos Aires--I have a few more pictures
than this, but on a roll of film that hasn't been developed yet. It was
so nice to have the warmth and the sun again!!
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One more shot in Buenos Aires.
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