Patagonian Steppe

On the second day in El Chalten, 3 of us donned crampons and did a glacier hike, which gave us a whole different perspective on these massive ice fields. It wasn't raining, but it was COLD, maybe the coldest day so far (see photo below. Yes, I wore my Peruvian alpaca hat everyday. Not that cute, but very warm!) To get to the glacier, we took a boat across the glacial lake, and got up close and personal with some recently calved, very blue icebergs.

After El Chalten, we drove south again past El Calafate, back towards Chile. It was a long day over the brown Patagonian Steppe, but the advantage to being in a private vehicle is the ability to stop anytime to look at wildlife, birds, scenery or just to have coffee at a converted estancia.



We were all pretty interested in birds, so no one minded if we stopped for 20 minutes to photograph a rhea (flightless bird - see photo above) or an eagle. Also above: a herd of guanacos stops grazing to look at us. They are related to the llama.