Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

Today we took a boat ride to view several glaciers and icebergs. When we got to the boat at the dock, our guide confidently led us past rows and rows of seats already teeming with eager tourists laden with cameras, binoculars and extra fleece. I was starting to get a little worried that all the seats were taken, when our guide opened a door at the front of the boat labeled, “The Captain’s Club”.

Enter All Ye Who Have a VIP Badge

It seems we had arrived. Literally, at least to our seats. One of the nice things about going on a tour is that you don’t have an itemized list of the cost of each activity. If we were travelling on our own, we might have said, “VIP section? We’re not worth all that fuss. We don’t need to pay extra. Let’s just go in the regular section.” However, it was pretty sweet.

The best perk of living the high life on our all-day navigation around Lago Argentino and its surrounding glaciers was the ability to see everything. In The Captain’s Club (”TCC” from now on), we had two private decks from which we could view glaciers and icebergs for the 16 privileged people in the VIP section (Dave got some great pictures). We could also see the people who were not VIPs (commonly referred to by those in TCC as “the masses” or “steerage”) on their viewing deck below.

View from TCC down onto “the masses”

As you can see, there’s not nearly enough room on these lower decks for the 150 people on the catamaran that were in steerage. I think they actually had to take turns in order to take pictures. At one point in the trip, I felt like going out on to the TCC viewing deck and singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” to the people below.

One other perk about being in TCC was the fact that we were able to go down to the bar and get soda, coffee, tea and water for free, instead of paying (we all had badges, properly identifying us as members of TCC). However, I know some of us were quite afraid of going out amongst the masses in order to obtain our liquid refreshment - you never know who might get jealous of our higher stature and iceberg viewing position. So, it was a very good thing that we found out that we could also order drinks from an attendant in TCC named Daphne. Whew!

Half-way through the trip, one of the crew members was able to pull up a small chunk of ice from the pristine water. We all got a piece in a glass, over which Daphne poured some Scotch (don’t worry Dad - it was a blend, not a single malt, so the ice didn’t ruin it!). It was quite tasty.

Dave and Other TCC Members Living the High Life

Unfortunately, like all good things, this excursion came to an end. But it was fun while it lasted, and we got some great pictures.

We’ve had a great time in the Argentinian side of Patagonia the last few days. After spending last weekend on Peninsula Valdes seeing wildlife, we flew south to El Calafate which is the launching point for glacier viewing and rock climbing. The word Calafate is the Spanish word for caulk. When early explorers needed to repair their ships, they needed a resin to do so and, because there were no native trees, they finally found it in the berries of a local bush. They named the bush Calafate and, since there was a lot of that bush in this area, they called the town the same name.

We didn’t linger in El Calafate - we came back to it a few days later. Instead, we immediately drove a couple hours to a town named El Chalten which is small and quaint (it reminds me of Homer, Alaska) and basically has three types of businesses: hotels, restaurants, and stores that sell climbing gear. It seems to be populated mainly by young, outdoorsy types (read: bohemian climbing bums). It’s the town where almost everyone who intends to climb the Fitz Roy Massif or Cerro Torre launches their effort.

Although this trip is not a photo-centric one, I did get some quality photography in Tuesday morning. I got up before sunrise so that I could catch the morning alpenglow on the Fitz Roy Massif. After that, we went on a 10-mile hike via the Fitz Roy basecamp. We passed many scenic views of amazing mountains and glaciers around us. It was a long haul for some in the group and after it, many of us enjoyed a cold Quilmes, the local beer. I thought I found a little slice of heaven when I soaked my feet in the hot shower but then I found out that one of the other guys on the trip put a chair in his bathroom and soaked his feet in the bidet!

Picture of the Fitz Roy Massif at Sunrise

The next day we took a boat across Lago Viedma to the Viedma Glacier for a glacier hike. We hiked to the base of the glacier and strapped on some crampons and spent the next few hours exploring peaks and ice caves. The lower ice that has been compressed under the weight of the glacier is an amazingly deep and intense blue. I hope my pictures do it justice. When we were at the highest point of our hike, our guides surprised us by chipping some ice out of the side of a wall and handing out cups filled with the ice and some Bailey’s. The best Bailey’s I’ve had in a while.

Pictures from our Glacier Hike

Yesterday, we drove back to El Calafate in the afternoon and today we spent the entire day on a boat in Lago Argentino looking at larger glaciers - the Spegazzini, the Upsala, and the Onelli. It was incredible to be on a boat floating past vast icebergs that have calved off of the glaciers. Most had melted into smooth forms, some round, some angular, some blue, and some clear.

Pictures from our Glacier Cruise

Tomorrow is a travel day. We’re driving all day across the Chilean border to Torres del Paine. We’ll spend three nights there, hiking and exploring the mountains. Talk to you soon!

Blog reading:

1. A few of you have asked us via email about keeping up to date with the blog without checking it manually every day. It´s really easy: fill in your email address in the box on the left side of the blog page and click the Subscribe button to register for updates. If you already use an RSS reader, then you can subscribe to us with that, but then again, if you´re in that group, you already know this.
2. Some have asked why their comments don´t immediately show up on the site. If it´s your first comment, it won´t show up immediately. To control spam in the comments, we´ve set it up so that we have to approve your first comment. After that, you should be able to comment all you want.

Infrequent updates:

Our access to the Internet is spotty at best, and when we get it, it´s painfully slow. Remember dial-up access to the Internet? It´s worse. With our FIOS service at home, we have more bandwidth to our apartment than the entire southern half of Argentina does. At least it feels that way. Meredith took an hour last night to read two emails. I didn´t even try. What this means is that our posts here will be “bursty” so you should see several at a time. We write them offline as we go, and then post them if we find an Internet cafe and some time. FYI, the boat in the Galapagos won´t have Internet access, so that´s 11 days where you probably won´t hear from us.

I´ve taken lots of great pictures and the plan was to include them with our posts. This has been difficult in our current location, but hopefully will be better in the next, and I will post them as soon as I can.

Oh my God I am so sore.  Taking the day off from hiking today.

Dave & Meredith with Crampons              Gene Simmons with Spikey Boots

We hiked on a glacier today! I don´t think I stopped smiling the whole time I was on the glacier (2 - 3 hours). It was amazing and I wasn´t really that sore from doing the all-day hike yesterday.

Dave & Meredith in an Ice Cave

Today we did an all-day hike around the base of Mount Fitz Roy. It was beautiful. I haven’t done an all-day hike in a few years. It was challenging and really rewarding. Feeling really good about getting back into the gym for the last couple months to help prepare!

Scenes from our All-day Hike

One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet.  We have a great group with us on the Patagonia trip.  We have lots of time during meals and bus rides to get to know each other.  Because we’re on a trip half way around the world, it’s a safe bet that we will be with people that share a love of traveling.  This group is unbelievable, though.  I thought that Dave and I were pretty well traveled, but once I started talking to the people on this trip, I started feeling inadequate.  Probably not unlike a guy who compares himself to another guy who was better endowed.  Not that I would know what that would feel like.  But it brings up an interesting story.

The company we’re traveling with sent us a little book full of information to help us prepare for our trip.  Packing lists, helpful tips about currency and weather, etc.  It also had a section on the wildlife that is endemic to the areas we’re visiting.  The area we’re in now (Peninsula Valdes) has a lot of Southern Right Whales that migrate here for breeding from August through December.  This little book we received has information on the Southern Right Whales’ geographic range, feeding habits, behavior, etc.  I was reading this section during the flight down to Buenos Aires.  After a very dry and pseudo-scientific description of the whale’s dermis and fat content, I read the following sentence:

“One interesting fact about this species is that the male right whales have the largest testes in the animal kingdom.  Each pair weighs about 1 ton, the same weight as a newborn right whale.”

Okay, now seriously.  That is what it said.  And in fact, I *did* find it to be an interesting fact.  And as I mentioned earlier, I’m not a guy, so I don’t really know what this would feel like, but I ask the men reading this blog posting how you would feel if you were walking around with 1 ton testes.  Or, let’s even try the relative size thing - how would you feel walking around with 8 or 9 pound testes (the weight of a newborn baby)?

What does this have to do with our newfound friends on our Patagonia trip?  Well, I was able to assess by day two that the people on this trip, in addition to being well traveled, have a great sense of humor.  So I asked one of the guys at dinner on Saturday whether he had read the pre-trip briefing book.  Perfect dinner conversation, obviously.  Whale balls are *really* funny after a couple glasses of Argentinian red wine.  And I learned a new word from our newfound friends: schwanz.  Look it up.  It’s yiddish.

I´ve never seen roadkill happen before. As we drove to the town of El Chalten, a bus approached us from the other direction at the same time an armadillo decided to cross the road. He stopped at a point where the bus would have missed him just fine. But then he freaked out and started to run back to where he came from. I expected a simple pancake. What we got was an explosion. Meredith and I let out a simultaneous, “WHOA!” This is one of those things where I am supposed to act grossed out, but what I´m not telling other people on the trip is that I thought it was really cool.

This trip has something for everyone. If you’re into wildlife, great - lots of mammals, sea creatures, birds - you name it. Like food and wine? Check and check (The tomatoes here are so incredible. After several months of crappy out-of-season grocery-store tomatoes in Boston, it’s like heaven to come here in their summer. And we haven’t had a bad bottle of wine - and there have been a lot of them already because there are 10 people on the trip, most of whom can drink me under the table). Do you like hiking? Patagonia is famous for it! And last but not least, if you like beautiful scenery, Patagonia has that in spades. Both landscape and other. Ladies, check out this picture of our local guide on Peninsula Valdes. His name is Marco. Lots of the people on our trip think he looks like Antonio Banderas, but I think he’s even dreamier - like a Latin George Clooney. I get to take in that scenery for 3 days, but unfortunately, Argentina has a system where you can only be a licensed guide for a specific local area, so Marco can’t come with us to our next destination. This is different for tour leaders, who are with us for the whole trip (no disrespect to our fabulous tour leaders Irene and Melissa but you’re just not the right gender for me).

We’re on Peninsula Valdes, which is a remote and protected peninsula in northern Patagonia. We have seen lots of wildlife - penguins, elephant seals, sea lions, guanacos (sort of like llamas), hares, lots of birds, etc. My favorite animal sighting was the armadillo. We saw several of them scampering around at an estancia near this penguin colony we visited. Yes, that’s right. There are armadillos and penguins in the exact same area. Pretty cool, huh? I love nature.