It's cold down here

Well after leaving Bear Wilson to fend for himself in Buenos Aires, Jason, Ry and I headed south on our marathon bus ride to El Calafete. Upon arrival we were greeted by father and Doris waiting in the parking lot with a rental car. Minutes later we were on our way to El Chalten to begin our first expedition into the Andes. Our initial goal was to scale Mt. Fitzroy (named after the captain of the HMS Beagle...the ship that Darwin puttered around in for 5 years...for all you Darwin fans, I know you're out there somewhere). This plan was scaled back a bit when we realized that it was one of the most difficult peaks in the world to conquer...until next time Fitzroy. We managed to miss 18 straight days of rain and were fortunate to have some great (if not extremely cold) weather. Did a 1500 metre climb up to the base of Fitzroy on one of the days and subsequently discovered that our surfer gear and tropical skins were no match for the blowing ice. After coming down from the 4 day hike we drove back to El Calafete (where we are currently located), careful to hit as many rabbits as we could on the way back. We briefly drove along Route 40 (ala Motorcycle Diaries, which really got my revolutionary blood stirring) and today enjoyed the Perito Moreno glacier. Its the largest glacier in the world, outside of Antartica, and up until a few years ago was one of, if not the last, glacier to actually keep growing. Basically, visiting it involves waiting for giant chunks of ice to fall thunderously into the lake below, of which we saw a number. The highlight was watching a huge chunk detach from underneath the water and come hurtling up out of the water like some kind of nuclear submarine, supporting my theory that this is how ice cubes are born. Tomorrow we head off to somewhere in Chile for a longer, 6 day hike. The three of us actually control (or care to control) very little of our destinies, as this is all left in Doris' capable hands and the immense bible of itineraries she brought with her. In the meantime we'll soak up every last moment of grandeur in the amazing hotel that my Dad has springed for us!

Pictures!

Just Protectin' Mt. Fitzroy and the Andes...

Kicking Ryan in the junk while awaiting for the glacier to hurry up and entertain us. Much of our time spent waiting for chunks of ice to fall were spent in activities similar to this. We're also fairly confident that we were the first three people to ever wear shorts to the glacier.

The glacier itself in all its glory, quite an amazing sight, especially when you compare it to the large tour boats on the right hand side there.