Where in the world are we?

After departing Ushuaia we traveled to El Calafate, a burgeoning town in Patagonia that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Or at least that's what I thought when we first landed. The town itself is filled to the proverbial brim with tourist shops and adventure travel agencies. The main destination for travelers here is Perito Moreno, a glaciar that is still advancing and therefore calves about every 15 minutes or so.

After visiting the glaciar and tooling around town we took a four-hour transfer to Helsingfors, which is really in-the-middle-of-heavenly-nowhere. The working estancia is located on the southern shores Lago Viedma, perhaps a 30-mile long glacial lake. The estancia, tucked amongst stands of enormous pine trees, only has eight rooms and an old time Colorado ranch feel. When we arrived a small fire burned in the fireplace and the bar had little snacks set out. Within an hour we served gourmet lunch with freeflowing wine.

The following day Adrian hiked up to Laguna Azul, while Elisabeth, Angela and myself rode horses up the valley to the glaciar, which is perched just above an amazing blue lake. Hence the name, Laguna Azul. The whole trip including lunch took about 7 hours.



Then it was onto El Chalten. More on that later. Cheers