Argentina

Mt Fitzroy, or El Chalten rises 3.375 meters in a mountain range that is frequently shrouded in thin clouds. The name, El Chalten, means "the mountain that smokes", because when the indians first saw it, [...]

Related to the llama, guanacos run free in the Pampas. They have a herd mentality - spooking when near horses and running, for example. We had one run next to our car at about 35mph, [...]

The wind blows so hard here that it burrows gigantic holes in the glaciers for wind tunnels!

Here are Bert and Yosh, our new friends from the Netherlands who joined us for a trek on the glacier, crampons and all. We toasted at the end of our trek with 400 year old [...]

Cabo de Hornos or Cape Horn is a maritime legend - the stretch of violent chaotic water between the southernmost tip of South America and Antarctica, the site of countless shipwrecks until the Panama Canal [...]

Interesting note: all the ice for drinks on this 60 passenger boat was obtained from icebergs that we picked up here and there. The cruise ship M/V Australis did this up right as we sailed [...]

Magellenic Penguins, charmingly posed back, front and belly on the rocks. The one laying down has gorged on fish, and is taking a siesta. Seagulls are everywhere, picking up mussels and dropping them on the [...]

So called for their long snout...very odd creatures. In the distance is our ship, aboard which we sailed through the Beagle Channel (aka glacier alley). They were in the molting process, only expending enough energy [...]

Hundreds of identical trees here are all shaped with care (think Edward Scissorhands) to avoid any wind movement. There is a significant Croatian population here, as evidenced by the lovingly decorated individual miniature mausoleums.

We've now flown to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, and the start of Antarctic expeditions (hence the penguin with the hot coffee!) The wind is constant and fierce here - as a result [...]

To the east, magnificent Mt. Tronador, with the reflected glory of the western view. Mt. Tronador looks a little like Mt. Rainier, doesn't it?

Tranquil river, beautiful woods only interrupted by the joyful exclamations of one fly fishing student. I had to pay him a dollar because he caught the first, the biggest and the most fish. And the [...]