"Iceberg dead ahead"

Up until today there is only one other place that literally made me say "wow" (and that was getting off the train in Venice.) The Glacier Perita Moreno has just earned a place on that list.

An early morning and a little bus ride and we enter the national park. A short while later we come to the crest of the road and there it is this huge wall of ice meeting the lake. I've seen them in Iceland and New Zealand but this - takes the breath away!

We board the catamarran and are off to see it up close - the walls stand about 500 ft from the water and are cragged and cracked near the top. In the crevices there is this amazing blue color. It is deeper blue in some spots because - as we quickly find out - it is shedding one meter per day. (and for all the advertising about drinking scotch with thousand year old ice - this ice is being made so quickly it is only about 300 years)

I am outside and we have just been overwashed by the windblown lake
when a huge section slides off creating a huge wave. (Sadly it is almost impossible to catch on camera - no my video and not this trip!) The glacier comes out of the valley and heads almost directly into another land mass. This cuts the lake in half occassionally and creates an ice dam that must be spectacular when it bursts. I would say it is quite close to closing again as the channel appears only several hundred feet wide.

We leave the boat and the weather has turned cold and windy. There is a tourist station and snack bar and about four km of viewing platforms. If the weather was better perhaps the views would be better but I only venture a short way as I am checked out and essentially going straight to the airport for my flight to Bariloche.

(The flight is delayed so I facebook chat with Tara for about an hour. I tell that my first big trip email was a bit of a novelty and she tells me she can't not remember email - ugh!)

I arrive in Bariloche which is the Lakes Region and somewhat of a Little Switerland (or so I hear). This is where the camera money story comes in. My innkeeper Mariana emailed before I left about an "opportunity". She asked if I would but a camera and bring it down for her. Previous to this we had had two or three emails. I hestitantly said yes and it turned out to be an $850 full accessory kit. She had friend pick it up the day I arrived in BsAs and paid me in pesos - 3800 which kept me flush for quite a while. Anyway in exchange for this favor Mariana picked me up at the airport.

Her place is cute enough and I am beat. Just down the road is a small
restaurant she recommends called Tanquillo. Now everyone talks about
NZ being Lord of the Rings land but Patagonia surely has some similarities including a hobbit house which is the only way to describe this place with live trees growing through the roof. The food is very good - venison carpaccio, pasta mediterranean and red berries with lemoncello cream.

And off to bed.