This Overseas Adventure Travel trip began January 5, 2013 with our first hosted dinner pictured below with our tour group of 20. It should be noted that Patagonia lies in the southern halves of Argentina and Chile. What Patagonia represents is a sparsely settled, unspoiled land of mountains, glaciers, streams, grasslands and steppes and in general wild like the old west in its vastness and spectacular views, like no where else with the exception of the Alaska wilderness. To get a better sense of Patagonia, one can view the movie 180 degrees South. The rest lies in the pictures and videos below. The first item is a minute video of some of the pictures I took beginning and ending in Buenos Aires and everywhere in between. You can double click to enlarge the images and hit escape key at end to exit. The remainder are videos of specific areas that we visited:
Below are pictures and notes from other members of our tour group. Following those links below (in color) is a video of Buenos Aires oldest pub called Cafe Tortino, a tourist mecca if not for the food but its old time visual appeal.
Now click on the following link to open and then click on slide show to view the pictures taken by our trip leader Silvia:
picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=silvilopezar&target=ALBUM&id=5834420844395984481&authkey=Gv1sRgCNaJvJ3tsZSiLQ&feat=email
And here is another link to John and Barbara's pictures and travel blog to view their Patagonia and prior (and later) trips: http://travelingstarrs.blogspot.com/
Hola Silvia and fellow travelers,
I wanted to send along some photos and added to Silvia’s collection. I’ve never used Picasa before, so they are just mixed in with Silvia’s photos...and a few were duplicated accidentally but there are a few I think you will like!
https://picasaweb.google.com/silvilopezar/TravelExperienceJanuary201302?auth
key=Gv1sRgCNaJvJ3tsZSiLQ&feat=email
Jim and I had a terrific time in Uruguay with our friends, and lounging on the beach was a great way to finish off our trip. Silvia we didn’t see any movie stars in Jose Ignacio, but we did have dinner at a place where Jorge Lanata was also dining...so another discovery adventure:-)
John, if you have any pictures of the owl we saw in Torres del Pine, I’d much appreciate them.
Cheers for now and see you on the road,
Susan and Jim
"Why then, and this in not only my particular case, does this barren land possess my mind? I find it hard to explain...but it might partly be because it enhances the horizon of imagination." - Charles Darwin
Chuck's specific video portion begins here. Double click on image to enlarge:
Video of Buenos Aires' oldest pub, now restaurant Cafe Tortino (click on white dot and arrow to view video):
Interior Pictures of Cafe Torino taken with my iPhone:
Video and Pictures - City Tour of Buenos Aires
Silvia's Trip Overview Video:
Tango Demonstration Video:
On Jan 7, 2013 our group flew to Calafate near Argentina's border with Chile and deep in the rugged land of Patagonia and adjacent to Lake Argentina. On Jan 7, 2013 our group left the hotel in Calafate and visited Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, created in 1937 as the second-largest national park in Argentina covering more than 1,700 square miles and nearly 50 large glaciers that begin in the Andes. This is a video of a portion of our hike:
On January 8, 2013, we traveled overland toward Chile by motorcoach, making several stops along the way to learn about the landscapes and natural features of Patagonia. After crossing the border into Chile, we went on a hike in Torres del Paine National Park on the west side of the Andes. Below is the video of our first hike in the park:
On January 9th we spent a second day hiking along the park's scenic trails and viewed the guanaco, a cousin of the camel and Cerro Castillo before driving to our hotel in Puerto Natales:
On Janury 10th we visited a Patagonian estancia, the Fernandes Sheep Ranch, where we watched sheep being cleaned and sheared and enjoying a wonderful lamb lunch:
Lamb BBQ - Patagonia style
Puma, not in the wild, but a real one nevertheless
Flight of the Bumble Bee
After lunch at the sheep ranch, we drove to Punta Arenas, a port town of 130,000 overlooking the Straits of Magellan where we took an orientation walk before boarding the Via Australis for a four night cruise in the Straits of Magellan (named after Hernando de Magallanes,aka Ferdinand Magellan, who first wandered the icy strait in 1520 and around Tierra del Fuego. Punta Arenas was not its usual windy self, but warm and sunny. We learned "the road to happiness is a journey, not a destination."
On January 11th, we entered the Almirantazgo Inlet and sailed into Ainsworth Bay near the 120-foot high Marinelli Glacier. We took a hike in a forest of evergreens and deciduous trees. The following video is a view of Magellanic penquins at Santa Cruz island with wide black strips under their chins and inverted horseshoe shapes on their stomachs and which arrive each spring to reprodce:
At the De la Fuente islet,we viewed a cormorant colony as well as other bird species such as dolphin gulls, chimangos and white kelp geese:
On January 12th, we navigated the main part of the Beagle Channel and took the shore boat to view and hike to a lookout across from the Pia Glacier from its originating point in the Darwin Mountain Range to where it meets the Pia Fiord and sea:
After returning to the ship from the majestic view of Pia Glacier we begin to sail along the Beagle Channel's northwestern arm and through majestic Glacier Alley beginning with the Romanche, Germany, France, Italy and Holland glaciers with food and drink served according to the particular glacier we were passing:
The end of Glacier Alley marked the beginning of our entry into Cape Horn the southern most point of south America. We arrived at dawn not knowing whether the weather conditions would allow us to hike in the Cape Horn National Park. As the following video shows, the weather and seas cooperated and we had a marvelous time on the island and visiting the famous lighthouse:
The following is a video of a collection of pictures taken by the Via Australis crew of its 80 passengers:
After returning to the ship from the majestic view of Pia Glacier we begin to sail along the Beagle Channel's northwestern arm and through majestic Glacier Alley beginning with the Romanche, Germany, France, Italy and Holland glaciers with food and drink served according to the particular glacier we were passing:
The end of Glacier Alley marked the beginning of our entry into Cape Horn the southern most point of south America. We arrived at dawn not knowing whether the weather conditions would allow us to hike in the Cape Horn National Park. As the following video shows, the weather and seas cooperated and we had a marvelous time on the island and visiting the famous lighthouse:
The following is a video of a collection of pictures taken by the Via Australis crew of its 80 passengers:
We have landed in Ushuaia, Argentina, the so called southern most city in the world, an important city of 65,000 in the greater island of Tierra del Fuego and the end of our ship voyage before flying back to Buenos Aires:
Buenos Aires Farewell dinner toast by John: