Farewell Patagonia

( I started this on February 27, but never posted it.  Here's my edited version. )

Alas, tomorrow we leave Patagonia.  This signals 2/3 of our trip done.  A few weeks ago I might have looked forward to the end, but less-so now.  Apart from our our first two stops, we have been in Patagonia our entire time.  About 1.5 months.  I’m guessing that locals have varying definitions of “Patagonia”, just as I’ve noticed  so many towns like to claim “fin del Mundo” (end of the earth.). But, within varying definitions, nearly everywhere we’ve been has been within Patagonia, and we have loved every moment.

Our time in El Calafate has been mostly filled with glaciers, and the Youngs.

Glaciers: I underestimated the intensity of Patagonian glaciers.  I assumed they were tiny little deals, like the persistent snowpack on some volcanoes in the Cascades.  NOPE.  These are real deal, glaciers coming out of the mountain, that have all the characteristics I learned about way back when in Glacial Geomorphology. I found them fascinating to watch.  Because they are giant,  and they are in the calving season.  If you are patient and watch for long enough, you will see a bus size piece of ice (or larger!) fall off and make a noise like a bomb, with a wave to match.  But, even though the chunk may be bus sized, or larger, it will still look minuscule when compared the glacier as a whole.

The blue of these glaciers is a color I didn't know exists in nature.  It's the kind of electric blue I am used to seeing in fabric.  And then the "glacial flour" (ground up rock) that washes out turns the entire lake turquoise.

We drove to Perito Moreno twice, and took a boat trip that took us to Uppsala glacier and Spegazzini glacier (spelling unguaranteed).  Although Uppsala is larger, it is calving so much that you can't actually get close to it.  The iceberg floating away are house sized, or larger, meaning that the amount falling off is prob 30 times that.  So hard to conceptualize these quantities and sizes.

We met up with a family, the Youngs, that we had met in Chile at the farm we were staying at.  They are from Washington State and in the middle of a year-long trip through South America.  Our kids are similar ages to their kids, and their oldest has been facetiming and messaging with MJ.  I think they connect so well because they are experiencing something that nobody back home can relate to.  Something they can't really talk with their friends back home about.

It was so lovely to connect with this family.  I will definitely miss them in our travels.  Easy going, adventurous and loads of fun.  I'm hoping we can connect with them again someday back in the States.

But of all the beauty in El Calafate, one of the kids favorite things has been climbing in and out of the window at the little cabin we're staying at.  It's pretty low to the ground, so they figured out they can easily climb in and out, and have thus been refusing to use the door as a means of transit.  Go figure.  I think this will be what they remember about El Calafate.

We also did a geology nature hike up the base of the nearby mesas.  It was so fun to teach the kids about conglomerates, and geologic timescales.  Also lots of puma and/or fox dens, filled with animal bones, which they were probably more excited by.  It's fascinating that El Calafate is basically a high-desert with a glacier down the road.  It feels incongruous but isn't.  Another great learning opportunity, teaching that it's not how cold it gets, but how warm it gets that determines if a glacier is built.  Cold winters with lots of snow don't build glaciers if the summer is hot.  But a cool summer (which El Calafate has) means that whatever snow accumulates in the winter has a chance to stick around through the summer, thus building a glacier.

I will miss Patagonia.  I will miss El Calafate.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  I will miss the guanacos, the stray dogs, the abundant geology.