Patagonia

Southern Argentina means Patagonia. In a country roughly the size of India, Patagonia dominates the lower region. I always had the impression that Patagonia was mainly breathtaking mountain scenery and dense alpine forests. In the last 2 weeks of traveling throughout this region I have discovered that I couldn´t have been more wrong. Patagonia is an immense plain of nothing. It stretches seemingly on forever, with limitless skies sprinkled with bizarre clouds. We spent about 4 full days on buses moving around the region and didn´t see a single tree above 1 foot tall, anything taller and it simply gets blown away. The wind is fierce and very cold as it thunders down the western side of the Andes on its way towards the Atlantic Ocean.
At the very southern tip of Patagonia before moving into the thousands of islands that comprise Tierra del Fuego is probably the most incredible sight of power and size you could ever wish to see. Powered by the third largest icefield in the world the Perito Moreno glacier moves ´quickly´ down the western side of the Andes towards the small town of El Calafate and is really beyond description. I had seen a glacier in northern Norway a couple years ago, but this one is on a whole other scale. At the face of the glacier were huge bits of ice regularly break off causing mini tidal waves in the lake the ice stands 70m above the water line and 100m below it. A mere 8km up the mountain and the ice is 700m thick and at the glaciers source, 30km up into the icefield, the ice reaches 1000m down to the bedrock. The center of the glacier moves at about 2m per day, making it one of the fastest moving glaciers on earth, hence its rock star personality of crashing ice and bobbing icebergs that feature regularly in the pages of National Geographic and on the Discovery Channel. Our trip to see the glacier up close was fantastic. It started with a boat trip in the lake to get a view of the glacier face from the water. Afterwards we strapped on cramp-ons and actually got to walk on the glacier, getting great looks at beautiful shades of blue and deep crevases. We even got to have a scotch on the rocks, cooled by bits of ice probably formed during the life of Christ. We then went up on a nearby hill that allows great views of the glacier face and a chance to see its river-like path up into the mountains. We could of stayed all day just watching bus size pieces of ice crash into the lake.
After experiencing southern Patagonia it was time to start the long long journey north back towards Buenos Aires. Ruta 40 is a very lonely stretch of mainly dirt track that goes from far northern Argentina to the southern tip hugging the Andes spine. Up until last year it was impossible to travel the length of this route by public transport. However, there is now a company that plies the route from El Calafate upto Bariloche, 2 full days and 2500km away. The scenery along the length of the road is vast and barren. This part of the country is the true Patagonia, inhabited by very few people except the hardy cattle and sheep farmer. Although the trip was very long, being able to see what most of Argentina is about was rewarding. It is truly an enormous country with some breathtaking scenery.
After reaching Bariloche our journey through Patagonia was complete and the only thing to do was board another bus for the 20 hour trip to Buenos Aires.