Patagonia. Our main goal in South America was reached on 27th of October, when after 3 hour flight from Buenos we landed in El Calafate.

It´s grey and windy – our first impression of Patagonia.

It will be a long entry, so please make yourself a tea and be patient.

GLACIERS AND WIND

On the short bus journey from the airport to the town we had a chance to get used to new landscape… Lago Argentino with turqoise water, plaines, hills, hollows, valleys and all type of mountain peaks. Small, big, round, vertical, snowy, rocky, sandy. All of them in one place. The town is constructed in a funny way – as if the people here don´t have enough this vast space. Houses are scattered around, roads are wide. It bears resemblance to an Alaskan town…

Perito Moreno is the name of a glacier´s ´tongue´ that descent to Lago Argentino, some 80 km from El Calafate. It is part of the national park Los Glaciares. This time of the year the glaciers face, which is 60 m high(!), is melting and pieces of ice falls into the lake, which is a spectacular view. We went to see it. It was just amazing, no words can describe it – please have a look at these few pictures we managed to upload – it was hard work, so please don´t complain about the amount of shots (link on the right).

THREE DAYS WITH FITZ ROY

News of the week:

Polish expedition lead by a professor from Cracow managed to prove the existance of patagonian puma, which is rarely seen by people.

And now the whole story:) From the beginning.

Fitz Roy, one of the most beautiful patagonian mountain, is well known among climbers. It always inspired Witka. It was one of her dreams to see it. We decided to venture into the wild and spend 3 days around the mountain. When we were travelling to El Chalten – small village close to Fitz Roy – it started to snow… We were in shock. In addition to that it was snowing horizontally. Due to this strong pPatagonian, west wind (which creates ´Roaring Forties´ in the sea). We waited a day and fortunately the next day the weather was good and we started the trek. In the first hours we met… a Polish man. It turned he is be a professor from Cracow travelling around the world with his friends. The professor also turned out to be a good companion and we spent half a day trekking with him.  We listened to many stories about climbing and about Polish team (his friends) that climbed Fitz Roy.  We still can´t believe people actually climb this mountain. It takes 3 days to get to the top of Fitz Roy, the easiest way. 3 days on a vertical wall in this awfully strong wind. We just can´t believe it. Suddenly our professor stopped and said that there is a puma in the bushes. We thought he is joking but we stopped laughing when we saw 2 pumas, some 15 meters from us, looking us in the eye. A moment of hesitation, pumas walked along, showing no fear and after a minute went away. We were in shock. We met a guide from the national park, who said it is compulsory to share photos of pumas, it is very rare to meet this animal while trekking. He said he lives in the area for 5 years, walking all the treks every week and he never saw a puma… We were very lucky. Pumas added adrenaline to our blood and with backpacks 10 kilos lighter we approached our first camping spot – a bit of lawn with the view towards Fitz Roy. The trek was amazing, leading through magical forests, lawns, wetlands. You can drink water straight from  many streams and rivers around here. Next days were similar – magical landscapes, we lost our way, but found it after 2 hours of walking in thick bushes. We came back from the trek overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscapes and pumas. We shared our photos with the guards, who were as happy as little kids getting a toy…

In San Pedro we had too much time on our hands. Maybe that´s why we came up with totally useless dreams. Witka dreamt about a cow. Traditional, Polish, black & white cow. We don´t have to mention that such a cow is a rarity in Peru, Bolivia, even in Atacama Desert. In addition to that she dreamt (as usual) about horses. On the other hand Risky was thinking about penguins. He really wanted to see one. Our dreams came true during our over 30 hrs journey to Buenos Aires.

In our coach it turned out we are travelling with 5, huge penguins. Nuns, that is. Risky went crazy. Nuns were travelling to a town of Jujuy. the pronounciation of Jujuy is exactly the same as ´d.ck´ in Polish, so we were a bit disgusted hearing the nuns talking freely about their destination.

When we entered Argentinian plains Witka´s dream came true. She saw a cow. A real, black-white cow. With each kilometre there were more of them. In addition to that horses started to appear. They were everywhere. In meadows, in bushes, in woods, between cows. In streets, on sidewalks, on billboards. In Rosario they were even standing between fast lanes of roads in the centre of the city. They were not bothered by the loud cars, eating their grass in total peace.

Argentina turned out to be a horse & cow paradise. We don´t have to mention Witka loves it a lot.

In Salta we changed buses and after a quick rode (21hrs) we got off in Buenos Aires…