John and I loved our quick jaunt down to Patagonia this weekend – we flew to El Calafate Friday morning. On the drive from Calafate to Glacier National Park, our guide took this photo of us; it seems to capture the vastness of the country, the crazy blue of the lake in the distance, and the big sky.
We were thrilled to see Andean condors flying! They have the biggest wingspan of the continental birds and they were truly beautiful. We also saw a family of grey foxes climbing in a Calafate bush to eat berries (kind of like a blueberry) and we saw a lot of choiques (like an ostrich but smaller). On the way to the airport today, we saw a guanaco and a red fox! We also saw a lot of other interesting birds, like the black buzzard-eagle and a lot of caracaras.
And then there was the glacier (or the big ice cube as John called it).
Once inside the national park, we took a walk through the woods down to the shore of the lake, then walked on a long series of boardwalks to see both the north and south sides of the glacier. Lots of stairs up and down! (John’s step counter said we walked over eight miles all day.) We took an hourlong boat excursion to get fairly close to the north face – just beautiful.
Our hotel faced the lake – it’s a huge lake fed by glacier melt, so it has this incredible blue-turquoise color. It’s called milky water due to the minerals. It was just stunning. In the morning, the light hit the snow on the mountains and the sky was an amazing pink.
Friday night we did “dinner in a cave,” a touristy but fun outing with an absolutely incredible lamb stew that I’m still thinking about!
It was a great way to escape the city and relax after a stressful week at work. Last Sunday I talked to my friend Cathy, and David and James. I read Brooke Shields’ memoir, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,” which makes me want to watch some of her comedy roles.
