Hunderburton Adventures

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A record of wanderings through Latin America

Farewell Patagonia!

January 6th, 2012 at 9:21

Hey Friends!

So we left Patagonia this morning, and are now at Santiago airport waiting for our connecting flight to La Paz, Bolivia. Anyway, we thought we’d sacrifice some of our precious 10 airport hours here to put up a final post and some of the best photos from our last week here.

After our failed hike we decided to head back into Argentina and see the Perito Marino glacier, an offshoot of a Patagonian ice-sheet which is the worlds third largest store of fresh water. The massive reserve of ice fueling Perito Marino causes this enormous glacier (over 50m high) to move incredibly fast by glacial standards (this is probably still only something like 3m a year). As a result of its blazing speed, one watching for more than about 5 minutes can reasonably expect to see a piece of ice the size of a bus tear off the face and plummet into the glacial lake below. Its extremely impressive, even after seeing half a dozen other glaciers in the past fortnight.

Perito Merino Glacier

A Patagonian Fox we saw near the glacier

From Punta Arenas (the most southern ‘city’ in the world- it has maybe 100 000 people) we went on a tour to see colony of penguins. Penguins are REALLY adorable, and the Patagonian variety seem to have virtually no natural predators, and consequently no flight response to large creatures approaching them. Anna got about 20cm away from a baby one before its parents decided it shouldn’t be so close to strange women and started squawking aggressively (Anna backed down but I recon she could totally have taken that penguin).

Anna and penguin

More penguins

So we will be in La Paz in about 10 hours, and if the stories we’ve heard from other travelers represent the place properly, it should provide us with some good blog material (apparently its one of few places where one can purchase sticks of dynamite from roadside stalls, for instance). More on that soon!

3 Responses to “Farewell Patagonia!”

  1. Mandy Says:

    Keep up the great blogs and having fun.

  2. Courtney Says:

    Aww Anna and penguin! Enjoy Bolivia guys, looking forward to the next update!

  3. Ian (Real) Says:

    Man these glaciers are just spectacular!

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