Perfect Weather in Patagonia! - January 18 to 20, 2008

Explorer Jet touched down in the frontier town of Calafate, Argentina on Friday under clear skies and little to no wind. These are fairly rare conditions in this part of the southern "cone" of South America. Enjoy these pictures of a place still very little known but with huge surprises.
- As Explorer approached Calafate Airport, the glacially-fed Santa Cruz River was seen snaking towards the Atlantic Ocean.
- This is the Perito Moreno Glacier which advances repeatedly to dam a river upstream from it. It is a huge mass of moving ice. The face of the ice is 200 feet high!
- Detail of an ice pinnacle or serac on the Perito Moreno Glacier
- My picture at the ice front. This one is for Helen!
-A boat ride on Lago Argentino brought us towards massive icebergs that floated on the lake.
- These are some of the mountains that surround Lago Argentino. Although they are "only" about 6,000 feet above sea level, they are quite rugged, full of ice, and spectacular!
- More icebergs!
- We visited an estancia or ranch and enjoyed some refreshments.
- The Cristina River flows next to the estancia. THe water color was unbelievable!
- At the end of a long day of exploring Patagonia, I shot this photo of some highly contorted sedimentary rocks. These are part of the Cerro Toro Fm., deposited in the Atlantic Ocean about 80 million years ago. They were folded after that as the Andes were uplifted. Look at those folds!