A "Cool" Place to Find Yourself!

Patagonia's largest, and most famous glacier, is Perito Moreno Glacier. And yes, you can get very close to it, no problem ... Even take a hike out onto it, you know, as long as you have a nice coat handy, and are escorted by guides, of course! Glaciers are huge, and moving, ICE flows, that end up in the water, you know, after a few hundred/thousand years or so ... But yeah, get this, I checked, this glacier was "formed approximately 2.6 million years ago"!

Go figure ...

Yeah, from up in the mountains, down to the ocean, always on the move ... And yes, grinding the land beneath it!

Slow but sure!

In fact, I even got the chance to see proof of this, you know, now that the last Ice Age is long over with!

Check it out!

This is what happens to the rocks underneath all that slowly (very slowly) MOVING ice over the years!

Yeah.

Now, yes, I've seen a few other glaciers in my day, but yeah, this one was, forgive the pun, pretty darn cool, if I do say so myself! You simply walk down a trail, and out onto this railing lined platform system thingy, like, until you are RIGHT THERE, at the base of the glacier!

You can "FEEL IT"!

And HEAR it, as it "grinds" its way to the lake, like, right in front of you!

Unreal.

And yes, some of it even is "calving off" at the very end! Like I said, right at your feet! Well worth the hike down to the platform, that is for sure!

And yes, you can just sense the "height" of the ice, as well as see it! It is IMMENSE! You can "feel it", as well as see it, as it moves down the mountain! And yes, you feel very, very "SMALL" standing that close to it, trust me!

I loved it!

But just to make myself clear, no, I couldn't actually, you know, see it move!

Well, except for that ice that "calfs off" there at the very end! That "MOVES" alright! Ha!

And like I said, I've been "at the base of glaciers before", once in Europe, where I actually was allowed to get right up underneath, and inside one, and again, while on a ship, up in Alaska, at Glacier Bay National Park! But yeah, never at the "very end" like this before! Yeah, that "WALL OF ICE", like I said, is very, very TALL, and right "in your face"!

One of the highlights of my trip down to Patagonia I took a couple of years ago (2023). Yeah, at the Southern end of South America, in both Chile and Argentina, yeah, they, it seems, both of them, just kinda get all "squished into one" it seems, down there at the end!

But yes! The Andes Mountains are a GREAT location for, you know, mountain climbers, and other "outdoor" minded people (ahh, like travel photographers!), that have a need, or just love to wear all the gear, and clothing items, that are now all the rage in the PATAGONIA clothing stores around the world!

Yeah, that is where it all started! Climbers needing items that made their passion, you know, safer, and way more comfortable!

And yeah! Who doesn't like to climb "a mountain, or two", no matter the size! Yes, even I have a jacket made by PATAGONIA! Yeah, my old, blue and yellow, very comfortable jacket hanging up in my closet. Had it for YEARS (I believe I bought it over in Germany, back in the day)!

Mabe that is why I have always wanted to go there ... Well, that and all the times I've watched that Art Wolfe DVD, you know, say it with me! TRAVELS to the EDGE!

In fact, today, right after I take my walk, yeah, I'll sit down and watch it "one more time" ... In fact, he has TWO different programs about it! The "regular" way to explore the area (like I did), and then, another trip he took that got him in there the "back way", you know, "OVER THE GLACIER", to camp out at "the other side" of Torres del Paine for the morning sunrise taken from "the other side"!

Good luck with that one!

Yeah, I took the "tourist" route! You know, on a bus, right up to the Parking Lot to the trail ...

Hey! I got there, that is all that matters!

But really, if you ever get the chance to "Get Down There", take it!

Besides all the "CLOTHING/GEAR" aspect, yeah, Patagonia is a wonderful place to explore, any way you can think of!

But yeah, take a jacket with you, even in the "SUMMER", which yeah, is during our WINTER!

Enjoy.

Patagonia, who knew?

Just GOOGLE, "Torres del Paine National Park", and see what you come up with!

Oh, and yeah, that's pronounced Torres del "PINEY" (like the "pine" tree!) National Park, by the way! Not PAIN"E" ... Just saying.

But, remember, I didn't have to ask for directions! I rode the bus right up to the Parking Lot like a normal tourist!

Cross-Country skiing across a glacier, for a couple of days, and then camping in tents in the snow, is a different story all together!

Just saying ...

Not that that is a "bad thing", but ... Just do what it takes to get there!

That's all that matters ...

Enjoy.

I did.