turn of the decade in Patagonia

Long anticipated, here some thoughts on Patagonia and photos.
Someone asked why I had wanted to go to Patagonia. I can't really remember since when, but it's been on my list for a long time. Mountains, forests, glaciers, what is not to like.
To be honest, me and my friends from Brazil both felt a bit tired of traveling during this trip. Maybe because we are getting older, maybe because we were already tired from work to begin with.

Having said that, it was an amazing trip, and yes safe. For some reason everyone asked if it was safe. Despite political unrest in most of South America, and some protest in Chile that we heard late at night, this is a quiet, cold and somewhat forgotten place. Forgotten?? Not by the hordes of tourists. Prime tourist season.

We flew to Bariloche, then on by bus to Esquel, where we visited Los Alerces national park:

Then a 20 hour busride via the fabled Ruta 40 to El Chalten. I do not recommend this although it wasn't too bad. Better to stop in between, but the bus company had failed to inform me this was possible, although I had asked.
El Chalten is a hiking town. We did 3 big walks and had 1 day of resting with an interesting massage.
Here is Fitzroy, where a week later a Dutch 39yr old female had to be rescued who wasn't me: 

Lady slipper flowers, all Andean plants were flowering so it was very nice for the botanically inclined:

Another view of glacial features:

After El Chalten we stayed in El Calafate for a bit and visited Perito Moreno glacier, the only glacier in the world not retreating (yet): very impressive amount if ice :

And steppe, because most of Patagonia looks like this when you drive:

We stayed in "ecodomes" for a few nights with another view of perito moreno glacier:

The domes were quite a challenge to get to, it was basically a 4wd track, and we had a tiny 2wd rental car, and secret directions  (no cell phone reception, no google) through many gates. I learned that even when driving a normal car it was worthwhile to have done 4wd training for such situations. My friend was very impressed by my driving. And we got there and back without damage, unlike some others...

We got further and further South, and it got colder and colder!

A day trip through Torres de Paine national park with rain:

Patagonian Edelweiss:

On to Chile, this is Puerto Natales:

And finally we ended in Ushuaia, arguably the Southernmost city of the world. I did a nice track that reminded me of New Zealand (as did most of the other scenery!):

And then I did a boat tour (my friend was seasick so stayed on shore) through the Beagle Channel:

Fun to watch young penguins getting swimming lessons:

And that was 3 weeks Patagonia. I'd like to go back to do some of the longer trails/hikes, and show Thomas around, but who knows if that possibility comes. For now this was good to widen the horizons and speak a terrible mix of Spanish and Portuguese to order food and solve minor issues.