Patagonia, its massive and its windy... but christ the sights are awesome!

Over the last few weeks while in Patagonia I have done some long coach journeys and got some serious mileage under my belt. The long journeys have been well worth the effort for the rewards are great. After my last post from Baraloche I went to Puerto Madryn which is famous for being the main stop off point to see whales. At the moment they are in the breeding season, around Peninsular Valdes just outside Puerto Madryn. I did a day tour to the peninsular to view the whales as well as elephant seals and penguins, all up close. The whales were amazing as we got to see plenty of them and really close. The highlight was when one whale came right up to the boat and actually nudged the boat right below where I was standing, that close I could not even get a photo of it, just standing there gorping at it! Managed to get a couple of shots of some tail action but with them having young they were not playing much. The boat cruise was quite hard work as I was well hung over after a few too many of the local brew (Quilmes), after watching England's sporting effort over the week finally end with Hamilton blowing the F1 title.
After the wildlife viewing, the two English guys I was travelling with (and myself) headed back over the border into Chile to the famous Torres de Paine National Park on a 4 day trek. On this trek we were not doing any camping, thank god as it was well windy there. We were staying in nice dry warm hostels and having food cooked for us, which is nice. The weather was OK apart from the first day where we got seriously pissed on, Christ it was worse than Snowdonia on a bad day! I have to say though, over all, it was one of the most scenic treks I have ever done. The sights were so varied with snow peaked mountains next to cream coloured mountains, lakes of different colours and some serious glaciers thrown in - a photographer's paradise. The main glacier was massive as well going on far as I could see it finished off with sheer ice walls dropping into a huge lake. Overall, I reckon we did around 65 kilometres over the 4 days. The main difference between this one and other treks I have done on this trip is Torres de Payne; not as high altitude and not as much sheer up-hill as the others. Still, me legs and feet were well tender for a few days.
The next stop was back over in Argentina at Calafate which is the stop off point for the Glaciers National Park. The main reason for coming here was to see Perito Moreno glacier and if I thought the glacier in Torres de Payne was big - this boy was the daddy! Its one of the only glaciers in the world that is still moving and the size of it is breathtaking. The front of it is over 5 kilometres long with a height of 60 metres and against a lush turquoise lake and surrounded by snow peaked mountains. We did a boat cruise which takes you right up to the front of the glacier to get a good close up view of it. Again - My God it was windy and cold up on the top of the boat but the Bear was last down after having to change memory cards in my camera I was getting that carried away with the photos. After the boat cruise we went down to a series of viewing platforms near one end of the glacier giving good views of the glacier, lake and surrounding mountains. I have seen some sights on my travels but this baby had my jaw well on the floor, amazing!
Calafate was my last stop in Patagonia and we then took the longest bus journey I have ever done, to Buenos Aires, around 40 hours. I now know what cabin fever is like, I could have kissed the tarmac when we arrived. Buenos Aires is a great city and the last stop I was with Phil and The Sweed. They were top lads and I had a good laugh with them and a very messy Saturday night out where we stumbled out of a club at 7 am to the amusement of a few locals. At the moment I am still in Buenos Aires and will probably stay till after the weekend as I might go watch Argentina play Bolivia. I will send another post let you all know what it was like, plus the Boca Juniors game I went to watch a few days ago which was amazing. Shall be in touch soon... the bear