patagonian glacier

aerial view of glacier

walkways to glacier

the north face

glacier calving creating waves

thousands of years in the making

blue steel

the glacier meets its match

if a tree falls...

laurel says:

patagonia is a special place.  and its marquee attraction, the perito moreno glacier is a stunner.  wedged between blue mountains and turquoise waters lies one of the only advancing glaciers in the world and the 3rd largest ice mass on earth.  it takes your breath away.  watching the ice alone could fill an entire day.  but luckily, we were able to take our glacier experience to even greater heights with a crampon enhanced glacier trek.  it was a whole different perspective from atop the cracking ice floe.  the blues looked even more vivid, the crevasses even more treacherous and the peaks even more jagged.  this is mother nature at her fiercest.  and a humbling exhibit of nature prevailing.

crampons await

the trek begins

best water ever tasted

glacial stomping

argentina love

beware of angry school children with lunch box weapons (emil made me add this)

pink flamingoes live in patagonia, who knew?

emil says:
this was an emotional place, the (still) advancing glacier of perito moreno in el calafate, patagonia.  like watching time move before your very eyes and ears. obscenely loud cracks, and even moans, across the distant valley of prehistoric ice. 120 foot glacier walls moving forward 6 feet per day generates quite the friction and the thunder is absolutely ear popping at times. huge ice blocks fall from the wall (called calving) like bombs, displacing monstrous volumes of water.  we stare in awe at the semi-circular concentric waves that are formed from the calving for hours. more viciously loud cracking. ancient sounds and a growing moving breathing glacier right before you. when looking at the stars one is often humbled and left wondering more than knowing about the heavens, but here there is a sense that you are part of time, you stand before it and watch the world grow. just vivid stuff. inspiring place. i will never forget this glacier and aim to come back.

hiking bariloche

laurel on the move

llao llao port

haute chocolate

selves portrait

volcanic ash on the lake

lake district

view from bedroom window

emil says:

stupendous lake vistas with an original personality. vast andean mountain chain collides with an enormous lake district with many islets, isthmuses, and all sorts of other marine structure vocabulary words i can’t recall. the town is a touch touristy and i think where this place excels is if one wants to spend $1000 a day on fly fishing some obscure waterway catching taxidermy-worthy brown trout, alas that’s just not in our budget this time around. hiking, mountain biking, and just exploring are the other ways to go here and it is a fabulously unpretentious and isolated place for such activities.  there is a very genuine feel to this part of south america. sure, north face and patagonia clothing is abundantly accessible for purchase but in this place you need them and the people here, tourists and residents alike, get after it from an adventure/exploration standpoint. off the beaten path, unassuming, and just a genuine destination is bariloche.

laurel says:

first microbrewery of the trip

bariloche has always been on my list of places i wanted to visit.  however, as fate would have it, it just so happened that a massive volcano eruption had been going on since june, crippling the town with ashes and causing the airport to shut down.  at first i thought, what a bummer.  but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  because we were not able to fly in, we were ‘forced’ into a 21 hour bus ride from buenos aires.  this afforded us the opportunity to take in the incredible scenery of the lake district.  it also significantly limited the number of tourists in bariloche, allowing us to have a very local and intimate experience.  the highlight for me was the scenic trip along the short circuit, a 30 mile loop thru nahuel huapi national park that shows off some of the most scenic mountain/lake vistas on earth.  we capped off our trip with the most incredible hot chocolate of our lives, at the famous llao llao resort, the star of bariloche where my grandpa chuck and uncle butch had visited on a fishing trip several years ago. 

living ba

laurel says:
sophisticated.  polished.  en vogue.  ba should make every top 10 cities in the world list.  i was lucky enough to come here 8 years ago with my family.  that was in 2003 just as the argentine peso had collapsed.  we couldn't spend $100 on dinner for 4.  and we snapped up leather bags like they were going out of style.  much has changed since then, and the bargains are certainly much harder to come by.  even without the deals, ba remains an incredible destination and by far the best city in all of south america.  it was a treat to be able to rent an apartment and live like one of the chic locals in palermo, the most trendy neighborhood in ba.  we lingered over brunch, window shopped till we dropped, and soaked up the perfect early summer weather.  and the culinary delights were enough to make these new found vegetarians cave in.  how can you say no to grass fed beef, perfectly grilled at our neighborhood parilla?  they say don't cry for me argentina, but with a city like ba argentina does not need a sympathy vote.

eva peron's house shortly after elections

our palermo apartment

famous recoleta cemetery

recoleta cemetery...most expensive real estate in ba

recoleta cemetary

vintage seltzer bottles at the san telmo antique market

tango on the streets of san telmo

the boca juniors- #1 soccer team in argentina

lord messi

emil says:
what a treat to get to live in this city, albeit briefly. actually i think it might be more fun to live here than to visit. the list of museums and cultural "to do's" is remarkably short, and the city doesn't really photography well, little in the way of stand-out iconic buildings or architecture, but what this city is all about is pure "good living". these folks know how to enjoy themselves, not sure i even saw much industry or business being conducted. this place is about sensory pleasure. cafes dot the streets. the scent of perfectly salted and cooked steak abounds, vino is being poured throughout the day, the night life can match that of any city, the streets are just on fire with visceral enjoyment. this place can make one feel very comfortable very quickly. feels like a cross between the boutique shopping of soho ny, the cafe culture of paris, and the 3 hour lunches and dinners of rome. it does not feel like one is in a south american country here. hard to leave this place.

iguazu fallin

emil says:

wet & wild at devil's throat

i wasn't a huge advocate of stopping out of our way in the northeastern tip of argentina, bordering brazil, just to see another waterfall. i've been to the great niagara falls and did that killer boat ride wearing a black poncho, what else is there to see? but as with many portions of this trip this spectacle was another epic surprise. 8 miles in total of very well constructed and death defying platforms and walkways allow for some sensational viewing of these monsters. unlike niagara or victoria falls, iguazu is a vast network/labyrinth-like maze of falls which occur on multiple vertical plains and over numerous miles weaving through an uber dense jungle. a mesmerizing sight. "he saw: this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment." - herman hesse (siddhartha) 

great infrastructure connecting the falls

view to brazil

emil found a friend with a bigger nose

better than niagra

our boat heading for moisture 

gun show

view from boat

approaching the falls

devil's throat

panoramic view of falls

laurel says:
"don't go chasin' waterfalls."  -tlc.  sorry, tlc, but i beg to differ.  iguazu falls is an extraordinary experience and definitely worthy of a detour en route to buenos aires.  with lush jungle, panoramic waterfalls and miles of paths to explore, the argentine side of the falls is a must do.  this national park is extremely well kept and puts many usa national parks to shame.  you can spend hours trekking the park, getting drenched on a boat ride and admiring the many vantage points.  as a bonus, the town of puerto iguazu is also a blast, filled with laid back bars and eclectic restaurants.