El Calafate - Day 1

Hopped on a 3 hour flight to the far reaches of Patagonia in the south end of south America. This might possibly be the closest I will ever get to Antarctica - that said, I just met a couple who just returned from Antarctica and it sounds amazing. On the radar now and I know exactly how to get there! Sorry mom haha.

The ride from the airport was like landing on the moon. Mountains and plains, but totally barren everywhere. Such a stark landscape but beautiful at the same time, especially with Andes as a backdrop. And the colors of the water were a very striking blue. Apparently the Andes mountains are so big, they prevent precipitation from getting very far past them and only 300mm of rain hits anywhere from here to the Atlantic. A desert of sorts. The only trees you will see here are ones that people planted and continue watering. Or ones that are in proximity to the mountain chain and dump their precipitation in snow or a bit of rain before dissipating.

Checked into my super cute hotel and headed off to explore the lakeside area a bit before supper. Definitely a much longer walk than it looked on the map, but I was told there were lots of birds there. Too late in the day to do much else, so why not. Came across a swampy lagoon that didn't look overly special until I got a bit closer and noticed hundreds of flamingos. It was really hard to get close to them without getting wet so my pics are not the best. But flamingos! Haha. I wasn't expecting that.

Spent the rest of my evening sampling different beers from the two micro breweries on the main strip and chatting to the bartenders. Purposely kept it early because tomorrow is a day I have been highly anticipating. Stay tunedRead more