Going to Patagonia

We had already planned to visit our daughters in Buenos Aires for Christmas. But when your daughter sends you an email to ask if you want to hiking in Patagonia for a week, you say yes.

I flew to  Buenos Aires, where I met Libby and Annie and took a quick afternoon tour to change some money and visit the Google office for a snack. Later, we had a great asado (meat fest) with Libby's host family.

The next morning, we hopped on another plane for the three-hour flight to El Calafate, in Santa Cruz province.

Lago Argentino, El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina.

Aerolíneas Argentinas had the nicest plane I've ever flown on: clean, bright, with leather seats. They also serve you little ham and cheese sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Then, a three-hour bus ride up Route 40 (Argentina's loneliest highway, though it's mostly paved now and less lonely than it used to be, but still pretty windy) to El Chaltén, a town that exists as a basecamp for trekkers and climbers around the Patagonian icefields.

View from Argentina Route 40. Reminds me of U.S. Route 50 in Utah and Nevada.