After not being able to do the glacier trek I had planned due to being bogged in mud, I was excited that I'd have another chance in the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile. All of the glaciers in Chile and Argentina are part of the Patagonian Icefields, which cover about 800,000 square kilometers. There are two kinds of glaciers, retreating, and advancing. Retreating glaciers are melting or evaporating faster than they are accumulating snow, and advancing glaciers accumulate faster than they melt. Of the 63 glaciers in the icefields, only two are advancing, the rest are retreating. One of the advancing glaciers is the Moreno Glacier, which I had visited last week, and I have yet to find out where the other advancing glacier is, but I am told there is another. Scientists have been studying the Patagonian Icefields and have said that it is melting about twice as fast as it was in 1995, and is currently losing about 10 cubic miles of ice per year due to global warming. Yikes.

We arrived to Torres del Paine National Park, where I was determined to hike and climb on a glacier. I did a number of smaller hikes to nice viewpoints, but the main event was definitely going to be the glacier trekking. I went to sort out the details and found out it was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. Isn't that always the way? The hike on the ice was about 5 hours long, but to get to the base of the glacier, you had to either do a 10 km hike, or a 3 hour boat ride. I decided to hike to get to the glacier, spend the night there, do the glacier trek in the morning, and then get the boat back. Unfortunately, I found out after I booked the glacier trek, that the return journey on the boat was already booked so I had to hike BOTH ways. I wasn't too excited about having to hike out after the glacier trek, because I figured I'd be pretty tired, but if that was the only way, thats what I'd do.

The four hour hike out was very nice, with good views of the icebergs floating in the water and mountains. I got there, checked into the refugio (which was basically a hostel for hikers) and sat near the waters edge watching the icebergs float by. The next morning, we crossed the lake in a zodiac which dropped us off next to the glacier. I put on my crampons and we started hiking on the ice. In true Patagonian style, while the previous day was sunny and calm, as soon as we got on to the glacier, the wind picked up and it started raining, which soon turned to hail. It was so windy, that the guides told us to be very careful when looking into the crevasses so we didn't get blown into them. We hiked around and over the crevasses, through some drainage holes which were much bigger than they looked from far away, and over some frozen lakes. The lakes were covered with a layer of water, so when you crossed it, it looked like you were walking on water. Hence, they called them Jesus Christ Lakes. We also did some climbing up the ice, which was really fun! We were paired up and each pair raced up the wall. We were given instructions to "keep your body as close to the wall as possible," and "use your legs, not your arms," but I don't think the girl I was racing quite had the hang of it. The winner was the one who got to the top and kissed the carabeener (the metal ring that held the ropes) first. By the time I got to the top, kissed the carabeener (luckily my mouth didn't stick to it) and was on my way down, she was hanging from her ice axes, not able to get any further. I don't think she was enjoying it as much as I was.

After the 5 hours on the glacier, I quickly changed out of my ice gear and hiked back to the campsite. It was tiring having to hike both ways, but the glacier trekking was definitely worth it!

Leaving the National Park, we stopped at a Magellenic Penguin Colony to watch them waddle up and down the beach. I captured the funniest video of two penguins running into each other and then just continuing to walk in the direction in which they bounced. Priceless!

We crossed over into Tierra del Fuego and made our way down to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world! On the way we spent an uneventful night in Punta Arenas, where the most noteable attractions were a lovely sunset over the Straits of Magellan, and some anti-Bush graffitti. I won't translate what they mean because it will probably cause my blog to appear on some terrorist list, but you get the idea. I did spend my time there being a little more careful of revealing my American-ness, which basically meant, keeping my mouth shut.

I'm now in Ushuaia, and will be here until monday the 29th when I board the icebreaker to Antarctica!!! I can't wait! Apparantly Columbia clothing and gear is pretty cheap here, which is good because I am in need of a larger collection of warm clothes. There is also another national park nearby where I'm sure I'll spend some time exploring before the big bon voyage!

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