Fin del mundo

I've made it to the southernmost city in the world - Ushuaia.

I crossed the Straight of Magellan to get here. That was a strong moment - feeling the history of this passage and province, where so many great explorers faced hardships unimaginable.

Ushuaia is a great city. It's way too expensive, but the waterfront, mountains, and national park are hard to beat.

In Tierra del Fuego national park I found one of the best views of my trip. Standing on that summit was a true highlight of my time in South America.

Torres del Paine

Enter Chile. Heading next to Torres del Paine national park I crossed the border and stayed a night in the park's gateway town Puerto Natales.

I like this town. At first I thought it was slummy and beat - which the buildings are. But the people aren't. This town would be here with or without the park, and because of that it doesn't have a gilded, masquerading feel.

After getting what I needed I took the two hour bus ride to the park, getting dropped at the entrance with an overloaded backpack.

If you search for best hikes in the world, the Torres del Paine Circuit or "W" treks are usually included. The W is a 4 or so day trip on one side of the Torres, going up and down a few valleys in a W fashion. The circuit circles the Torres, finishing by doing the W. I spent 7 days completing the circuit.

If you're deciding between the two, choose the circuit. The non-W portion of the circuit was less crowded, more varying in terrain, and much more satisfying. Ending with the highlights of the W felt like a earned reward, a culmination of long days and good efforts.

Patagonia has notoriously bad, windy, rainy weather. I had some bad weather, but some good weather too, so I lucked out. Some people do the whole circuit without getting a view of the famous, granite towers.

The wind was usually there, rain was never far away, and for four days the clouds mostly blocked the sun - but the pass on the far side of the circuit I hiked up and over was under a full blizzard the day I crossed. Twenty brave souls tried to cross that day, and only six of us made it. The others turned back. The wind howled and the snow came down with a sting. I couldn't make out the crossing, but the trail was marked every thirty yards with an orange marker. It was difficult enough to look up and search for the next pole, and sometimes impossible to see it through the whiteout. Once over and back down to tree line the weather improved, and the great Greys Glacier stretched as far as the eye could see.

Enough writing, here are some pictures.

Perito Moreno

After El Chaltén I bussed to El Calafate. It's a slightly bigger town with more tourists, drawn to the one main attraction - the Perito Moreno glacier. An hour or two from town, this single glacier covers 97 square miles. It's just one of the 48 glaciers in the southern Patagonian ice field, which holds the third largest reserve of fresh water on the planet. It's also one of only three of those 48 glaciers that are still growing.

You take a bus to the park, then get dropped off at a boardwalk in front of the glacier itself. There you have a couple hours to stare at the big ice cube.

It's quite a view. The leading edge stands over 200 feet above the water, making the scale hard to grasp. You just stand around with other people and wait for big chunks of ice to break off and crash into the water below. It was great to see, though honestly, I don't want these quick stop, big crowd, photograph grabbing sights to be the essence of my trip.

They exploit these places as circus attractions and it's a shame we get distracted by the big eye-catchers, glossing over the true heart of a place. The view was great, the experience was mediocre. There is as much beauty in rural Indiana as there is right here, and its that element that gets overlooked at places like this. Well, that's just something that's been on my mind.

Nevertheless, it was stunning and absolutely beautiful to behold.