Big-ass glacier!

We made a foray yesterday to the Perito Moreno glacier, here at the southern end of Argentina. For all the hype, this is one of those places that really does inspire awe. We were on a bus when we rounded a corner and there it was, a gigantic sheet of ice spilling out of a canyon. (For those of you with no formal training in geology, "big-ass" is a technical term used to describe the largest ice formations.)

That photo is taken from far away.  Up close, you get a sense of the scale of this thing . . .

The national park is beautifully laid out, with a series of staircases and walkways that allow one to explore the glacier from all different angles (and hike a fair bit in the process).

To round out the day, what appeared to be a condor flew overhead.

Emergency post: Leah hauled off the bus by the Argentine drug police!

In our efforts to be frugal, we have taken to carrying baking supplies with us. We particularly like Swedish pancakes for breakfast, and it's hard to buy flour and sugar in small quantities. So we have been carrying flour and sugar. (See below.) Also jam and a whisk.

We took a 16-hour overnight bus down to the near tip of Argentina. Periodically the bus would stop and the regional police would get on to check passports. Drug dogs sniffed the bus luggage compartment. During one of these stops, a police officer returned to the bus and said a lot of things in rapid Spanish. We ignored him, which usually works well for us. But he was persistent, and he seemed to be asking for the holder of a particular luggage tag.

Leah had the winning number! Unlike Bingo, this was not a great thing. Apparently the drug dog had taken a great interest in Leah's bag. While I admire these dogs greatly, I also raised a (failed) service dog, so I know they are 95 percent impressive working animal and 5 percent food-seeking moron. Leah was taken off the bus and escorted to a private room. Then they opened her bag and found the big bag of "cooking supplies." (I would have gotten off the bus to be more supportive, but I was in the middle of a very interesting podcast.)

Leah describes the officers as "dubious" as she said repeatedly, "Pancakes, pancakes." On the other hand, the whisk and jam really worked to her advantage. In the end, she was released, and we even got to keep the flour and sugar.

To be fair, the Argentine police were remarkably courteous, almost to the point of humor. As Leah was being escorted off the bus, the officer suggested she take a sweater because it was cold outside. Or maybe he just thought she was going to be spending a really long time in solitary confinement . . .

Whale tasting

Apparently I misread the brochure, because we did not get to hunt and eat our own whale. Instead, we rode around in a small boat and watched them. That turned out to be fun and beautiful. We are in Puerto Madryn on the eastern coast of Argentina, a scenic spot that reminds me of Cape Cod.

Right whales from the southern hemisphere migrate here to breed. This caught my attention, as I have a longstanding scientific interest in the breeding habits of enormously large mammals. But it turns out that stuff happens underwater and is mostly done for the season. So we spent a lovely afternoon observing these majestic creatures.

And penguins, too!

CJ, environmental warrior and whale enthusiast, was delighted by the outing. This evening we head further south, almost to the tip of the continent.

More of the same, but with steak at the end instead of cheese fries

Bariloche is just one of those extraordinarily beautiful places. Maybe we'll come back sometime with more time (and money). For now, we've continued to search out the high ground for the beautiful views. At the top of a chairlift just outside of town (on the #20 bus, if you're curious), there is what National Geographic describes as one of the top 10 panoramic views in the world. For the record, we walked to the top, both for the exercise and to save the $10 per person for the chairlift.

And yes, it was glorious.

I even broke out the "panorama" feature on my iPhone, which heretofore had just been one of those buttons that seems to overcomplicate my life.

To round out the day, Leah and I celebrated a belated anniversary dinner at a famous steak restaurant in town (using some of the money we saved by having cheese fries for dinner the night before). The Argentines do beef right. This was a simple but wonderful meal, made even better by the fact that we were surrounded by (skinny) Argentines exuberantly and unapologetically enjoying large quantities of great food and wine.

These photos are for Kristine McDevitt, who has requested more food pics. We aim to honor the requests of our readers!

The most scenic place I've ever been (and they serve cheese fries!)

We have arrived in Patagonia, as this sign attests.

More specifically, we are in Bariloche, which is about two thirds of the way down Argentina. Here, spring is in full bloom, literally.

The vistas are similar to Switzerland, both the architecture and the snowy peaks jutting up from sparkling lakes.

We ran into a Swiss woman on a bus, who confirmed that this is not just our imagination; it really does look like Switzerland. More important, she told us that that best vantage point in the area is from the deck of the Patagonia Brewery.

Great views, beer, and cheese fries!

New story from international roving reporter (and woman of mystery) Katrina "Scoop" Wheelan

We bid farewell to Santiago with back-to-back buses, first overnight to Osorno, and then another six hours to Bariloche, in the the lake district of Argentina. The scenery from the bus looked gorgeous--snowy peaks jutting above clear lakes. But we just got out of bed (Leah is making scrambled eggs), and we have not yet explored.

Today Katrina's story from Bolivia ran in the Valley News. This harks back to La Paz, where the coolest feature of the city was the cable car system installed as a form of public transportation. We got in a gondola--just like at a ski resort--and soared over the city. Here is a link to Katrina's story:  http://www.vnews.com/perspectives-5469889

Alas, Katrina has left us to travel with Hanover High School friends in Chile for three weeks. We miss you already, Scoop!

Hillary off to an early lead in NH

We seized on our time in Santiago to return our absentee ballots. We spent $45 to send three ballots via DHL to the town clerk in Hanover. Feels like a good investment.

Goodbye Bolivia, hello oxygen

We've made it to Santiago, Chile, which is a great place for rest and relaxation. We are delighted to find free bathrooms (with toilet paper!), water we can drink from the tap, and lots of other developed country conveniences. We are less delighted by the developed world prices; street food has been a balm for the budget elsewhere.

This is the post for people who like photos, because Bolivia is hard to describe in any other way. We set out from from Uyuni, Bolivia (12,000 feet) for three days in the desert.

First, we rolled into the salt flats--a flat endless expanse of salt that looks like a lake from certain perspectives, and Arctic snow at other times.

There are even "islands"--little deserts that jut out of the salt.

The bizarrely flat nothingness (for lack of a better description) makes possible some of the fun photos that we've posted elsewhere. This was a fun hour or so.

Here is the "making of" photo that shows how they are done.

We spent the night in an unheated salt hotel; the walls are made of blocks of carved salt and the floor is rock salt. The temperature plunges after dark.

The next day, we began climbing into completely different terrain. First, a more conventional desert, like the American southwest. (We're still fascinated by llamas--and now we can even tell the difference between a llama and an alpaca.)

Then, as we climbed as high as 15,000 feet, the terrain started to feel like a different planet.

As if things weren't weird enough, there is a species of flamingo indigenous to the region.

We rolled into another lodge (around 15,000 feet) around sunset. The views were much better than the sleeping. It was unheated, and just walking to the bathroom caused huffing and puffing. We all climbed into our sleeping bags in our clothes.

This is why we are now spending a few days just hanging out in Santiago!

Major digestive distress

CJ is doing his best to deal with his issues.

Okay, truth be told, that is a geyser field in the Bolivian desert. We've just spent three days in a 4x4 crossing the desert from Uyuni, Bolivia, to the Chilean border.

We are exhausted, having spent last night in an unheated lodge at nearly 15,000 feet. So this is just a teaser for a longer entry, with amazing photos, tomorrow. Much of the time, it felt like we were on another planet.

And because the salt flats are uniquely flat and uniform, we were able to take some bizarre photos. This image was not manipulated in any way! More tomorrow.

This stuff is just hard to explain

We spent several lovely days in La Paz. The city is at nearly 13,000 feet, so we did a lot of huffing and puffing on the hilly streets. On the other hand, we were rewarded with clear, warm, sunny days and cool nights. Airbnb continues to be a total treasure, especially in the cities. We were able to find a 16th floor apartment with three bedrooms and a doorman for $50 a night! That also meant we were in a charming residential neighborhood, so it was not long before we were referring to "our coffee shop" and "the best empanada lady" and so on. Here is the view from the master bedroom of the apartment. As you can see, the city spills up into the mountains.

The coolest feature of La Paz will have to remain secret for now, as Katrina is writing about it for her next Valley News article. She is writing about every two weeks, and we are calling her "Scoop." Here is a link to the piece that ran on Sunday on how you can help win the drug war by eating chocolate.

http://www.vnews.com/cocoa-5230516

Much of our time in La Paz was spent doing completely random things that turned out to be fun. Leah and CJ saw a flyer in a store window for a Star Wars concert. A local orchestra was playing the music from the various Star Wars movies. So we went to that. (We didn't stand out because we were gringos; we stood out because we weren't dressed up as Star Wars characters.) If you look closely, you can see Hans Solo projected on the screen at right.

For reasons that we still do not understand, the concert was in a huge facility that was also hosting a giant trade show, where vendors were selling everything from sports cars to boxer shorts. I bought some of the latter; CJ posed with the sales assistants for the former.

Yes, the tourist sites are fine, but it's often the random adventures that turn out to be the most interesting. We made our way on the overnight bus to Sucre, another attractive city that is fun to wander around. Yesterday there were a large number of locals dressed as zebras who were helping people cross the street. Still haven't figured out what is going on there. I told you this was a random post.