Capilla de Mármol aka The Marble Chapel...

The geology of this area is amazing... volanic eruptions, lakes connecting to the ocean then becoming isolated, fossils of river dolphins, plants from the dry zone changing to huge prehistoric looking rhubarb like things, huge mountains, glaciers... one of the prime attractions outside of Rio Tranquilo (very tranquilo or mellow here right now at the beginning of fall... 500 inhabitants or so but they can get 700 tourists through here per day in the summer!) are these cave formations in these marble cliffs down the lake from the town.  It's a 15 minute boat ride to the site, and the formations are pretty impressive:

Wow.

After that visit I got to hang around the town for a day waiting for a trip to a remote national park where there is a glacier that calves super blue icebergs and the vegetation is proper coastal chilean wet forest with fijords and all of that... in the next post!

xoxo :) jos

Unexpected amazingness on top of blue skies...

Check out the map, at the bottom left of center you can see Fitz Roy peak in a box of the national park, then I took the red road from there east then north to Perito Moreno... The La Cueva heritage area is to the right on the way north of Bajo Caracoles... 

Then I've continued and crossed the border at Los Antiguos/Chile Chico, a beautiful area on a lake with mountains on the western skyline...

and connected with some other travelers to get a ride heading west... dirt road with inconsistent public transport at this time of lower tourist traffic... so I took the chance to move on though I was sad to have no time to explore this nice little hamlet.  But what an amazing trip we had in store!  An area ripe for educational travel... archaeology, geology, botany, ecology, paleohistory... it was pretty outrageous.  Oh, and the scenery itself, plus a gorgeous blue sky day, well...

Some of the cliffs and views reminded me of the Almafi Coast of Italy... 

and then we stopped in the middle of the bridge (about one or two vehicle lengths wide) to see the Devil's Canyon...

and it just kept on being amazing!

And then we reached Puerto Guadal for a pit stop...

and this was the most amazing market for being in the middle of not much... Kind of like the Study Butte Store or Cottonwood Market...

sledgehammer, dried milk, cut your own winter squash... you name it.

and... maybe the best alfajor (the iconic dessert/sweet treat of Argentina, but apparently good things know no borders...) in the world... I had to take a picture!

Homemade of course, moist buttery biscuity texture-- not dry cookie crumbly like several others I've had, not too much dulce de leche (because then it's too sweet!), coconut, and then, oh my gosh, the perfect hint of lemon... it's a good thing we moved on before I took my first bite otherwise, I don't know if I would have just stayed on or bought all the rest of them on the spot!

Last photos 

before arriving at Puerto Rio Tranquilo on the eastern side of Lake General Carrera that we'd been following for the previous four hours... It's the second largest lake in South America!

The main attraction here is the Capillas de Marmol... the marble chapels which I visited the next morning...

More in the next one!

:)

A little home away from home...

With the missed connections on the crossing to Chile via Villa OHiggins -- but still wanting to get into that area (the end of the road on the Chilean side) I had to go around the long way... east and then north through Argentina on the Ruta 40, the famous interior highway.  This would , however, conveniently take me past a place I had wanted to go anyway... A UNESCO-recognized archaeological site with amazing cave paintings in a dry canyon environment. And I could stay close to the site at an estancia (ranch) that offered tours of the cave and other sites in the area. Done!  After a rough overnight bus ride up the highway (which is mostly unpaved and really bumpy) I met my guide in Perito Moreno and he took me back down to the estancia.  We drove for several miles through the estancia which is in the dry Pampas part of Patagonia, the whole eastern part of southern Argentina

and then we arrived at the lip of a hidden canyon that sort of reminded me of Canyon de Chelly...

Hiked down 

And back up 

and had a park guide take us along the boardwalk (walkway and fence to protect the site) to the paintings, the oldest of which date from 9000 years ago, but others are more recent, only a few thousand yrs old...

Incredible!  And even cooler, there was a local cactus (the only one I saw in the pampas area... have to do some research on this one...) that was very similar to my own 'beloved' dog chollas of west Texas... "A face only a mother could love..." :)

Back to the estancia for some great food and folks

And then the next day some fantastic hiking to more cave paintings in Cañadon Charcamata

In some ways this one was even neater because it was just there... No fences etc, we had to walk up a canyon to see it, felt a little more hidden, and it was an amazing shelter with a spring.... it was just awesome. Then another walk to a different canyon... Nidos de los Cóndores...

Where there were these caves and slots in the canyon walls that had what almost looked like stalagmite deposits but what are really who knows how many years of guano deposits of perched/resting condors... an amazing thought actually because the canyon was quite tight and I'm not sure how with their 2+ meter wing spans they get down in the canyon and then back out but it was really neat. In one cave an owl actually flew out of the the darkness from the rear of the cave to, well, I'm not sure. It could have been a welcome but with their intense visage, it didn't feel like the friendliest of welcomes... :)

Was sad to leave that evening but had a bus to catch heading west... Back to the snow covered mountains and craggy peaks of the spine of the continent.  Stay tuned!

More mountains

So, after that first couple of impressive days in El Chalten, the day of wind and crazy weather kicked me a bit and a cold on edge came on en force... And plans changed for crossing the border to chile, delayed, so I nursed the cold and waited out some yucky weather napping and exploring the wee hamlet of Chalten... Great folks, great pastries, just some nice quiet time. 

They had this cool art thing happening where a bunch of trash cans around town were all made of junk in the form of people holding buckets.... A neat vibe for sure!

Then my final days I took a drive/boat trip to a lake north of town almost to the Chilean border and the sun came out and had some fantastic scenery of grand valleys and braided river beds

And that eve I took a walk up to an overlook of the town and the Mtns...

Then the last day was totally clear and I had planned to return to the hike to see Fitz Roy again since my first try was totally misted and clouded over... (The pointy thing in the background is just part of the lake 'crater' wall... See below pic #2 for perspective...)

And then instead of my planned short hike to an overlook (2hrs) I decided since I had the time and it was so beautiful I motivated to do the whole thing again and get up close... And it was just stunning!

I have to say though that the first hike was incredible and ALIVE with rain and wind and blowing trees, an incredibly rich sensory experience... The return hike was very a to b focused and I wasn't paying as much attention to what I was passing on the trail in favor of making time to the 'goal' of the end view. Two very different experiences through essentially the same territory and I feel lucky to have both in my memory bank!

Next up, drier lands and some ancient culture... La Cueva de Las Manos...