Moreno Glacier

Ushuaia is primarily a transfer point filled with tourist shops. It is in Tierra del Fuego. We got off the ship to look around and the wind nearly whipped us into the sea. We spent about 1/2 hour, long enough to buy a tee shirt, and went back to the  ship. The next morning we flew o El Calafante which is a city in Santa Clara. 

The Argentinian Lake is just beautiful. It is this turquoise  blue due to being glacier water with minerals. We had steak for dinner. Each portion was big enough for 20 people.

We added a number of birds to our life list. We saw condors and lots of eagles.

Fossils were everywhere

And what’s a rock without some lichen?

At one point we found five eagles lined up on fence posts. Apparently, this was a good spot to wait for roadkill  
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Patagonias history is fairly recent. Nomads roamed Patagonia for a long time but no one settled there. In the 1800s Francisco Moreno found the lake. He and a Chilean decided the border in Patagonia between Argentina and Chile. In an effort to grow population and development in the early 1900’s  ranchers were given large plots but it was sparsely populated. The area was sparsely settled until the 1950 s when the government encouraged people to settle by selling plots for $2000. It’s still pretty sparsely settled. Much like our western states.  

The next day (1/11) we went to Perditio  Moreno Glacier. On the bus ride to the glacier, we saw a full-grown puma. It was bigger than we expected. We took about ride on the lake and David got to see calving. Then we hiked for 3 miles and we all saw calving. The scenery is truly breathtaking.

So these are all taken up at the glacier. The ice buffs you see are all then floating in The lake.