Sitting in the Casa Blanca Cafe in El Calafate (an aspirational little place in an aspirational little town, even though it has Chevvies driving around even more ancient than those on display in Habana) I heard that my baby sister had just given birth to a little girl. With this momentous and extremely happy news, I spent a good few minutes (and Rands no doubt) chatting to my mom and Andrew (brother-in-law) and it seems like indeed it is time to go home. Thavashan and I found ourselves on a few hours stop-over from El Chalten, which, via El Calafate would take us back to Buenos Aires. A last hurrah in BA, and on Sunday night time to head back to Africa after four months of hippieing through the Americas. Some thoughts therefore on the past two weeks in Patagonia. Well, southern Patagonia to be more precise, and then only a part of it. The decision to spend the two weeks I had in Argentina almost exclusively in Patagonia was a good one, and I will certainly one day return for the remainder of Patagonia. This is the earth as it was in the first wild days when God made it. It simply takes your breath away. It is wild, rugged, beautiful, stark, cold (even in summer), wind-swept, snow-cladd, ice-capped and grand in its proportions. Glaciers, lakes, peaks, rivers, plains, canyons and great ranges of mountains - your camera goes into overdrive (although, of course, you cannot do the vastness of the vistas much justice with a happy snapper ...). We started in El Calafate, with the principal attraction being the Perito Morena Glacier. The fate of glaciers generally the world over is of course widely publicised, but for particular localised reasons this glacier is holding its own (at least for now). It is an understatement to call it impressive - one only really comes to grips with the sheer scale when you approach the glacier face by boat. It was a full day trip where we were able to view both the north and south faces of the glacier, menacingly descending from the awesome Paine Massif. During our time in El Calafate, we managed to also work in two visits to working farms (estancias) with some mountain biking and gorging ourselves on the famous Argentinian beef and lamb part of the overall menu. The Argentinians are visibly proud of their frontier heritage, and tales of how the south was won abound. We then left El Calafate and its beautiful Lago Argentino behind, and headed slightly south for Puerto Natales in Chile via bus - this was to be as south as we were going to get - 51 degrees south to be more precise (and a good 3000 km south of Cape Town, for reference). Landing in the midst of presidential elections and end of soccer league celebrations, we quickly booked some places and rented gear / bought food for a five day hike in the Parque Torres del Paine. We completed the (now famous and most popular) "W" over a period of five days - sleeping in a tent the first two nights, and in Refugios the second two. With our packs weighing in at about 20 kgs, it was a pretty demanding hike, not made easier on the first day by the typical Patagonian howling westerly, doggedly resisting our progress toward Grey Glacier on day one. However, we were very lucky with the weather for the rest of the hike, and I absolutely loved it (so indeed, I believe, did Thavashan). In fact, contrary to expectation, he had his two best nights of sleep in the tent on the flimsy excuses for hiking mattresses that we used. I am evidently made of less stern stuff, preferring the crowded but properly mattressed rooms of the Refugios). No matter where we walked, I had to pinch myself for the beauty of it all, and even though rather exhausted on the final morning, was very sad to leave the park behind. We were somewhat mollified by the thought of the excellent seafood restaurant that we discovered on our first night in Puerto Natales, of course to be accompanied by a Pisco Sour or two. We then set off for El Chalten and the Fitzroy range back in Argentina, completed via a two-bus trip back through El Calafate, which allowed us to eat an excellent Hamburger at said Casa Blanca. El Chalten consisted of two action packed days, which induced me to leave some blood on the cliffs close to town where we spent the better part of a day learning to rock climb (Thavashan and a rather thin looking rope being my only salvation from certain death on two occasions ...) and the next day hiking to Grande Glacier to hike on the glacier and do some ice climbing as well. This was a twelve hour day, during which we covered 30kms (about 5 of which in crampons), so we were somewhat worse for wear arriving back at our little hotel. However, having discovered a micro-brewery in town, as well as the fact that Tracy Chapman music is (somewhat randomly and bizarrely) played everywhere, we had a pretty decent time of it in the evenings, again working our way through what felt like the better part of a lamb in a small parilla on the edge of town that night. But then, we deserved it, say I. In El Chalten, the weather was generally nasty (from a wind perspective) in true Patagonian style, but the land and the experience no less the wonderful for it. It is clear that tourism is growing quite rapidly in this part of the world, and how congested the trails will become in the future is open to speculation. I'm glad I saw it now. And as Arnie said, I'll be back. So Mr T and I made our way back to Buenos Aires via another (and final) stop over in El Calafate. We were pleasantly surprised that Aerolineas Argentinas got us to BA more or less on time, which allowed us to sit outside in a square in San Telmo and drinks beers until a very balmy 4am. Saturday was recovery day and a bit of shopping, finished off - as one does - with a good glass of Malbec and an aged rump at another of BA's famous parillas. Argentina (and Chile!) has been very good to us.