As we approach the Perito Moreno glacier the flat steppe gives way to the snow-covered mountains which give rise to the glacier. For me there is an extra magic to this trip as I was first taught about Pampas, gauchos and glaciers rather randomly as an impressionable 11 year old in my first year of high school. And suddenly there it is, a wide river of ice flowing down between snowy mountains on each side into the milky blue lake. A boat takes us to a few hundred ...

A three hour flight over large dry agricultural fields, some sapphire ocean and an expanse of Patagonian desert to El Calafate in the south. In the dry,sandy, stony Patagonian steppe are low tussocks of yellowish grass and short spiny green bushes with occasional yellow flowers we catch sight of a couple of wild rheas and guanacos, the local llama. El Calafate is a small backwater which has rapidly tripled its population to cater for tourists visiting the Perit...