On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
way2blue
I pinged several people who’d spent time in Patagonia—asking what to see & how to travel. After a few false starts, I booked a U-shaped trip from the U.S. to Buenos Aires to Ushuaia to Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine to Valparaiso. This second batch of photos is from the core of the trip—a five-day cruise on M/V Ventus Australis through the Strait of Magellan and Beagle, Murray & Cockburn Channels. Names echoing the history of European exploration in southernmost South America.
After the afternoon hike on Isla Navarino, the ship sailed through a series of channels overnight to reenter Beagle Channel. By morning we had reached the Pia Fjord within the Darwin Range. We again climbed into a zodiac to zip amongst baby icebergs to our landing spot adjacent to Pia Glacier. Note that two glacial flows on either side of a low mountain come together here at the shore. (The one on the right is somewhat hidden under rock debris.)
We disembarked and climbed high enough for a vista of the glacier. The debris-covered one on the right and a glimpse of the blue ice one on the left. Our guide explained that the blue color results from compression collapsing air bubbles in the ice.
Looking back down the fjord with the ship in the distance. The ship had a draft of just 3 meters. We were told that this ship & its sister ship are the only ones able to enter these fairly narrow and shallow channels. (Our cabin was mid-ship on the main deck, so even with the shallow draft, we felt only gentle wave motion in the protected channels & fjords.)
The rock surfaces we scrambled up were really fun. Here, a stretched & folded metamorphosed granitic rock, aka gneiss.
Heading back for breakfast. Just over 100 passengers on the ship, mostly active people in their 30s, 40s & 50s. We were advised to wear waterproof gear on the zodiacs and I saw a fair number of ‘repurposed’ snowboard pants. Mine were ski pants…
After the morning excursion, the ship headed west along the Beagle Channel to enter another fjord. (A bit tricky trying to take a photo that’s not blurry while also trying to hang on.) Here we’re en route to Garibaldi Glacier. Members of the deck crew ‘drove’ the zodiacs and I must note that they were having fun blasting along.
Another split glacier with the flow on the right covered with debris—pushing ahead a sort of a terminal moraine. This time we did not get out to hike, rather just snugged up close to the toes of the glaciers.
The vertical stripes mark where two glacial flows merge to form a medial moraine.
I believe there was a request for waterfalls…
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Chris T.
Nice waterfall. Nice gneiss too. (“Nice gneiss!” “That’s not nice, it’s schist!”)
(Edit: to be clear, I’m just making bad geology puns – some gneiss is metamorphosed schist, this stuff is metamorphosed granite.)
eclare
That third photo is stunning. What an amazing trip!
AM in NC
Just wow. Looks like an absolutely incredible trip. Thanks for sharing the photos/descriptions!
WaterGirl
Beautiful photos! The colors are amazing.
MelissaM
These are lovely but my eyes did the “a-WOO-gah!” thing at the gneiss! Holy fuck! These are the things that blow my mind – how long ago that piece was straight, how long it was folding. I should have gone into geology.
StringOnAStick
@MelissaM: Geology makes a great hobby but is a very up and down career; I have a BS and MS in it but since I got them during the recession roller coaster of the mid 1980’s my jobs in the field collapsed in the early 1990’s, sputtered along a few more years and then I changed careers; of everyone I knew in geology, only 1 finished his working career in the field (oil&gas; I was in groundwater and environmental restoration). I still identify as a geologist though; it’s where my heart is.
As for Patagonia, my memory of looking out the window to see glacier after glacier as we flew North from Ushuaia is strong; I was gifted that window seat by a local who could see I wanted a long last look; thanks for reminding me of that kind man!
way2blue
@StringOnAStick:
I’m sorry to hear you weren’t able to stay working in the earth sciences. My spouse is a surface water/ground water hydrologist who was lucky I guess. One of my sons is working on a PhD in environmental restoration (along a stretch of the Sacramento River). Here’s hoping he makes a go of it…
way2blue
@MelissaM:
Cool twisted rocks polished by glaciers. Slippery too…
cope
What wonderful pictures of a wild and brooding land. Thanks.
@StringOnAStick: Amen. My degrees in geology and earth science led to a ten year career doing well site geology which, for various reasons including the oil bust in the 80s, morphed into 28 years teaching high school earth science, environmental science and astronomy. But, like you, I still consider geology my main identifier.
pieceofpeace
From your pictures, I would spent a trip daily standing on deck, slowly making 360 degree turns, and being absorbed by sights and the ongoing word ‘Wow.’ What an opportunity that would be!
Dan B
The trees have that Japanese quality of layered clouds so they’re probably Nothofagus, Antarctic Beech. Not that any grow on the Antarctic continent, just that they are native to the southern hemisphere. Fagus = Beech. Not sure what Notho means.
way2blue
@pieceofpeace: Agreed. The fifth deck had wrap-around window so you could chose to sit in a comfy chair and watch the mountains slide by… But outside was best.
way2blue
@Dan B:
Yes. I think you’re correct. That those Japanese looking trees are Beech.