Windy, soaring mountains, startling blue water and many vistas of great beauty is my description of this park. We did one hike of about 3 miles and the wind was a steady 25 miles per hour with gusts to 45 miles per hour. I'll just post some of my many pictures and so you can appreciate what I experienced. 
Breakfast at our hotel included Valentine Day cookies. This morning our
bus left at 7 am. We drove through the the area of Patagonia to the
cross the border by land. this are is mainly arid and flat with lots of
sheep. We had another good weather.
Crossing the border by land was much less formal than at an airport. First we checked out int Argentinian immigration, got on our bus and drove across the border and checked in at Chilean immigration. This all took time but according to our tour guide it was smother than usual
The white building is Chilean immigration and the in the other picture you can see that the area is quite small.
While we were waiting we did see a gray fox in the field. Our next stop was Torre de Paine National Park. On our way there we saw several groups of guanacoas. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Guanacos are herbivores, grazing on grasses, shrubs, herbs, lichens, fungi, cacti, and flowers.
A unique activity that Overseas Adventure Travel plans for tour groups is called A Day in the Life. The group goes to a location and learns more in depth about what life is like if you live there. Today we went to a sheep and cattle ranch only a 20 minute ride from the town of El Calafate where we are staying. The owner Gerardo was our host. First we were given gorro (hat) de (of) gaucho (skilled horseman) and the typical neck scarf (pañuelo) worn by gauchos. Our lunch was lamb and we watched as the lamb was put onto a iron roasting spit to be cooked for 3 hours.
The land is barren and dry. There is only about 6 to 8 inches of annual precipitation by rain or snow. Gerardo does have some irrigation to provide water for the animals and to grow some alfalfa.
We watched Gerardo's sheep dog herd the sheep into his barn. Then he sheared a bit of one sheep.
Before we went to lunch Gerardo demonstrated how to throw a boleadora. A boleadora is a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling their legs. Gerardo demonstrated and the goal was to throw it around a pole. Most of the men in our group tried it and then I tried it. I tried several times to post a video of this but it didn't post so here is a picture.
Notice that I nailed it! The boleadora is wrapped tightly around the bottom of the pole. Today there was hardly any wind and it was bright sunshine. We have been blessed with good weather.
Today we had a three hour flight across southern Argentina from Buenos Aires to El Calafate. It is
a town near the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. It’s mainly known as the gateway to
Los Glaciares National Park, home to the massive Perito Moreno Glacier. The glacier is where we go tomorrow. This was a sign at the airport when we arrived. We are at the very southern tip of South America.
One of the fun parts of traveling with a group is the interesting people you meet. There are 22 of us on this tour. There are 5 from North Carolina, 3 from South Carolina, 7 from California, 1 from Wisconsin, 2 from Pennsylvania, 2 from Colorado and my cousin from Idaho and me from Oregon. The one common factor among all of us is that we are curious and enjoy learning more each day. The picture was taken when were were learning about the Tango. The women in the green shirt who is kneeling in the front is Aline our tour leader.
The Ateneo book store is in an old opera house. It is a beautiful book store!
