Trip update

This is one of the most photogenic spots in the Torres del Paine park, and it was about 10 minutes from where we were staying. In the center right (top) portion you can see the Torres, and our camp/hotel was right at their base. I took the picture in the morning when no air was yet stirring, so the reflection in the river is quite amazing. Bear in mind that the elevation at this spot was only about 600 ft. It's amazing how much snow there is in the southern latitudes at relatively low elevations. The huge Southern Patagonia ice sheet (third largest in the world after Antarctica and Greenland) is behind these mountains and stretches north for several hundred kilometers. Torres del Paine marks the spot where the Cordillera of the Andes drops down and even disappears for a bit, before resurfacing around Ushuaia, which is some 800 kilometers south of this spot.

Tomorrow we have a long traverse to the provincia of Chaco, where we will be for the next several days before returning home. Blogging will be very light if nonexistent tomorrow, but I hope to keep things going whenever we have time at the hotel. We'll be spending most of our time visiting the Grameen-style micro-lending bank that we helped establish a few years ago. Chaco is the poorest part of Argentina, and we are told that our donation has made a real difference to lots of families there. More on this later.