El Calafate, Patagonia

F 12.21.12

• we arrived in Calafate, checked in to our hotel, and shortly after, Julián picked us up from our hotel for our first excursion
• Jake found this super personal, super excellent "Safari Experience" on Trip Advisor, and it ended up being one of our favorite experiences
• here's his 4x4 that we were picked up in...I really wanted to "borrow" it for a while

• Julián drove us around his family's ranch, Estancia 25 de Mayo, which consists of 16,000 hectares (that's 39,536.9 acres) of nature reserve (we only drove/trekked around 32 miles of it)
• we saw various forms of flora and fauna (they love using these terms...do you ever use flora and fauna?)...we encountered horses, cows, dogs, birds, guanaco and several flowers and plants, like the prickly mother-in-law bush...haha:

it was SUPER prickly! (Mary is not)

gaucho spotting!

my favorite little "Lady's Slipper" flower

• at times we had small rivers to cross (where we were thankful for the 4x4, and for Julián)

• we explored ruins from the first settlers

• chatted it up with Julián...who was so friendly and willing to share his knowledge of the land, the area, and the people

• we trekked and searched for fossils

not sure what's going on here, but thought the picture was funny

• and we got to share in the tradition of passing around the mate

• then we were invited into Julián's family's summer home to share in a meal

• we first were given glasses of red wine before Julián started the fire and began dinner preparations, all over the fire

what a view!

• dinner was a rice, sausage stew with bread (delicious)

• and dessert was a sort of caramelized apple with fresh whipped cream

• we went back to our hotel, ready for sleep in our warm beds, with full bellies and fond memories of our first day spent in Patagonia
• we wondered how it could get much better from here...