Patagonia

Filed in archive Latin Travel on February 28, 2009

The images that usually spring to mind when someone says "latin America" have to do with beaches and rain forests, hot cities and hotter food, tropical fruits and maybe some quality rum. So if I started talking to you about the glaciers of Latin America, you might think I'd had too much of the aforementioned rum. Not so...

Latin Guides has a fascinating piece on Chilean Patagonia and its 48 glaciers.

In the landscape of Chilean Patagonia are the largest bodies of eternal ice, silent witnesses of the last ice age, more than 20,000 years... At this distant place and unattainable for many, you will see the great Southern Ice Fields, the largest in the hemisphere. It is a mass of glaciers covering completely the three Andes mountain range, with an area of 17,000 square kilometres of ice that occupy the territories of Chile and Argentina.

The author gives an excellent description of the trip and even answers some of the practical questions about how to get there.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 1893307