{"id":703,"date":"2011-04-08T09:21:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T16:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/?p=703"},"modified":"2014-09-08T09:46:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T16:46:24","slug":"here-comes-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"Here comes the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After several cloudy mostly sun-free days I figure seeing Fitz Roy is not in the cards so I decide to head south for El Calafate. I get the bike packed down and I notice the first sun beams breaking through the thinning clouds overhead. Perhaps I will get a last minute reprieve. El Calafate is a short day from El Chalten so I hang out to see what unfolds. After a couple hours of varying degrees of partial sunshine my patience wanes and I snap a few shots as I leave the city.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236139258_rEfKJ-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236140756_R8hzH-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236141258_KnCk4-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236141861_4MMig-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A tailwind accompanies me as I ride along Lago Viedma and I run over 100 mph with the throttle barely open in a virtually noise free cocoon of music and Patagonian scenery. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-VBVVD8P\/0\/XL\/i-VBVVD8P-XL.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236143331_iXHbP-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1236145578_mZqqx-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>El Calafate is a big time tourist town and I am thankful I am here in the off-season. The town is quiet and I enjoy my stay but imagine I would hate it during tourist season. The big attraction in El Calafate is <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Perito_Moreno_Glacier\">Perito Moreno,<\/a> one of a dwindling number of glaciers that is still growing.  The ride from El Calafate is short and scenic and the cross winds off Lago Argentino are fierce but that&#8217;s to be expected.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-FmvswJN\/0\/XL\/i-FmvswJN-XL.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238710281_nH3st-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238712306_LXALP-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238716135_iRRwj-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To see Perito Moerno in person is a memorable experience and worth contending with the droves of tourists though I recommend the off-season. A highlight is to hear the ice expand and crack just before it falls into the water and makes an enormous splash. I heard the first splash of a BIG piece of ice as I was walking down the mirador but did not see it. I saw a second very large piece of ice fracture and slide off into the water but did not have my camera at the ready. I am thankful I got to see it though. It&#8217;s tough to wrap  your head around the scale unless you&#8217;ve seen it live.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238717713_zQjRo-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238728539_z9TCk-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238729872_pRuvK-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238732638_yUk6y-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238735768_dTmEB-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I take a boat tour which I recommend at the least. Ideally you want to hike the glacier, I did not and regret the decision in retrospect. Sunshine brings out the blue hues of the ice and make for some stunning photography but I had to settle for the lighting from a  mostly cloudy day.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238744371_GdmxG-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238747834_By7JN-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238753486_PfJQu-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238755899_zqf38-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238758982_rF8HH-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/photos\/1238759745_UJukG-XL.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a video from the boat tour. I don&#8217;t know where the commentary came from, I just turned on the video and started talking. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uTojtSo3d7E\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After several cloudy mostly sun-free days I figure seeing Fitz Roy is not in the cards so I decide to head south for El Calafate. I get the bike packed down and I notice the first sun beams breaking through the thinning clouds overhead. Perhaps I will get a last minute reprieve. El Calafate is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[269],"tags":[30,68,71,219,222,215,220,224,8,223,110,27,9],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/peritomoreno.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Lnhy-bl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}