Today was slightly harder work. We had tricky start to the day. At the sunrise location the sunrise largely failed to materialise, but we did get light just on the peaks for a few minutes, and I got some good close-ups.
We had then been promised a location where a female puma and her cubs were working their way through a recent kill within easy sight of the road. The score: dead guanacos 1, pumas nil!
The post-breakfast shoot was productive, walking up past a dramatic waterfall to a large space filled with trees which died in the major forest fire of 2011. These make great compositional elements, either as frames for the mountains, or as primary subjects in their own right, with mountains behind.
Another lazy afternoon allowed me to catch up with my images and blog, although posting the latter was a painful process. The internet connection in Torres del Paine is not only slow, but also drops out every few minutes, causing anything which was part-way through to have to restart. When I’m back I’ll have to review my blog posting software and see if I can make it more resilient, although how I’ll test this I’m not quite sure.
I must have accidentally offended El Gauchito Gil (the Argentinian "Robin Hood" and protector of travellers), but I’m not quite sure how. However first my sandwich for lunch took almost an hour to arrive, then when we went for dinner I was served last, at which point the restaurant realised they’d got the order wrong and prepared one too many vegetarian risottos, one too few salmons. Fortunately it didn’t take them long to fix it, but I was then a bit peeved when despite their many "mea culpa"s, they insisted I break an additional large note when my available cash came up about 50p short. Not impressed.
The plan was to get back to the hotel, then go to the other side of the island to shoot sunset. However as it was by then cloudy and blowing at about 50mph I took an executive decision and decamped to the bar. Much better!
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Today was a lighter day, partly to allow everyone to recover from the long drive, and specifically to make sure Gustavo stays within his driving hour limits. We went up the road about 1 mile for sunrise, with a similar Continue reading →
Monday, February 20, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
This morning’s subject was a “guanaco hunt”, capturing one or more of the charming Patagonia llamas in a nice pose, ideally in front of a mountain or similar. Over lunch, as beer was consumed, we got talking about how we Continue reading →
After a very quick dawn shoot we assembled for the long drive from El Chalten to Torres del Paine in Chile. This involves driving about 100 miles East, the a couple of hundred South, past El Calafate where we started, Continue reading →
The day started with another visit to the canyon viewpoint, to see if we could get better light than on Wednesday. At first it looked like the Eastern sky was overcast and we wouldn’t get much, but suddenly about 1/2 Continue reading →
Saturday, February 18, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
Richard’s plan for this morning was a hike of 1.5-2 hours in each direction, with a significant vertical element. With my hip and knees complaining a bit I took the better part of valour and with Nigel opted for the Continue reading →
Friday, February 17, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
We started the day about an hour before sunrise back at the overlook of Mt Fitzroy and the Las Vueltas river. On the positive side, yesterday’s wind didn’t re-materialise. On a more negative one, neither did much of the warm Continue reading →
Thursday, February 16, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
We spent the morning of the second full day driving from El Calafate to El Chalten, which will be our base for four days. The road was remarkably flat, mainly straight and moderately boring for much of the time, but Continue reading →
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
The first day of the tour proper was spent on a trip to the Perito Moreno Glacier, a 250km2 ice formation, one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field between Argentina and Chile. It is one of Continue reading →
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
On the first night in El Calafate we had an excellent but very large steak dinner, and once my digestive system had settled down I got a reasonable night’s sleep (cheat!) At breakfast it transpired we’d been joined by the Continue reading →
Monday, February 13, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
I’ve made a start on one of my occasional tests of the human body’s ability to endure in situations of extreme sleep deprivation, or, as I usually call them, photo trips. This time it’s Patagonia. Those who know me better Continue reading →
Sunday, February 12, 2023 in
Patagonia,
Travel
While I’m not convinced by Rishi Sunak’s plan to improve British standards of numeracy, I wholly support the objective. I seem to be battling on a daily basis with statements which either make no sense if you inspect the numbers, Continue reading →
Thursday, January 5, 2023 in
Thoughts on the World