What to write about something so beautiful the photos take my breath away and yet have only one clear memory of, as small as I look in this photo?

Well, I will tell you that story anyway. It is more an image than a story. During our stay at Awasi Patagonia, outside the Torres del Paine National Park, one afternoon, after riding horses at Estancia Lazo, our guide Diego figured we had just enough time to squeeze in one short walk before dinner, around Lago Sarmiento. Take a lookie.

The astounding thing to me about Patagonia, in a land of deep ice and cool, was this shocking blue everywhere. In lakes. On top of glaciers. Under our boats.

Our guide, Diego told us to walk around the lake until we saw his car, waiting for us, which is completely brilliant as we only had to do the hike one direction. (Thank you, Diego!)

The lake's colors weren't the only astounding things. Thrombolites! There were huge deposits of calcium carbonate in otherworldy shapes and structures along the edges of the lake, and Diego explained how they were formed, which has something to do with the alkalinity of the water and the minerals in it. He explained it much better, but that was six months ago, and I summarize.

They were so porous, and yet when I touched them, they were extremely hard and not crumbly whatsoever. Which makes sense, since estimates I've found date them at 10,000 years old.

Anyway, back to my story. We are toodling around the lake, me probably trying to hurry Walker up, he probably taking his time to get these photos for such a time as this, and I wander ahead to this. And you can't see the before photos, but that rusty wire went all the way into the lake and no way were we going to ford a salty lake. So we went the old school way. Through.

I was very proud of this solution, and forced Walker to follow suit.

The loud waves, the complete solitude, the warm sun and wind: this is Patagonia.