Sheer size, such ice

And now ... to get entirely out of sequence ... here are photos from our very first day in Argentina ... when we went to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier near Calafate. The Perito Moreno is impressive ... both in sheer size and activity ... we saw some major calving while we were there ... a relatively common occurrence for that particular glacier.

The first photo below is a bit of an inside joke (with myself) because when I was an exchange student in Argentina (10 years ago when I was a junior in HS) a taxi driver cussed me out one day for shutting the door with too much force. In Argentina you're expected to swing the door gently in, and then give it a nudge to latch it. So I was a bit amused to see the sign on the door of the taxi that we took to the Perito Moreno that read: "close slowly." And the best part is, now, with my much improved Spanish, I know exactly what the sign directs me, the passenger, to do. No more awkward taxi encounters for me ... at least not in Spanish speaking countries!