Travel with Indigo

Barely two days following my three friends’ departure, a massive high pressure center moves in over southern Patagona, pushing out the nasty low that had besieged us for so long and had brought with it rain, sleet and cold and the Jack Plague that made us all so miserable.

Today is different. Glistening snow-clothed peaks stand stark against a brilliant azure sky. The high’s low humidity and bracing chill drive me on this windless Colorado Blue Sky day to charter the same flight we cancelled only two days before. For two and a half hours, I fly, circling Torres del Paine’s stunning spires now rising from a white blanket, then pushing northward to Perito Mareno and on to Mount Fitz Roy, these last two in Argentina, before finally heading home. It is a magical tour as if through the Swiss Alps or the Denali Range on a profoundly breathtaking day.

Indeed the day is so special that it brings with it a visit by the Chilean National President, complete with military escorts, helicopters, and police-lined roads, her (yes, her) purpose in coming being the same as mine–air touring of the self-same parks.