They never reached Lago Argentino, the source of the river and a gateway to the Southern Andes. In February 2001, a group of 8 Brevard College students and their two leaders descended the river from the Andes to the Atlantic in sea kayaks. Click to read about the expedition of Darwin and the Beagle crew and see how little it had changed by the time Brevard's Voice of the Rivers team expedition met the river. A distant storm across the Patagonian pampa might occasionally mean rain. Often the precipitation does not reach the ground due to arid conditions.
Weather conditions are extremely variable due to a nearly constant strong wind.
Most of the land between the sea cliffs and the Andes looks a lot like this. Most of the interior highways in Patagonia are well- maintained gravel roads. They cross long, lonely expanses of unfenced grassland. This all-day cruise leaves Puerta Bandera and cruises back into the Andes to the Upsala Glacier. It also stops at an iceberg bay and at a wilderness dining room for lunch.