View Tom Dempsey's favorite images of Argentina, in Patagonia, South America: See the stunning natural wonders of jagged Cerro Fitz Roy and huge Perito Moreno Glacier in The Glaciers National Park (Los Glaciares NP). Lenga (Nothofagus, or Southern Beech) leaves turn a beautiful color in late summer and fall, in Tierra del Fuego National Park, near Ushuaia, which is cruise ship terminal for Antarctica. Buenos Aires, "the Paris of the south," is the home of tango dance and music.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, South America: La Boca barrio colorful houses, La Casa Rosada (The Pink House) iconic official executive mansion and office of the President of Argentina, the May Pyramid (Pirámide de Mayo, 1811) in Plaza de Mayo, Puente de la Mujer ("Woman's Bridge") in Puerto Madero barrio, Fragata Presidente Sarmiento (first training ship of the Argentine Navy 1898-1961), Recoleta Cemetery, San Telmo barrio, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, tango and Chamamé public dancing in Dorrego Square, tango mural, cobblestone streets, calabash gourds fitted with silver straws for drinking the Argentine national drink mate (or maté), Bolas.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Mount Fitz Roy, Argentina, in Patagonia, South America: See a golden sunrise spotlighting Mount Fitz Roy, which rises abruptly on the border between Argentina and Chile in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Andes mountains, near El Chaltén village, in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina, South America. In 1877, explorer Perito Moreno named "Cerro Fitz Roy" for Robert FitzRoy (no space before the capital R) who, as captain of the HMS Beagle, had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted much of the Patagonian coast. First climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone, Mount Fitz Roy has very fickle weather and is one of the world’s most challenging technical ascents. It is also called Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, and Monte Fitz Roy (all with a space before the R). Chaltén comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain" (explained by frequent orographic clouds). Cerro is a Spanish word meaning hill. El Chaltén village was built in 1985 by Argentina to help secure the disputed border with Chile. The nearest airport is 220 km south in the larger town of El Calafate. Mount Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia company’s clothing logo, after Yvon Chouinard's ascent and subsequent film in 1968.

Visit Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park as a day trip from El Calafate, in southwest Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Easy boardwalks give wide views of Moreno Glacier, an impressive wall of ice 200 feet high and 3 miles (5 km) wide flowing into Lake Argentina. The glacier flows up to 2300 feet thick and originates in the huge Hielo Sur (Southern Icefield) in the southern Andes mountains. For the past 90 years, its advancing has equaled melting (up to 2 meters per day, 700 meters per year), and the terminus has stayed at one location. Flowing ice periodically dams an arm of the lake which rises for a few years then breaks across the nose of the glacier as a crashing river (in March 2004 and 1991). In 2005 (photos), a narrow river flowed across the glacier face which calved large chunks of ice into the water with a loud crash several times per day. The foot of South America is known as Patagonia, a name derived from coastal giants, Patagão or Patagoni, who were reported by Magellan's 1520s voyage circumnavigating the world and were actually Tehuelche native people who averaged 25 cm (or 10 inches) taller than the Spaniards.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Ushuaia (one of the world's most southernmost cities) in Tierra del Fuego province, Argentina. From Ushuaia, board a cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula across the Drake Passage.