A place to see before you die

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Wow! Words cannot describe the day we had today, but I will try 😊 We are in El Calafate, Patagonia at the moment which is about 40 km from the El Perito Moreno Glacier. We booked in at the Hostelling International hostel in town which legitimately is the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in. I mean, the titled floors are even heated!

We headed off on a tour with our hostel this morning to the glacier. It was called the ¨Alternative Glacier Tour¨ because we took the gravel backroads to get to the glacier. The backroads used to be the path that the horse and wool traders took to get to Buenos Aires to sell their goods at port. It is also the best path to see some of the wildlife in the area. On our way there we saw a condor, some flamingos (I have no idea how there are flamingos in a snow capped mountain area), and horses.

The view the entire way was amazing. The land was like a praire with huge mountains in the background. The sun was shining perfectly upon the mountains which made for great photos. As we drove up to the glacier we couldn´t believe our eyes. It was huge. Our guide explained that the total mass of the glacier is the same size as the city of Buenos Aires, which let me tell you is huge.

We had no idea how close we would actually be able to get to the glacier. We pulled up to the parking lot with about 30 other buses and realized that we would be able to take a trail which would get us eye level with the glacier. We walked down the trail and were in complete awe the entire time. The glacier was right in front of us, glowing in the sun. At times pieces of the glacier would fall off and crash loudly. We ate our lunch on a bench right in front of the glacier. It was so awesome!

What we didn´t know is that our tour included a boat ride which would take us even closer to the North side of the glacier. I literally took 150 photos, which lucky for you I will only make make my family painstakingly go through.

We took a nice nap on the way back and then spent the rest of the day walking around the town of El Caladate which is a mix between Woodstock and Lake Tahoe. We met some nice Argentinians at the bar who gave us a sample of their artwork and inspired me to take a summer off to be a bar tender in the Carribean (just kidding Mom and Dad). Tomorrow we spend another wonderful day chilling out in town before we head to Sabtiago de Chile.

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Photos

Sheep Skins
These are sheep skins that were set out by the sheep´s owner. Our guide explained that these sheep were probably sick. The farmer wants to make every use of the sheep so he skins it after it passes away and sets its skin out to dry.