Fitzroy and Glaciers

As we are now so close to the end, we´ve been rushing about like mad things in Brazil for carnaval and now in Salta for wine/food, so the blogs are a bit delayed. As a result I cant remember much about this bit so I’ll bluff it quickly and we’ll move onto the Brazil one...!

Left Punta Arenas amid a hearty final booze up and fancy dress party with the other volunteers, and went to Puerto Natales. Here we had dinner in restaurant overdecorated in Beatles mania and then went to bed. During the night the wind huffed and puffed so much I thought that the house would... well you know.

Got bus to el calafate, crossing from Chile to Argentina once more. Stayed at hostel del glaciar libertador. New double room with bathroom but still felt like a hostel. Miserable place with no homely features, just cashing in really. Probably ok if you are staying in dorms, but there is no tv room, internet (always broken) or chill out zone. Arranged ‘Cerro Frias’ tour that day through hostel for Claire to go horse riding and Simon to trek, both ending up at a bbq for food and booze. Hostel alledgedly arranged, but company ‘forgot’ to come and collect us, so we were left sitting like lemons in the hostel foyer for ages before we complained and had to get our money back. Not a good start. We wish it were an isolated incident but the hostel was full of people who had suffered at the hands of the inept staff there.

Also arranged for ice-trekking overnight camping thing, which had been recommended to us. This was to be an exciting trek for two days with a death-defying rappel across a raging stream to get to the glaciar face before donning ice climbing gear to climb up the perilously icy glaciar wall to conquer the west face. What a load of cobblers. After a nice trek and lovely scenery the first day we got out of our tents the following morning (or creaked in our case) to be greeted by rain and sullen looking guides muttering about not being able to ford the river today. So despite our efforts to get something moving we ended up with a quick dangle over the river and then a long walk back to the town where we sat around on our bums all day waiting for the bus back to start point Hostel.

Thats about it really, apart from Claire trying to snog a guanaco at a tea shop on the way back. Although we made some nice friends, we felt it was a complete waste of time and ripped off as they wouldnt refund any money for not being able to do 90% of the itinery. Claire has a lot more to say about this at the end of the blog....

On the upside, the next day we went to go on a boat to see more galciars (this being THE park for glaciars after all). Our bus to the port turned up late and we ended up being one of the last onboard, as a result we had crummy seats and could barely see the ice cubes in our drinks let alone out the windows. So after an announcement on the tannoy about upgrading caught our ear, we did exactly that and ended up in with the captain and ten or so selected others having a whale of a time with free drinks, a private area with great seats and fab views out the front, back and sides.

Saw several glaciars including Spegnazzi, Onelli and the biggest by a long shot, Upsala. All day was spent dodging icebergs in the lake which were an amazing blue, and getting pretty close to the glaciar front. Good fun and well worth the upgrade cost, which was actually much less than we thought as the lovely hostess who took our money and served us champagne with cheese and ham 'sarnies had clearly bunked Mathematics and Use of Calculators 101 at school.

This whole area of Parque Nacional de Los Glaciares (National Park of the Glaciars to you non-spanish speaking folk) El Chalten and El Calafate is a tourist trap and rip off. However, the scenery is spectacular and well worth it - for a couple of days.



Footnote for travellers in El Calafate, Argentina:
About the Super Treking, (otherwise known as Camino Abierto, VTG Glacier Adventure On The Torre Mount) rip off: If the weather is bad and you dont get to ice trek there is no compensation either monetary or activity wise. What you do get is to walk back to El Chalten buy your own drinks and wait for the bus. Doesnt appeal, didnt to us either. Effectively we paid US150 dollars each to walk up a valley and sleep in a tent for the night.

The operator Camino Abierto would not refund and neither would our booking agent the inept Hostel Glaciares (but not sole agent as they want you to believe - shop around as you can get this tour from tour operators in El Calafate). Infact the on duty manager at Hostel Glaciares Emilio wouldnt even come out of his office to discuss it with us, leaving a poor lackey to face the wrath of S + C - not pretty!

We have written to both Camino Abierto and Hostel Las Glaciares asking for a partial refund and pointed them to this blog. We are willing to edit this paragraph out as and when they refund us something but if you are reading this you can assume that the no refund policy stands so be warned!

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