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Published: March 23rd 2014
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We had a short 3 hour bus ride from El Chalten back to El Calafate. Once we arrived we spent the afternoon relaxing, organising food & boots for our Big Ice excursion (glacier walk) the next day.
It was an early start to the day with a hostel pick up at 7am & a 80km drive to Los Glaciares National Park. We visited the viewing platforms which gave spectacular views of Perito Moreno glacier's North and South faces & rupture points. The sounds of the ice cracking & breaking were unbelievable, it sounded like gun shots going off. We saw big chunks of ice breaking off & falling into the lake. We then headed for the pier in Bajo de las Sombras port. We sailed across the Rico Arm & had more amazing views of the glacier's face. lt gave a great perspective of the size of the glacier with the top being approximately 50m above the water line. After disembarking the group split into smaller groups before walking for about an hour and a half following the lateral moraine along the side of the glacier. Once we reached our access point to the glacier we were each fitted with
a harness & crampons. We were given a lesson on how to walk in crampons before splitting into groups of about 10 & heading out on the glacier for our ice treking.
We generally walked in a line following the guide & exploring the immense ice plateau. We saw lots of moulins all of varying sizes, these are areas where the glacial water decends into the glacier, leaving deep holes that are an amazing blue colour. We explored an ice cave where over hundreds of years the water has carved out the ice to leave us with the opportunity to see more of the most amazing shades of blue. We took a break & had lunch on the ice before continuing our exploration & visiting a lake. Throughout our trek it was unreal the different shades of blue that appeared in the crevasses of the ice. We stayed on the slow moving edge of the glacier but in the distance we could see where high pressure has created sharp peaks as the glacier continues to move at a rapid rate down towards the lake. When we eventually made it back to our starting point on the edge of the
glacier our feet breathed a sigh of relief when the crampons were removed & we could go back to walking normally. We retraced our steps back to the waiting ferry for the short ride to our bus back to el Calafate.
Having spent a day walking on a glacier and seeing one close up we decided to visit the Glaciarium, a museum focusing on understanding Glaciers & environmental awareness. It was interesting to learn more about the life of a glacier and the changes that are happening to the glaciers in the region. Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers in the world that is not receding due to 'global warming'.
On the edge of Lago Argentino is the Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve & includes two other small lakes. We followed the nature walk & saw many different types of birds including flamingos, ducks, lapwings & more. As part of the nature walk we were able to sit in a bird hide & get a closer view of the different birds.
Along the main street & many of the side streets around El Calafate there are restaurants cooking & serving Patagonian lamb in the traditional way.
A fire is built over stones & the whole lamb is stretched over skewers (crucified) in a cross shape. It is cooked slowly for up to 6 hours & tastes fantastic.
We headed back to Chile to board the Navimag ferry to take us from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. Although the ferry was late in arriving we were told we would still leave on time, even though embarkation was delayed by 4 hours, providing enough time to stock up on drinks for the trip.
We boarded the ship with our hand luggage & wine at 6pm through the back & climbed up to the passenger decks. We had booked a 3 person room but it turned out the ship wasn't full so we had the room to ourselves (even though there were people who tried to book on & was told it was full). After dinner we had a safety briefing & were advised that we wouldn't be leaving until morning so would be arriving in Puerto Montt a day late (Saturday). One of the crew was able to call our hostel to cancel a nights accommodation so no problem.
We set sail the following morning
through the Patagonian fjords which were stunning. We travelled through the Angostura White passage which was only 80 meters wide, it felt as it you could lean out & touch the shore. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side so the views were not as spectacular as they would be with sunshine. This weather was to continue for the duration of the trip.
We stopped at Puerto Eden, a small isolated village. When we arrived the back of the Navimag was lowered & surrounded by local boats either collecting or dropping off passengers or cargo, this was one of the only links they have to the mainland, and the deliveries included the usual food and fuel as well as fridges and industrial cookers.
We had to sail in the Pacific, across the Gulf of Penas, this open-sea crossing started during the night & we woke in the early hours of the morning to find everything that was on the table now on the floor. It also made sleep more difficult as we were rolling from side to side. In the afternoon the next day we were in our cabin sleeping & reading when all the lights went out.
It turned out that we were travelling using one engine & now this had also stopped working. Luckily it wasn't long before we were going again.
We were advised that due to the rough weather we had had to slow our speed so would therefore not be arriving in the morning but arriving Saturday evening. Later we were then advised that we were able to spend Saturday night onboard as we would be arriving around 8pm. This turned out to again be wrong & we eventually arrived about 8am on Sunday morning. Again we had requested that Navimag contact two hostels we had booked & delay the bookings by two days which all worked out fine. The biggest issue we had was that the toilets stopped working one by one, which wasn't the most pleasant experience. We were just glad we didn't have anything booked that we couldn't change, unlike some people that had flights leaving.
During our four days at sea we saw an amazing amount of marine life including blue whales, minkie whales, sea lions, dolphins, lots of various sea birds and jellyfish. The scenery we passed was stunning, it was just disappointing that the weather
wasn't better. From Puerto Montt we took a local bus to Puerto Varas.
We decided to hire bicycles & ride 32km to Frutillar, a cute little lakeside town on the edge of Lake Llanquihue. It is an historic German town and the architecture reminded us of our time in Europe. There were plenty of German restaurants as well, but we were unable to find Hitler or any other Nazis that were rumoured to have come here after WW2. Our cycle route to Frutillar was along the edge of the lake. The first & last 6 km were more difficult as we road along dirt paths & roads. Once on the sealed roads it was definitely easier except for several very steep hills. Before we left Puerto Varas our hostel owner said that if we rode up the hills & didn't walk we would earn a beer, the challenge was accepted & conquered.
Next stop Bariloche, Argentina.
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