Frolicking Whales and The Biggest Icecube Ever! Puerto Madryn to El Calafate

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It all started with our first big bus journey to Puerto Madryn from Buenos Aires, a total of about 16 hours. We were pretty impressed with the buses, much better than National Express, we went 1st class which meant huge leather seats, a 3 course dinner (served by the onboard host) and brekkie - not bad!

Puerto Madryn is a favorite seaside haunt for the Argentinans but as it was winter the promenade was not that busy. We took a stroll along the seafront and watched the fisherman trying to catch their tea on the pier. The main reason for going to Puerto Madryn was to visit the National Park based along the Peninsula Valdes and for the pinnacle of the trip: a southern right whale-watching trip. We didn't think we were going to be able to do the latter as we got turned away the first time round cos it was too windy - damn it, janet.

We spent the first part of our tour visiting a museum and then a beach that was the home of elephant seals - we saw a few but apparently they come in their hundreds at the height of their mating season (it was also the beach where the killer whale beached itself to catch its prey, seen on a David Attenborough documentary). After a brief walk along the penisula we took to the van again on a second attempt to visit the port to board our whale watching boat. It was a bit touch and go but we finally got to board the boat. Dressed as true fishermen we certainly looked the part and after about 20 mins we saw 2 or so whales. They were huge and caused quite a stir with all the other boats chasing them ( a bit cruel really ). We saw lots of splashing about and what seemed like two whales mating, all very exciting and the big tail waves caused alot of ohs and ahs from the boat.

Pleased that I had caught some good footage on film, we made our way back to the hostel, only to find out later that when recharging my battery I had erased the best bits of the whale footage - doh as Homer would say.

Our next port of call was El Calafate, there was only one first class seat on the bus so I took it and Nick went second class (a decision that I was never going to forget but Nick was fine with it at the time!).

We arrived in El Calafate late so made our way to one of the best hostels we were going to stay in, namely America del Sur - more like a 4 star hotel with wet rooms and a heated floor - completely lush! The next morning we woke relatively early for a view over the lake and mountains from our bedroom window only to find that it was very overcast, it was a waiting game.

We decided to take the risk and booked a taxi to go to the glacier for the next day with a top couple we had met at the hostel - Graham and Lynny. We were in luck as on Sunday the weather had cleared, phewee, we set out on our 1 1/2 hour taxi ride to the Puerto Moreno glacier with our friendly taxi driver (cheaper than the local tours and more fun!). The scenery enroute was pretty impressive with the Andes on show. As we neared the glacier and with a lake on our left we took a few hairpin bends a wee bit too fast, one so fast that we did a 360 in the middle of the road ending up with the rear of our taxi bashing into the side of a rock wall (better than going the other way into the lake!)....what a hair-raising start to our day out, thankfully everyone was ok and the taxi came off lightly considering.

As we neared the glacier we were like excited kids, dying to get our first peek. And what an impressive sight it was, at 100m tall and with a depth receding into the mountains of 25 kms it was awesome to say the least. We raced down to the viewing platforms and started our mesmirising 2 hour vigil of watching and listening to this giant ice cube. As the glacier (one of the biggest in S America) advances a few meters every day, every 15 mins or so you hear and then see a big chunk of ice, the size of an iceberg, drop off the glacier causing a ripple / tidal wave effect depending on its size. The noises are what amazed us as there was alot of creeking and thunderous cracking sound as the ice moved. You did not want to look away in case you missed anything and I thought I had! In our last few minutes of watching THE BERG we saw a huge piece of ice raise up from underneath the water and through the surface like a rocket, it was quite a rare occurence and we were later told it was a base break - very exciting!

Luckily our trip back to El Calafete was event-free. We spent the last day in El Calafete having a go at ice-skating on the lake, it was a wee bit daunting as the ice was so thin it was see-through, good fun though, especially the hot chocolate and yummy cake we had at the end!

We agreed that the Puerto Moreno glacier is one of the most amazing natural sights we have ever seen - truly unmissable if you are going to Argentina 😊

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Photos

Getting a bit close to the Boat
there were two here mating!

Perito Moreno Glacier
from a distance