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Published: March 13th 2007
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El Calafate and Glaciers Galore - 20th to 23rd February Kate´s cold kept us all awake most of the night. I felt pretty sorry for her really, especially as she kept jumping out of the top bunk to go outside and blow her nose. Little did she realise that the walls are so thin in the hostel in El Chalten that we could all still hear her! Anyway, the lack of sleep doesn´t matter too much as we are up at 6am for an early morning bus back to El Calafate. Plus its a 5 hour journey so we can sleep on the bus.
When we arrive we check into the Buenos Aires hostel. Its in a convenient location close to the bus station and town - but again the walls are paper thin. Luckily Kate´s cold is on the mend! We walk around town for ages trying to find the best rates for trips out to the Perito Moreno glacier, a complete waste of time really as everywhere is the same! We finally book on the alternative tour for the next day. We also try to blog in town but the internet cafes are incredibly slow
in El Calafate that it actually makes it quite stressful trying to achieve anything. However, I´ve finally got my PIN numbers, only to find out that I need to unlock them. I have a sneaky suspicion that this can only be done on a machine back home. So I just ignore the problem and hope it will go away by itself!!! You don´t need this type of stress whilst travelling!! On a better note, our trip for Antarctica is finally confirmed so we´re really pleased about that.
The next morning we get up early to join our tour for the Perito Moreno glacier. Its known as the alternative tour as you get to walk along the shoreline near the glacier where no one else is allowed (more of that later!). Oh and we also drive along a back road to the Los Glaciares National Park (where the glacier is). We drive along a dirt road through the Patagonian steppe. On the way we see lots of birds of prey and some hares and even some rheas (like ostriches). We stop at an estancia for a cup of tea! Then finally into the park.
Perito Moreno is a must-see
in Southern Patagonia. We catch glimpse of it on the way to the park - a large wall of ice in the distance. Our first stop is to the lake to get on the boat for a navigation of Lago Argentina and an up close view of the glacier. Before we board the boat we sit and look at the glacier for awhile. Its a huge beast and makes creaking noises every now and again as the ice moves forward. The glacier is fed by the Patagonian ice field. This is one is the third biggest extensions of continental ice after the Antarctica and Greenland and it feds lots of glaciers - the snow falls and builds up into ice and effectively flows over the top of the mountains. The large glacier we saw on the Navimag boat trip is fed by this same system.
Anyway the glacier is spectacular and unlike the hundreds of glaciers that drain from the Southern Ice Field, Perito Moreno is one of the few that are not receding. In fact it is only one of three glaciers that isn´t retreating. The end of the glacier is 3 miles wide and the wall is
60 metres in height. It also advances 2 metres a day, hence you can hear the creaking of the ice. Every 3 -4 years the glacier advances so far it hits the peninsula. When this happens it creates a dam in the channel and the built-up pressure sets off a calving explosion for 48 to 72 hours, breaking the face of the glacier in a crashing fury. This happened last year and would be a brilliant sight to see - we´ve seen photos of it and its looks amazing. Anyhow the boat trip is good and you get fairly close to the glacier. Every now and then the glacier sends a few huge chunks hurling into the channel. It makes a thunderous noise.
The boat trip lasts an hour and then we are back on shore for our walk. Its actually very good as you get lots of different views of the glacier and you are away from the other tourists. As we are finishing the walk we turn around in time to see a huge chunk off ice fall off the glacier. It is followed by another tall chunk detaching from the glacier and toppling slowly into the
Beautiful Perito Moreno
It looks small but it soars 60 meters above the ice
lake. Pretty cool!
Afterwards we are taken to the balconies over looking the glacier. They are filled with lots of loud tourists!! Still we sit and have lunch and take in the beauty of the place.
Later on back at the hostel we meet up with our friend Claire again and go for dinner. We also booked a tour together for the next day (todo los glaciers - all the glaciers) .
We´re up even earlier for this tour! We get picked up at our hostel and we´re driven to the boat. At this stage, we realise how touristy this is. We had images of it only being a handful of people as everyone else would be at the Perito Moreno. How wrong could we be!! We walk out to the pier and there are 5 huge boats that we have to queue too get on - there must be over 1000 people doing the trip! Still its not too bad as some of the boats are faster than the others and some do the route in the reverse direction to us. But it is filled with noisy Argentinians. If I haven´t mentioned this before - don´t
get me wrong, they are mostly very pleasant and helpful but they are also incredibly loud, jabbering all at once. Normally all shouting "muy linda" or "que preciouso". In fact its fairly annoying, and of course Claire soon seizes onto this and spends the rest of the day saying it too. I must get my own back in Antarctica!
We cruise to Onelli Bay where we get off with our 200 companions for a walk through the forest. The other side is a nice bay where we sit for 1 hour having lunch (its 11am at this point!!). Still we can get away from the noisy "muy lindas" and look at the view. Its actually a beautiful bay with four glaciers spilling off the mountains in the background.
We then cruise to the Upsala glacier. On the way we cruise through many ice bergs and stops to take pictures of them. Some are incredibly blue. The glacier is the largest in Argentina but has retreated significantly over the last few years. You can see the scouring of the rocks and the tree line from where it used to be. Its a magnificent sight but isn´t as noisy or
active as the Perito Moreno.
Next we cruise to the Spegazzini glacier. This is the highest glacier in Argentina at 135 metres - double the height of the Perito Moreno. Its very imposing and a few chunks of ice fall off. Its also one of the glaciers that isn´t retreating.
Finally as we are sailing back, we spot a couple of condors on the cliff walls and go closer to investigate. Its brilliant to see them this close but they do look like ugly giant flying turkeys. Silly things, I can´t believe that they are so elegant in the air!
The next day we wander around town until we are due to fly to Ushuaia, feeling pretty excited as this is our port to sail to Antarctica!
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Nessie the Great!
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Loving your work!
hehehe we did that tour too, didnt you just feel like the biggest sheep!!!