Glacier Mareno

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Puerto Moreno, Salta and Cafayate Upon arrival in el Calafate we grabbed a taxi to the the puerto Moreno glacier about an hours drive out of town. The glacier is a sheer wall of ice, 60 meters high 5 km wide and 30 km long and is truly spectacular. It is one of the few remaining advancing glaciers in the world and creeps forward at a pace 2m per day causing giant icebergs to carve from its face and crash into the lake below. We were lucky enough to witness a few of these icebergs ( ok so they weren't giant) but they still made an earthshattering bone crushing noise as they split and then tumbled into the lake below. The warm hearty shepherds pie with a crusty layer of cheese on top and the eccentric Aussie strumming away on his guitar to cat Stevens at the hostel were well welcomed after the long day of traveling and glacier viewing.


The next day involved a 10 hour trip from el Calafate to salta via ushuaia and then buenos aires. Although we did not disembark in Ushuaia we gazed out the plane window at the howling snow storm and counted our luck that we had not chosen to visit this southern most city of the world. Warren, to answer your question about the native people's of Patagonia, the story of the yaman has both fascinated and depressed me. The yaman were a tribe of people who lived in Torres del fuego for over the past 6000 years. They had adapted to the freezing cold temperatures by their natural body temperature being a degree higher than the rest of us ( I.e between 38- 39 degrees celsius). The temperatures in Torres del fuego, which is the southern most point of the world and separated from the mainland of South America by the Magellan straits, are not mild or temperate to say the least. Yet these people believed that the natural oils of their skin was better protection than soaking wet animal fur so they lived entirely naked making fires wherever they went. Fuego means fires and the province was named after the 100's of fires the locals build for protection. The really sad part of the story is that today only 1 yaman survives (an old lady of near 100 years). Her entire people were wiped out by disease almost a century ago and she is the last remaining yamanese who can speak the language and understands a culture with a heritage of over 6000 years. Note I got this information from stories from other travelers and the lonely planet, I plan to read up more about these people nd their sad extinction brought on by the western world. We did see loads of old photographs of them in the Refugio's which were errily creeping. Talking about creepy, the following day we went to the archeological museum of salta. The museum displays a collection of ancient inca artifacts and, wait for it, three perfectly preserved inca children over 600 years old who were sacrificed to the gods and buried alive. The museum only displays one child at a time for preservation purposes and the child on display when we visited was a little girl of 6 when she was sacrificed over 6 centuries ago. The incas performed the sacrificial ritual over a period of weeks by leading the chosen children who were always from an esteemed position of society up the (to confirm the mountains name) to over 6000 meters. All the children were allowed to eat on their journey was cocoa leaves and an alcoholic drink when they reached the top to calm them before they were buried alive. The really creepy thing is that the little girl looks like she's still alive, her eyelahes and eyebrows and teeth are perfect she looks like she will open her eyes at any moment. Her face is looking up and she reflects an expression of pain and cold. The local people were understandably not happy with the sacrificial graves being destroyed and apparently at the spot on the mountain where the childrenwere buried, now looms an ominous presence which animals refuse to pass over.

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Comments

[Niki]

South America
Just wanted to say we're enjoying reading your blog! In the middle of a similar trip and blogging about it too! Weharttravelling.wordpress.co.uk

[Tour de Bandeys]

Thanks for your comment Niki, we will definitely follow your blog too. Enjoy your travels. John and Robyn