Patagonia, Part 2

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After Puerto Madryn, I took a bus to El Calafate to see the famous glacier, Perito Moreno. Took a taxi to the hostel called Marco Polo Inn - usually I try to walk to save a few pesos, but I had just come off an overnight bus and another day bus, and was too exhausted to hike up hill in the wind at the cold. To get from Puerto Madryn I had to take an overnight bus to Rio Gallegos (which yes, is south of El Calafate), then take a bus from Rio Gallegos back up to El Calafate - needless to say, I was quite tired after all that busing! Also, you couldn't reserve ahead the Rio Gallegos - El Calafate route, so when I arrived in Rio Gallegos in the morning, I couldn't actually get on a bus to El Calafate for six hours. I checked my backpack and headed into Rio Gallegos, walked around the town for a bit, found a LADE office to pay for my scheduled flight from El Calafate to Ushuaia, and found a nice cafe with good coffee and free wi-fi when it started pouring rain - not a bad way to pass a few hours.

The bus ride from Rio Gallegos to El Calafate was beautiful - I lucked out an got a seat at the very front of the bus, and had amazing panaromic views of the rolling mountains. The woman who sat next to me on the bus was so sweet - she was an older Argentinian woman, and when we were pulling into El Calafate, she told me that even though she's from El Calafate and does this bus ride often, the beauty of it still stuns her. Its so nice to meet people who realize just how beautiful their surroundings are and are proud of where they come from.

The hostel in El Calafate was really nice, a big common room with a pool table, bar, and a big social area, and was surrounded with chalet-like dorms. I signed up for the hostel dinner, and met some really nice people at dinner. The next day, I headed out to a tour of the glacier with Mauro from the hostel who I met at dinner the night before. It was a great day to practise my Spanish, since Mauro didn't speak any English, so I got to speak Spanish the entire day. He's a lawyer, so I even told him lawyer jokes in Spanish - ha! The drive out to the glacier was beautiful, and when we got to the glacier, it was absolutely breathtaking. I had seen pictures of Perito Moreno before, but the glacier was something that no picture can do justice of. We first went on a boat cruise of the area, and saw the glacier very up close. To be on the boat, and see the glacier at eye level and see just how massive it is was spectacular. As well, the wind and the cold and the ice flying around was incredible. After the boat cruise, we headed to the panaromic viewpoint of the glacier, which was also amazing. Overlooking the glacier from this viewpoint, you can see just how far the glacier extends - it seems to go on forever. As well, you can hear and see the glacier cracking and breaking off into the water. This glacier is supposedly one of the few glaciers in the whole world that are actually expanding, not retracting. I would say that this was my highlight of Patagonia - I don't think I've ever seen anything so unique in my travels.

After my day at the glacier, I spent another day in El Calafate, hanging out with lots of people from the hostel, including an Argentinian cook who treated us to an amazing homecooked risoto! After El Calafate, I headed over to El Chalten for a couple of nights to see the Fitz Roy mountain range and to go hiking. I went on a good long hike, however, the Fitz Roy range was unfotunately covered by clouds and I didn't actually get to see the famous mountain range. However, I would still say that El Chalten was still worth the trip, this quiet little town was surrounded by gorgeous scenery - mountains, rivers and hills. I left El Chalten after a couple of days and bused it back to El Calafate, and then headed straight to my flight to Ushuaia - the ends of the earth!

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