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Arriving, hungover, at the airport, (Flor has almost broken us into mental institution patients that can barely put a sentence together without dribbling!), we check in to our delayed flight (not what we need!).
As we arrive in Patagonia, we are immediately disappointed by our hotel. We had booked into an Independent Traveler tour with Gap Adventures which we believe no one should ever do! The tour includes a tour of the city (note there are only 20,000 people living here - so what can there be that requires a two hour bus tour) and a tour to the glacier (ok - this one we can live with!). However we are then given a choice of optional extras of which we find out, only one is available obviously at an additional price.
The first night, feeling the cravings of alcohol, we search out the nightlife of this crazy town. We end up in the town’s best hotel (of course!) for drinks and dinner. We are then pleasantly surprised as two gentlemen (of our father’s age!) send over the waiter and ask us to join them for drinks! Whilst ordinarily this is amusing, what is funnier is that we are
wearing no make up, and look like American tourists in our jeans and trainers. As we decline we are asked whether we will be returning for dinner the next evening - thank god we are not staying at this hotel!
We leave the quiet hotel restaurant in search of nightlife and end up walking the streets of this very quiet town only to find a library bar - cute - but hardly happening!
In defiance to the costly extras we decide to vegetate at the town’s finer hotel spa the next day! Obviously what this traveling thing is all about! Ok - we can hear you all thinking “oh the shame of it” but you try coming to Patagonia after a week of partying - it’s all you would want to do too! Its blooming freezing, and we have seen two glaciers on this trip already.
Spending the day in the spa is fabulous, as we relax, swim, enjoy the jacuzzi (that at one point is boiling hot and then we have it refilled and now its too cold! ;o)) and enjoy massages. This is the life.
The following day is the reason for coming all
the way to the end of the world aka Patagonia. Here is the third place in the world that you can see glacier and rainforest living side by side together. Hooray - we scored 3/3 (the other two being in New Zealand)! We spend the day, being taken on a boat ride to the face of the Perito Merino glacier, whereby we are faced with a 2km long, 40-60m high wall of ice. As the boat dodges icebergs we are amazed at the sheer size of this constantly moving ice block.
We spend the afternoon walking around several view points of the glacier taking hundreds of photos and hold our breaths as we listen to the sound of the glacier. As the ice melts and reforms, the movements can be heard like large bolts of thunder. All of a sudden we hear a rumble louder than all the rest, and right in front of our eyes (1km away) a large piece of the glacier face falls into the lake in front creating a mini swirlpool below. This is what global warming is about. The boat looks so small next to the glacier and so close to the swirlpool that
we are glad that we are not on the boat. Am sure that many people can not say that they have actually witnessed such a dramatic display of nature’s force!
The scenery and the colours are remarkable but we are sure that the pictures will show you much better than we can in words.
Facts: Moreno is one of only 2 advancing ice glaciers in South America, and one of the few on the planet. It advances 2cm every day. It is the most easy to access glacier in Argentina and for this reason is the most visited.
It is famous for the fact that the advancing ice, sometimes cuts off part of the Lago Argentina (the largest lake in Argentina). Cut off from their natural outlet the water would build up against the flank of the glacier, flooding the surrounding area, until eventually the pressure forces open a passage into the iceberg channel once again. For those lucky enough to witness it, one of nature’s most awesome spectacles - it is said that the roars of the breaking ice can be heard 80km away. Unfortunately we were not that lucky (or maybe we were - we
can’t not run that fast!).
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No really this big
Well ladies, surely not the first little one you have seen......