Walking on Ice

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Day 37

After another early start to get the 8am bus for El Calafate, we are stunned by the efficient border crossing (30mins – best yet). Arrive in El Calafate at 2pm, get a taxi (yes I treat Em as she is still aching from the ‘W’) and check in our hostel. We spend the day doing practical things like laundry (our stuff smells like we have been at a festival for a week), booking bus tickets and our tour to see the glacier. We are so tired that in our hazy state we almost book a 40hour bus journey to Mendoza... luckily we are so tired we can’t make a decision, and then after uhmming and ahhing and descending the 74 steps from the bus station (yes we counted them) we really can’t be bothered to climb them again to get the tickets.

Day 38

Up early for an 8am bus to Perito Merino glacier... being our usual punctual selves, we call the agency when the bus hasn’t appeared at 8.20, after all we have dragged ourselves from our beds early again to be on time. The bus arrives 8.22 and off we go!

First part of the tour is the viewing platforms (over 2 hours to enjoy these) and we see our first calving (when a huge bit of the glacier falls off) within 5 mins of arriving. We are lucky enough to see several more too – the good news is that I manage to capture one of these on video; the bad news is that the camera battery is now flashing and I forgot the spare. Break the news to Em, who manages not to kill me...

We catch a boat to the opposite shore, where we are fitted with crampons and we start our ‘mini-trekking’ on the glacier (a nice and easy intro to walking on the ice). After being told to keep our feet apart once we have the crampons on, Em manages to ignore this, and nearly falls over literally 3 seconds after having them fitted. We spend 90 minutes on the glacier, exploring different formations. It is quite easy to walk on the ice (a bit like walking on a giant raspberry slush puppy coz it is blue) and Em assumes a text book duck-like walk as instructed by the guides (much to my amusement). I race around and lead Em dangerously close to the edge of a large crevice by mistake, but luckily the guide intervenes before she falls in.

The treat at the end of the walk is being served a whisky on the rocks (freshly carved glacier ice). We return back to El Calafate by boat and then bus. We meet up with Tomasz for a slap up pizza dinner and have a good laugh before hitting the hay at a respectable hour (surprise, surprise we have to be up again at 6.45).

Day 39

After a 3 hour bus ride we arrive in El Chalten, a tiny mountain village (according to Em's knowledgeable cousin, Chris, this had a population of 41 in 1991, now it has 400) north of El Calafate. This is one of the only free national parks in Argentina, and on arrival the entire bus is taken into the tourist centre to be given strict instructions about how to behave and a map of the walks in the area. We explore the town in the afternoon (which takes about 15mins), have a delicious ice-cream, and find the microbrewery and have a small beer.

Day 40

We wake early (again) up to a clear day (quite rare in these parts apparently), inhale some breakfast, collect our packed lunch and set off on our 25km hike. The scenery is beautiful and the weather glorious (if a little hot – but on the plus side, there is barely a cloud in the sky). After 3 and half hours (the last hour and 15mins up a very steep gravelly path) we reach the final Fitz Roy viewpoint, which is spectacular. After a quick lunch and lots of photos we make the rocky descent back home.

Once back in El Chalten we decide to treat ourselves to a posh meal sharing a blue cheese salad followed by Trout (Em) and Steak (me) and the standard bottle of red. Before bedtime we visit the very cosy chocolate house next door and treat ourselves to a cake and the worlds most amazing hot chocolate.

Day 41

Finally we have a lie in, well until 9.30. Have some breakfast but before we can begin our next hike the weather takes a turn for the worst and the wind brings the horizontal rain. We decide to hide out in our room catching up on our blog entries and emails. After a while we attempt an hour long walk fully waterproofed up but neither has the energy or desire to walk further than the end of the town.

Waiter there’s a fly in my soup (well lasagna)... Since arriving in El Chalten we had visited the local micro brewery to sample their home grown cervesa on 2 separate occasions. We very impressed especially with the free unlimited popcorn and decided to have tea there on our last night. As normal we ordered separate things and then shared (Em the raviloli and me the lasagna), and after eating half we swapped, Em suddenly lost her appetite as she found a fly in the lasagna I had just eaten half of. In my best Spanish I informed the waitress there was ‘uno problemo’ with the food as we pointed to the offending insect. Now we had very different reactions to this situation; Em was immediately horrified and felt sick and was unable to eat anything else whilst I sensed a free dinner. So 2 free beers later plus no charge for the lasagna I was feeling quite happy.

Another early night, as we have another early bus to catch tomorrow as we begin a 30 hour journey back up North.

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Comments

[Simon]

Green eyes
Hi guys, just read your whole blog, and will be keeping an eye on your progress. Sounds like you're having a great time? Simon

[Laura (of las lauras)]

Amazing
So jealous! We didn't have time to ice trek. Great meeting you guys. You are an absolutely lovely couple. xo