Ice ice baby!

---

Sarah: Our grill on the last night in BA was (eventually!) a great success. First we discovered there was not enough charcoal, then getting the fire started with no lighter fluid was a bit of a challenge! Luckily, we had the help of a Danish firestarter, who we had offered a steak to in return for his services.

The steak that we picked up was called 'bife chorizo', which was a bit confusing when the butcher was pointing at steak whilst telling us 'chorizo, chorizo!'. Apparently this is a very popular cut in Argentina and good for grilling! Once the fire was going it was pretty impressive and some of our other chums had headed off to get more meat to grill to make the most of the fire. A much later dinner than planned due to the fire issues, but the steaks were really delicious. The sausages didn't make it to a breakfast sandwich either! As someone said, they tell you the steaks are good in Argentina, but you don't believe it until you try them! They had so much flavour and were really tender.

We had a slightly later night than planned in preparation for our 5am start, but the taxi arrived as planned and we were getting along ok. However, the morning took a drastic turn for the worse when we got to the check-in to travel to Patagonia only to discover we were at the wrong bloody airport. TOP TIP: always check and double check the details of your transport! We had just under 2 hrs until our flight time and the correct airport was 1hr away through Monday morning rush hour.... We ran to the nearest taxi driver, explained our predicament and he assured us (whilst having a bit of a chuckle at our stress levels) that he could get us there and we would make the flight.

Anyway, enough of our stupidity, we made it (just) and after an adrenalin fuelled hour and a half, we were on our flight! We arrived at our hostel which was a very cute little place in the centre of El Calafate. This is the main base for which to see the Perrito Moreno glacier, so we were here for two nights with a plan to see the glacier the following day (Tuesday). The problems of the morning continued when trying to get cash as very few places accept cards down here and a lot of the cash machines reject cards with chips in. However, after a very long day we had (1) arrived, (2) got cash, (3) booked a trip to the glacier the following day and (4) found a bar that had home brewed ale that matched anything you'd find in the Nag's Head, none of which had seemed likely 10 hours previously!

Before settling down to our beers, we'd taken a wander down to the wetlands on the shore of the lake and had an amazing walk around the 'Laguna Nimez' nature reserve, full of all kinds of birdlife, including flamingos! We also got our first taste of the Patagonian winds, which there is little protection from on the lakeshore and are pretty punishing! However, the sun was shining and the days troubles were behind us.

We thought we'd grab dinner at the restaurant attached to our hostel. It was a delicious sounding menu that didn't disappoint. Nick's Patagonian lamb chops and my obusco stew were strong contenders for most delicious meal thus far and it was nice to just pop next door to slump in to bed after an amazing dinner with excellent service.

The next day was Glacier day! Our little minibus picked us up and our very enthusiastic tour guide talked us through the changing landscape on the journey over to the glacier, with a welcome stop for coffee and biscuits on the way. We had been spoilt by the heat of Brazil and Buenos Aires where mid-morning coffees were not really on the agenda! As we rounded the final bend the glacier came in to view. It is truly one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.

Nick: After the travails of the day before, we were both looking forward to seeing the glacier. Located a good 80km from El Calafate, we had a good hour and a half on the bus on the way there to watch the landscape going by. What we had seen so far was not quite what I had expected from Patagonia. El Calafate is located on the Patagonian steppe, and the what we had seen (from a taxi window between the airport and the hostel) was a rather bleak, vast expanse of flat scrub, punctuated only by the very distant mountains and what appeared to be an appreciably-sized lake. That sounds rather negative, but in fact we were both delighted to have arrived in such a fascinatingly different landscape to anything we had previously experienced.As our minibus made its way north of the town, our guide explained a bit more about our surroundings. The lake in question, imaginatively named 'Lago Argentino', was apparently the largest in the country and it remained a constant presence to our East as we progressed toward the glacier. However, the landscape itself started to change dramatically as we entered the region of the Glaciers National Park; the dry, brown steppe was replaced by steep, mountain slopes dotted with evergreen trees and topped with snow-capped peaks. The clear sky had clouded over somewhat, and a fine drizzle was coming down. Indeed, this was typical of the different microclimates between the mountains and the steppe, we were told. There was surprisingly little ascent to reach the glacier, however, and as we rounded a corner it came into view.

Even though we remained fairly distant, perhaps a kilometre or two, it was still an imposing sight. Perhaps not entirely unexpected, given that we were later told the glacier itself is larger the Buenos Aires! We took a few snaps, before being taken a short drive further, to where a tourist boat was docked. We were to be shipped along the lake almost to the face of the glacier. The boat was geared up to allow the passengers roam around on a viewing platform and gangway around the exterior, in order to get a better view and take photographs. It was a bit of scrum, with sharp elbows and the dreaded selfie-sticks at every turn, but we managed to find ourselves a little niche to watch from. The hustle and bustle of jostling tourists was rapidly forgotten, however, as we approached the glacier itself. It is difficult to articulate how spectacular it was; you will simply have to take my word for it when I say that it was awesome, in the literal sense of the word. Over the course of an hour, the boat slowly coursed back and forth before the vast wall of ice; the scale if it was difficult to gauge, given its huge size, and it was only when we saw some people approach from the far shore that we could appreciate its enormity. We took loads of photos, but it just wasn't possible to truly capture the spectacle - as I am sure you can tell, we were both seriously impressed!

The hour on the boat flew past, and we were shortly returned to shore, but our visit had only really just begun. The waiting bus took us on another short drive, to the main terrestrial approach to the glacier. We took the chance to scoff a packed lunch, prepared by our hostel the night before. (Patagonian smoked trout sandwiches, since you asked - apparently trout, alongside lamb, is a Patagonian speciality. Delicious.) Suitably refuelled, we made our way down to a series of walkways which stretched out for a number of kilometres in front of the glacier, allowing it to be viewed from various approaches and heights. Whilst the view from the lake had been spectacular, this was another experience entirely; freed from the crush of fellow tourists, we ambled at leisure and were able to take time to simply stand and watch. We had two hours until the bus would take us back to El Calafate, which turned out to be ideal. From viewpoints high above the glacier, it was possible to see it stretch back mile after mile into the mountain range, whilst from viewing platforms closer to the front face, using a small pair of small pair of binoculars we'd picked up in town the previous day, we were able to make out the fascinating detail within the crevasses. Again, the ice blue colour showing from those deep gaps within glacier itself is hard to articulate or capture on a photo but suffice to say it was stunning.

Perhaps the most impressive feature, however, was the frequent cracking noises that could be heard from any one part of the viewing area. This was the sound of ice cracking as the huge mass of glacier edged down the valley at geological pace. Every time a deep, loud crack was heard, heads snapped round to scan the glacier wall, the reason being that more often than not this noise signalled the 'calving' of huge pieces of ice, which would fall to the lake below. We were lucky enough to spot this a few times, and each time it was fascinating to behold. Our two hours flew past, and before we knew it, cold but very happy, we were back on the bus to El Calafate. Exhausted from all of the walking, the weather and the excitement, we both promptly fell asleep and only woke up as the bus rolled back into town.

Enormously satisfied with how the day had turned out (a sharp contrast to the troubles of the day before!), there was only ever going to be one way to wrap things up: a couple of those delicious home-brewed ales followed by a good dinner. We didn't resist the temptation to go back to the restaurant of the night before, and once again the meal was truly superb - Sarah had a vegetable risotto whilst I kept things a bit more Argentinean, opting for a whopping ribeye steak served in a chimmichurri sauce. Well, when in Rome! We washed it down with a lovely bottle of red, and since we were on such a roll, finished off by sharing a dessert: a cracking sticky, sweet pie whose primary constituent was - of course - dulce de leche. Stuffed to the gunnels, tired, and very, very happy, we wandered back to our room and zonked out. Tomorrow was to be an early start, catching the bus before dawn to our next destination: El Chalten.

---