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Published: October 18th 2006
Magic Lucy
This photo turned out much better than we expected... might not have been acting like such a goon!! :)Well... we survived the 40 hours on the bus... and here we are in El Calafate, Patagonia... no sign of the Dread Pirate Roberts... but it´s a lovely place to retire... a bit windy but beautiful!
El Calafate is this small town next to Lago Argentino - a stunning expanse of turquoise... it´s the largest lake in Argentina. Our hostel is on the hill with gorgeous views... I think I could keep using the words stunning and gorgeous a lot... so I´ll stop here.
This is a Geographers HEAVEN!!!!! For those that don´t know me... I studied it at Uni and I loved Glaciology (that does make me sound a little sad... but hey... I love it!)
So first things first, we set off on a quest to see some glaciers. Actually we went on a boat tour to visit several of the major glaciers of the area. It was quite a posh boat. Chugging (well gliding... it was a posh boat as I said) along we came across all these icebergs. Icebergs are just fantastic! All the shapes and colours... I can´t really do it justice in words. We took about 100 photos of
icebergs - we´ve had to delete some.
Then we visited an area with 3 glaciers where we had lunch. Next to the Upsala glacier - this is the largest glacier in Argentina. It terminates in the water and is pretty cool. The last glacier we visited was the best! The Spegazzini. Absolutely fantastic. I think it might be the highest (tallest) in the region. While we were floating alongside it a couple of fairly sizeable chunks fell off - the underneath bits came floating up in this slow motion event... fantastic!!!
El Chalten The next day was another early start as we headed to El Chalten. This was a 4 hour bus ride north to the north of the Los Glaciares National Park. In the Park (in clear weather) you can see the Fitz Roy range and the Cerro Torre range. It was clear when we arrived in the smallest town ever... I think there was only 1 restaurant open (it´s only the beginning of the season). We went on a hike that day... we went to the Laguna Capri and the view of the Fitz Roy Mountains was simply stunning!!!!!!
The next day was
much cloudier but this didn´t stop us setting off on a 6.5 hour hike to the nearer the foot of the Fitz Roy Mountains. It was blowing a gale and really not the most splendid weather. Very Patagonia though! We saw lots of woodpeckers!! And when we reached the viewing point, the mountains were covered in clouds... oh well.. hiking is such fun! We could see a great glacier off to the left though, so all was well.... ahh those glaciers...
The final day we only did a 2 hour hike to see the other mountain range, which sadly was covered in clouds... but yet again Geography didn´t disappoint and there was a glacier there for me to sigh over!
Then it was another 4 hour journey back to El Calafate!!
El Calafate... Again A nice relaxing day for us in our lovely hostel. It´s ever so nice (opps I´ve already said that... some points need to be made more than once!).
We visited the Laguna Nimes Bird Sanctuary next to town and we saw FLAMINGOES! I found this most exciting! Wild Flamingoes!!! They are really ever so pink.
Glaciar Perito Moreno On our last day in Calafate we went to visit the Moreno Glacier! It´s moving at 2m a day so you are often able to view chunks calving off into the lake. We went and saw the North and South faces and spent about 3 hours just watching and absorbing the amazing scenery... oh and listening to all the cracks as the glacier shifts. It is so beautiful!!
Apparently lots of people died in the 60s trying to climb the snout of the glacier... which is really the dumbest idea ever, considering how much falls off... and ignorance isn´t an excuse... spend an hour watching it and you see something fall off.
All in all our little side trip of 3000km (one way) out of our way was most satisfactory!!! 😊
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