Blogs from El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 37

El Calafate 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 ... read more

Haven't written in ages & not posting a long message now cause we're under pressure time wise. Survived bus trip, just about, went to see Perito Moreno Glacier yesterday, Oh my god was absolutely spectacular! (will post more about it sonn & pics). We're now stuck in El Calafate which is a little of the way up the west coast, no buses travel up part of the west coast for some reason or another! We're now faced with the prospect of a 32 hour bus trip, so that's why I can't post a long blog, cause we're desperately trying to suss out alternatives. Promise I'll do a proper blog soon!... read more

While writing the last blog entry, warm and cosy in an internet cafe in Barlioche, we both decided (although perhaps didn´t say it) that we WERE NOT going to take the 48hour option to get to the southern town of El Calafate. Our first plan was to take the ´Navimag´ferry from Puerto Montt in Chile (a few hundred km west of Bariloche) south along the Pacific coast. From the dropping off point 1000kms south, we could have crossed the border back into Argentina and made our way to El Calafate. We were almost convinced by the marketing efforts of Navimag and their shiny nice website (www.navimag.com) and were about to flex some plastic and buy the 150GBP tickets for the 4 day journey. However, a quick search of this very website for ´Navimag´and other bloggers´opinions thereof ... read more

One thing that I wasn't ready for about Argentina was it's size. It's big. Really big. Although we'd planned the trip reasonably well, we're not the speediest travellers by a long way and as such were running out of time in a big way. Em being by far the more organised of the two of us had devised a way of seeing as much as possible given the vast distances involved and our very limited time to cram everything in. First stop was El Calafate, jumping off point for visits to the Perito Moreno glaciar. One very cold morning therefore we found ourselves on a bus from Puerto Natales to El Calafate, and still hurting from the 11 day trek we'd finished the day before. The bus journey was uneventful except that it was on mostly ... read more

Yeah, what kindof nimrod goes on vacation and sees the snow? Apparently one that has no concept of time, misses buses, tours, and/or seasons. So here I am. El Calafate, Argentina. Home of the Perito Moreno Glacier. It´s big. It´s grand. It makes noise. To be honest, it is truly astounding. I was impressed. Granted being from Alaska, I have alot of experience with glaciers, this one is like the ones from my childhood. I would recommend getting down here before it disappears like the ones in Alaska. Currently it sits on the shorefront- though you can´t walk to it due to the fact that 30 some people have died from chunks of ice falling on them. Always some dumbass dying from the slowest moving object on Earth to ruin it for the rest of us. ... read more