Walking on Ice in El Calafate

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We arrived in El Calafate after a spectacularly uninteresting overnight stay in Rio Gallegos which is a dull, grey, cold town. Given that the current president hails from there, you would expect a bit of prosperity, but it is clear he isn't doing his hometown any financial favours. We weren't sad to leave it. We were however frustrated at being so close (a 15 hour bus trip is now considered close!) to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, but had decided long ago that it wouldn't feature on this trip. It is too cold and icy for many of the activities anyway, but we might have seen the penguins that we missed out on in Puerto Madryn... oh well, choices have to be made.

We were met at the bus station by a charming girl from the hostel. She gave us verbal direction up to I Keu Ken hostel and promised to follow us once she had attempted to round up a few more backpackers off the bus. As we stepped out of the bus station we were immediately hit by a bracing icy wind that definitely tested the mettle of our windbreakers. Thankfully they rose to the challenge. We pulled on our rucksacks and made our way up to the yellow house on the top of the hill.

Our home for the next four days turned out to be a very warm and cosy abode. As we hung around the chill out area waiting for the girl to catch us up we could already see the value of having climbed the hill. The views from the front window were amazing. We could see straight across the lake to the icing sugar capped mountains that dominated the horizon.

After completing the usual check-in forms and installing ourselves in a comfortable four bed dormitory, we returned to reception to learn more about the tours in the area. As the reception girl bigged up each of the tours we were almost ready to sign up for everything until we heard the price of them. They were extortionately expensive and would put a serious dent our tour budget. Before we got carried away we made our excuses and retreated to the local supermarket to have a think about it. We also wandered into the main area of town to do some comparison with other travel agencies. They were all quoting pretty much the same prices as the hostel...it is just an expensive place to visit.

We decided to limit ourselves to one tour. The one that appealed most was a day trip mini-trekking on the Perito Moreno Glacier, with a quick stop at the balconies on the way back. Having booked the tour for two days away we set about making dinner and some new friends in the hostel.

The next morning we decided to shake off our hangovers by renting some bikes to cycle down to the lakeside. It was bitterly cold. This, combined with the fact that I had somehow been coaxed onto a huge 18 gear mountain bike, meant that I was in little humour to appreciate the view. Also there wasn't much of a lake side view as the lake was dried up on our side. Nevertheless it got us out of the hostel, kept us semi-active and allowed us to reward ourselves with coffee and hot chocolate before we returned to the delightfully warm hostel to make dinner.

The next morning a mini-bus picked us up from the hostel at around 9am. We were transported out of town before being instructed to swap to the larger Hielo & Aventura bus. This is why everyone quotes essentially the same prices.. there's only one tour company! The 52 seater began the 80km trip to Perito Moreno harbour. We were briefly stopped at the entrance to the Los Glaciares National Park to pay our 60 peso entrance fee and about 30 minutes later we saw snow gently falling on the side of the road. A few minutes later we noticed that the road itself was white with thick fresh snow. As the mood on the bus tensed a little, the back of the bus wavered from side to side and the ABS braking system kicked in a little more often than was comfortable. I decided to just look out the window and enjoy the snow obscurred view, reasoning that we would be fine given that this wouldn't be the first time the driver has encountered snow.

We got to the port in one piece but stepped off the bus into a full-blown snow storm swirling around us. Our names were ticked off as we scurried into the boat waiting on the pier. Most people squeezed together in the warm sheltered cabin until the guide announced that this was the last chance for smokers to smoke for the next 3 hours. A fair crowd shuffled outside. I am amazed at the lengths some people will go to for nicotine!

A short fifteen minutes later we arrived at the docking point near the glacier. It took a further 30 minutes of the boat ramming the ice before it could get close enough to let us off. As corny as it is, my first impression of the place was that it was a winter wonderland. We were led through the snow drenched forest to a cabin from which we got our first view of the glacier. It was massive, but we were only seeing a fraction of the whole thing. The Perito Moreno glacier covers an area of 257 sq.kms and is four kilometres wide. The think that makes it different is that it is the only glacier that is still advancing. It moves forward by up to 2 metres every day. It is the pressure of this movement that causes the cracks and huge slabs to occasionally fall off.

We left our bags in the cabin and were then led up to some benches where the guides expertly fitted crampons to our boots. The metal spikes were heavy and took some getting used to, but also gathered mud quickly and added centimetres to my height. We were taught the basics of walking on ice: keep your feet apart so as not to catch one crampon on your other shoe, walk like a penguin with our feet at 10 to 2 if you're going up hill and like a lose limbed monkey when going downhill, digging the crampons in and leaning backwards to keep your balance. We looked ridiculous but it was a low risk exercise as there was a guide to hold your hand if there was a difficult piece of terrain to be crossed.

We were soon at ease with the crampons as we found our balance while waddling up the first section of ice. It was covered in snow and therefore deceptively like walking up a normal hill. The real fun started as we attempted to walk down the hill. We were taking baby steps and really digging into the ice to gain some grip. As we walked around we saw pools of water in the centre of the glacier and were amazed by how deep they were. Then we were very lucky as the snow stopped and the sun came out. The ice changes to a lighter shade of blue and the whole landscape lights up. You get lulled into a false sense of security after a while and start to think it is easy. However when one of the guides climbed up a section of a wall of ice with his ice-picks and we reminded of how basic what we were doing was, and how dangerous being out on the the ice can really be.

We walked on the ice for approximately two hours and were greeted at the end with a surprise well-done drink of ice cold whiskey. I'm not a great whiskey drinker, but when I saw the guide digging some ice off the glacier to put in the glasses I decided I might enjoy a whiskey on the rocks before lunch.

We descended the final hill, removed the crampons and huddled into the cabin to eat our packed lunches while enjoying the view which was completely different to the one from when we had first passed by the cabin. We were due to take the boat back at 3pm. When at 3.30pm there was no sight of a boat nor any of the guides we wondered if we had been abandoned in some "Lost" type reality show. When the boat eventually showed up and took off at 4pm we were frozen to the bone and glad to be heading back to civilisation. First though, we had to go back to the island as they had managed to forget about twenty people!

The boat made its way quickly across the lake and we were safely deposited back on the bus. The roads were now clear and we made good time in getting to the balconies in the National Park. We had a very limited time at the balconies, only seeing the view from the first and second balcony. Sadly we were looking the wrong way when a large chunk of ice fell off the glacier, but we did hear the tremendous boom as it hit the water.

A mini-bus dropped us to the door of our hostel at 7pm that evening. It was an excellent day out, and well worth the price we paid. We may have only done one tour while in El Calafate, but it was one that still made it worth travelling this far south in Argentina.

Next stop: Bariloche, the Chocolate Capital of South America... I can't imagine why this ended up on the itinerary!

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