Advertisement
Published: February 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post
We got our bus to Calafate at 6am on the 9th, an hour late, leaving us waiting at 5am in the cold! The coach trip was a pretty arduous 20 hour journey, punctured by frequent stops at the Argentine and Chilean borders and a short ferry ride from Tierra del Fuego to the mainland. The journey took us through Chile for a few hours, and we were held up at Chilean customs as they were seizing food from most people. Some Swiss girls on our bus had a whole casserole of ingredients seized; we however sneaked some cheese in!
We arrived in Rio Gallegos (where we had to change buses) early and had to wait 3 hours for our connecting bus, so we walked in to town. It was nice to see a real Argentinian town bereft of tourists! We then had a five hour journey to Calafate, arriving to our hostel at about 2 a.m. The reason for going to Calafate is to see the nearby glaciers, particularly Perito Moreno. As we had arrived so late we didn't feel like getting up at 7am to get the bus there so we spent the day milling around the town and
Lago Argentino
Turquoise glacial water. booking the right trips for the next two days.
The following day we took an all day boat trip to see Glaciers Upsala and Spegazzini and the north face of Perito Moreno. This was an incredible day, surrounded by spectalular landscapes. The sheer size of the walls of ice was incredible to observe, and by getting close in the boat you can hear the ice constantly cracking like thunder, ready to crash in to the lake. The highlight was seeing a huge block of ice fall into the ocean from Perito Moreno; very hard to catch on camera though as it happens so suddenly.
The next day we went to see Perito Moreno, but this time from walkways set up on the hill opposite the glacier. This was a bit of a touristy experience as so many people come to see the glacier this way. We spent a few hours treading the walkways, waiting to see the ice fall and listen to it bellow. The walkways gave a different perspective of the glacier; as we were higher up we could really appreciate the scale of it - it seemed to go back for miles before disappearing behind a
mountain.
That evening we had a three hour ride to El Chalten along the infamous Ruta 40. An incredible journey showing us just how desolate the majority of Patagonia really is. El Chalten is a tiny 'town' cradled by large peaks all around it. Arriving at sunset was a great sight, with great views of the mountains. Miles away from any other town, this truly felt like wilderness.
Chalten is renowned for hiking, so in the morning we headed out for one of its most popular walks, to Laguna Capri. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so we were advised not to go too high as the views would be poor, so we stuck relatively low. We ended up walking about 25km in a giant loop, and not really seeing much because of the cloud. We did get some good views towards the end, but by then we were too cold and wet to even appreciate it!
The day after the weather was much worse, and ended up being a total write off - we had booked to do an ice climbing tour but the wind and rain was so heavy it got postponed. We spent the day being
pretty grumpy as we had to move hostel and ended up in a horrible one. The weather depressed us, and all that cheered us up was the most amazing hot chocolate and waffles! Definitely the worst day of the trip so far, and our anniversary too - so it could have been better!
However, the following day more than made up for it, being one of the best days of the trip so far. The weather had cleared and our ice climbing trip was on. We got our transfer to Bahia Tunnel where we got our boat across to Glacier Viedma. We walked to a hidden tent where we got given our helmets and harnesses, and then began making our way to the glacier. We had to put on crampons before reaching the ice, and then we were ready to go.
Walking on the ice was a strange feeling, to think we were actually walking on a glacier. We reached a wall which would be our base for our ice climb. I gave it a go first - and it was definitely a case of it's easier than it looks! I made it pretty far up, but my
arms gave way before I could quite reach the top. At least I got further than Chris, who had a problem with his "soft shoes"! However we both tried again and this time we made it - all the way to the top. It was pretty satisfying, as it was such hard work! Such an amazing experience.
The next few hours we did some more climbing and then trekked across the glacier, with our guide pointing out the different glacial formations. It was a breathtaking landscape - just like a desert made of ice, where we could see for miles and miles. We finished off our trek by being given a glass of Baileys with crushed glacier ice - what a perfect end to a perfect day (although we both enjoyed the ice more than the Baileys!). At 4.30pm we got our transfer back to Chalten, where we spent the evening relaxing (in a much nicer hostel - we changed again!) and getting ready for a 2 day bus journey to Barriloche...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0287s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jackie
non-member comment
Wow!
Amazing photos! I cannot believe you are climbing a glacier! I am impressed x