Perito Moreno Glacier

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We made an unsuccessful, yet valliant effort to get up early and head to the Perito Moreno Glacier. In the end we didn't head out until about 10 am. First stop was the car rental agency (who btw offered helmet and body gear rentals with their vehicles).

The car rental was a bit tricky since Leah had her licence but only limited experience driving standard, Adam could drive standard but didn't have his license, I had my licence but can't drive standard and Chris didn't have a licence nor was he able to drive a car. In the end Leah and Adam rented with Leah's licence and Adam as a secondary driver. To keep up pretenses, Leah somewhat successfully drove the car off the lot. As soon as we got around the corner, Adam switched to the drivers side and only needed occasional reminders about which side of the road to drive on, change gears and keep the door closed. There were a few hairy moments when we thought we were coming up to a police checkpoint and were looking to switch drivers back to Leah when Chris pointed out that generally police officers don't go around with wheel barrows and shovels - phew! (LOL)

We also managed to get ourselves lost in El Calafate. Imagine if you will a large desolate place with no trees, a town with a population max. 1000 and you may wonder how this was achieved. Well, it involves a lot of unecessary turns and avoidance of wheel barrow bearing police officers, inaccurately scaled tourist maps and some dirt roads. Turns out all we had to do was get on the main road and drive straight for 90 KM. They should really have better signage (and maps).

Happily taking our sweet time to get there, we arrived a couple hours later. we finally arrived at the glacier park. We headed straight to the boat launch to book our boat tour. Lucky we did so as there was only 3 boat excursions running and there was only one left we could get. We bought our tickets and headed on to the actual glacier stopping several times on the side of the road to take photos. We even managed to stop at a future lookout spot that was still under construction.

The glacier is pretty spectacular as you approach it. It's absolutely massive and seems to go off forever into the distance. There's a great setup at the park with tons of walkways and paths to see the glacier from every possible angle. I've got at least 100 pictures of the glacier. The colour of the glacier is the most amazing blue and you can hear the glacier cracking and crumbling all around you. Note to visitors in the winter/spring - calving glaciers are not very active at this time. I heard one crumbling but didn't manage to see it.

We wandered around for a bit on the "superior" trail and then booted it back to the pier for the glacier cruise. The cruise gave us an opportunity to sit and have lunch while we traversed the lake. Leah helpfully informed us that technical term for small ice bergs floating in the lake is "bergie bits". (Who needs a guide?!). The boat got us super close to the actual glacier and gave ample time for pictures. This is where you can see the blue blue parts of the glacier. The boat headed back to shore and then we drove back up to the glacier trails to check out the "inferior" trail.

This trail goes much closer to the glacier and we got lots more views of the ice. You can see both sides of the lake from this point. We took another 100 pictures and then headed out for a drive to the other side of the lake.

Adam had gotten information that the other side of the lake was a great drive so we headed out to find the road. Turns out it was a fabulous idea. It was our own personal wildlife safari along a dirt road. We saw wild flamingos, condors, hawks, hares, sheep and horses. We even saw a gaucho riding out to collect his cows. It was beautiful and probably one of the best drives of the whole trip. At the end of the road is a campground that you can camp at in warmer weather. Would definitely have been worth camping there if the weather had been warmer.

We decided to take an alternate route back to El Calafate (looked like a shortcut). It ended up being a dirt road the entire way back. We scared quite a few herds of horses and played "Hey Cow" the whole way back. We scared the bejeeses out of a lot of those animals so if any Argentinian farmers are reading, we're really sorry!

We arrived back in town just as the sun was setting and went to fill up the car with gas before returning it. Of course we had to get Leah back in the drivers seat to return the car but the gas station was right across the street from the car rental place. We were trying to figure out how to do it without the car rental agency seeing us when a large tractor pulled up and blocked the view. Leah and Adam quickly changed spots and Leah only stalled twice trying to cross the street to the car rental agency. We pulled up gave the keys back and took off as quick as possible.

We decided to have dinner that night at a nice restaurant. Leah and I had noticed a restaurant the night before that had a line up out the door so we figured it must be good. We made a reservation and went back to the hostel to change and have a pre-dinner drink. After two bottles of wine, it was time for dinner so we walked over to the restaurant. Turned out to be one of THE best restaurants of the trip. Chris ordered the specialty tenderloin steak and I had the regular steak. Adam was having a craving for bangers and mash so ordered sausages and mashed potatoes which he promptly mixed together on his plate. Chris' steak was probably one of the nicest steaks I've ever seen and perfectly cooked. We thought he was going to die from pleasure at the table. Not a word for a full twenty minutes other than moans of pleasure. We each tried a piece and I have to admit it was one of the best steaks i've ever tasted. Mine was good too but Chris' was amazing lol.

Chris was heading out for a 40 hour bus ride to Brazil that night and his bus left at 3 am so we all agreed to stay up with him until his bus. Only problem was Chris was drunk and stuffed with steak tenderloin. He passed out on our bed and the rest of us continued drinking penguins of wine until it was time to wake Chris up for his bus.

The glacier, drive and steak dinner turned out to be one of the best days of the entire trip. Our group was about to split up for good. Chris to Brazil, Adam to Ushuaia and Leah and I to BA the next day.

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Photos

Glacier
Do you see the serpent?

Cold Glacier
It was cold and windy.

Wild Flamingos
They're not buoys, they're flamingos!

Sheep
Baah-ram-u.