Blogs from Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 88

one of the worlds biggest glaciers. 30km long, 5km wide and 60-90m high...a break or crack from the edge would make the ground tremble and the waves shatter and plurt in its wake!! and it was freezing cold!!! ... read more

Day 11 - After three good days in Puerto Madryn we head further south to El Calafate - an even smaller town which is close to Ushuia (the southern most town on earth and step off point to Antartica). The bus journey takes 24 hours but isn´t too bad apart from one girl that smelt of sick and one boy that smelt of wee. A suprisingly delicious aroma, I hasten to add. The landscape changes dramatically as we near our destination. The vast expanse of blank terrain is replaced by sweeping hills and lakes, all surrounded by snow capped moutains in the distance. When we arrive in the town we check into an amazing hostel which is built on a hill, giving it panoramic views of not only the town itself but the turquoise lake lying ... read more

Salimos temprano de Puerto Natales para volver rapidamente a Gral. Roca, calculamos tres dias de viaje, no se si sera larga la Patagonia, por suerte todo asfalto, salimos para Puerto San Julian, el viaje fue largo y a mi se me ocurrio comer unos sandwichitos al mediodia, por lo que la llegada a Pto. San Julian fue desastrosa, en un momento me encontre desgraciandome en la avenida de entrada a la ciudad!!!Vergonzozo!!!!Solo personalmente puedo contar lo que fue ese dia de viaje, nos hospedamos en unaa hosteria en la avenida del mar al lado del hotel municipal que nos queria cobrar el doble por la mitad de servicio, que diferencia con Chile como se nota el cambio de cultura, aca teniamos televisor, banio privado, desayuno completo, construccion hermosa y todo a 2/3 de lo mas barato ... read more

As I stared out the window there appeared an aqua-marine lake in the barren, hostile looking plains. This signified our approach to El Calafate airport. The drop in temperature was significant. No more walking around in a t-shirt and shorts, we were now in Patagonia. The landscape looked as wild and amazing as in the numerous photos I´d seen. I was so excited to be here. The pilot mentioned something about how we had arrived at a very special time which had something to do with the Perito Moreno Glacier. We just thought it was the usual tourist speil but found out later that the ice bridge connecting Perito Moreno Galcier to the penninsula was about to collapse. Apparently it is a major event that happens only infrequently. To understand how major an event this is ... read more

Luego de comprar los viveres necesarios para acampar en la base del glaciar Perito Moreno, empezamos a desandar los 80 kilometros que nos separaban, todo el paisaje es desertico y en un punto aparecen los arboles y se forma el tipico paisaje andino, tanto terrorismo nos habia sembrado la flaca de direccion de turismo de que se iba a caer el glaciar que cuando nos detuvieron media hora porque estaban arreglando el camino y se podia circular en un solo sentido, casi terminamos por bajarnos y pegarle al loco para que nos deje pasar, por supuesto que al llegar el primer dia no haba mucha gente y entonces nos ubicamos en la playa de estacionamiento superior (luego paso a ser exclusiva de colectivos) y corrimos por las pasarelas hasta llegar a aproximadamente 300 metros del glaciar, ... read more