Hostel del Glaciar El Calafate

We left Puerto Natales at 7am for a four hour bus ride to El Calafate, Argentina. It was snowing on our way to the bus station. The bus ride was beautiful. It snowed that night so the landscape was covered in snow. We drove up some mountains and arrived at the Chilean border crossing. We all got off the bus and had our passports stamped then proceeded to get back on the bus and drive through the "neutral zone" to the Argentinean checkpoint where we did the passport thing over again. I guess o...

Flying into Calafate from Bariloche and that has been one of the most scenic flights ever flown! Flying across southern Patagonia, the stewardess would comment names of lakes, mountains, etc. that we flew over - it was quite exciting with each side of the plane scrambling over to the other side. Lucky enough to get aerial views of the Perito Moreno and Upsalla (largest one in the Glaciers National Park) glaciers. First glimpse of icebergs as well! Felt like we were flying around the Antarctic...

On next part of the journey started with another 18 hour bus journey to Rio Gallegos - Argentina really is a huge country. We had a brilliant bus journey - it broke down half way and a child screamed its head off in the seat behind us for 9 continuous hours. More of the same scenery as well - mile after mile of nasty scrubland. Rio Gallegos marks a big point of journey as it is the furthest South we will go - it is even further south than Australia - I guess the only way is up! We only had a ...

We headed on to the tourist town of El Calafate. The city promises to get it's visitors up close and personal with the Glacier National Park. We are excited to see the sites tomorrow. Today we ventured through the small town and caught up on life. Laundry, visiting with some Irish folk, and flying into town, all filled up our day. We're hoping the next few days will be filled with the beauty of nature and sites we've never even imagined. Can't wait! _______________________________________ ___...

Interesting taxi driver who took us to the airport. Instead of the usual patriotic talk this guy spilt his guts on Argentina's problems. He was the one who told us about the bribes with paper mill mentioned earlier and amongst other things talked about the huge drink driving problem Argentina has. We checked in only to find the plane was delayed for an hour due to some security issues. We managed to snag a window seat that we thought would be great for viewing the Andes on the flight in. Turn...

The left us breakfast out at the hostel as our bus was leaving early! Erica thought her OJ was tea and heated it up in the microwave! Hot OJ has an interesting taste! Back on the bus and up the hill above El Chalten we got the most fantastic view of the whole Fitzroy Cerro Torre range. I was close to leaving the bus and giving up my seat to get a photo. The mountains were lit up red as the early morning sun shone on them, and up above them there were all these fantastic circular clouds you ge...

Popping over the border into Argentina again, our companions are excited at the prospect of steak (and the reputation of Argentinian women)....I´m looking forward to the Moreno Glacier... Fat with a patagonian lamb all you can eat dinner, we move onto a little bar in the midst of tourist heaven with quaint wooden panelling and apres ski ambiance but some funky argentinian music, particularly Alejandro the long-haired-husky-swooning-slightly-scr eechy flamenco heart breaker. All blurry from th...

I arrived in Calafate on a bus from Puerto Natales, Chile around midnight on the evening of 14 February. Customs and immigration was a rather interesting experience for me, having never crossed an international border by bus. I discovered that I had somehow neglected to retain or perhaps never received an important piece of documentation required upon leaving Chile. To my relief, I managed to persuade a rather indifferent border patrol agent that as a resident student, I had not received the...

We weren't sure if we'd be able to make it all the way to El Calafate from Trelew without having to break the journey in Rio Gallegos, but as it turned out really well. We arrived and managed to book another through bus leaving within the hour. We had just enough time for a bite to eat before hauling ourselves and our bags onto the coach. This time we were treated to Ocean's Twelve on the DVD - again in English with Spanish subtitles - we've been very lucky with that so far. We arrived in El ...