Hosteria Sierra Nevada El Calafate

... the hostel experience - an out-and-out nutter with staring eyes who seemed to think the government were tracking his every move and a 23-year-old who with fresh-faced enthusiasm was travelling alone in order to discover her "true feelings for trekking". Meanwhile Per and I have discovered our true feelings for trekking - i.e. that its best left for others. Just the fact that we don't want to get up at 5.30am means ...

... far- but the cold is challenging. Also I have to put an extra insole in myboots as I have some pain in my left forefoot underneath- a hanky did the trick for 2 days! o pain- no gain- and the rest of me works OK so I must not complain.
So- glad to have got off my first communication to you - goodness knows when the next one will be- we are 6 nights camping next in the Fitzroy range further north. Vast distances. Bye for now. Richard

... Italiano 3) hike along Cuernos, camp Refugio Cuernos 4) hike through Valle Asencion, camp Campamento Chileno 5) early dawn ascent up to Mirador Las Torres, camp at eastern Refugio Torres 6) easy stroll down to Laguna Amarga to get our bus back to El Calafate. However, the weather conspired to make sure our plan worked out nothing like the above, but our alternative itinerary allowed us to essentially walk every inch of the ...

... El Calafate reigning champions in a nail biting match despite some odd (perhaps even made up - it got heated but Austrolombia wasn't gonna be polite and let the hosts win. What kind of message would that send to our people?) local rules. We jumped on a bus the next day (another early hungover morning) as champions, with more Spanish words in our vocab and more chunder in the toilet bowl than when we arrived.. Mission successful. Thanks Julian and Hector for a top few nights!

... once we were close to the glacier, the driver told us about the boat trips that go up to the glacier face and, for those that wanted to go, dropped us off at the jetty and helped us buy tickets before taking the remaining passengers closer to the glacier. He even picked us up again after the boat trip and took us to the main viewing area - considering we thought we were just hopping on a local bus and being dropped at the glacier, we were really pleased with the ...

I got the bus from El Chalten to El Calafate and arrived again, sometime in the evening, found a hostel, I think Hostel Calafate and got myself a bed, with a mysteriously absent roommate. The following day I got the bus out to the the glacier, one of the largest and most impressive of the glaciers that slither their way off the great southern ice sheet, that covers much of the mountains of southern Patagonia. The ...

... the stakes in before the wind carries off our shelter. Then, in one gust, SNAP!! ****. It looks like the wind popped the middle pole apart again. Or did it break? We quickly yet delicately wove the pole out of its sleeve. It had snapped right in the middle, right where two segments fit together. "How could this happen?" we asked ourselves. "We have an expensive four-season tent when it seems everyone else has the cheap, flimsy tents. Theirs seem to be standing up in ...

... then caught the coach down to the dock and boarded the boat which would take us across the lake (in front of the glacier) and to the other shore. Once there we met our guides and began our trek, after a walk through the forest of about 25 minutes, we were each supplied with crampons that we would wear on our boots once on the ice. That was followed by a 3km trek over the hill side, past a water fall and down to the edge of the middle of the ...

... gen ankommen, wird uns leid** mitgeteilt, dass d** Kapitaen nach Einschaetzung d** Lage vor Ort leid** entschieden hat, dass eine Zufahrt nicht moeglich ist. Wir muessen lachen, denn wie wir jetzt selbst sehen koennen, schwimmen da nicht etwa nur ein paar Eisb**ge, sond**n die komplette Breite d** Zufahrt ist so lueckenlos blocki**t, dass kaum ein Kajak durchpassen wu**de. Wir bekommen auf den Monitoren des Schiffes noch eine Luftaufnahme des Eisb**gfeldes geboten, worauf man sieht ...

... br>
We slept on the bus back, so I even got to have a little siesta on my birthday, perfect!

We walked into town where I called Mum & Dad and now we're doing some internetting and I'm replying to birthday greetings. A big thank you to all of you who sent messages, which are much appreciated ;)

(Another big thanks to Mum & Dad and Pam & Ian for paying for today and for the Boca game next week, they are really perfect presents ...