Hosteria Hainen Calafate El Calafate

... largest reserve of fresh water, dodging icebergs (some larger than our 2 storey Catamaran) along the way. Our first stop of significance was Glacier Upsala, located in a narrow channel North-West of the lake. It's huge sheer ice walls were impressive, and several times large cracks were accompanied by falling ice from the glacier that crashed into the lake. Jostling for position on the boat (London tubes have trained us well) we got great views of the 60km long, 4km wide ...

... vertically up the ice! Was quite daunting at first seeing as if you fell over on the ice it would take ur skin off. Finished off the trek with a scotch on the rocks (rocks from the glacier), was a nice touch. We then headed back to the hostel and flew to Buenos Aires. HAd enough of long buses and a bus would have taken 2 days!

... this place. It really feels like you are at the end of the world - the population density is so sparse here - you are driving through nothingness for miles - just barren dirt land and amazing mountains. I am so glad people told us to come down here because we really would have missed out if we skipped it. We were dropped off at the hostel and its gorgeous - its a big wooden building a 5 min walk away from ...

... in our cold bodies. I was feeling well enough and was not going to pass up on a day like this, so the assault up Valle Ascensio was a go. The total trail is supposed to be nine hours roundtrip. Mary and I did it in six hours. The first part of the trail was incredibly steep as we lifted north from the plains up to the high ridge along Alimento Nieto. I tore up this part of the trail, causing some Americans that I passed by to ...

... to see here! Boy was it worth it... We drove about 40km from El Calafate to get to the entrance of the Los Glaciares National Park. Along the way we had the Lago Argentina lake by our side to keep us entertained. The colour was an amazing bright blue and a nice taster for the colours to come at the glacier. Floating in the lake every so often were some icebergs, also a fabulous light blue colour. Inside ...

... nog langer staan kijken maar de tourbus ging terug (en daarom hou ik dus niet van die georganiseerde tours, maarja soms heb je geen keus). Overall conclusie: Perito Moreno heeft de hoge verwachtingen meer dan waar gemaakt. Hoe toeristisch ook, een must-see!! Volgende bestemming Puerto Natales, waarschijnlijk de meest zuidelijke bestemming van mijn reis en hier gaan we hardcore hiken in Torres del Paine national park

... un tour complet incluant hotels, transports et guides).... et ce n est pas pour me deplaire etant donne que depuis 6 mois je perd quelques precieuses heures chaque jour a trouver et negocier chaque service ou a jouer l'interprete benevole pour ces anglophones monoglotes.... Nous avons la journee pour recuperer a l'hotel au bord d'un lac magnifique et visiter cette station balneaire assez charmante ressemblant beaucoup a nos stations de ski alpines ...

... vor allem dafu** b**uehmt, dass ** sich imm** mal wied** qu** ueb** den See schiebt, und alle paar Jahre komplett bis ans and**e Uf**. Dadurch unt**bricht ** den Wass**fluss im See und eine Seite steigt mehr an als die and**e, bis d** Druck zu gross wird und d** Gletsch** spektakula** durchbricht. Wen es int**essi**t, d** kann auf YouTube gute Videos davon sehen. Auch dieses Jahr hat d** Gletsch** den See komplett unt**brochen, ab** d** Durchbruch wird wohl **st zwischen Ma**z und ...

... coastline to get to the foot of the glacier. It was a cool trail through the woods and towards the glacier, we got more excited the closer we got.

We were given a couple of talks about the glacier before we reached the start of the glacier hike and our guide was passionate and knowledgeable, which is always an excellent combination for the interested tourist.

Once we reached the base of the glacier were fitted for krampons (which were less ...