Konke Hotel & Sabores El Calafate

After a rather long bus trip of almost 30 hours (extended by delays, missed connections etc), we arrived in El Calafate in order to visit the famous Glacier Moreno.

Similar to visiting the Iguassu Falls, regardless of the pictures you have seen before hand, it really is something special.

While we had ...

... hours later. Names, ages, nationalities and religions are not important. People are people and they are great. Everyone has a story worth listening to. One of the greatest blessings of this trip will be having the opportunity and time to listen.

So we're all iced-over and glaciered-out now and its time for the mercifully short 4 hour bus to our next stop, Puerto Natales in Chile, where we get on board our 4-day Navimag cruise through the Chilean fjords...

... humbling to witness in person. The glacier forms a dam separating the two arms of the lake and every once in a while the pressure from the water on each side is so great that it results in a ruptura, or breakage, so massive that an entire section of the glacier just disappears in a sensational implosion. Glaciar Poreto Moreno is one of the most dominant, awe-inspiring natural things on this planet. It is up there with things ...

... Glacier itself, however these huge icebergs in the water were in fact a big plus to the cruise - it was really amazing! Being in front of the Spegazzini Glacier is impressive as well, you feel so small in front of this wall of ice. The cruise is done on a catamaran and holds about 250 people, for added confort and a bit more exclusive service I paid the extra 100 pesos (20 euros) for the VIP lounge in the captainīs room. Beside being seated ...

18/2/09-21/2/09 Well it was another overnight bus, but this one was for 28hrs! We got to El Calafate via a small part of the famous route 40 but took the route 3 for most of it (this way is much quicker). Well what can I say, El Calafate is another windy cold Patagonian town. The only reason to really come here is ...

We s*w one the most incredible things we h*ve ever seen with our own eyes tod*y. Perito Moreno Gl*cier. I'll st*rt you *t the beginning. We booked * bus ride to the gl*cier l*st night...to be picked up *t 9:00 *m *t our hostel this morning. We woke up *t 8:51 *m. I don't think M*rie *nd I h*ve ever hopped out of bed f*ster th*n we did this morning. We b*sic*lly threw on the first things we found *t the top of our suitc*ses, threw some food in our b*ckp*ck, found ...

... amounts of wine. while it would have been better if you all were HERE, i don't think this Christmas could have been any better if i had spent it at home.. only different. Certainly not worse, and in a lot of ways better/more comfortable. But being comfortable sometimes makes us lazy, and I think i felt a slight lack of inertia in my life. While i have to come back and 'face reality' at some point, I certainly have not been sitting ...

Leaving Chile behind was unexpectedly hard. For such a small sliver of South America it's been one of our favourite countries to visit. Reputedly the most expensive we would argue you still get excellent value for money, there's no siesta time to royally screw up your day and the wines are fair superior to their Argentinean neighbours, that and their Patagonian lamb is hard to beat (we're still looking). That aside we continued into ...

... but let's just say that when we really started kicking off, she miraculously "found" us a nice room with a double bed and a gorgeous view of the lake. How pathetic.

The room is really nice, much nicer than we've stayed anywhere really, complete with heated floor tiles, a fab view over Lake Argentina, a lovely bathroom, cable tv and a really comfy bed... PERFECT ;)

That said, it's also definitely the most expensive room that we've had anywhere ...

... calmed her down by getting her to watch "Singin' in the Rain" on her portable DVD player and eventually she went to sleep. We had another very early morning today. We were bussed for about 45 mins to a large catamaran on Lago Argentina. From the dock we went about 1 hour up a fjord (for lack of a better word). On the way, we started to see icebergs that had broken off the glaciers. At some point during that trip, Boo whipped out her ...