After a brief, but fantastic trip to Ushuaia, it was back on the road for the long journey to El Calafate, but with the Perito Moreno Glacier to look forward to who cared about another full day and a half on a bus!
We were really pleased to see Tom and James at the bus stop, I can´t say bus station as it was simply a car park! We got there at 6am ready for the bus and caught up with what Tom and James had been up to, and discovered we were heading in the same direction again. The bus journey was pretty amazing this time, the first part was a drive back over the snow capped mountains. The sky was blue and it was really peaceful that early in the morning. We also saw loads more Reahs. Guanicos and Pink flamingos - but I never had my camera ready for any of them! We also saw one guy getting really told off and fined because he didn´t declare his bags of apples at the Chilean border - they really were not happy, but I guess as he had signed a declaration in English, they did have a point!
However, the most exciting thing about this trip was the boat ride. In complete contrast to the last journey we were straight on to the ferry and we were off in minutes. This time there was no wind and we were allowed to go on deck. It was pretty cold, so we didn´t stay up there too long, but on our way down Epi spotted what he thought was dolphins in the water. I was thinking, yer right! But he was right and best of all they were the Commerson dolphins that we should have seen on our Dolphin watching (that got cancelled due to the wind - do keep up!). So now we were seeing them for free and they were right in front of us...... so cool. I can´t tell you how excited we were, the dolphins were jumping and playing right alongside where we were standing.
We finally arrived at our destination at 1.30am, very tired. We got a hostel straight away and a free ride there too - small things like this make you very happy when you are back packing!
After a sleep and well needed shower we were off out exploring again. The town of El Calafate is beautiful, but pricey! We bumped into James and Tom again, small town, and booked our trip to the Perito Moreno Glacier for the next day - can´t wait!
Found a cheap pool hall that night and whooped Epi in two games, he says he was having an off day and blamed it on a bad cue - men ey?!
So onto the Moreno Glacier, we were picked up at 9am and were off on the two hour journey. Our guide Pablo was very nice and told us lots of information about the glacier national park and how it was formed over 100 years ago. He told us loads about the local fauna and animals - it all helped to brighten a very grey and gloomy day! Pablo told us that no matter how many pictures you may have seen on the Perito Moreno Glacier nothing looks quite as spectacular as the first time you see it and boy was he right. I am not sure the photos will do it justice, but it is amazing, very hard to put into words really.
We stopped quite a distance away to take photos in the car park of the most expensive hotel in Argentina - ~$1000 USA per night, we pay around $10 for our lodgings!
The glacier closer up is breathtaking. It is huge and so peaceful apart from the great ´cracks´ you hear every now and again as a piece of the glacier breaks off and falls metres into the blue lake below. You cant always see these pieces falling as the glacier is 5km long on one side and 3km on the other side - but you can hear them and see the ripples in the lake below. If you are lucky one of these huge chunks of ice falls just as you have your camera pointing at it - which is how most people seem to spend the day!!! And we were so lucky, we saw 2 pieces and Epi managed to get a picture of both of them. I will try and put the photos on and tell you which ones are with the pieces falling.
The next day we had to pack up again, but we still had a full day in El Calafate so we decided to go to a local bird/nature reserve - Laguna Nimez. It was a beautiful day and we saw some really strange looking birds, but don't know the names of most of them - sorry!
We were also joined from our hostel by a dog that had been sleeping on our stairs. I think I mentioned already that there are dogs everywhere, well in El Calafate we were like Dr Doolittle - they followed us everywhere! Well we thought when we got the reserve and went through the little shed to pay that we had lost him, but no! He joined us through the fence! This was all good fun and quite cute until we got very close to the birds of prey. I think it was either a Hawk or a Kestrel. Epi commented that he was circling and was obviously interested in something very close - I joked "yes, us", but I wasn´t far wrong. It was the dog he was after and he really swooped in and attacked. There wasn't anything we could do to help, but the dog equally didn't run away. So as we walked away I think the dog made it back through the fence - I don't want to get that close to one of those things again! Epi got some great pictures of it circling though! I finally got my pictures of the Pink Flamingos here, but unfortunately they were scared away by a cowboy on horseback, yes a real cowboy! I got a picture of him too!
After the Laguna we went and chilled out in a cafe and wrote diaries and postcards - I managed to get very badly sun burnt again - I never learn!
Then later on that day we tried to update our blogs and transfer the photos from my memory stick onto CD. Sadly in doing this we managed to lose all of the penguin photos, but at least I had put a few on the website, I was very sad cos they had been really great pictures. But we have learnt our lesson and are now getting the photos onto disc regularly and making sure they are backed up!!!
Then at 9pm it was time to get the bus along Ruta 40 to Bariloche - 34 hours on a bus, we had expected a nice bus - boy were we disappointed!!!!! Will tell you about that trip in the next entry.
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