Back to Argentina
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2009
1
11
20
Trip End
Ongoing
El Calafate,
Patagonia,
Argentina
Friday, January 23, 2009
We stayed at huge wooden log hostel with great balconies all around.
This is the jumping off point to go see Perito Moreno glacier, one of the last advancing glaciers in the world.
The day we went was beautifully sunny, but remarkably there was a steady 40+ km/hr wind blowing. Imagine that.
First we took a quick boat trip right up to the 60 m high face of the glacier. The multiple shades of blue were incredible. We then took a hike along the many little walkways and terraces available to get a good view of the main face of the glacier. All were full of people waiting and eagerly watching to get a glimpse of a huge chunk of ice to fall. This is apparently the thing to do here, to see and maybe take a picture or film of piece of the glacier falling off. Every few minutes you can hear a massive crack followed by what sounds like a building collapsing, but most of that happens somewhere inside the glacier and is not visible to the people on shore. But the roar is magnificent.
At one point a large piece started to break off and about 30 people rushed up from their seated positions and pulled out their cameras and started clicking away like they were guns and the enemy had just appeared. It was almost as cool to watch the people as it was to see a piece of the glacier the size of a bungalow come crashing into the lake!
This was the most breathtaking thing we have seen so far on the trip.
That evening we went to a lamb BBQ to try some famous Patagonian lamb, being made on a live fire spit, right in the restaurant. Niiice!
We also bought tickets for a 28 hr bus ride to Bariloche. A lot of reading to be done!
