El Calafate

Saturday 26th March 2011
Getting up at 5:50am is silly at the best of times, but doing it the day after finishing a four-day hike was far from ideal.

Having made it to the bus for 7am we set off with a load of other tourists for the 5hr journey across the border into Argentina. It was a fairly uneventful trip apart from the two occasions we had to get off the bus to go through immigration. One fellow passenger was particularly keen on being well within our personal space in the queue. We'd expected the crossings to be longer but no bag checks were needed (we obviously looked trustworthy) and so it was relatively painless.

The journey along to El Calafate was one of the most unremarkable yet. Long straight roads, flat brown terrain and civilisation barely visible.

Once in our hostel (the lively, relaxed and enjoyable America del Sur) we set about planning our stay. The most pressing job was laundry. After a week moving from place to place we'd got behind and Emma was getting worried!

With clean underwear on its way, we booked our minitrek on the Glacier and our bus trip to Bariloche. They only go every 2 days so a rethink of our schedule was needed. Having sorted everything out we eventually settled down for a beer. River Plate were playing football on the TV and it was nice to see a dad and his young son in the bar watching the match avidly.

The local brew.

Observation:
Dogs are back, reminiscent of the early parts of our trip but looking much healthier. One particular dog followed us for 15 minutes on our walk into town, chased a few cars and then sat outside the restaurant while we ate. Absolutely barking.

Sunday 27th March 2011

The ice.

Today we visited the Glacier Peritio Moreno, THE reason people stay in El Calafate. The first thing to point out is that it's named after a famous explorer here and the man who in the 1800s mapped much of Patagonia. The glacier is impressive for a couple of reasons: it's very accessible and it's stable, unlike many others around. Situated in the southern ice fields, it advances at around 2m a day at its peak, although it's perfectly balanced as small sections fall into the lake each day. This means that the glacier will never grow so much that it will dominate the surrounding land. The most that happens is that a bridge of ice is formed between the glacier and the nearest land and this eventually collapses. This must be a great spectacle to witness. Oddly, there is no consistency as to when the ice bridge forms.

On the glacier.

Our full day trip gave us time to walk the viewing balconies and take hundreds if photos. Then, in the afternoon, we took a boat over to the edge and were able to spend 1.5hrs walking in crampons on the Glacier. The guide, Luis, was great. He made the trip both enjoyable and informative. James mentioned on the walk that some gin, tonic and lemon would go well with the ice. Not quite a G&T, but to round it off they offer you a Jim Bean over glacier (and therefore very old) ice. Neither of us are big whiskey drinkers, but it was a nice way to take it.

Anyone for Jim Beam?

Yes please says Emma!

Monday 28th March 2011
We had our first lie in for what seemed like weeks. We were still up at 8:30 but this seemed like a luxury.

Being nice sunny day, the views from our hilltop hostel were stunning, looking over Lago Argentina (the biggest mass on inland water in the country) and the mountains beyond. It was a lovely place to eat breakfast and somewhat different to Allder Close, Abingdon.

The unimpressive nature reserve.

We thought we'd explore the town a little more today so we headed down toward the nature reserve by the lake. We didn't stop. It was surrounded by building works of a new road so the chance of peace, quiet and bird spotting seemed pretty unlikely. We did, however, see the couple of flamingos in the distance and they didn't seem bothered by all the noise and dust.

Due to the nature of our travelling and the poor state of the Internet in places, we were in need of some time to update the blog. We then went in search for a local brewery 'Shalken'. Again we were disappointed as this turned out to be a restaurant that was closed.

A house.

We finished the day by heading to our first Parrilla in Argentina, La Tablita. Emma had trout whilst James has Bife de Chorizo, supposedly one of the best cuts. It was huge and very tasty, if a little chewy. More sampling needed throughout the trip.The accompanying bottle of Malbec helped wash it all down nicely and gave us a taste of why we're heading to Mendoza in a week or so for wine tasting.

Tuesday 29th March 2011

Horses.

This morning we'd booked to do a bit of horseriding. This was nothing strenuous and our horses Electra and Pajaro barely broke into a canter. It was a great way to see some of the countryside although it got a bit cold towards the end as the snow started. We never realised horses were so windy and wondered whether those in the grand national have the same trouble with gas!

A cold ending.

After getting some supplies in for our journey we headed to the bus station. This was to be a  30hr journey north to Bariloche. We contemplated the plane, but at £130 more each we decided to settle in for our longest journey yet. Podcasts and bottle of red wine helped the time pass quickly on the opening leg.