After flying down to Patagonia we made a brief visit over the border into Argentina. The crossing was particularly welcoming - after passing a sign announcing "The Falklands belong to Argentina," the immigration office was stuck at the top of the mountain, where we ended up queuing in the snow! They looked delighted when I produced my British passport, so I was quickly back on the coach before they changed their minds about letting me in!
As soon as we arrived in El Calafate, we went quickly to the bar to watch England beat France in the rugby world cup semi final. The game was followed immediately by the second semi final, Argentina v Chile.........wait a minute, Chile don't play rugby? Oh no, this was Argentina v Chile in the football world cup qualifiers, although from the way they were tackling each other it took a few minutes to realise there wasn't still a rugby game on! So we watched that game as well, it was very funny watching the locals as much as the game which Argentina won 2-0 if anyone cares.
Vania's consolation for an afternoon in a bar watching sport was yet another dog back at the hostel. I'm sure she's got a guide book with a dog count in it!
The purpose of the Argentinian visit was to see the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the most spectacular in the world. Our pick up from the hostel was 8am, unfortunately we didn't realise Argentina was an hour ahead so we ended up still in bed when it arrived. Less than five minutes later, we were on the coach, luckily having managed to throw on enough warm clothes for the daytrip. As we discovered withing seconds of the first stop on the way to the glacier, Patagonia has a fairly constant bitterly cold wind, so even on a sunny spring day it is very cold. As we approached the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and caught a first glimpse of the Perito Moreno Glacier, there was a gasp from virtually everyone on the coach. The glacier is a stunning sight, a huge wall of ice (the front alone is 5km long and 60m high) extending 80km up the valley.
Upon arrival, we went on a boat trip to the front of the glacier before the crowds gathered. The glacier looms large above you, with broken pieces of ice floating in front of the craggy, deep blue ice. The boat does not get too close as large pieces of ice often fall off the front edge. This, coupled with the fact that the wind alone whips up large waves on the lake, can make the lake very rough at times. Having taken our pictures, the boat made its way back to the quay only to discover that an iceberg had inconsiderately deposited itself right in front of where we were going to dock. Apparently this was no problem, out came a rope to tow the iceberg out of the way! This was fine until a large piece of ice broke off to leave the remaining iceberg well and truly blocking our exit. In the meantime, the winds were picking up and the waves on the lake were getting larger, making the job of clearing a wide enough space and navigating through it all the more difficult. (At this stage Vania was reminding me of how right her feeling had been!) The expectant crowds that had gathered on the shore for the next boat trip were departing fast, although some lingered long enough to take pictures of us stranded amongst the icebergs, which was nice. Our hour long boat ride had turned into a three hour one, but it was fascinating to watch the crew gradually work a gap in the ice large enough (only just, as you can see) to get us all back to shore without having to reach into our bags for our swimwear. So no Titanic moment on this particular trip!
After all the excitement, we went up for a walk along the side of the valley to see the glacier from a different vantage point. The glacier is quite active, advancing by two metres a day. As we sat eating our lunch, a few crashes alerted us to some ice splintering off the front of the glacier. A few more followed, then slightly bigger pieces of ice until a huge column crashed off the front and into the lake. About thirty seconds of real glacial action happening right in front of us! Every few years there is a large rupture, but we were very lucky to see this:
GOING.........
GOING.........
GONE!
After all the day's excitment we decided we needed a relaxing drink back in El Calafate. The second rugby world cup semi final just happened to be starting, so we made it to the bar to see Argentina get thrashed by South Africa, which was a shame!
After a couple of days we made our way up into the Andes and back across the border into Chile.
Bye for now,
Tom
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