We had a quite relaxed start to the day – only had to get up at 8.00am
this morning. We crossed the road to get
to the breakfast room – we were just welcomed in, no room number checked or
asked our names. Backpackers – if you
want a complimentary breakfast just go to the Hotel Posada Los Alamos! It filled a hole – Maria’s name is going to
be coming up quite a bit feel in the next few weeks! The minibus was picking us up at 9.00am for
our trip today to the Perito Moreno Glacier.
It duly came at 9.15am (we come to expect this now, we are in the land
of manyana) – there were three other couples already on – not too bad. We had one more hotel to pick up from though
– would you believe a family with a child!
A small one at that. Nor a quiet
one. The couple in front of us said that
they were on their flight yesterday, and he ran up and down the aisle all the
way from Buenos Aires
We left El Calafate for the 80 kilometre journey to the glacier. On the way out there was a huge lake that had
hundreds of ducks and swans and flamingos on.
Didn’t expect to see any flamingos here.
The scenery along the way was superb – the Andes
were just about in view with their snow covered tops. We stopped at one point so that the guide
could show us the Calafate Bush. Novel –
getting out of a bus to look at a bush.
Normally have to get out of a bus and find a bush to pee behind!
We had to enter a National Park about 50 kilometres out, which is where
the glacier is. The 130 peso fee to get
into the park was included in our tour – but someone had to get on the bus and
take everyone’s ticket, stamp it, and give it back to them. Makes a job for someone I suppose. We then snaked our way upwards, and stopped
at a look out on the way. From here, we
could see the lake and the massive glacier that looked as though it was falling
between the mountains and had just come to a full stop at the bottom. The wall of ice was around sixty metres high,
with a further eighty to one hundred and twenty metres below the surface of the
lake. Impressive.
We drove on a further few miles, and dropped off the Japanese group and
the family (phew) at the “port” for them to have a boat trip. We went onwards to the actual glacier. We had four hours here – I thought at the
time quite a long time. There was a café
at the top, so we bought a bottle of water and then headed down the fingers of
walkways from the top, down through the forest.
It was amazing, and so well laid out.
There were many, many steps, but seats and look outs all along the
way. Every now and then you could hear a
crack like a whip, and then a sound like rolling thunder. We then realised what it was. When little parts of the ice break off the
main glacier it makes a cracking sound, and then when it hits the water it is
like thunder. A huge outward ripple is
made in the water, and then the blob of ice bobs back up to the top. It was amazing to watch. The walkways were colour coded, so if you
just wanted to do a gentle walk you stuck to yellow, red was harder with more
steps and orange was medium.
We walked down the red first, which took us to the south face of the
glacier. The perimeter that was facing
the lake was around five kilometres long – the rest wedged between the
mountains. What fantastic photos – I
have a feeling I may be looking at next years Travel Stop Christmas Card! Pieces were breaking off every twenty minutes
or so – you just had to be looking in the right direction, because once you
heard the noise it had already happened.
It was another glorious day – in the early twenties I would
imagine. Who would think that you could
be stood next to this much ice wearing at tee shirt.
We went back up to the café for a cup of tea, and then decided to do the
orange route as the finale. We walked
down and to the right, on the south face of the glacier. It was much quieter down here, and we found
an area called the “North Balcony” that had a seat, was a lovely sun trap from
the wind, and we were all on our own.
Peace. There was no noise, just
us. I said to Paul that I thought there
was a big bit just in front of us that looked as if it might break off. He said that wouldn’t go for weeks. Then there was an almighty roar. From the little snowball like size bits of
ice that were coming from the top just in front of us, the whole sheer face of
the glacier came crashing down. What a
spectacular sight! Paul’s battery on his
camera was just about to give out, but he managed to video most of it. It was sheer luck that I was looking at it,
and managed to take stills from the tiny snowball start to the whole thing
crashing into the lake. Wow!
We made our way back to the top to meet the guide and the rest of the
group. “Did you see that” she said. “That was a unique event – never seen that
before”. The English couple said they
were in the café at the time, and heard it from in there. How lucky were we?? Extremely, I would say. We then started to make our way back to El
Calafate, so happy. We got dropped off a
mile or so before we got back to town, so that we could walk along the shores
of the lake and see the flamingos. There
were four or five not far from the shore, but the main flock was a few hundred
yards out. Did they not know we were
coming? We had a good walk though, and
there were so many ducks and swans in the lake it was still lovely to look
at. Got a bit lost going back to the
hotel – it seemed very easy when we left this morning! Not too lost – Paul have the aforethought to
put the hotel note pad in his pocket (not sure why) and just showed some bar
tender and he pointed in the right direction.
Time for a cocktail I believe! And to review a few photos and videos!!
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