So after two nights in a row on a bus, a day in blustery Comodoro Rivadavia, and a half a day on another bus, we arrived to El Calafate. Its a little town that basically exists for people to base themselves in while they visit the glaciars. Which is precisely what we did. We stayed in a great hostel, with gorgeous views out over the lake, ringed with snowy mountains. Here is a sunset photo I took from our room, you can make out the snowy mountains and the lake.
We got busy as soon as we got to town, for a change, and organised two trips. The first one was a boat trip up the lakes, to see a load of glaciers. Teh first was seco, which is a little one that is retreating and doesn´t reach the lake any more. The second was Spegazzini, a big one, at 130m height. This one isn´t retreating. I got right up the front of the boat as we were approaching, and I tell you, I have never been so cold in my life, the boat was going fairly fast. This photo is cool because you can see the glacier cruising on down the mountains. (Spegazzini)
Then we headed off further up to the Upsala glacier, which is really wide, about 60 kms, and 80m high. This one also has moraines in it - the brown streaks you see on the ice, which is all mushed up rocks and stuff that is forced up to the surface by the ice.
(Upsala glaciar, note in the middle, slightly to the right, there is one very very blue iceberg.)After Upsala, we pulled in to puerto Onelli, and walked 15 minutes to Onelli Lake, into which Onelli Glacier pours, plus a couple of others. Here we stopped for lunch, and the guide mentioned that we were there on perhaps one of the best days they will get in the year, dead still, no wind, warm, sunny, and absolutely no cloud obscuring anything. He said they only get or so days a year like that. Sometimes the wind there is up to 80kmh or so, enough to tear out the trees and push up 2 m waves on the lake. So I guess we were lucky.
(Lunch spot at Lake Onelli, at least three glaciars in the background)Then we cruised on back to the port, and home again. We decided we would do a bit more cooking for ourselves, as the hostel had a decent kitchen, and Argentina has decent steaks. $2 AU buys a big slab of Sirloin, big enough for both of us, and $4 AU buys a decent bottle of Malbec. You can actually get drinkable wine here for under a dollar a litre, Mum, you would love it.
Ice Berg, as seen from the boat!
The next day we did the ´mini trekking´trip, which involved travellig by bus to the Perito Moreno Glacier, crossing the lake by boat in front of the glacier, strapping on crampons and walking around on the glacier for a couple of hours, before crossing back to the other side of the lake again, and having a couple of hours to spend on this series of boardwalks that they have put up to view the glacier. I will put up a whole bunch of photos from this one, as I took hundreds, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Pretty amazing sight, and probably my favourite experience in South America yet.
Perito Moreno from the top of the boardwalks
Out on the ice, and yep, it is snowing!
Ice, ice, baby. Thats one big crevice.
That was an ice fall!! See the splash!
PM from the south side, taken after the ice walk on the way back to the refugio for lunch.
And now, we have travelled from Lake Titicaca along the entire length of the Andes by bus. Thus, we have to make the long journey back up again!
NExt stop Puerto Madryn, just a staging post on the way north for us.
1 comment:
Wow it looks incredible! And you were so lucky with the weather!
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