A town surviving on Glaciers.

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  El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

 From Bariloche we flew to El Calafate. A place that reminded me of somewhere in the North west mining area of Australia. We had chosen a B&B that was walking distance to town.

Gaston and Carolina were wonderful, helpful hosts.

Hostería Puerto San Julián
Puerto San Julian 310- El Calafate-
(9405) Sta Cruz


                          

Our first order of the day was to go and find the information centre and a good coffee.

                            

Carolina had said that there was not much to do in El Calafate. Visiting the Perito Moreno Glacier was why people went there. Also it was a setting off point for Torres del Paine, where we would be going in a couple of days.

We found a city tour that took us to the Punta Walichu caves. Here there were some rock paintings. The landscape certainly made me think of Australia. The paintings themselves were also like some the Aboriginals would have done.

                                     


                                      


                                

The land is privately owned, therefore we were restricted to certain areas. The owners had definitely put a lot of work into maintaining the site and providing an interesting look into the life of the original inhabitants of the area.

People do not change. We always feel the need to write on walls so that our names will live on.       I remember this at Chambers Pillar in Central Australia where the people crossing the continent wrote on the stone pillars in the 1800's. 


After visiting the caves we went to the Museum. It was very well presented and it is was worth the visit.
               


This picture is our philosophy of travel."Getting to know the history of a place enriches your journey."


We checked out the town, booked for our bus to Cerro Castillo the border point of Chile and Argentina. This done we booked our walk on the Perito Moreno glacier. I looked everywhere for a Christmas ornament with Feliz Navidad. None to be found. Jay jokingly said wait until we get to Ushuaia. He turned out to be right.
Here is my Christmas sign. 








It turned out to be too windy for Jay to take any bird photographs at the local lagoon. We had to be satisfied with seeing the Flamingoes from a distance.



We took off early for our glacier day trip. This glacier is one of the most active ones. It is moving at a rate of 2 metres a day.


We arrived for the first part of our glacier tour which was to spend time looking at the the North face of the glacier. There has been some wonderful work done building walkways.
                    



Every twenty minutes or so there was some calving. Apparently there was more activity in the afternoons. You had to be quick to catch the pictures.

                                          
                          
                           
 
                                  








We got the bus to where a boat was waiting for the next part of the tour which was our walk on the south part of the glacier.
     It is wonderful to see the folding in the rocks. 


Where the glacier meets the rock it dips under the water. 
The water starts to wear away the glacier.    Every 18 months to 2 years the arch that forms from where the water is wearing a tunnel through collapses and creates huge waves. This happened in 2008 and has been posted on You-tube. Just put Perito Moreno Glacier into You-tube and you will be able to watch it.


The mini treking is well set up. We walk through a lovely area to get to the moraine by the glacier where we will start our trek. Our mini trek was three hours, we could have kept going. There was a much longer trek of 7hrs. We had settled for the shorter option.
                



















After the talk from our guides about the Perito Moreno glacier we walked to a place where we were supplied with the crampons. Fun to learn to walk in.
     

 



   Take a close look at the specks. That is where we are heading.








The sign below was there for a reason. When the glacier calves it can send mini tsunamies which could take you into the water. Therefore the sign.

                 






    AND off we go.    





                          


                                 













The guide that we had took us off on our own trail. It was great fun.
 









The feeling up on top was wonderful. We felt that we were there all on our own.                          


















We were able to fill our water bottles with glacial water. What a pure taste.                                                                    











We end the trek with a toast in scotch.                 
















It was another great bit of fun to do.  


We head off early the next morning to go to Torres del Paine.

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Heading to the caves.	View over the lake.	The structure for a house.	Nice to see some colour.
Getting closer to the art.	Rock art.	The Spirit Sharman	Good signs.
Mini stalagtites	What is the Shaman taking?	Early transport.	Puerto Moreno Glacier.
On the way to the glacier.	First views.	The water works its way through.	The forming arch.
Good weather.	Many vantage points.	Perito Moreno Nth face.	Wonderful rock formations.
I love the colours.	The Ice field.	Many different textures.	Here I come.
Looking for the best way.	I made it.	Here come our guide.	Stick your toes in.
Off the beaton track.	I think I have the hang of it.	What a magic feeling.	Having fun.
Magic place.	I do not think I will use the ice pick.	Scotch to warm you up.	The ending point.
Our dinner coming up.

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