It's ALIVE!

  El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina
Thursday, July 16, 2009

First off as usual, the bus trip. Not much to be said as a 3:45am wakeup for a 4:30am bus, several painful border crossings into Chile and back to Argentina (the only road to El Calafate from Ushuaia goes through Chile), pizza in a supermarket cafe and another bus arriving at 1am in -5 degree weather doesn't fill me with creativity.

The beginning of the trek back up the other side of South America starts here in El Calafate. Known for little else than the stop off point for Parque Nacional los Glaciares and the home of Perito Moreno, Upsala, Spegazzini and some of their friends. Glaciers. Massive, cold, intimidating and unforgettably beautiful glaciers to be exact.

These glaciers are part of the 13,000 sq km Patagonia ice field, the 3rd largest after Greenland and Antarctica. They have been around since the last ice age, which was a long time ago. Even before I was born! Thats long.

First stop is the poster child of the area - Perito Moreno. As the main attraction of the park it is 30kms long, 5km wide and 60m high, not counting the 130-180m of it that is below the water and unseen! To describe these beasts of nature is really hard. Maybe the photos do it justice...

We walked along the 2km of viewing platforms trying to get our little pips accustomed to the size of the ice-wall we were looking at and the endless field of ice behind it, when everything changed. The earth starts to tremble and shake (no, not because of some fat american eating a burger) and a thundering roar emanates from the glacier! Its alive! Huge chunks of ice break off, and by huge chunks we're talking 20m across, and smash into the water creating huge waves and enormous splashes!

The glacier actually moves! Its hard to believe, but due to the unique weather patterns in the area, the ice field receives snow everyday of the year without fail. This snow packs down and becomes ice which due to the weight, pushes down and forms these massive glaciers that extend through valleys until they eventually meet water or another mountain. The Perito Moreno glacier moves up to 2 meters a day, every day! 

Its really alive and moving just the way it has for the last 10,000 years or so. Mind blowing. In fact, all the glaciers in the park are in balance - some are growing and some are receding just as they should So, its not global warming, its nature. Sorry Al Gore.

Another day was spent on a massive catamaran exploring these glaciers from Lake Argentino and seeing them front on. The boat cruised through channels filled with ice-bergs (yes like the ones from Titanic, no we didn't sink). These ice-bergs (some the size of big houses) are created by ice falling from the face of the glaciers. They are amazing and it was really special to be up close and personal with these things.

We couldn't get to the Upsala Glacier (largest one in the park) as the water was too blocked up with icebergs (imagine the train companies in the UK using THAT as an excuse!) but we saw Spegazzini which has cliffs 120m high! Luckily the weather cleared and we got some great views! All we needed to complete the picture was Scrat from Ice Age running along the top after his acorn!

There was also a great deal of people-watching on the boat (which unsurpisingly went hand in hand with a briliant round of people-mocking) with Kelly, our new Aussie mate, who we'll be travelling with for a few weeks. Definitely stories for when we are back...

The town of El Calafate is very cute and resembles places like Aviemore in Scotland. Very small, built for the cold and definitely geared up for tourists. All the shops have log-cabin facades and there are dogs everywhere! Not strays or pavement specials, but well looked after healthy mutts, hanging around as if they own the place - just like the yobs in London!

One of the constant highlights of this trip has been and will be the people we meet. Theres something very special about meeting strangers on a bus or in a hostel, hardly knowing their names, sharing a couple of bottles of great wine and swapping stories and having a laugh then parting as great friends a few hours later. Names, ages, nationalities and religions are not important. People are people and they are great. Everyone has a story worth listening to. One of the greatest blessings of this trip will be having the opportunity and time to listen.

So we're all iced-over and glaciered-out now and its time for the mercifully short 4 hour bus to our next stop, Puerto Natales in Chile, where we get on board our 4-day Navimag cruise through the Chilean fjords...