El Calafate

Arrived in El Calafate after a short 4 hour bus journey, one of the best yet, as David CC Norman provided the most brilliant and hilarious company! We had booked quite a cheap hostel for just one night in El Calafate, as we knew we would be arriving late, but were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived to small dorms, single beds, generally beautiful modern hostel and so promptly booked another 4 nights(not having to move hostel is quite the luxury when backpacking, as lie ins and daytime space to chill out and read in your room are quite the luxury! Rather than finding something to do around town in that space between check out and check in!)

Our first day here we wandered around the town, a small and very touristy town, a little like Bariloche.. beautiful and swiss like but with a high percentage of wealthier, often American tourists! Booked our trip to see Perito Moreno glacier, one of the last great advancing glaciers in the world, and a major item on my 'must see before I die' checklist, which was to be the highlight of our stay in El Calafate..

The glacier was AMAZING..surprise surprise!! Definitely gave us the Wow factor, and inspired much gushing afterwards(apologies for the fallover into the blog). It was totally incredible, like nothing we had even seen before. Firstly it was maybe THE BIGGEST thing I have ever seen in my life, even seeing one piece of rock this size would have been awe inspiring purely because of the sheer size of it! Also its appearance was so unusual, nearly indescribable(I will try nonetheless!!).. It was comparable only to HUGE cliffs, like the cliffs of Moher times 10000000, except glaringly white, but with so many huge cracks which were the strongest, most piercing blue!!

We arrived at the glacier at around 10am, after meeting some new friends on the bus (two American, and one most definitely from Kerry, immediately recognisable as Irish by her accent and turn of phrase!) We took a ferry at the south face of the glacier to obtain a unique view..amazing standing at the front of the boat with nothing infront of you but open water just gliding towards this most huge glacier.. We got pretty close that way, and from an amazing angle.. if ever I have seen something that pictures wont justify perito moreno was it..thats not to say we didnt take 200 in the attempt!

Memorable also from the boat was our new 4 year old Argentinian friend, Juana, who walked straight up to me and Cass, because her hair was curly like Cassies, good reason to say hello! and she wanted to show us her new runners..children are aparantely the same everywhere!! Although unusual for a 4 year old.. Juana asked us what language we speak, unusual question in itself then when we said Ingles she considered for about two minutes then very pronouncedly said -hello.. very sweet!

After we did the boat trip we walked the boardwalks, which are brilliantly constructed; they have alot of balconies so everyone is spread out, the area not too crowded with tourists!! Here we experienced what is perhaps one of the most talked about experiences among backpackers of SA..watching the huge chunks of ice fall off the face of the glacier. The experience is something like a tourist game, trying to pick which bit will fall..and being rewarded by hearing a mammoth roar like thunder and seeing huge structures of ice crash into the water and bob up again..worth youtubing a video for some comprehension of what I am talking about! We were really lucky and seen a good few pieces fall off..its surprising how regular it is.. a few times the size of my house crashing into the water..instantly promoted Perito Moreno to our top3 highlights of SA so far!!

The rest of our time in El Calafate we are taking to relax before BA, treating ourselves to a steak buffet last night as it was somewhat affordable, and we need to make the most of Argentinian Steak before we leave! Flying to BA tomorrow.. so our final SA updates will be from there!!