El Calafate & Moreno Glacier

Arriving in El Calafate and feeling the cold we all suddenly realised just how unprepared we were for the cold to come, and I was beginning to regret sending my ski jacket home from China, even if it had stopped the cream parts from turning yellowish-brown! The worst part of it was nothing was cheap as it was geared-up for the tourists with lots of money, not us traveller types, so we ended up not only taking almost 5 hours running around the shops, but also spending almost as much cash as we would have done back home. And then came the second frustration of the day - Martin's clippers stopped working just after he'd managed to take a nice big chunk of hair out of the back of his head...and all this just half an hour before dinner! However, persistance and superglue paid off with Martin making it to dinner only an hour late!

Next day we headed out by the old road to the Moreno Glacier, stopping to annoy the many condors lazing about at the roadside and the alpacas running away over the plains. Just before turning back to the new road we reached an Estancia (a ranch) which seemed to have a bigger industry in selling hot chocolates to tourists than farming goats. We could understand why though - these hot chocolates were literally boiling milk in a cup and a slowly-melting slab of chocolate in the bottom. As rich as it comes.

Before we got back on the bus, with a bit of coaxing all of us gave some poor unsuspecting goat-kid a cuddle! I think maybe we went for the soft-option on goat-capture as we'd already seen him jump into a post accidentally so maybe he wasn't quite all there!

After some education about glaciers back on the bus and a few interesting statistics (such as 30 people died from falling ice in 20 years) we went for a little wander about the glacier, avoiding various mafia-like characters who seemed to be following us! Strong as we are though we survived, making it to our glacier outlook where we decided posing like the Chinese was infinitely cool!

The glacier was amazing...apparently it appeared even more blue as it was a cloudy day (their argument as to why we were lucky). The colours actually appeared even better through sunglasses, though taken a picture with the camera through sunglasses didn't seem to have quite the same effect! The best part was when huge chunks broke off the edge of the glacier and crashed into the water. A bit surreal to be standing admiring a glacier but at the same time willing it to break apart dramatically and crash into the lake!

After lunch (away from the viewpoint as all the good seats were taken grrr) we had a bit more of a wander around and then hopped on a boat which was completely dwarfed by the glacier for a close-up look at it. We all stood there expectant, waiting for ice to break off and fall in, but each time, by the time we'd heard the initial cracks, turned the camera back on, focused it and pressed the shutter button, the ice had already fallen below the waterline! The frustration! Great to see though and impressive to feel just how much the wake from the falling ice rocked the boat.

That night Martin and I stuffed ourselves quite unnecessarily at the local eat-as-much-as-you-like restaurant...including steak and all for about GBP3.50! Oh how i love Argentina! After a very early goodbye to the girls the next morning, Martin and I were lucky enough to find ourselves on our second shopping day about El Calafate in preparation for Torres del Paine...hats being the main problem.