Masha got up early to sort out buses while I stole a few
extra ZZZ’s but was up shortly after her so I could catch my tour. Shortly
after I got up a very excited Masha came back to the room as she had just
scored the last ticket to go trekking on the glacier and had also booked
tickets for a day trip to El Chalten for the next day!
I went downstairs to grab some breakfast (bread, jam, coffee
– the usual) and then jumped on the shuttle for my trip to the glacier. The
tour was in English and Spanish which gave me the chance to extend my Spanish
skills, but wait... I was on a bus so guess what happened. I kept falling
asleep no matter how hard I tried to stay awake!
We stopped in a few places alongside Lago Argentino to enjoy
some views across the lake and also of the foot of the Andes. Lago Argentino is
the biggest lake in Argentina and has an average depth of 200m and at its
deepest point is 700m. We then continued into the national park where some of
the people on the tour did a boat trip which I decided not to do so stayed on
the bus and made my way to the viewing platforms. Due to the size of the
glacier it has two faces. One is called the North Face and the other the South
Face and from the walkways you can see both and get relatively close to the
glacier.
This is the closest I have been to a glacier and I was in
awe just because of the size of it. I literally walked the walkways for 3 hours
and was constantly in awe of the glacier. The colours were spectacular with
deep blues and whites and even some black where it had picked up dirt on its
travels. While staring at the glacier I saw huge chunks of ice crack and fall
off into the water and was amazed at the delay between when you see the ice
fall and when you hear the crack. Unfortunately I was to slow to catch any of
the ice falling on camera but that sound and sight is something that I will
struggle to forget.
I then went to meet up with the tour group to catch the bus
back to El Calafate and fortunately this time I was not the only one sleeping.
I got back to the hostel at about 5pm and shortly afterwards Cheryl and Rowan
arrived.
We then took a long walk to the lake but the road was still
too far away from it for us to really appreciate it so we went for a walk in
the wetland area and as we got closer we noticed a flock of flamingos. We
slowly got closer and closer to them but they were very skittish so flew away.
As they took off they showed of the florescent pink under their wings and
behind them were the mountains which made for some great views. We decided not
to disturb them anymore and made our way back to the road in search for more
beer and food. We had decided to give lamb a try and after finding the recommended
place fully booked we went to La Zaina which was a quaint little place which we
had seen earlier in the day. Inside was very rustic with only a few tables and
an open kitchen. We all chose the rustic lamb and we were not disappointed, but
it still didn’t compare to karoo lamb.
We were not ready to call it a night so e walked along the
main road looking for a bar for a drink but everything was still in restaurant
mode (even though it was 11pm). After trying a few places Cheryl and Rowan
decided to head back to the hostel and I met up with Masha and we grabbed a
beer at La Tolderia (the saloon wasn’t open yet so was very quiet). We just had
a beer to catch up on the day and then made our way back to our hostels.