Ice Ice Baby!

It was great to meet up again with Anh at America del Sur hostel in El Calafate. Admittedly, I'd seen her just one week before, but I was looking forward to spending some quality one-on-one time with her, and in what better a location - PATAGONIA! The views of Lago Argentino that I had seen when flying in were stunning, and it was nowhere near as cold as I had anticipated. Once at the hostel, I was greeted by Federico and Pat, both two absolutely crazy guys, but so friendly and helpful. Fede described all the tour packages to me, and even though I knew it was going to be an expensive few days, I decided what the hell, let's do it all! So, Anh and I booked ourselves up for the following few days and headed off to the supermarket to get provisions for a packed lunch!

We were up really early on Tuesday morning, in order to have enough time fro breakfast, and to put on as many layers of warm clothing as physically possible in preparation for our mini hike on Perito Moreno Glacier. It was a stunning morning and the scenery was fantastic, similar to New Zealand in many ways, but just grander and more impressive. We both slept for most of the bus drive there, especially Anh who had drugged herself up on Mareol (as she suffers from boat sickness), and thus was extremely drowsy. Of course, I couldn't resist waking her up when the first glimpse of the glacier appeared in the valley, and yet again, a few tears tricked down my cheeks!

Once off the bus, we then took a boat across the lake to the refuge, dropped off our bags and once we had had our feet strapped securely into crampons, we were off onto the ice!!! As much as I thoroughly enjoyed my day hike on Franz Josef Glacier in NZ, I could see the PM is in a whole other league... it's massive and the ice is completely blue without dirt, from the start. It was a good job that we had both wrapped up well, as even though the sun was out, the wind was extremely strong and had the potential to chill right to the bone! In fact, there were times when we both thought we would be blown off the glacier!

The views of the area, and of the glacier itself were stunning, and the hike was nice and relaxed, which gave us both time to take a LOT of photos. And I mean a LOT (I thought I was bad, but Anh really is a Happy Snapper!) After our lovely homemade cheese and ham sandwiches overlooking the lake, it was time to take the boat back across to reboard the bus, and then drive to the balconied viewing area. We were once again amazed by the views and were lucky enough to see ice fall from the glacier front - OK, I was so stunned by the scene that I stood there gawping, so astounded that I forgot to take any pictures! We were patient and we were rewarded by another ice fall that I actually managed to capture on video! Back on the bus for the drive home, we both slept and slept... all the fresh air took it out of us (and Anh was stilled feeling the effects of the Mareol!)

Yesterday, we had another early start and set off again into the National Park to see yet more ice... but this time on a leisurely catamaran trip. After embarking, we sailed through some amazing scenery before seeing our first icebergs, so blue it almost seemed unreal. We sailed as close as possible into the Upsala canal, but due to the number of icebergs, it wasn't possible to visit the glacier itself - however, we weren't disappointed as the ice was truly fantastic - I just wanted there to be a polar bear sat out there drinking a bottle of Coke!

Then it was time to sail to Spegazzini Glacier. In order to get a good viewing spot, I went up on deck way before everyone else. In fact, I could have frozen to death if it wasn't for the fact that I went out right to the tip of on of the hulls and huddled down behind the iron! It paid off though, as I had a premium viewing spot (and a really cold nose!) Spegazzini is the tallest glacier in the National Park, completely dwarfed Perito Moreno! As if I hadn't said the word "beautiful" enough by that point, I must have thrown it in another twenty times for good measure. The ice was so high and another glacier came down the mountain side to meet it, just before the water's edge - B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!!

Because we couldn't sail up the Upsala channel, we then back to Perito Moreno once more, where we got much closer to the north face once again and saw yet more stunning ice falls. Even though we'd been there the day before, it was still so worth going again. Back at the hostel, after a lot more sleeping on the boat and the bus, we both attempted to work through our photos and to select the best ones to upload. A hard task, given that Anh took DOUBLE the number than from the previous day! Needless to say it was quite late when she finally switched her laptop off last night!!! Last night, we treated ourselves to a slap-up meal as it was our final night together on this trip (until I visit her again in Germany one day, of course!) We went all our and had tenderloin, sirloin steaks and a rack of lamb and in true Argentinian style, it was cooked to perfection. It makes up for all the protein I DIDN'T eat for 3 months in Australia!

Today has been a lazy, relaxing day and we've deserved it after all we crammed in here! A submarino each and huge slice of apple pie to share in a little cafe and then now I'm just waiting to take the shuttle back to the airport. It's a bit sad to be leaving Anh, but to be honest, it's not that bad as I know in my gut we'll see each other again. Another great friendship has been formed, and I know that this is not the end, just the beginning! So, once I'm back in BA, I'm not going to try and make it back to the hostel on public transport, I'll hop straight in a cab and be taken right to the door. I'll just have to get my bag out of storage, and repack my daysack for a weekend in Uruguay! Best get an early night as well, as I need to be up and ready to leave for the port at 7am! Oh well, I'll rest once I am there!!!