EL CALAFATE

The only reason people make the journey to El Calafate is to go to the Puerto Merino Glacier. Other than the world famous wall of ice it doesn't seem like there is much else to do here, this was confirmed by a lady at the tourist info office as she tried to make a trip to the polar-bar ice bar, (a cold room with a bar in it) or the Glacierarium sound appealing. We decided to just stick to the glacier.

We had been told by a girl in our El Chalten hostel that we should hitchhike to the glacier as the bus ticket is extortionate (£25 return pp for a one hour trip). She said she'd been twice to the glacier and each time gotten a ride in 15 minutes. So we thought we'd give it a go. We bought a brand new black marker pen, took some cardboard from the supermarket and crafted our sign. Finally all those years of graphic design were now paying off. After a quick breakfast of avo on toast, we headed out at 7.45, eager to be the first hitchers on the curb. We walked to the end of town and found a spot by a speed bump so that people would have to slow down. We got lots of smiles but lots of people we think just lived locally and weren't heading our way, as the road ends at the Glacier. After about 20 minutes a taxi pulled up, we didn't know if he was going to take us but then charge us at the end. So I said free? in Spanish and he said yes but he wasn't going the whole way. He said he'd take us 50kms and it would be another 30km to the glacier. We managed to hold a fairly good conversation with him using our newly acquired Spanish skills. He was in a hurry overtaking anything in his way. He eventually dropped us at a fork in the road in the middle of nowhere, but where anyone driving to the glacier would go past. Unfortunately as we had overtaken everything on the road the first ten minutes was cars that had already smiled and driven past us earlier at the edge of town. We did get a lot of confused and perplexed looks as as they drove past us for a second time. A couple on a motorbike smiled at us and did the hand signal to say they had no room.

After another 20 minutes, a group of about 10 bikers roared passed us, they were followed by a big ute that was driving behind which luckily stopped and picked us up. The driver was called Hugo and he was the support driver for a travel company that organised bike tours around South America. The bikers were mostly Aussies and Kiwis on an 18 day tour of Chile and Argentina, in Patagonia. The tour sounded amazing and so did the company he worked for. They had links to Charlie Bulman, who bikes around the world with Ewan McGregor. It was a very interesting lift as Hugo had a lot of crazy stories. He pulled over just before we reached the park entrance to a view point for a sneak preview of the glacier.

Once at the Glacier we cheekily asked what time they'd be heading back to town so we could get a lift back. Lift back secured, we headed into the national park (330peso's) to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. 

The sheer scale was insane, 5km across and 70m high in places at the snout of the glacier. It is also the worlds third largest reserve of fresh water. We read info boards that said they drilled into the glacier and found that some parts are 170m deep and moves at a rate of 2m a day! The glacier is unusual in that it is advancing, while most glaciers worldwide are retreating. We walked the short trail from the car park along the edge of the headland that juts out into a vivid blue glacier lake. Quickly the  rugged blue walls of Merino came into view. It was absolutely mind blowing. 

The reason people spend so long looking at the glacier is because so many pieces drop off. Think of a giant cold shove a penny machine in an arcade. Every now and then you would get a thrill as a few penny's would topple over the edge however, everyone is eagerly waiting for the pound. We watched in amazement as a tower that was the whole height of one of the tallest sections of the glacier broke off and crashed into the water, causing huge ripples and waves to wash along the front of the glacier. This piece must have been 50m high for christs sake!!! It stayed under the water for quite a while and lots of smaller pieces broke off, before the massive piece found its way back to the surface and bobbed around before floating away from the glaciers snout.

The face and top of the glacier are made of all sorts of shapes and formations. The right side was relatively flat where as the left was very jagged and uneven. The middle point was taller than the sides with humongous towers jutting up from the top. The top of the glacier was pockmarked and jagged like the crust of a meringue. In places it was a brilliant white, in others a deep blue, and there were strata lines and dirt lines running through it. As we rounded a corner we saw a gigantic hole in the glacier from the ceiling and realised that because it had advanced to the join with the land we were standing on, the water still needed to find a way around and so it had carved a channel and must have collapsed the hole/cave that we could see.

The noise was unreal, it sounded like the low rumble and crack of thunder. It was a guessing game as to where the next piece would fall from. Often there were warning signs, when small amounts would fall first and a couple of minutes later the whole area would collapse. It really was mesmerising and I would argue that it rivalled the Iguacu Falls. It has the same impact and wow factor as the falls yet it is a lot slower. We were really impressed and could have stayed watching all afternoon.