El Calafate

Our day in El Calafate started with a quick breakfast at the hostel before we went to pick up the rental car at Hertz. After we got our little Fiat Cronos, we charged our phones for about an hour and then got on the road to the Glaciers National Park about an hour away.

The drive was smooth and simple, just the main road out of El Calafate and straight on to the park. I don't think we turned once! There were some mountains and glacier lakes along the way (which makes sense being in Glaciers National Park). We also stopped at a viewpoint once we had entered the park to get our first glimpse of the Perito Moreno Glacier.

We got parked and then got a short shuttle bus up to the start of the walkways. Once there we were pretty surprised by the layout. All of the paths were well marked, which was great! But they were also all metal grates and stairs above the actual ground. We were very confused, but also glad not to be doing proper hiking after the W trek in the wind and rain. We walked the red 'challenging' path to get a glimpse of the far side of the glacier and the glacier dam. The dam was interesting how the ice accumulates there and doesn't move because of water currents. The two different bodies of water where the glacier is were also very clear because one was very blue and the other was more of a brown color. They met in the middle of the glacier, and there was a natural line where they met.

We continued the walk slowly and joined up with the yellow path that had some nice viewing balconies of the glacier head on. We sat and had our lunch here and saw some small calving from the front of the glacier. After our sandwiches, we continued along the yellow path remarking on deep blue cracks in the ice and some warning messages about keeping your distance because ice can fly far when the glacier calves. We stopped at the final platform on the yellow path and saw the glacier calve a little bit. Allan then got his phone out just as a couple of huge chunks fell right off into the water. The ice did go very far! And the big pieces that fell off, broke into smaller ones after hitting the water. There was a ring of ice where the wave from the ice hitting the water.

The yellow path connected to the blue path that led down the coast and away from the glacier. Periodically, we turned back around for a glimpse of the glacier, but also enjoyed the view of the coastline, especially as the clouds began clearing up.

Back at the car, we ate some salad and then drove back to El Calafate. We made a quick pitstop at the Hertz because our tire pressure warning light came on, but they checked it out quickly and told us we were good to go. We stopped at Wolly Burger for a quick dinner on our way to pick up Angela at the bus station and get on our way to El Chaltén.

It was a nice drive, straight with no traffic most of the way. We saw some animals along the way too and arrived at El Chaltén just as the sun was going down. We dropped Angela off at her hostel and then drove back to the campsite to park up and spend our first night in the car. I not only had my first experience of sleeping in the car ahead of me, but also of using a squat toilet (a literal hole in the ground with an outhouse type structure around it...). Hopefully the next four days pass painlessly.Weiterlesen