Glaciers and flamingoes in El Calafate

Carmen and I left Hostel Rayuela at the social hour of 7am after 2 hours of sleep. The problem with nightlife in Buenos Aires is that it starts so late and so finishes way later than in the UK. Normally fine but not when you have a 9am flight to get. We'd gone to a beer bar in an enormous hall and then off to Palermo to a bar with live acoustic music downstairs and a kind of fake beach bar upstairs. I hung around alone for a bit watching the live music - they were pretty good but the lead singer was pouting all over the shop and trying to eye contact basically every female in the audience at once.

At the airport I was 3kg over the luggage allowance (oops) but it only cost £9! Bargain and excitement.

We cut it a bit fine multiple times but made it on the plane where I stretched out over 3 seats for a sleep.

Flying over Patagonia to El Calafate was cool as you could see lots of brown moon-like landscape dotted by the occasional amazingly blue lake. El Calafate basically exists to store people who want to go and visit the nearby Perito Moreno glacier, which is 5km wide and 70m tall. The town is a little like a ski resort and all the shops and restaurants are spread down one road.

We made it to our hostel and were informed of the two things to do in El Calafate: see the glacier, and see flamingoes. Carmen is a vet and so got quite obsessive over the idea of seeing flamingoes as they are basically the only exotic animal she hasn't seen (being a vet in Costa Rica is infinitely better than a vet on England I have decided, after hearing stories about being knocked over when feeding tapirs etc.). So we marched off to the reserve, where we were informed the flamingoes had flown away for the afternoon. We ignored this and skirted around the outside to avoid paying, then spent ages pointing at seagulls and a woman in a pink coat (flamingoes?!), but then only bloody saw them. They were great. They look amazing when they fly, you would never expect them to be glamorous. The build up made it ridiculously exciting.

We also had a great coffee and went from being zombies to being extra flamingo-hyped. I love caffeine.

The next day we decided to hitchhike to Perito Moreno glacier to save moolah (bus was mega expensive). We made a really shit really tiny sign with multiple highlighters. Carmen drew a heart but then scribbled it out when I pointed out the dangers of hitchhiking as females, to leave a random green blob. To our absolute shock we got picked up after 10 minutes to the raucous applause of some local youths who had been watching us from across the road.

We were picked up by Blanca and her husband ('mum and dad') who were Argentinians visiting the region. They didn't speak English so I was mainly mute other than the occasional 'gracias', which meant I could sleep while Carmen had to make smalltalk.

The glacier was great! It's massive, basically, and you can get really close to it on some boardwalks they've made. Every now and again a chunk falls off and the noise thunders about, the resulting iceberg creating large sloshing waves. An enormous bit fell off while we were there which must have been the size of a few storey high building. I was gasping all over the shop. I couldn't fathom how big the glacier was, the bit that impressed me the most was how 'long' it was, snaking up into the mountains and crushing past everything.

Mum and Dad were still there when we were done and we suspect they waited for us! We shared mate in the carpark then they drove us back.

Mate is a really strong tasting Argentinan tea drink which is made in a little pot and drunk through a metal straw. Argentinians are obsessed with it to the extent that they carry the leaves, the special pot and a huge flask of hot water with them in the car. The leaves are put in the pot and then the hot water is poured in, the pot is handed to a person who drinks the lot, hands it back, new water is added, then it goes to the next person...you have to hope everyone is hygienic as there is a lot of straw sharing. Mate is actually quite gross but Mum and Dad had put plenty of sugar in theirs so I didn't have to try too hard to be polite. Also the straw is made of metal which is totally illogical... so as well as trying not to make a face from the taste I'm also trying to not look like my mouth is being burnt.

Pic 1- flamingo hunting
Pic 2- glacier
Pic 3- hitchhiking familyRead more