Ice to see you, to see you ice!!!

Ice to see you, to see you ice!!!
El Calafate, Argentina

El Calafate, Argentina

When we hatched our plan to enter Argentina from Southern Chile, there was one small aspect that we forgot to check, was the border actually open all winter. After hours of searching online and emailing every bus company in Chile and Argentina we finally discovered that there was thankfully one bus company that weather permitting crossed the border 3 times a week during the winter, phew. Our hotel kindly rang and reserved us tickets and we turned up at the bus station praying that the snow was clear and we could leave Puerto Natales as this closed town had little left to offer us.

Thankfully the bus was going and before we knew it we were enroute, one thing that I have forgotten to mention about being this far south is that sunrise is late, very late. Usually it is pitch dark until around 11am, which is a pretty odd sensation, so we headed across the border in the dark and very soon saw the snow lined roads leading to Argentina. We were stamped out of Chile and into Argentina. We were in such a rush to get out of the cold and onto the bus we just quickly snapped a selfie with the snow lined banks and what we thought was a Welcome to Argentina sign, seems that maybe we should have paid a little more attention as actually the sign was a middle finger to the Brits declaring that the Malvinas (Falklands) are Argentina’s, oops.

El Calafate like Chilean Patagonia was pretty much closed for the winter, we were quite lucky and found a cheap deal on Agoda to actually stay in a proper hotel. I have heard that when you book cheap hotel deals you tend to get the worst room in the hotel and I have usually dismissed it, but it turns out that we had been given exactly that, our rooms was directly below the gym and spa and we had the rumbling of the Jacuzzi penetrating our ceiling from 6 until 10, so in order to turn a negative into a positive, we just took up residence in the Jacuzzi for the entire duration that the health spa was open, we were hot, wrinkled and relaxed and had a great nights sleep.

The main attraction in El Calafate is the Los Glaciers national park and home to the magnificent Perito Moreno Glacier. This monster glacier is thankfully open all year round although during the winter the tours to walk on the glacier are not running so we had to settle for a good view and a boat trip to the face.

The Moreno glacier is an absolute monster which is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Andes, which is the worlds third largest fresh water reserve. Moreno Glacier is an astounding 250 square kilometers, at 5 kilometers wide, 30 kilometers long, 74 meters of ice are above the surface and a further 100 meters lie below. This monster is said to be one of only 3 Patagonian glaciers that is growing. The constant movement of the glacier leads to some pretty spectacular noises with the ice creaking and groaning and if you are lucking crashing and falling onto the lake below.

After a bus journey to the glacier park we were given an hour to roam the beautifully constructed wooden walkways which give amazing views over the glacier and get you within meters of the terminal face where the ice is cracking and falling. Despite the freezing cold air we could have spent hours just standing and watching this magnificent glacier in action. We had met a young English couple on our bus the day earlier and unsurprisingly we all found ourselves at the glacier. We stood with them for a while waiting for a massive piece of ice to fall and eventually it was time for us to heat to our boat trip and we left them watching. Typically about 5 minutes later as we were at the top of the walkway taking some photos a huge pieced of ice came crashing down. Amazingly we were in a perfect location to get photos and our new friends proved to be perfect markers to show the scale of the glacier and the resulting splash and crash of the ice fall.

Our boat trip to the face was fantastic, we got as close as was safe to the terminal face of the glacier avoiding the huge icebergs which were once attached. It was beyond freezing and taking off our gloves to take photos was painful, but so worth it.

After our time in New Zealand where we were blown away by the beautiful Fox and Franz Glaciers we were slightly overwhelmed with just how spectacular Patagonia is, it turns out that New Zealand is just a distant small cousin of the magnificent amazing Patagonia. Don’t get me wrong, I still love NZ, but these landscapes take some beating!

After our boat trip we had one more hour at the glacier so we rushed back down to the lower viewpoint and were rewarded with yet more spectacular displays of ice creaking, and crashing to the water below, strangely it seems that the majority of our bus spent their remaining hour in the café, seriously people, look where you are!!!

It was cold, so so cold, but it was worth every cold second. I don’t think that glaciers get much better than this, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Argentina was expensive beyond our wildest dreams but so far the sighs were living up to their reputations and the extra expense was more than worth it, let’s hope that the same is true for our next destination, off we head on a day bus and a night bus to Puerto Madryn.