Wendy's about to eat some home made bread with cheese spread at our hostel's cafe for breakfast. I loved eating cereal again, and discovered how great adding cocoa mix to corn flakes is...
A bus to see the Biggest and Bluest of them all, and late night prep for trek #2...
The alarm was set for 7am, but I wake early and can't find my watch. I start to worry that maybe we over slept our alarm, and make enough noise looking for my watch to wake up Wendy in the bunk above, who says it's 6:30. I end up getting up at 6:45, and go to the cafe to get our box lunches ordered, but the guy working behind the counter says it's too late, and we needed to order them last night. I don't argue much, and head back, plug in another camera battery, and ask the desk about keeping our same room for tonight. We had made 2 separate reservations, but they change it so we can keep the same room, and leave our stuff there all day. I ask about laundry, and it costs ~$5 for them to do a load for us, ready by the end of the day. We bring them a bag full of Wendy's, Christine's, and my clothes (Victor hand-washed his last night, as he only brought one set of clothes to wear).
Victor goes to check out breakfast, and re-inquires about lunches. Victor gets them to make us boxed lunches, with a bag of fruit cocktail replacing an apple on the menu. So for $6.50, we get 2 sandwiches (really one big one cut in two), fruit salad, a cereal bar, dessert cake thing, and a bottle of water. We eat breakfast together in the cafe, and for $5 we get an all-you-can eat cereal, bread, juice, and jelly/cheese bar. It's great to be eating cereal with milk again! I eat a ton, mixing in a scoop of cocoa into my cereal bowl, and the whole milk tastes great (normally a skim milk-er, but after the past 6 days of backpacking, I'll take any milk!).
Wendy's about to eat some home made bread with cheese spread at our hostel's cafe for breakfast. I loved eating cereal again, and discovered how great adding cocoa mix to corn flakes is...
We clean up, pick up our lunch bags, and hop on the tour bus at 8am (bus is 2/3rds full). Sunrise begins as we leave town, with spectacular red clouds. We catch the alpenglow on the mountains in the distance. Then the sun rises into the clouds and is gone. Our tour guide is very pleasant and entertaining. She points out birds and animals along the way, and talks about the estancias (ranches) along the way, and their history. She says everything in English and Spanish. I'm hoping the clouds burn off the mountains as we draw nearer. It's about an hour bus ride to the glacier. I'm glad I brought an extra set of clothes on this trip, as I'm wearing fresh clothes while my hiking stuff is getting laundered.
Victor takes some great shots of the pre-sunrise clouds ~8:15am on the bus out of town...
A look at the pink clouds to the west as we leave El Calafate. Alpenglow is the pink light that hits the mountain tops before the sun rises completely...
Some of the birds that the tour guide points out. The bus stopped a few times to look at them. Condors I believe...
Perito Moreno Glacier resides on the right side of the pic. Looks pretty cloudy...
This is sheep country out here. Large ranches, called estancia's, own most of the land outside El Calafate...
I'm pretty tired. It's been a whole week of averaging ~5hrs of sleep. The sun is out.
The bus stopped at a remote estancia, and our guide led us on a nature walk towards a lake, talking about the vegetaion, birds, rocks, and history of the Moreno glacier. 1000' thick glaciers used to cover this lake. "Erratic rocks" are big jagged boulders lying randomly on the ground that were carried by the glaciers and deposited as they melted. "Rolling rocks" are smaller, smooth, rounded rocks that were pushed down by the river through the glacier. The Moreno glacier is the only glacier in Patagonia that is not retreating. They attribute it's directionality, valley, and micro-weather climate (very wet) as the reasons. She points out a kind of tree that has moss growing off of it when the water is unpolluted (and therefore drinkable). We see woodpeckers in a tree, and our guide says it means bad weather tomorrow if they aren't in the air flying (but the forecast is for sunny tomorrow when I checked on the web last night). We take pictures of the ranch grasslands, and see some farm animals. A stupid black dog keeps jumping up and Wendy and me as we walk back.
The bus stopped at an estancia, where we took pics of the lake and grasslands. The restaurant/eatery is located in front of the lake. Our guide lead us down towards the lake...
Some cow hides were hung on the fence, and we saw horses resting in the field...
A look at the woodpeckers we saw in a tree. It was very beautiful here with the morning sunlight...
The color of the lake and grass looked great. I forgot to ask why there were so many stumps. Our tour guide educated us on glaciers, and unique things about the Moreno Glacier...
We're told to stop at the estancia's restaurant to use the restrooms, and of course buy anything should we need a snack. Nirvana Unplugged, "The Man Who Sold the World" is on the stereo when we walk in, and the place is beautiful. After they wait long enough for everyone to buy stuff who is buying stuff, we load back into the bus, and continue on. Partly sunny out, with lots of clouds ahead in the mountains.
A look inside the wood decorated restaurant. They no doubt hold parties here...
Christine takes a pic of us waiting for a call to board the bus again. Felt good to be wearing a different pair of pants today...
We pass the park entrance and the bus stops, presumeably for us to pay the 40 peso entrance fee ($13). Our guide is handing out the park passes and maps to us now, and we start moving again.
I fell asleep listening to the guide continue to talk about the glacier, and awake to the opening song of Star Wars being played on the bus speakers, with a "movie trailer" announcer voice giving a 10 second countdown. As the countdown reaches zero, we round a bend, and the Perito Moreno Glacier pops up into view. The bus stops for a 5 minute photo op. The view from here isn't as impressive as what we saw of Grey Glacier in TDP, but we'll be getting a lot closer soon.
The bus stops at the first lookout of the Moreno Glacier. We can only see the south leg of the glacier here. Notice the feint rainbow on the right...
Back on the bus and moving onward.
Perito Moreno, the prolific explorer whom the glacier is named after, never actually saw this amazing glacier. He stopped about 20km away from it in his explorations, but they still named it after him, so he must have been pretty well respected.
There is an insect that lives on the glacier, on nothing but water apparently. It's 2 inches long, and is protected by the governemnt. They are still trying to understand more about it's survival. I'm guessing it could give hope for finding life in underwater oceans on Europa.
So tired. Struggling to stay awake to write this journal entry...
We arrive to the main glacier viewing area at 11:50am, and are given until 2pm to wander around, eat lunch (visit the cafe), and hang out. We take the wooden boardwalks that wind down to various viewpoints of the glacier, and take lots of pics. It's windy, and there's some light rain, and a rainbow! I wear my rainpants, synth-down layer, rainjacket and winter hat.
Our first views as we get off the bus and walk towards the boardwalk. A rainbow archs down to the right side of the glacier...
...and also arcs to the left side. Gee, I started to assume that there are always rainbows here, as the 30 minutes we've been here since the lookout, there's been a rainbow...
The full arc of the rainbow. Certainly one of the more flatter rainbows I've seen...
A look to the south face of the glacier on the left. A look to the north face on the right..
The complete view of the glacier, and the sidewalk leading down to the viewpoints...
The glacier actually touches the land in it's center, and as it's still growing, creates an ice buildup against the land that collapses every three years or so...
Another look to the south and north. Just above the Argentine flag is a circle of ice from a past ice drop...
You can see some tiny people standing at the viewpoint on the very bottom of this pic. Also, check out the boat in the water on the right. We'll be on that boat soon...
We see plenty of small ice chunks falling off the glacier and hear the loud splashing as it hits the water. Then it looks like a couple of whales emerge from near the ice wall, and discover they are extremely dark blue chunks of ice that must have broken off underneath the water and rose to the surface, rotating slowly as if they are alive. Eventually we see a huge part of the wall break and fall in front of us, followed by another two huge pieces. This series is by far the largest ice calving we've seen, and is very impressive. I eat my fruit salad (not hungry for the rest after the big breakfast), wait for the next hour with my camera on (display off) waiting to video the next big ice break, but nothing big happens, and I'm getting cold. We head up to the cafe and check out the gift store. Very cheap sandwiches there. We should have just bought lunch here instead of the hostel...
The view of Moreno Glacier from the closest viewpoint. Plenty of ice chunks floating in the water...
A close-up of the blue ice. Looks like recent ice fell from here. It was chilly and windy out...
Me with my daypack. More looks at the north side, with the official sign...
The small dark ice floating in the water puzzled us. All of a sudden it was there, and was rotating around...
Then we saw some huge dark blue pieces emerge from the water, like giant whales coming for a breath, and realized it must be pieces of ice breaking off from the bottom of the glacier, where the pressure is higher and the ice is deeper blue. Also, check out this pic that captures a splash from an ice drop on the south side...
A couple of pics of Wendy enjoying the day at Moreno Glacier...
A look back as we return to the bus. More sun is out now. Guess rainbows aren't a common occurance after all...
We hop back on the bus at 2pm and ride to the wharf where we load on to a boat. The boat travels out and sits in front of the massive ice wall, which we're told is 40-60 meters (15-20 stories high) in parts! We were still 300 meters away from the ice wall, but it looked so close. The boat traverses the length of the ice wall and heads back. The sun is appearing again. We turn and find the Toronto couple on our boat! We had seen them daily on the "W" trek in Chile the past 5 days, and were surprised to run into them on this boat. They apparently spent the night in Puerto Natales (they must not have known about the bus directly to El Calafate), and somehow made it up here so fast today. They say they are going to be in El Chalten the next 3 days too, so I wonder if we'll keep running into them. Small world.
We wait at the dock for the boat to return so we can board. Victor and Christine stand in front of our boat...
A couple of pics of Wendy and Christine, as we approach the glacier...
The glacier front was jagged, and we hoped for a big ice piece to break off with the sun out...
We were still ~1000' away from the glacier, and were told the wall is 150-200 feet tall...
Everyone was lined up at the rails, gazing at the glacier. I moved to the opposite rail, in anticipation of the boats U-turn to head back, and face the ice on the other side...
Another look along the wide glacier face...
Alas, no ice was falling in this 30 minute boat trip...
More looks at some sharp crevasses along the front...
Wendy took some pics of this small cave that opened under the glacier...
Pics of Wendy and I as we make our way back to the dock...
The boat ride lasts about 30 minutes, and we don't see any ice drops. Now we're back on the bus and heading back to El Calafate. Sleep time, for this hour ride back...
A wide panorama of the lake, at the end of the boat trip...
A last look at the Perito Moreno Glacier (south side) from the bus on our way back...
We get off the bus at the first hostel stop, which is closer to downtown, and wear our day packs as we begin the search for info on estancias, ice treks, and buses for the 2nd half of our Patagonia trip. Victor and Christine are planning to visit an estancia tomorrow afternoon and take an evening bus to El Chalten, while Wendy and I plan to take an early morning bus tomorrow and start our 4 day backpacking trip. We join V & C to find out about estancias too, and then visit several tour agencies trying to book our ice trek on the Cerro Torre glacier. Since we're backpacking, we want to meet the guide at the glacier, rather than meet in town, but no place will let us do that (despite the email response I had received weeks earlier). One agent tells us that we should book the trek in El Chalten, as there will be more options, so we plan to do that tomorrow.
Victor tells of us a pharmacy that sells ibruprofin, and gives us 5 pesos to re-stock our supplies which we lent to him. After purchasing it, Wendy and I hit the local ATM, and withdraw lots of cash in 320 pesos increments, which is the max per transaction. That's only $100, and we have buses, hostels, groceries, ice treks to pay for, so it takes a few iterations to gather enough cash. We then buy 8am bus tickets to El Chalten, for 60 pesos each, for a one-way, as we don't know our exact return schedule yet. Christine and Victor purchase an estancia package for tomorrow afternoon, and will go to El Chalten on the evening bus.
We all then go grocery shopping. It takes a long time to figure where food is organized in the store, and what the food is. Took me a long time to track down oatmeal. There is plenty of Argentine items that we aren't familiar with, and we try to read labels to understand what it is. Wendy and I bought 1.5lb of oatmeal, a bag of frosted flakes like cereal, sausage, cheese, bread (whole wheat this time), rasberry pudding-ish stuff (for oatmeal flavoring), and apples. Stuff is pretty cheap (there's a huge 1 liter beer bottle for $1). Our total bill comes to ~$20. V & C buy lunch supplies, and some canned items for their night camping at El Chalten 2 days later. Apparently theft is a problem in grocery stores here, as there's security guards that roam the aisles with walky-talkies. They don't give us plastic bags at checkout, so we're glad we have our day packs with us to load up the food.
Some pics around town in El Calafate. "Friendly" dogs seem to live on the streets, which is apparently an advertised "feature" of Patagonian towns. The grocery store we went to was down the block on the right pic...
Victor took these pics of a dog near another grocery store, and this old wagon from the early settlers of the town (early 1900s)...
It's 8:40pm after shopping, and time to plan for dinner. Christine has restaurant recommendations from her guide book, and we head to a fancy BBQ place that is on our way back to the hostel. They say the wait list is until 10:15pm, so we leave our names, and go back to the hostel to drop off our packs and start packing for a 4 day backpacking trip that starts tomorrow. SO MUCH TO DO!!! We have new food to organize, we pick up our laundry and plan what to wear and pack. Having just backpacked 6 days, we know exactly what we need this time, but it still takes lots of time to get our packs ready and optimize space. All our batteries are now fully recharged. We don't get much done before it's already 10:05pm, and we need to leave for dinner. Just before we leave, I realize our stove fuel is missing! It must have been left in the grass in TDP at the end of our hike when we ate lunch! It's late, stores here close at 10pm, and I'm not 100% sure El Chalten has stores that sell fuel (much smaller town)! It's a slight panic, as we need the stove for our food backpacking, and we'll be on a bus tomorrow morning before any stores open.
Christine took these pics of the sun setting on the buildings during out walk back to the hostel, outside of the downtown area, around 9:20pm...
We leave for dinner, and stop by a tiny convenience store on the way, but they have no fuel, and don't speak English. I tell the others that I'm going to run into town to try to find a place to buy fuel, and will meet up with them at the restaurant a bit later. I run the several blocks into town. My legs feel amazingly good and strong, and I'm so light on my feet, it reminds me of years ago. No doubt 6 days of hiking with a lean diet helped. I must look crazy, running down the sidewalks wearing my jacket with items in my pockets swinging wildly with each stride, but oh well. I run into a shop that's closed, but unlocked. No fuel. I keep running, and soon see the store where we bought our first fuel last week. I run in, and stop at the woman standing in the doorway, who has a concerned look at seeing me. I point to the fuel, "I'd like that. It's 20 pesos, right?". Their hours are 9am-10pm, but were still open at 10:20pm fortunately, and I purchased the fuel. Now we could relax and be stress free of the possibility of not finding fuel in El Chalten.
I run back to the restaurant, triumphantly. The waiting room is packed, and I see V,C, and W sitting, waiting. There is meat skewed over a BBQ pit in a room behind glass. I smile at Wendy and show her the fuel, and see a wave of relief on her face. A few minutes later, we're seated.
Sheep on a skewer over a BBQ. You see this scene in several steak restaurants when walking by. Must be the traditional method...
We order a meat platter for 2 (after seeing a big plate of meat at the neighboring table), and several sides, for the four of us to share. Wendy orders sheep tongue as an appetizer, I order mashed potatoes and pumpkin (the potatoes are bland, but pumpkin is great). The food is ok. The ribs were great, but the other meat was fairly blah (according to the majority). No one is that impressed, and it's a pricy meal, for Argentinian standards. Also they give bottled water instead of tap, so it makes you drink less to save on $. The bread was good. Total came to $80 US, so not bad at ~$20 a piece for one of the "nicest" places in town. The meal was long too, and we don't get back to the hostel til midnight. Wendy and I still have so much to prepare for tomorrow!
It takes us until 2am to get packs ready, bag the food (I divy up oatmeal and crushed sugar cereal into ziplocs), prepare our bag of stuff to leave at the hostel (we'll be back again Thurs night), pay the bill, shower, etc. In the hostel kitchen I see the guys from Seattle that we saw at the Grey Glacier Mirador in TDP. Again small world. They are taking 4 days to bike to El Chalten. I check the weather on the internet before bed. Looks great for the next 2 days. More clouds later, but still not bad.
We decide on a 6:30am alarm. I'm hoping for a good 4 hrs sleep, with more on the bus tomorrow.