Following the W Trek, we were able to catch a transfer across the border from Patagonia in Chile to Patagonia in Argentina. Always Glacier guided us through the much quieter, much more chilled out border crossing out of Chile and back into Argentina. It seems the Chileans are only concerned about what is coming into Chile, not what is going out.
Travelling at dusk, we experienced a stunning sunset that lasted for two hours of pink, yellow and orange.
Arriving in El Calafate Belen from Lautara Hostel gave us the friendliest, most enthusiastic greeting we'd had all holiday. Her friendliness and helpfulness would continue the whole time we were here. It makes such a difference.
With heavy legs from the W Trek, a chilled day was on the cards. Whereas Puerto Natales was a no frills basic town, El Calafate was full of brand shops and fancier restaurants.
A stroll through town followed our pick up of rental boots for the next day's glacier walk. Lunch was at a very basic cafe like grill, La Fonda del Parrillero. The low priced steak turned out to be the best steak we'd had so far in Argentina! Just shows you that you can get as many recommendations on what to do and where to go, but the gems are still the ones you try blind with no expectations, that fly in from left field and surprise you.
My choice was the Ojo de Bife con frites (pesos 44 / <£6) and Mandy's Bife de Chorizo (same price). This is what Argentina should be about.
We spent the afternoon getting lost along the lagoon and bird sanctuary close to town before a quick sundowner and dinner. Yes, we did eat quite a bit today, but all in preparation for the glacier tomorrow. Mi Ranch was a number one recommended grill from Trip Advisor and off the tourist road - the lamb and trout we had were in our top 5 meals on holiday!
Finally ice walking day! Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the glaciers originating from the massive Patagonian Icefield. Mands, not wanting to miss out on any experience, agreed to tackle the longer, 7 hour "Big Ice" trek instead of the standard 3 hour option - good effort with her toes still blistered. The new speciality ankle boots should help too.
We were off with a good start as we were treated to one of the brightest sunsets I had ever seen as the bus made it's way to the glacier.
First, we'd go to a viewpoint on the mountain head directly in front of the glacier. For an hour we wondered the various platforms and viewing desks listening to the creaking glacier lying in front of us. It's enormous! Just check it's stats...
Front width - 4km
Length - 30km
Surface - 257km squared
This glacier is much bigger than the large glacier, Glacier Grey, we saw on the W Trek. It's also very active, moving at 1.7 meters per day in the middle and 0.45 meters on the sides. With thunderous cracks and rumbles, we watched front sections drop off the glacier into the water resulting in swells and ripples emanating and continuing to the shore line. I'm surprised how close the boats, seemingly toy boats in comparison, get to the glacier face. When an ice section breaks, they don't wait around as a large drop could create a wave to topple the boat.
One of these boats took us across, giving a much closer view of this frozen beast. After a briefing we were off for an hour hike along the side of the glacier to the Big Ice equipment camp where we'd start the walk. Crampons fitted to our shoes and harness on, in case of emergency and we were walking on this foreign surface.
Ski resort ice is pretty flat. The surface of a glacier is anything but! Hills, valleys, deep crevices, rivers and lakes awaited us. The surface of the glacier melts each day and refreezes creating these rivers and features. Furthermore the ice isn't all white, but a luminous blue!
The stories of establishing Patagonia's Chile / Argentina border were quite interesting...
1981, an agreement was reached to determine the border lines between Chile and Argentina as the "highest peaks that divided waters". Conflicting points where dividing waters did not exist led to each country interpreted borders differently. 1902 King Henry Edward VII of England arbitrated the problem, bringing an end to the Chilean /Argentinean issue that had reached at a very dangerous point in their relationship. He was presented with land as a gift and he returned it to the government under condition that it be preserved for future generations. His action allowed the creation of the first Argentine National Park.
Framcisco Pascasio Moreno was the Argentine expert called on to give evidence in establishing the border line with Chile. Thereafter, this explorer and natural science specialist, was chosen to lend his name to the giant glacier.
Back to the big trek. We had a lunch at the largest lake, half way out on the glacier, about 2 km in. The group filled water bottles and I felt somewhat like a natural Patagonian water advert model - one of the guides took a photo an emailed it to us, really could be an advertisement.
Post lunch Mands was really struggling with further blisters. This time on her heels and from the new specialist ankle high boots. Each step looked uneasy and it wasn't until the end of the hike when she took her boots off did I see how bad it was - both heels had almost 2 cm raw blisters! You could see from the guides face that they were bad. With additional strapping over the gaping hole, Mandy soldiered on. "No donkey!"
Just before arriving back at the starting camp, there was a huge crack, followed by another and another. The glacier face dropped of chunks of ice, the largest we'd seen. A boat, looking like a toy in comparison, was close to the drop zone and hastily turned away from the resulting ice bergs and swell heading in it's direction. Continuing along the single track path we heard the water now lapping up against the rocks near our pickup. It's like dropping a pebble, a big pebble, in a pond and watching the ripples travel.
Armed with our camera and knitted Peru and Bolivian hats for extra warmth, we looked out to the glacier for another mighty fall. Glacier Moreno let out loud stomach grumbles, but alas, no further splashes.
On our final morning, I made sure I was up before sunrise and had directions to a good viewpoint on the side of the lake to hopefully catch a similar sunrise on camera. Unfortunately a low horizon cloud bank wanted the sunset to itself, however it was a good 2 hours exploring an outer lying area of El Calafate.
Our flight had been pushed back by 7 hours (almost every flight has changed in South America). This would unfortunately cut short our already short time in Buenos Aires, but allowed Mands some much needed flip flop time to help the blisters before ... The Tango.
