Surprisingly, the epic bus ride from Bariloche to El Calafate wasn’t that bad. And thanks to the miracle of drugs (sleeping pills) Keryn even managed to get some sleep. Fucken a! We got the big comfy seats again that recline a fair way back, and we got fed lunch, dinner and breakfast, and entertained by a few movies that were actually in English. Except for Ice Age 3 dammit! We arrived in El Calafate at about 1pm and found a cheap hostel, then wandered around town. It’s pretty tiny so there wasn’t much to see, but it’s pretty touristy. We thought there were heaps of good hikes to do, however after asking at the information centre and the national park centre we found out we were completely wrong. Well, there were a couple of walks in the national park, but it was expensive to get the bus out there and it just didn’t seem worth it. So we decided to visit the Perito Moreno glacier and then re-assess our plans. While we were eating dinner that night, we got talking to an English couple who helped us decide where to go next (and later on in our travels). They recommended going to El Chalten, which is where we were initially going to go to do some hiking. And since there wasn’t much else to do in El Calafate apart from the glacier, we decided to go to El Chalten after visiting the glacier.
We’d booked transport to the glacier through our hostel so it was another early start to get out there. After about 1.5hrs drive we arrived at the Los Glaciares National Park then drove a bit further to the wharf where we got a boat out to the glacier. We were a bit sceptical about getting the boat, but it was worth it as we got up quite close and spent an hour out there. Then we drove up to a lookout point, where there were plenty of walkways to get different views of the glacier. It was amazing, as you could see the entire glacier and get a better idea of just how massive it is. And despite the fact that it’s one of only 2 glaciers in the world that are actually advancing, not retreating, there were regularly chunks that would fall off into the lake with a thunderous noise. Annoyingly we never had the camera out at the right time to capture one. We had a couple of hours at the lookout, and it’s the kind of thing that no matter how long you stand and stare at it, you still can’t get your head around the size and beauty of it. Amazing.
Even though it's only about 7 weeks since we got to see some live rugby, we went to see the local 7's rugby tournament. It was good to see grass roots rugby live and well in southern Argentina, and good to be the only gringo's somewhere in El Calafate for the day.
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