I left the end of the earth Ushuaia and flew to El Calafate with another super cheap flight I’d managed to find. All though it did take several hours longer then anticipated as we had to disembark the plane for a few hours at another stop, it was still quicker than twenty hours in a bus! I’d been recommended by several people a hostel in the town of El Calafate, “Amercian del sur”; I was not disappointed, the staff were so friendly and helpful and had booked several buses, and a trip and I was able to pay for everything on my credit card in a lump sum. It may not sound like a big deal, but in Argentina they hardly take credit card anywhere, and you can only take a thousand pesos, (£140), out of the cash machine at a time so your constantly having to go to the machine and carry around way more cash then I normally would back home. I had a couple of hours free that afternoon so I met up with an Amercian guy who’d been on my flight and we had a walk round a bird sanctuary next to Lago Argentina. I know I’m sounding older and older! But they did have flamingoes which was pretty cool!

Following morning was a very early start for three hour bus journey to the glacier Perito Moreno. This was something I’d been very much looking forward to seeing and I was not disappointed! It is huge, and advancing moving between half a metre an metre every day. I’d gone for a slightly pricy tour which included a boat trip over to the glacier, and ninety minute trek on the ice with crampons, a glass of whiskey with ice from the glacier, return boat trip going closer go the glacier and then up the viewing balconies opposites the other face of the glacier were you can wait and watch big chunks of ice fall into the lake. We were really lucky with the weather as it was sunny, but with clouds as well which visually gives the ice the blue hues. When it’s completely sunny everything just seems very white and is quite blinding. Hopefully my photos will go someway to show how incredible it is….it’s been one of the major highlights of my trip so far!

Bit of Wikipedia plagiarism for some more facts: “The 250 km2 (97 sq mi) ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This icefield is the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water. The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that is growing. The reason remains debated by glaciologists. Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide, with an average height of 74 m (240 ft) above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft).”

On arriving back in town I the took the evening bus to El Chalten, which is a another major hiking destinations with the infamous Cerro Fitz Roy. I arrived at my hostel “El Rancho Grande” at ten pm, paid and checked in, looked at my room, went to the bathroom, asked to change rooms, they couldn’t accommodate me, walked up the street and after three more hostels found another hostel. Returned to original hostel to tell them I was leaving at which point they said they could move me, but I was decided. This has been the first hostel I’ve just not wanted to stay a single night in, it was full of huge groups, crowded, noisy, I could hardly get to my bed for others people’s stuff all over the place, and the bathrooms were rubbish. If I’d only been staying for one night and not really doing anything the next day I would have stuck it, but as the reason I was there was to do some hiking etc I wanted some decent sleep. Anyway the place I found was way nicer and quiet, (yes sounding even older!). There was also a French girl from my hostel in Bariolche staying there, so we hiked the following day together. She didn’t speak much English, but good Spanish so another day for me to practice the lingo. We hiked up to a lake with a glacier, but after the previous day’s Glacier it was pretty underwhelming! It also rained most of the way, and all the mountains were behind the clouds. But it was still a pretty trek with changing scenery and some moderately challenging ups and downs.

My second day in Chalten I bumped into the British couple I’d travelled a bit with again! I popped into their hostel for a chat and bumped into a German girl who’d been in my hostel in Ushuaia. We did a shorter walk together that afternoon as I was leaving back to Calafate that afternoon. Again the weather was overcast and I didn’t get to see Fitz Roy!

I arrived back to the same hostel in El Calafate looking forward to a hot shower only to discover the whole town was out of water! After a days hiking I was not looking so good, so kept my baseball cap on had a quick beer and bed for another early start south!