El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier

So after the PAIN of torres we head back to civilisation and to, wait for it, modern day luxury. A "matrimonial" (double room to you and me) with ensuite shower/toilet and most of a bloody bed to soothe my aching body. I am physically shattered and my feet look like pig trotters as the toes have been eaten away by blisters. Well I exagerate a little but its not pleasant, so stright to the shower and a home DIY pedicure - lush!

After another pasta rich, carb loaded, home cooked stodge dish off the truck I went to the room to read my book and relax. Ollie found me 5 mins later snoring, book on face and a slight trickle of attractive drool pooling on the pillows, he tried to wake me, he got an earfull.

El Calafate is the closest town to the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, our next stop on the trip. Its also famous for this little bush that grows berries that they make tea and jam out of. Its said that if you eat or drink the berry you will return to El Calafate one day. Shame it tastes like absolute dog dirt, but it is quite a nice town.

So next day we are greeted by our nice tour guide for the day and head towards the glacier. Of course, we have seen them in Torres, but we had to hike uphill miles, which somewhat took the pleasure out of it, and they were a little grey in colour. This time, as we came round the corner we were greeted by a milky turquoise glacial lake bathed in sunshine and what looked like fluffy white meringue on top and deep icy blue flowing into the cracks. Its stunning and the best thing Ive seen so far.

This glacier is the 3rd largest in south america but its the only one that is not retreating and stable. Its 250km long, and the point you view is 5 km wide, with an average height of 60 meters above the surface of the water and 170m below. It advances at a speed of up to 2 m per day but loses at the same rate so you are always going to see the amazing spectacle of pieces breaking into the lake.

The night before it had rained non stop and now the sun was blazing making conditions perfect for ice fall as the rain water heats in the deep cracks. From the platform view point you can her first the crack (like thunder) and then start to see small drips then a massive piece break off. They can been thrown meters away and cause massive waves. We also saw a piece that had broken off from the floor of the glacier rise to the top of the lake, it rose half way up the height of the glacier and was the deepest richest blue colour and MASSIVE, the boat near it had to move fast and looked like a micro machine compared to the giant iceberg.

We took a boat trip on the glacial lake to 200m away from the front of the glacier. We saw a massive wall of ice fall in and everyone on the boat ran to the other side with the fright of the load cracking noise and growing tidal wave. Only me and Ollie ran to the front of the boat to get the best view, I did debate that I may get wet but assumed it would be worth it, however, the captain skillfully maneuvered the boat to ride the wave and we barely felt it.

Ill stop yabbering on about frozen water now, but, it really was magnificent.

So last night in El Calafate we were all excited still from the daytrip so headed into town for dinner. This, as usual with myself and Ollie, turned into after dinner, drinks, cocktails, shots and dodgy club. Carlos and Big Head our new buddies, joined us in making drunken idiots of ourselfs in the casino at half 4 in the morning. I was thinking I was on a massive roll on the slot machines in the casino. It took ages to load about 50 coins in each time (totalling about 10p English) but each time I kept winning! - an hour I played like this until I learned the wheels never turned and the spanish word for ´cancel´was on the button I played with. Damn, my dreams were shattered.

We slept through the alarm, the tour guide woke us with one minute to pack and leave. I had to do the walk of shame to the bus in last nights clothes and makeup streaked cheeks. Ollie left his only waterproof winter jacket at the hotel as we were heading into Los Glaciares national park, it rains a lot, there is ice, its cold, good move. Im glad we paid extra to have a double room that night and not a dorm, the 1.5hr sleep I got in bed that night really worth the money. ;(

Off deeper into Los Glaciares national park.....