Trekking on a Glacier

El Calafate – Day Two

Our first look at Perito Moreno Glacier
15 km long and 8 km wide

I had set my alarm to wake up early, as I had booked an excursion to go glacier hiking at Perito Moreno National Park. I needn't have bothered as the rooster next door began crowing at 3 am and didn’t stop.  After a quick breakfast, the big tour bus pulled up out front and I hopped on.  We drove through town picking up tourists at other hostals, and then wound our way up into the hills picking up more people as we went.  Then it was about a one hour drive through the steppes to the park.  We stopped at a scenic lookout to take photos of our first look at the glacier and drove on to the visitor centre where we had two and a half hours to hike on the trails and eat our lunch.

One of my millions of
glacier photos

As we were walking on the trails, there were constant sounds coming from the glacier that sounded like shotgun blasts in the distance.  All at once there was a louder sound, like thunder when lightning strikes nearby.  I turned to look at the glacier and there was a crack that was so loud it was like the sound of a jet plane taking off as two huge sections of the glacier separated and fell into the water.  The visible part of the glacier is about the height of a 23 story building, and the pieces that fell were each about 10 stories tall. They were huge and watching them crash into the water was breathtaking!!!!!

 Now you are probably wondering ‘where are the pictures of the ice falling?’  I have none.  I had been standing and looking at the glacier and then had begun walking up one of the trails when I heard the first really loud noise.  As I turned and started to walk back to the glacier, I saw the ice falling to the water below.  I could have tried to grab the camera around my neck and take a photo, but it was happening so quickly that I decided to just enjoy the moment rather than trying to capture it in a photo.  It wasn’t until afterwards that we realized that icebergs that size calving like that happen very rarely – we was fortunate to be there at the right time.

After lunch, we all boarded the bus to the boat dock and took the boat to the base of the glacier.  We met our guides and broke into two groups – those wanting an English tour and those wanting a Spanish tour. The English group was much larger, and we took off hiking down the beach in our two mismatched groups as our guides gave us some basic background information on how the glacier formed, etc.  As we neared the glacier, our guide informed us that the groups would have to be redistributed as the English group was too big, and that the other group would get a bilingual tour. I volunteered to join the bilingual group but our guide Louis said no, he needed me in the English group since I was alone in order to balance out the numbers.  So the bilingual group ended up being a mixed group of middle aged couples, two Korean guys in their late twenties, a Spanish family with a teenaged daughter, and others.  The English group was a group of second year American university students in their early twenties all travelling together, and me. 

As we walked toward the huts where we would get our crampons, I overheard this conversation:

Female student 1: I’m thinking of training for a marathon this spring.  I really need to get back in shape.

Female student 2:  Really?  I was thinking of doing the ‘try a tri’.  You want to do that with me?

Other students were comparing which routes they take when they go for a run. 

Awesome -  my group consists of uberathletes who think that entering a triathlon is a good way to get in shape for summer and 50 year old, asthmatic, out of shape me. 

If you look carefully, those little specks are hikers on the mountain.
In front are the little huts for putting on crampons

Crampons - so awkward!

The crampons were far more awkward than I thought they would be. This must be what it feels like for adults who have never skated the first time they put on ice skates.  After a short orientation on how to walk in them – feet far apart; uphill like a penguin; downhill like a monkey; always smile – we set off on our trek up the glacier.  The pace was very reasonable and we had many stops along the way to take photos and drink glacier water.  Several times we went off-roading when Louis would leave the well worn path of other groups and take us on a little side trip to see something cool like a really deep crevice.

View from the summit

Hiking through a crevice

After hiking for about an hour and a half we arrived at our final rest stop.  Louis chipped the glacier into small chunks and scooped them into a bowl, then dumped them into glasses for whiskey on the rocks, Patagonian style!

 

Salud!

Time For A Cold One

Before I went home for Christmas there were two places in Argentina that I really really wanted to visit – El Calafate and Ushuaia.  In El Calafate, you can go hiking on the Perito Moreno glacier and Ushuaia is ‘The End of the World’ – home of Tierra del Fuego and the Beagle Channel.  John had no desire to go to El Calafate (I’ve seen glaciers before, he scoffed) and couldn’t get time off work to go to Ushuaia, so this week I’m travelling solo.  After I booked the trip, I had two pieces of advice that were too late to use but that I will definitely keep in mind for future travel. One couple told me that if you book the flight with an Argentinian credit card or on the Argentinian website the price is reduced by about two thirds. Another person told me that since it is the off season, I could have used about 10,000 miles from my Delta Skymiles account to book my flights.  Something to keep in mind for next time.

Courtyard of Hostal Amancay

First stop on my southern journey – El Calafate.  I took an early morning flight from Cordoba to Buenos Aires and then had a three hour layover that turned into four hours before flying to El Calafate.  When we landed, I booked a spot on the shuttle bus which dropped off passengers at little hostal after little hostal until soon it was only me and a lovely retired couple from Philadelphia who have been coming to South America every winter for the past seven years.  On the drive, I marvelled at the scenery.  El Calafate is a small town (population 20,000) perched on a hill overlooking Lago Argentina in the Patagonian steppes. There is little vegetation due to the lack of rainfall, and the ground is strewn with rocks of all sizes.  Some of the hostals that we stopped at were located on the hills overlooking town on winding unpaved roads.  You couldn’t really call them gravel roads as they were covered in rocks that ranged from the size of golfballs to the size of grapefruits. Many of the hotels and hostals were gorgeous cedar buildings but Amancay Hostal Patagonia, where I would be staying, was fronted with corrugated steel.  Not very attractive on the outside but inside it was warm and lovely.  The rooms surrounded a courtyard with roses and lupen in bloom and chairs and hammocks for guests to relax in, my room was cozy and clean, and best of all, it was one block from the main street with restaurants, shops and trekking companies.  (What they call a hostal, we would likely call a bed and breakfast).





Lupens grow everywhere in town



I asked the clerk on duty about the shuttle bus to the Glacerium and he informed me that it left every half hour about three blocks from our hostal.  It was 5 minutes before 6:00 so he told me if I hurried I could make the 6:00 shuttle.  I said I thought I’d go and get something to eat but he said they closed at 8:00 pm so I’d better go now.   I hurried to the shuttle bus parking lot and climbed aboard with tourists from all over the world. 



When we arrived at the Glacerium, I figured I had time to either tour the museum or visit the ice bar.  I’ve been to lots of art galleries and museums since arriving in Argentina but have never had an opportunity to visit an ice bar before, so I ditched culture and chose to party instead!  Each person paid an $80AR cover charge which included admission to the ice bar for twenty minutes, a protective cape and gloves, and all you can drink. 

Ice Age bar meets Space Age outfit

A group of about twenty of us trouped downstairs, donned our futuristic insulated capes and gloves and entered the ice bar.  It was so cool (pun intended!)  The walls, the furniture, the bar and the glasses were all made of ice.  The bar was sponsored by Branca, makers of Fernet, so there was a large eagle holding a bottle of Fernet, a puma, a fireplace and even couches and tables made of ice.  Everyone was so busy taking photos but then we realized that we only had a short time so everyone ordered their drinks at the bar. I tried a shot of Calafate liquer which is made from the Calafate berries that the town is named for, while many of the others drank Fernet and Coke.  Two elderly ladies were drinking shots of tequila from shot glasses made of ice, and soon a conga line was winding through the bar as music blared.  At 7:30, the bell rang and the party was over – shortest party I’ve ever been to, but lots of fun! 

I hopped on the bus back into town and chose one of the many many restaurants for dinner.  Today’s food had consisted of medialunas and tea at the airport in Buenos Aires, crackers and a cookie on the flight, and an empanada at the Glacerium.  I dug into a hearty bowl of risotto, then it was back to the hostal for a good night’s sleep.