Mar 13, 2007 - El Calafate

Tuesday 13 March 2007 Breakfast with a beautiful view from the Hosteria across the mountains surrounding Lago Argentina. Had the most ridiculously expensive lunch in a high street café (could have eaten in the Ritz for these prices I'm sure - people were actually sharing sandwiches!). Walked around town in the afternoon and down to Lake Argentina. Went back to study (well more a siesta really) then went to dinner at a nearby hotel, beautiful views across to the lake and I think the best steak I have ever had - and believe me there has been...

Sep 2, 2006 - Ushuaia to El Calafate flight

Slow day. Spend the morning shopping in Ushuaia and in the afternoon went to the airport for the flight to El Calafate.El Calafate was a bit warmer than Ushuaia and with the sun shining it made all the difference. I had booked a hotel, Hostel del Glaciar Libertador, which was part of the Hostelling International chain. Nice hostel with very friendly and helpfull staff. It certainly helped that it was on the main road just a few hundrend meters from the center of the town. The staff at the hostel arranged for me all the tours I would do in...

Dec 11, 2005 - A Watched Glaciar Never Cracks!

The purpose of visiting El Calafate, apart from it being a nice town to chill-out after the trek, was to visit one of the world's most active ice fields, the Perito Moreno Glaciar at the southern end of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The glaciar is the result of several millennia of compacted snow fields flowing into Lago Argentino. Avoiding the tourist trap, we hired a car and drove the 80km out of town to the national park and promptly spent 5 hours watching ice crack... Basically, the attraction of Perito Moreno Glaciar is the fact that...

Nov 18, 2005 - Up close and personal

Bad news first. I woke up with a terrible cold, which has only got worse during the day, not helped by rain, sleet and cold I am sure. And unlikely to be further helped by hanging around a snowbound Patagonian bus station till 3 am waitng for a bus to drive me across the wind-blasted steppe. Don't know where I got this from, but can't help feeling it is in some way because Erica also has one. On the other hand, the good news was another day with Galcier Moreno, definitely one of the highlights of this trip, probably along with Iguazu Falls....

Mar 21, 2005 - El Calafate (again)

I spent another couple of days in Calafate (March 11-13) waiting for my flight to Bariloche. Did mostly some last minute errances. I considered shipping some stuff back home but decided that it was too expensive. My money has melted faster than expected, probably because of the high cost of traveling through Patagonia, and especially those darn rabies vaccines. I'll be pretty broke when I get back home. The weather was very nice and sunny these two days, so I got to enjoy some ice cream and lunch outside in the sun. It got quite cool at...

Mar 17, 2005 - Argentina - Moreno Glacier

The Moreno Glacier - an experience that definitely commands the unfortunate expression of "awesome". Moreno is one of the most active glaciers and consequently creates a great deal of drama and excitement, as huge pieces of ice calve off with an incredible crack and boom as the blue ice hits the milky lake below, creating far reaching waves. The glacier has 60 metre jagged ice peaks and deep clefts which give the impression of a mad confectioner - all this and the bluest of skies - it can´t get any better! "The ice did split with a thunder...

Oct 28, 2004 - National Park

National Park. After breakfast we jumped on a local bus to the National Park, a huge and wild wilderness. On a sunny but cold day we wandered around lakes, rocks, forest and beaches on the edges of the lakes marvelling at the wildlife. Birds paraded just a few feet away from us, including a kingfisher on a tree stump, who was uninterested in us, busy focusing on fish in a lake. We got horrendously lost for an hour or so, on ill marked tracks, but eventually found our way out of the forest. The ubiquitous coach parties of tourists kept...