El Calafate & Puerto Madryn

Arriving in El Calafate around mid day we climbed off the bus, found our bags and our bearings and set off to a hostel we´d heard of. The town in mostly tourist orietated and is situated about 80km away from Perito Moreno, one of the few remaining advancing glaciers in the world, which means it cracks and creaks and bits fall off all the time. This is the main reason everyone comes to the town to get a tour bus out in the morning and wander round for a few hours then heads back to the town in the afternoon.

We´d been chatting to a groups of three Dutch guys that had been on the bus, (who we´d also seen while we were in another bus station in Valdevia, Chile) who told us about the possibility of hiring a car for the day to go to see the glacier which not only saved money but helped to avoid the hoards of tour bus tourists. We didn't have enough money to hire a car on our own so we were looking out for people who wanted to come along with us for the ride. Because of a bank holiday all our money got messed up and we were severly skint and ended up being stuck in Calafate for 12 days without much to do and temperatures regularly below freezing.

One distraction we found was the near by wildlife reserve Laguna Nimez, which consisted of a hugely muddy grass land and a large lake that, at the time we visited, happened to be full of flamingoes as well as other bird life. We took a wander around the lake accompanied by a local dog (who we imaginativly named "Dog") who insisted on following us the whole way around the lake and back while chewing on or ripping up the various forms of dead creatures we encoutered along the way. We decided to try to get a little closer to the flamingoes, our efforts which were consistently thwarted by Dog as he chased them all away right at the last minute but we did manage to get some good flight shots of the flamingoes! We played with Dog for the afternoon who we soon realised must have been trained by someone at some point as he'd obediently return sticks and stones to us only to run off again at the last minute.


Once we'd finally got the money issues sorted and thoroughly exhausted the towns on-site activities (i.e. none) we managed to find a couple called Shani and Eitan who'd just arrived and wanted to go and see the glacier. We hired a car that night and the next morning all got up at the ungodly hour of 5am for hot showers before heading out into the cold, cold dark morning. The drive was mostly uneventful until after about half an hour we entered the national park and the weather broke, snow started to cover the road and it was still about and hour and a half 'til sunrise. We soldiered on for a little while until Eitan (who'd never even seen snow before, let alone driven in it!) decided to take us for a short detour into a near by hedge. After we'd unstuck ourselves and checked the bumper for damage (luckily not a scratch!) Mark took over the driving until we got ourselves stuck on a steep hill and our little Renault Clio decided it had had enough and wouldn't go any further. After about half an hour of wondering what to do we saw a Volkswagen zoom past us up the hill so we decided to give it another go and finally made it to the top. We arrived at the glacier just before sunrise to see the Volkswagen and it's passengers all strolling easily off to see the glacier. We got out and ready, all shaking from the cold and the relief of getting there in one piece and set off down the path.


The glacier was just a faint blue glow as we approached but we could hear it cracking and creaking as the sounds echoed off the surrounding mountains. The sun rose slowly and dull behind the big snow clouds and the glacier lit up, glowing a surreal icey blue. The sounds of cracking ice echoing everywhere made us think of fireworks which was soon dissolved by the sight of huge house sized piece of ice falling from the glacier into the river below. We walked around the pathways trying to see the glacier from all angles while Mark told us all that "that piece is definitly going to fall any minute now" about any precariously positioned piece of ice we passed. We all got too cold to move but managed to head back to the car park where we found a cafe that had come to life since we'd arrived so we went and got thick milky hot chocolates and watched the tour buses arrive just in time with the swarms, cameras at the ready around their necks. The snow had picked up again so we decided to head back to town and return the car before we had any other mishaps!


The following day we got a 22 hour bus to Puerto Madryn on the eastern coast of Argentina.


Even 22 hours further north from Calafate we were still really cold, wearing all our clothes and shivering. We'd arrived in the town hoping to go and see elephant seals we had heard lived near by. After our succes of hiring a car in Calafate we decided to hire one again with a German guy called Michael who was staying in the same dorm as us who also wanted to see the seals. After getting getting supplies we headed out around midday along the bumpiest, stoniest road ever which made the glove box pop open and the car repeatedly jumped out of gear. We arrived at the top of Punta Ninfas beach on a huge cliff in the middle of no where with only a desserted lighthouse near by and a few local fishermen. To get down to the beach we had to climb down the cliff face using a combination of pre-teathered rope, skidding and bum sliding. We got to the bottom and emptied the rocks out of our shoes and headed off in search for elephant seals. We spent a couple of hours on the beach wandering back a forth but unfortunatly didn't see any elephant seals, we did see a couple of dead penguins and what looked like regular fur seals, if a little on the hefty side. They were fighting, some were covered in blood and scratches and making lots of grunting noises and emmitting the potent seal related smell we recognised from zoo's back home. Although slightly disappointed we still had an interesting day and headed off back down the rocky road to Puerto Madryn.


The next day we took a long walk along the beach to see some caves that had been inhabited by the first people who had settled in the area who, for some unknown reason, were Welsh. We were accompanied by yet another couple of dogs who became really attached to us and started crying when Mark decided to climb up part of the cliff for a better view. On our way back to the hostel we wandered around some of the sculptures in the town and saw some postcards of elephant seals which, as it turns out, we had seen the day before! Apparently not all of them (none as we could see) have the huge noses we were expecting. We left the dogs outside the hostel and headed off to bed to be ready for a early start the next day when we were catching a bus to Buenos Aires.

Heading down through Patagonia

We left Chile as we started; getting ripped off with transport. The guy who was meant to drive us over the border didn´t turn up on time and we were shuffled into a different bus only to meet the first guy (who we´d already paid) at the border control but he wouldn´t give us our money back. bah. Over the border we were left in a tiny town called Los Antiguos waiting for a bus to civilisation. We went to find somewhere to get lunch and settled for the only place open a "Fast Food Restaurant". We ordered a drink and some empanadas and sat supping our fruit juice, twenty minutes later the supposed "fast food" hadn´t appeared but the staff seemed to be running around making things so we thought maybe they were making the empanadas from scratch. Another 20 minutes later we weren´t so sure, we knew Argentina was more relaxed than other countries but this was ridiculous. Eventually someone came over to us and asked if we wanted any food, incredulously we reordered our empanadas (which arrived in 5 minutes) and headed out the door with them wrapped in napkins to eat on the bus which was about to leave.

Not the best start.

After the bus ride we had to spend a night in Perito Moreno, a back water town similar to all the ones we seemed to be staying in in Chile, eventually finding a place to stay after the IMMENSELY helpful woman at the tourist office managed to circle every hotel/hostel symbol on our map when we asked for a cheap place to stay. The place we found actually had a heater in the room which we cranked up to full blast and revelled in the feeling returning to our extremities. Mark headed out about the town to find out information about the next bus out of there (again the helpful woman in the BUS STATION tourist office couldn´t help us, but at least she was good at knitting..) Finding the town mostly shut down after 4pm, we retired for a night of being warm in our snug little cabin room and ate yoghurts and oranges for tea (we were full of empanadas!)

We eventually got a bus out of the town and headed off down Route 40 to El Chalten on the bumpiest unsealed road ever constructed (or not constructed as was the problem) for a lovely 12 hour ride through the night. We arrived at 5am the next morning after no sleep and a few bruises only to find that none of the hostels would let us check in until 12pm - only another 7 hours away. Groaning and grumpy we settled down in the common area with cups of tea and watched the world go by. Eventually 12pm came around and we shuffled off to bed for a couple of hours sleep while the hostels walls groaned and creaked around us with the strong winds that had picked up over the morning.

The weather got worse over the day until rain was flying horizontally and the mountians in the distance had all but disappeared. An early night and a long lie in and we were feeling refreshed and raring to go so found out about hikes that could be done around the area. We opted for a 6 hour hike that was supposed to be "easy and mostly flat" and didn´t require hiking boots, which neither of us had. We packed a lunch, put on hundreds of layers of clothing (the weather can change fast out here, they say) and headed off.

The wind and rain had disappeared and left the skies blue with a few fluffy white clouds floating past the snow capped mountains, a beautiful day. We walked out of town to the start of the trail and headed up a steep hill, reaching the top a little out of breath we saw that this wasn´t going to be a "mostly flat" walk at all. We were now standing in a small valley surrounded by more steep paths leading off up the hills all around us. A quick breather and a couple of complaints from Nikki (I don´t like walking up hills!) and we were off again. The start was pretty hilly and took us up a valley with a hidden stream running off down the side of us and up over bolders and rocks.

Reaching the top and more in the swing of things we were chatting aimlessly when we both stopped short and silent looking at the view before us. We stood above a large flat plain that went on for miles before rising up a small hill behind which stood ginormous craggy snow topped mountains including the famed Fitz Roy peaks that consumed the skies and disappeared off into the clouds. After taking millions of photos we set off again, this time mostly heading down hill into the valley which must have been a river bed at one point as it was filled with thousands of rocks and bolders but now seemed to have been taken over by mostly bare, scraggly bushes.


The path led us off through an old forrest filled with dark imposing trees, many of which were also bare but some that stood out like flames with bright red, yellow and orange autumn leaves.


Reaching a sign saying we were an hour away from the lake we were heading for, we stopped for a quick lunch of bread, cheese and salami and set off again. By this point we started passing people that had already been to the lake and were on their way back to the town, we passed one couple who looked exhausted with full backpacks and camping gear that had hiked from El Calafate who asked us how far it was to El Chaiten and looked like they might cry when we said another two hours. Eventually reaching the (slightly disappointing) lake we took a few quick photos of the glacier and small iceberg that was floating by and headed back out of the cold wind from the mountians that was whipping us about.


As the sun had disappeared behind the mountains around the valley it was getting a bit cold so we walked faster and talked more to keep the cold thoughts away. The walk back was mostly uneventful as we were the last people on the trail apart from an odd fellow who stood contemplating the world in the middle of no where, 3 hours away from civilisation while it was getting cold fast and the sun was going down. We decided to take a different path back to town hoping it would be a bit flatter only to find that it was mostly flooded and went off down a steep cliff face with only a chain to cling on to and some dubious steps to climb down. Eventually seeing the town emerge below us we were happy and healthy (well feeling pretty fit at least, or knackered...) we went to the supermarket to get some chocolate milk and soup to warm us up and headed back to the hostel for a good nights sleep before catching the 8.30am sunrise bus to El Calafate.