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.
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