Tea in the Park!

When we were in Puerto Natales we looked into the possibility of going hiking and camping for a few days, however, it was then that we found out that not only was it expensive, but it was really a minimum of 5 days on the trail.... a little much for us right now. We decided that we would come back in the future, but for now it was time to move on to a new place. After another wonderful bus ride, we made it to El Calafate on Wednesday, home to one of the world´s most famous glaciers.

Upon our arival we decided on our timetable. Thursday we would visit the glacier via the tour ran from the hostel, and then on Friday we would leave for El Chaltan, a beautiful National park with free hiking and camping. We would camp 2 nights and return on Sunday for a 3am Monday, 36hr, bus journey to El Bolson for more wonderful hiking.

We were picked up with 4 others from our hostel, early on Thursday, shortly to find out that this wasn´t the usual hostel tour but in fact a large scale affair with old, rude, slow, French, tour group tourists. Not what the average backpacker is after! We settled in for the ride and it rewarded us greatly (though we could have done the same thing on our own and saved 30 pesos each... blast!). Before arriving at the actual glacier, we paid an extra 10 bucks each to take the boat tour to see the South face. Packed boat, rude people, one lady used Jen´s head as a tripod. We cruised right up to the glacier, amongst floating ice debris and were able to take in the sheer scale of it. The Moreno Glacier is 5km wide and 30km long, larger than Buenos Aires! It rises 60m from the water and every so often a large chunk crashes down into it. Other than nearly being crushed in the rush to the viewing deck, and after cursing several incredibly rude people, we were awestruck. It was amazing, and very, very, blue!

After our boat ride we were dropped at the viewing point for the North face of the glacier. This is a series of gangways that take you right up to the glacier, looking across the valley that it consumes. The views here were just as spectacular and accompanied by the unbelievably loud crashes that sound like thunder and echo from miles back in the valley as various pillars of ice collapse in on themselves. It really was an amazing site and we were greatly satisfied with our days sightseeing!

Interested? See for yourself!!



We finished our day by renting our camping equipment and booking our buses for our next destinations and rounded off the evening with a few beers (Thanks Skip & Lauren!) with our new Engish mates, Liz & Hugh!

Upon arrival in El Chaltan on Friday afternoon we appeared to be in luck. The Sun was shining and we had our hiking route planned out nicely to touch on all the good bits of the park - we were excited to start our camping adventure. Despite the fact that we are backpackers in many senses of the word, it is very different having to carry your own food and shelter, and I for one, had forgotten the extra burden this caused for the shoulders! But the Sun was still shining and we were seeing some amazing sights, so as we approached our night one campsight, by the river at the foot of a glacier, we were full of cheer. By this time it was around 830pm, the Sun was still high but it was growing colder by the minute, so we bundled up to cook our dinner on the stove and drank the quite delicious glacial-spring water that we had scooped up alongside the trail. We clambered into the tent and snuggled down in sleeping bags for the night.

And a bloody cold night it was too! We both suffered a bit but were warmed with hot porridge and jam before we headed out for our day of hiking. We hiked most of the morning and early afternoon, a lot of tiring up-hill in the forest, but we were rewarded with lunch at the side of a beautiful lake, overlooking the amazing mountains of the Fitz-Roy range. And once again, the lake water was delicious! After lunch only a few hours hiking lead us to another amazing view of Mt. Fitz Roy and then onto our night 2 campsight. Here we hung out, ate another great meal and when it got really cold, got into the tent, read and even watched a movie courtsey of the ipod!

With only a short hike back today we were able to sleep in a little before our porridge (it was an even colder night so hotter porridge was required), and within an hour of leaving camp, the town was in sight. We were very fortunate as we had 2 beautiful days of sunshine and today the wind started. At one point on the trail I felt that if we were to stop, the wind at our backs would start to push us across the gravel trail as if we were wearing ice skates on a frozen pond! And it was just as bad in town, but here there were (5 peso) hot showers!




After a wonderful wash and some hot empanadas we hopped on the bus back to El Calafate. We arrived here not too long ago, and, after a bit of a fright when they were nowhere to be seen at 1st, retreived our bags of stuff that we had put in storage. Afterwhich it was time to get our dinner ready.

We still had a little gas remaining, and being as frugal as we are, decided that we should not waste it. So we hunkered down in the nearby local park here in town, lit it up and chowed down on the last of our hotdogs and soup, not giving up on the weekends tradition of eating out meals in a Park! Fortunately, this was the one time the packs of stray dogs left us alone, aside from the rock we had to launch towards a yippy one (startled but not hit, rest easy animal lovers).


We leave at 3am tomorrow, still 6hrs away, for El Bolson and arrive there at 11am in 2 days! Wonderful! Here we hope for more wonderful hiking and more, we will let you know as soon as we do!

Hasta Luego!