Ice, Ice Baby, too cold!

Flying in to Patagonia
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Our flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate took us through Ushaia bizarrely, considering that our original flight was to go there! Anyway, because of this 2 hour detour we got to El Calafate much later than expected. We kept our eyes peeled for Dave but he definitely wasn't on the flight! He turned up a day later with tales of ripoff taxi drivers taking him to the wrong airport in B.A. he was NOT amused!

We had booked ahead for once and stayed in a fantastic hostel called Y Keu Ken, the staff were sooo friendly there totally made you feel at home.

........we didn't want to end up like the Titanic!

Views from our hostel
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We immediately signed up for a tour of many glaciers in the Parque National Los Glaciers, El Calafate is the gateway to the Argentinian side of this amazing area. The options here revolve around boat trips, our choice was an ambitious full day affair that was going to take in lots of glaciers and Icebergs... Including the mighty Upsala Glacier..

We shared a room with a wonderfully friendly older English guy who had come out to visit his son travelling the region. Tonight was his last night in El Calafate before flying back to the U.K so we went out to dinner and had a cool time hearing things from a retired persons point of view!! He also gave us some great tips for the next part of our journey in Chile.

On deck and on our way!
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The next day we were up early and collected from our hostel by bus to travel to the boat collection point on Lake Argentino, about 1 hour away. When we arrived we were amazed at just how many tourists there were all doing the same tour, in fact there were 4 huge boats ready to do the same tour! After joining two rather long queues we finally got our national park pass and our boat ticket and headed to our already very full boat........no window seats for us! We were not worried at all though as we had come prepared to stand on deck, hat, scarf, gloves, fleece and waterproof.

Blue Icebergs
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So our full boat set off on it's journey up Lake Argentino and towards a narrow passageway up on of the tributaries to the lake. Along these channels are many glaciers but we were here to see three of these. The first we saw was Totalizador Glacier, as small glacier running down the side of a mountain and into the waters edge, impressive. Further up this same channel was Spegazzini Glacier a huge glacier that seem to go back a long way down a channel between the mountains. As we approach you could hear the glacier cracking and creaking as the ice moved. We even witnesses some quite big chunks collapsing into the water to form another of the huge icebergs that floated down stream and eventually in to Lake Argentino. It was really great to see the boat manoeuver so close to this glacier so we could all get a good view, luckily for Callum and I we already had our viewpoint saved on the top deck.......well we had travelled all this way on deck, in the cold and now rain!! After a good half hour admiring this glacier we headed back down stream and on towards the biggy, the Upsala Glacier.

lots more icebergs
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Upsala at one point was Argentina's biggest glacier, sadly today, due to global warming, Upsala is now one of the fastest receeding glaciers in the world - about 200 meters each year! However it is still huge and stretches back as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately the boats can't get really close to Upsala due to all of the many huge icebergs that float in the way making it a massive assault course for each boat........we didn't want to end up like the Titanic! Also by this point the weather had really changed and it was raining quite heavily, time for another hot chocolate on the boat I think!!

Callum looking cosy and warm
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Our finally stop for the day was a place called Lake ONeili to see the ONeili Glacier, well actually to see the huge lake filled with icebergs with no place to go! As the lake was land and ice locked we got to stretch our legs and have a walk, it also gave us a chance to get away from the masses, even if it was just for an hour. However as we approached the lake the rain was coming down heavy, team this with a very strong wind and what do you get........freezing cold glacier melt blowing up off the lake and into your face, cold, cold, cold!! Oh well we had fun picking up huge chunks of ice, hiding behind trees for some shelter and Callum enjoyed picking the wild orchids that we were specifically told not to touch!!

View from bus window on our way to the Glacier National Park
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Back on the boat and another hot chocolate we relaxed as the boat headed back to Lake Argentino, the weather also cleared a little so we could take some more pics of the icebergs.

Back in El Calafate we got in touch with Dave, who had managed to get a flight that day and arranged to meet for dinner. We had a recommendation from our hostel for a good restaurant so we headed off and hoped that Dave would find us there. After a very fine meal and some fine wine Dave arrived!! Oh well we watched him eat as we made arrangements for our next adventure together, to the Fitzroy national park.