Ice, Ice, baby

We parted with the car for a not so smart bus & sat behind 2 incredibly blonde & bean pole Belgians- Sam and "hey Burt". They were adding more chaos to their trip by travelling by the weather, on a day to day basis, watching the reports & cancelling tickets if it looked even slightly iffy..I hope it all worked out for them.

17 hours later we arived in El Calafate home of glaciers and those much anticipated iceburgs.

The journey wasn't the best, some of it was extremely bumpy & reminicent of Bolivia. Plus we had the bonus of being stopped at a patrol for an inspection that didn't go well , and they sent the bus back to the previous stop an hour away, just beacuse they could we summised.


see our tent blending in (right)

On arrival we pitched our tent just over a little bridge, next to a stream (kept the beers cool in this peachy micro climate), at a fine campsite 2 mins from town. No mossies as its too cold at night for the little darlins & lots of sparrows a tweating. They had the warmest shower block you could wish for which took the edge off those late night trips. Hot water for washing clothes and a very friendly hippy owner all for 10 pesos a night (one fiddy english pounds) bargain, happy campers!

El Calafate: Little town, very touristy but in a quaint wooden cabin kind of way. We get to eat our second decent pizza of our trip (a normal dave Jax staple) so all is well.


nice bar we hung out in (too much u2 though)

Next morning very animated early risers (armed with a jam crackers for lunch) get a 7.30 arranged bus to go see some serious ice.

The Southern Patagonian ice cap is the third largest glacier area of the world after Antarctica and Greenland. This vast amount of ice is continuously replenished with snow created by the wet winds as they rise over the Andes. Large glaciers flow down from this field of ice in multiple directions, some carve into lakes the others etch into the fjords of the pacific on the other side.



The bus travels though the outskirts of this ever expanding town of pointed swiss chalet style buildings and within 20 mins we see the snow capped mountains & surreal coloured lakes. The greenish hue of the water is known as Glacial Milk (created by pulverised minerals from the glaciers underbelly).



On arrival we file onto the boat with 40 odd others (luckily ours was only a quarter full as apose to the first boat where they where packed in like sardeens, it doesnt always pay to book early). Including park entrance it has cost us 50 pounds, quite a lot for us, but to be honest we would have paid 4 times that if we had too.

Its chilly on deck but sunny and this cold blooded girl is toasty in her 6 layers of clothing. We are told its very lucky not to have any wind.

Our first burg comes into view, its a way off but we excitedly take lots of photos not realising we would soon be passing right next to stacks of them.

The lighting is extraordinary, like a gleaming toothpaste filter.



We soon get closer to lots of iceburgs, they were inconceivably amazing, most at least the size of houses, all unique and very different (aparently this place is famed for the variations in shape). Many glow deep blue from the compressed ice & reflected effect of the light.


no its not syrofoam

Hard to belive we are just seeing 15% on top of the water, we get pretty close considering.

As you move passed their complex shapes unfold and shift, as the light skips off the new surfaces.



30% of Los Glaciers park is coverd by ice & the glaciers feed into 2 massive lakes this one is Lago Argentino the largest in the country, 1,466 km².







We were pondering what type of cloud this was, after a thoughtful pause Dave piped up with
"it might not actually be a cloud at all"



mmmm...perhaps its a skyburg?


pic stolen from somewhere on the internet

Or perhaps we´ve discovered a new cloud?



We didnt expect to see this many iceburgs.





Crazy to think these monsters have all broken off glaciers.







Glaciers

The first glacier we visited was Spegazzini, a high glacier & fairly rare as it shows no signs of receding. A piece fell off while we looked at it, which was nice.


Length: 25 km
With: 1,5 km
Height: 80-135 meters
Surface: 66 sq km


Upsala in the distance

Next we went to see the Upsala glacier the largest Glacier in South America. Several glaceirs feed into it and it seems to go on forever dissapearing on the horizon.


Length: 60 km
Width: 5-7 km
Height: 60-80 meters
Surface Area: 595 sq km

Its a branched-valley glacier fed by several others. Though only 60 to 80 meters high at the front it is hundreds of meters thick in the middle. The dark ziz zag stripe is the moraine. This is a medial moraine formed when two glaciers meet, it allows scientists to see the directional changes of the glacier, this one is a particullay important example.



The glacier seems to have stablised in recent years but receded more than 4km between 68 and 95.


The baby glacier above (Onelli) you can see how its retreated.

For lunch we stopped at Onelli bay and walked into a dense moss covered wood, through the trees we could see tempting glimpses of ice. The magic was only slightly dampened by the fact we were in a group of about 40 very chatty other tourists. Finally we came out into the sunlight beside a dazelling milky green lake teaming with chunks of ice fed by the glacier behind.



Marvellous lunch stop.




still life with orangeness


never touched by a human before?

Dave went for an icey cold paddle to get the above specimen.

Lunch went far too quickly & before we'd had a chance to stop playing on the waters edge and go for a walk to look at the glacier, time was up & we were hurried back to the boat.

We lagged behind momentarily so as to have the still & icey wonderland to ourselves.


glacier in the backright

Hot Coffee back on board & the outside decks practically to ourselves as the older passengers rested indoors. We got to see all the iceburgs again from different angels without the rest of the David Baileys.



As the ice retreats from view & the wind picks up we start a craze of lying on the top deck in the sun.

For the last 30mins Dave and I are the only ones outside, we take shelter behind the drivers window from the wind and spray (they look out occasionally, amused, do they know we are Brits?).

Later we have a BBQ Argentinian style: You build a fire up in the corner and once most of it is glowing spread the embers out under the grill to cook on. You keep feeding the small fire in the corner so that you can keep the process going, though the parillas we have seen they normally cook half a cow rather than 2 steaks so it wasnt really necessary in our case.

mmmm steak sandwiches, vino tinto & bed.

After a day of relaxing we head for the Perito Moreno Glacier the most majestic of them all and the one you can get closest too.

We have to pay park fees twice but more annoyingly you can only stay at the glacier for an hour and a half, a shame really as 2 years ago you used to be able to camp right near it.



Anyway, soon we are on the bus and see it swing into view...

Wow!



As we walk down the steps to meet it we hear a loud crack and see a piece of ice fall off the glacier face into the water with a boom. The boom continues a surprisingly long time after the ice has disapeard under the surface. We know from this its a lot bigger than it seems.


semicircle of clear water above is where the ice fell

width 4,500 meters and its
height 60 meters above the water level, and another 130 meters below the water level.
length 37km.



Apparently it is so big it could contain the area of Buenos Aires.



It is one of the few glaciers in the world which is in constant advance and growth. We sit quietly and can hear in groaning, creaking & cracking as pieces fall off in the middle. We decided to visit it in the afternoon as it would be quieter and there are only about 20 or so people on the multi leveled walkway.



The growth actually cuts the lake in two as the glacier buts up against dry land and this creates a damn effect and the rivers flowing into the lake cause the water to rise and eventually carve a tunnel through. About every 16 years the bridge of the roof collapses dramatically, last happened 2004.



We sit willing more to fall from the front & we joke about how wonderful it would be if a peice fell off revealing a wolly mammoth or a diplodavid frozen in the ice.



The sun shines on the spikey beast & we listen to it creeping forward until we have to leave.