01/03/08

Today we headed to El Calafate.

Flew to Buenos Aires, updated my diary at the airport and flew on to El Calafate for the start of the Patagonia adventure.

Day 1. Meet and greet.

Calafate is an interesting town formed out of nothing. It is a town were some roads are dirt and some are sealed and where everyone applaudes when the plane lands...i hate that.

Downtown Calafate is quite nice though!

02/03/08

This morning we left Calafate at 8am and headed to a town called El Chalten which is located north of El Calafate and about 4 hours drive. The drive was good.

El Chalten is a very small young town of about 23 years. When we arrived we had our pre packed lunch and headed off on our four day trek of Fitz Roy NP. After a couple of hours trekking we made it to our first camp site (Laguna Capri) which was also the first of many wonderful view points of Fitz Roy mountain.

The fresh water lake near our camp is very nice and it is possible to drink straight from the lake. Oh, also saw my first woodpecker in the wild and it was making a nest.

03/03/08

Awoke before dawn to get down to the lake for our spectacular view of the suns first morning light reflecting off Fitz Roy. The sunrise time we were given by our guide was out by about 40min and hence we were a little chilly by the time the rose.

When the sun did rise, Fitz Roy mountain turned a firey red. Well worth the wait!

After breakfast we headed up for a closer look at Fitz Roy and the glaciers that flow from it. The hike was again very scenic. The trees in this area are quite interesting as it is like a bonzai forest in places and i feel like a giant. The trees in this area are of two types, the Lenga and Nire. The reason for the varying heights of the trees is soley due to the limited space that they have to spread there roots.

We reached our lunch destination via a steep climb and were well rewarded with panoramic views of the (valley) Rio Blanco, Glacier Rio Blanco, De los Tree, Lake Sucia and lake de los tree. In the distance you could also see lake Viedma.

After lunch we headed back to camp via Glacier Fitz Roy. Dinner was another quality camp meal. I am definitely regretting not bringing my thermo rest along. Everything is included in this trip but there 1cm sleeping mats are el crapola!

04/03/08

Today we are off to our second camp site, Cerro Torres via lakes Madre and Hija. A fairly relaxing day that we finished off with a quick view of glacier/lake Torre, our destination for tomorrow.

05/03/08

We set off for our Glacier walking and ice climbing trek. It was a bit of a steep adventure getting to and from the glacier. We have a nice french bloke with us who you definitely don´t want in front of you when climbing up hill or behind you when climbing downhill! He is a very nice fella but he seems to be a right footed fella with two left feet. We also had to cross a river via a flying fox to get to the glacier which was fun!

We reached the glacier Torre after about an hour and a half walk then donned the crampons and set off accross the glacier. I don´t want to go on too much about the glaciers as there will be plenty of ice talk from Antarctica. The beautiful blues of the glacial ice were amazing as were the sink holes where water cascaded through. We had lunch on the ice and then did some ice climbing. It was my first time ice climbing. The guide said i was very good so i may have to try it again !

After ice climbing we headed back to El Chalten for an over due shower as i was definitely on the smelly end of smelly :(. We headed out via Rio Fitz Roy North (well only i went via the North exit).

We had a group dinner and then went to a Micro brewery for a few too many beers to farewell our guide. Tonight we share a room with three of the lovely ladies on our trip so in an effort not to wake them Ian and i got changed (or undressed) into our boxers outside. Am glad they didn´t wake up as it would have looked rather odd with the two of us walking through the front door in our boxer shorts at 2am.

06/03/08

Had a lie in and then quickly regreted having a bed near the toilet as last nights dinner seemed to move on a too swiftly.

After regaining conciousness we went for a walk around town and used the worlds slowest internet. Have been updating this diaryfor the rest of the day. At 7pm we head back to El Calafate to prepare for the next adventure.

Arrived back in El Calafate at 10pm and headed to town for dinner. We followed our guide Diego´s recomendation and had a burger at a place called Casablanca (yes named after the movie) and it was great!

07/03/08

Puerto Morino Glacier.

The 13th largest glacier in Patagonia. It is 35km long and up to 700m thick in places. Its face is 6.5km long and extends 80m above the water line and up to 100m below. It is neither growing nor receeding. This is a very active glacier, meaning you are guaranteed to hear the thunderous cracks and grones thatresonate through the valley.

A somewhat eary but awesome experience and if your lucky you may also get to see sections of the glaciers face fracture and crash into the green glacial waters below.

A very memerable day indeed.

We headed out for a bit of a farewell dinner and then drinks as Ian and I are heading off to Ushuaia tomorrow. As usual it was a later night than expected but i was in very good company which was great.