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I was up early today anxious and excited for my trip to the Glacier - a feeling I havnt had so much lately on my travels. After breakfast I fed the four dogs, organized the two out the front on the chains and gave the medicine to the one out the back. I then took off down the road and had about a 10 minute walk to where I thought it would be a good place to hitchhike from. The weather was beautiful this morning but after being told it is freezing cold at the Glacier I was wrapped up in all my clothes. I watched the sun rise over the lake as I waited for cars to pass. It was 8am and there was a lot of traffic on the road however most was buses and tour companies which would obviously not pickup a non-paying hitchhiker. After about 40 minutes I was feeling a bit dis-heartened having had 50 or so cars drive past with spare seats and none willing to give me a lift (exactly how I used to be). Anyways with a bit of luck a car stopped asked if I was going to glacier and let me in. They were a lovely young Russian couple (extremely well travelled and open-minded) his name was Vadim and hers I could not pronounce. Vadim worked in an English bank in Moscow and his English was exceptional and his wife could speak 6 or so languages perfectly so we had tons to talk about. The couple were visiting Argentina just for 2 weeks due to short holidays and 3 young children at home; we talked and talked and I got some incredible incite into Russia, its culture and life. When we arrived at the park we paid the entrance fee and then made our way to the main lookout, the infrastructure in the park was wonderful to say the least with public bathrooms, miles of walking platforms, information boards and would you believe chair lifts and elevators for disabled visitors. The closest platform was only about 500 meters of the glacier wall and what a site it was; with a light blue antartic wall of ice creeping over the lake. Giant pieces of ice broke from the wall plummeting into the lake making huge bursts of thunder that threw shivers down the spine. After taking a few photos and walking to a few different platforms we all agreed we should go and ask about the price of the boat out to the glacier. I had planned simply to stay and walk around the platforms that circle the glacier wall for the next 4-5 hours but having the opportunity to hang-out with my new Russian friends and possibly also get a lift back to Calafate took priority. We drove to the jetty where the boats were leaving from and found out there was a boat leaving in 40 minutes and the price was a very reasonable $12; so we brought our tickets and then waited. Bus loads of oldies on tour buses came and started lining up for the boat whilst we relaxed and drank some Yerba Mate that I had brought from the house; a first for my Russian friends. We boarded the very nice catamaran and took our seats inside along with about 200 other people. They had a brief explanation of the trip out to the glacier and told us we could go outside the boat on the viewing decks. After about 10 minutes we arrived at the wall of the glacier and piled out onto the viewing decks - there were far too many people and it was hard to get a look little alone a nice photos however after 20 minutes or so people moved back inside and we had some space to move. The glacier has this very blue tinge to it and the walls towered over the boat - I imagine this is what Antartica looks like up close and for now this will have to do as the closest experience to seeing Antartica. It's not very often I experience value for money with tours and touristy things but this experience far exceeded my expectations and we had a good hour and a half cruising up and down the glacier front to observe and stand in awe. The fact is also that I had some new friends to share my experience with and am once again reminded everything is better shared. The way back I chatted with my Rusaian friends and had a smile ear to ear from such a unique experience and incredible day. My friends decided to take a different route back to Chalten through the farmlands and check-out some of the very famous Estancias (farm houses where tourists can stay), it was all on gravel roads so we drove very slowly and got a unique look at Argentinas countryside. When we arrived back in town my friends drove me out to Ana's house and dropped me off which was incredibly kind of them.
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