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From the moment the plane began its descent into El Calafate, we knew it would be nothing like Trelew or Gaiman (thank God!). The views over the Andes were simply spectacular - snow capped mountains, deep valleys and winding rivers in a milky blue colour that can only be described as similar to when someone washes out a paintbrush in water. We jumped onto a shuttle bus and headed off to the America del Sur hostel, where we planned to stay. Words cannot describe just how fantastic this place was and anybody visiting El Calafate should DEFINITELY stay there. The hostel is situated on a mountainside, so you have views over all the other mountains and valleys and it is simply stunning. We spent many hours during our time there just staring out the window at the view and dozing in the sunshine that came through the huge windows. The staff were fantastic, sitting us down and telling us where absolutely everything was, what there was to do in Calafate and nearby, and arranging future hostels, bus tickets - everything! To top it all off, the floor had underground heating and there were hot showers -we couldn't believe our luck! That day we decided just to chill out and went for a wander around the town, stopped for some very tasty crepes in a little cafe/restaurant, took a few pictures and although we had planned to go horse-riding in the afternoon, we decided against it when a big black cloud settled over the town! In the end, we hung out with people in the hostel, cooked a fantastic dinner and prepared ourselves for an early start the next morning to see the Perito Moreno Glacier.
After getting up at the crack of dawn and piling onto a bus to get to the glacier, you can imagine that we were none too impressed by the fact that it was pouring down with rain when we arrived! Nonetheless, the glacier was AMAZING, even if parts of it were obscured by cloud. It is the largest advancing glacier in the world and it is difficult to explain just how beautiful a load of ice can be! The glacier is viewed from a series of platforms, so by the time you get to the lowest one you appreciate just how enormous it is (50 m high and hundreds of kilometres in length). The whole thing is filled with little pockets of a bright blue colour - apparently where the water is starved of oxygen when the glacier forms - and it juts out in a series of spikes between two big mountains. Even more unexpected was the sound. Pieces of the glacier are continually crashing into the water below and the noise is just deafening. Sometimes the cracks are internal so you can't see them, but whilst we were there a HUGE chunk the size of a clock tower cracked off one of the sides and watching it fall was one of the most amazing things we have ever seen - there was just so much ice and noise! The view got better however, since a few hours later the weather had cleared up and we were able to see just how far the glacier stretched and see how the colour changed as it reflected the sunlight. A couple of hot chocolates later, we returned to Calafate, packed up our bags and headed off to El Chalten on a bus.
We arrived in El Chalten late in the evening and IT WAS FREEZING. The wind was HOWLING and it took us about 10 minutes to walk to our hostel against it, but thankfully when we arrived, although the windows were rattling with the force of the wind, it was a nice little place- pretty small, but cosy! We got a quick briefing from the staff about the nearby trails to trek in the national park, Parque Nacional Los Glaciers, and decided to do them over two days, beginning with a trek to the top of Cerro Fitzroy the next day. That night,we shared a room with a Texan couple, who had been all over the world and had some fantastic stories, especially about the time they spent in India. It made us realise we didn't really know all that much about our own history and hadn't seen too much of the motherland either - something we both plan to rectify once we get home and are done with this trip!
What happened the next day can only be described as living hell. The fact that the wind was still howling away as we got dressed for our trek should have been a warning, but us being us, and thinking that we had to make the most out of every day, we were hell bent on finishing the 8 hour round trek to Cerro Fitzroy that day. We caught a bus to the start of the trail, and since the sun had come up, the first hour or so wasn't actually that bad. We trudged along at our own pace, with the views of the mountains and rivers below getting increasingly beautiful everytime we stopped. We glimpsed another glacier, saw some woodpeckers, walked through a forest of strangely twisted trees and were generally having a nice little trek until all of a sudden a big black cloud started to form....
Over the next few hours the clouds got bigger and bigger and then it started to gently rain. After gentle rain came heavy rain, which was followed by TORRENTIAL RAIN! By this point we had trekked through open plain, a campsite and forest, and were now half way up a mountainside. We reached a point which said that the last few hundred metres should only be attempted by experienced climbers, but having come this far we weren't about to give in!! We continued up the steepest mountain you have ever seen, scrambling over boulders and generally being passed by every other 'experienced' trekker stupid enough to be out trekking that day! About half way up the rain and the wind picked up even more and we were literally clinging to the side of the mountain for dear life! We were right on the edge of cliffs and all it would have taken was a freak gust of the galeforce winds to send the both of us straight to the bottom! For some reason it didn't occur to either of us just to quit and go home, despite the fact that we were both FREEZING and SOAKING WET. The shoes Marisha had bought in Puerto Madryn were apparently not all that waterproof, and since the rain was going horizontally because of the wind, it was still managing to get beneath all her waterproofing. Rakhee on the other hand, wasn't even wearing waterproof trousers, and was so drenched that the trousers had stuck to her legs, frozen in the cold, and she could no longer feel anything anyway! And just when you think it can't get any worse, A HAILSTORM BREAKS OUT! Yup that's right, hailstorms the size of golf balls were battering us both from all angles, and it really is a wonder either of us survived that day! We reached the top of Cerro Fitzroy, but given the overcast sky we couldn't see any of the fantastic views that had been the whole reason for climbing up in the first place! At this point we were wondering just why we had put ourselves through such an ordeal and didn't stick around any longer than we had to! Miserably, we trekked back down to the town, both of us cold and wet, and after both slipping over a couple of times, muddy too! To add insult to injury , 20 minutes before we reached the base, the sun decided to come back out again!!! Not amused, we couldn't be bothered to take any more photos and continued, a hot shower and some food the only thing on our minds.
We arrived back at the hostel exhausted, but slightly bemused to find that we had done the whole 8 hour trek in 6 hours, despite the dramas! Back in the warmth, a hot shower and some food later, we decided to miss out the second day's trek (having had enough for one lifetime!) and slept early so that we could catch the 5am bus back to El Calafate the next morning.
Back in Calafate, we spent the next day recovering from the traumas of the day before in the comfort of America del Sur hostel! We received a warm welcome from the staff who remembered us, and spent the day just pottering about, reading, chatting to other back packers and warning them against going to Cerro Fitzroy!!! The next day we managed to do the horse-riding that we had missed out on the first time around, and it was a great afternoon out! A group of about 10 of us, the guides and a pack of about 15 dogs went out on a two hour ride around the lake and up a hillside, where we were greeted by fantastic views of the mountain ranges once more. Needless to say it wasn't raining, hailing or cloudly that day, and we got some great pictures because the scenery and setting was just stunning. At one point, all the dogs went absolutely crazy and went bounding across the hillside after a rabbit. The guide went after them and assured us that the rabbit hadn't been harmed, but moments later one of the dogs returned with the fur around his mouth stained bright red, so we're not entirely sure the guide was telling the truth... Back at the stables, the guide taught us about some of the traditional 'gaucho' activities, showed us numerous animal skins and leather works and fed us some traditional gaucho food, including mate, a kind of herbal tea that ALL the Argentinians drink. The stables were crazy, since in addition to the horses and dogs, there were kittens, cats and even a sheep that we watched be bottle fed, and all in all it was a very welcome near-death-experience-free day! That evening we hopped on yet another bus (they are the cheapest way around south america!) in the direction of Puerto Natales, across the border in Chilean Patagonia...
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