Somebody's birthday today. In her honour a trip to Estancia Cristina and the Upsala Glacier today. This required a very early start. The hostel breakfast is not worth bothering with so we sorted a flask of coffee and pastries to have on the boat. The trip starts with a 3 hour boat ride to the estancia via the Upsala Channel. Lago Argentina is huge, like an inland sea - today with waves - and there are several side 'arms', one of which takes you up to the face of the glacier. The lake is surrounded by mountains from the start, and after a while you start to see icebergs, most of which are an jntense blue. It was cold, very windy as we were moving at speed, and wet from the spray. Needless to say we were out on the deck from the start, along with a couple of other fools. We found a little corner to snuggle in and have our birthday pastries and coffee while watching the ice bergs and mountains sail past. This was the day the trapper hat came into its own. Gradually the icebergs became more numerous and we slowed right down and floated around there to take it in from every angle. Everyone then poured out onto the deck, jostling for space to have their photos taken, especially as there was a perfect rainbow over to one side of the mountains. We'd spotted a bloke in a red vest that said 'digital photografie' earlier, and he went into overdrive now, positioning people in front of icebergs and snapping away whether they wanted this or not. Eventually it all calmed down again and we set off for the estancia and most of the people went back in the boat, so we had the deck back to watch the veiw again. We'd opted for the trekking option here and a group of about 15 of us went straight from the boat to a 4wd with Leon, our guide. We went off up a hair-raising track (a bit like being on a roller-coaster) up to a viewpoint from where we could see the east face of the Upsala Glacier as well as two others. From there you could see how vast the Patagonian ice-field is as the peaks of ice stretched off to the horizon. Our photos don't do it justice it was so vast and the light was not so good at this point. Despite this the view was truly awe- inspiring. We've often reminded ourselves on this trip how lucky we are to be here, but to be at this viewpoint in such a remote spot that so few people will ever see felt like a real privilege.
The trek was 14km, 4:30hr through fossil canyon and back to the estancia. The first section was still in sight of the glacier, then descended down through a canyon where the constant erosion of the rock keeps revealing fossils of long extinct sea creatures from when this rock was part of the ocean floor.
It was a long and fabulous day, and totally different from the previous days glacier trip.
Quick turnaround and out for a meal in a nice restaurant. Two gay guys from Zurich were seated at the table next to ours and turned out to be very friendly and funny. One of them owned a hotel which prince William stayed at recently so basically we now consider ourselves as being royally connected.
Great birthday, simply amazing.