EL CALAFATE
We arrived in El Calafate at 12.30am with Mat and James and checked in at a hostel owned by a bloke called Mikey.
We tried desperatly to find somewhere that did food at 1am but found no luck so went to bed with empty stomachs.
The next day we treated ourseles to an all you can eat buffet for 18 Pesos. Three plates of salad and meat and three bowls of ice cram and fruit salad each we stumbled back to the hostel and watch Arsenal cruise into the semi-finals of the champions league. Late that afternoon we decided that it was cheaper to rent a car to see the Moreno Glacier than pay 110 pesos each on a coach trip. Renting a car came to just over 40 pesos each.
PARQUE NACIONAL LOS GLACIARES
MORENO GLACIER
Early the next day we picked up the car, a red Volkswagen Gol as they call them in Argentina and headed to the Glacier. I decided to drive as it was my credit card that the car was under.
The Moreno Glacier is a huge blue-hued glacier that is roughly about 50-60 meters tall.
We arrived at the Glacier after crawling round the mountain roads in rain not the ideal conditions in a rental car. The weather wasnt the best for viewing the glacier as it was very cloudy and had constant small showers. However we were treated to seeing several lumps of ice sheer off. The ice that sheers makes thunderdours rifle cracks and when crashes into the water it produces small tidal waves and large bobing icebergs.
The size of the glacier was amazing and a few times i was caught looking with my mouth gapped open.
The next day Tom and I got a bus to El Chalten.
EL CHALTEN
El Chalte is 222 kilometrs north of El alafate and it is the newest town in Argentina, born in 1985.
Brief bit of history about the name. Chalten means "Smoking mountain", a name given by the Tehuelche who mistook Cerro Fitz Roy (often shropuded in clouds) for a smouldering volcano.
The Village sits at the tip of a windy valley in the northern senction of Los Glaciers National Park, on a road the skirts Lago Argntino and Lago Viedma. Behind it lurk the granite spires of the massif that include:
Fitz Roy 3,405 m
Torre 3,102 m
Poincenot 3,002 m
Egger 2,900 m
Some of these peaks being some of the most difficult peaks in the world to climb.
Tom and I decided to camp in El Chalten and went north of the town to a small free campsite called Camping Madsen.
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Locations Visited: El Calafate, El Chalten, El Calafate
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