The first thing I was aware of was Mills saying `Trev! itīs 5 past 8!ī this slowly filtered into my brain and I realised that we were supposed to have caught a bus outside our hostel at 8 - various expletives and an unusually quick exit from bed followed :-) we had a quick look outside and there appeared to be no bus as yet so we dashed around like idiots and stumbled out to the front of `Hospedaje Nancy` with clothes untucked and laces trailing behind us.
Outside we found a couple of other travellers waiting for the bus and found out that they donīt normally turn up until half past! I could have had another 15 minutes in bed! Panic over we sorted ourselves out and once again grabbed some breakfast and ate it while waiting for the bus.
The bus when it turned up was a smallish minibus without any luggage space to speak of, everyone who was travelling on it had a rucksack and they were all tied rather precarioiusly to the roof almost doubling itīs height! About 30 mins into the journey the driver screeched to a halt and went running to the back of the bus.. I can only imagine he started to see someones rucksack dangling in the rear window.. anyway, he was on the roof for a few miutes and then we headed off again.
On arrival at El calafate our rucksacks were still with us which was somewhat of a relief and there was a welcoming comittee of hostel owners all Vying for our business and offering free rides, one slightly abrupt lady with no english and a pickup truck, was from a hostel we had read about īLos Dos Pinosī which sounded okay and reasonably cheap so we chucked our bags in the back and hitched a ride. We dumped our stuff in our rooms and took advantage of the first opportunity we had come across to get some washing done (by ths time we really needed it :-) )
We wandered into town (past the stray dog packs) to book an ice hike on the moreno glacier for the next day and our bus ticket to El Chaltern for the day after. Then as we were starving we stopped at a cafe and grabbed some lunch
outside in the sun. Some admin in the afternoon and then we called in at the supermarket to grab some lunch. Then it was a small dinner of pasta and salsa before turning in as we had an early start on the glacier.
Next day we were up at about 7am to grab some breakfast and grabbed the bus at 8 for Moreno. we had some great views on the 2 hour bus journey and the driver stopped a few miles away from the glacier to let us get out and take a distant picture of it. When we arrived at the glacier we had about 2 hours at the major viewpoint, this was on a peninsular that almost seperated two lakes, the glacier comes down from the mountains opposite to try and finish the job.
This year for the first time since 1988 the glacier has reached the peninsular and formed a dam, so far the level of the two lakes is now different by 8
meters! This has happened several times in the last century or so and eventually (at about 20 odd meters) the water presure becomes too much and the explodes through the glacier. From the view point on the land the glacier seemed almost close enough to touch and the north face that we could see seemed imense - we watched a boat going as close as it dared to the glacier and it seemed tiny in comparison. Even though it was overcast the deep cracks in the glacier wall gave off a vivid blue glow that was facinating to look at and as we watched chunks of ice tore away from the glacier face with surprisingly loud cracks and tumbled into the water. All this seemed to happen extremely slowly. We found a place where we could eat our lunch and were lucky enough soon after to see a much larger lump of ice fall into the water making a huge splash. Then it was back in the bus to get to the port to catch our boat.
We all scrambled to the back of the boat to get as good a view as possible as the boat weaved in amongst the numerous icebergs floating close to the glacier wall, at one point the side of the boat actually slammed into one of them - just to shake up the tourists Iīm sure :-) We were also able to see a huge cave slowly being eaten into the ice where the water is trying to break through the dam. All too soon we were being dropped off at the other side.
Once we had disembarked we were greeted by our guide who proceeded to give us an explanation of the glaciation in the area (moreno in particular) and some rules and tips for our walk on the ice. Then it was off through the woods to the edge of the glacier where we were all fitted with our crampons.. Finally we were led onto the ice in two groups in single file. The landscape was amazing, the air is very warm so all the ice at the edges has been melted down into a rolling dune like landscape but closer to the heart of the glacier you can see more jagged peaks rising much higher. The surface of the ice is covered in small streams that run along until poring into crevasse eventually wearing these into larger sinkholes. The sinkholes and water filled crevasses are facinating as they give off that same vivid blue glow and when you look down them it seems like you can see to the bottom as the water is so clear.
The trek was facinating, the guide stopped in various places and gave short talks on various features of the glacier and allowed us to climb about taking photos which was great fun, the crampons took some getting used to - walking downhill was relatively easy but going uphill while keeping your feet flat on the ice to maintain grip does not make for a graceful appearance - ducks on ice sprung to mind :-)
We had been taking a generally circular route when the guide seemed to spot something, he trotted over a ridge and then came back and started hacking steps for us mere mortals to follow and we went in a roughly straight line for a while. On cresting a ridge we saw a quite bizzare sight, there was a battered wooden table and some chests in the middle of a flat section of ice.. on arriving there the guide busily hacked some glacier ice into a dozen glasses and produced a bottle of whisky and a load of chocolate from the chests! we had whisky on the rocks glacier style - very cool and a nice end to the trip :-)
We then trekked back to the woods at the side of the glacier and removed our crampons then back to the boat. The bus journey home was uneventful and when we got back we decided to have a nice dinner and a bottle of wine at one of the local resturaunts (Steak in Chile is almost as nice as in Argentina!) then called it a night as we were catching yet another early bus to El Chalten the next day.