Argentina-Patagonia Take Two

We were sad to leave Chile and that we had only spent nine days there in total, but we were excited that we would be spending more time in Patagonia on the Argentina side. Our bus ride to El Calafate, as well as the crossing at the Argentine border, went smoothly and we were met at the bus station by a friendly black lab that walked us all the way to our hostel. There were a lot of street dogs in El Calafate, and somehow they always knew where we were going and would escort us there. We talked to several other travelers who had similar experiences with the psychic street dogs of Calafate.

The America Del Sur Hostel that we stayed at was very nice and had a great view looking out over Lago Argentino. We spent a couple mellow days hanging out in Calafate, as we had to wait for space on the trek that we wanted to do on the Perito Moreno glacier. The timing for a couple of down days was fortuitous as I had picked up a bit of a cold. We did some little walks around town and walked down by the water where we could see flamingos, but mostly just laid low.

View of Lago Argentino from our hostel

More views from our hostel

Flamingo on the lake

Our big Calafate excursion was our trip to the Perito Moreno glacier, which is one of the most dynamic glaciers in the world, moving two meters per day. It is also absolutely massive, as it is over 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. We got some great up close views of the face of the glacier and then took a boat ride across the lake with some more great views of the face of the glacier. The highlight of the trip was that we got to spend about six hours hiking next to and on the glacier. Walking on the glacier gave us an even better sense of how big the glacier was and we got to see really cool pools, caves, crevices and ice formations.  

The biggest glacier we have ever seen-Perito Moreno Glacier

The face is about 250 feet high

So massive!

Walking along the lateral moraine of the glacier gearing up for our glacier trek

Crampons on, we are ready for some glacier exploring!

View of our lunch spot in the distance- the glacial lake

A glacial lake, literally.

There were crevasses everywhere!

The glacial lake with a huge crevasse running down the middle

Ice cave!

After taking a bus up to El Chalten we spent the next couple days doing some amazing hikes in the area. First, we hiked up to Laguna De Los Tres, which is a beautiful lake at the base of Mount Fitz Roy. The next day we did a similarly amazing hike up to Laguna Torre, which is another lake at the base of massive peaks, Cerro Torre. The views were amazing, as were the fall colors, where the trees have turned a glowing red and orange color. 

On our way to Mount Fitz Roy

Fall has arrived in Patagonia- such beautiful colors

Laguna de Los Tres- Mount Fitz Roy in the background

Crescent moon sitting on the peak

View down the valley towards Chalten from Laguna de Los Tres

Playing with the ice at Laguna Torre (it was completely frozen)

Laguna Torre- Cerro Torre in the background

Cerro Torre- such cool peaks!

View from the evening bus from El Chalten back to El Calafate- Cerro Torre and Mount Fitz Roy in the middle

On one of our hikes we ran into a couple, Josh and Marisa, that we had met on the W trek in Torres Del Paine. Not only had they been on the W with us, they had sat across the aisle from us on our flight from Sydney to Santiago. They also quit their jobs in the Bay Area last August to travel and had been in Asia, New Zealand and Australia prior to heading to South America. It turned out they even stayed in the same room, in the same hostel in Calafate the day after us and had been escorted from the Bus station to the hostel by the same psychic dog. Such a small world!  

Our Spanish is progressing slowly and mostly involves us using the verbs "want" "have" and "need", pointing and then lots of pleases and thank yous at the end.

Hope all is well back in the US. Go Warriors.

B and G