11/01/2020 –Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

Well – This is an honour!

Ali signing in for a day.

The day started with coming down to breakfast and smuggling in some crumpets for the toaster. A lovely breakfast with fruits, scrambled eggs and especially bacon (which Jen and Josh said that they had not eaten for a while), toast etc but with a lot of sweet pastries and biscuits on display as well.

Josh had offered to drive so we took him up on it. I had worked out the timing to get to the port for our booked boat trip with enough time to have a coffee and to allow for tourist traffic but not much more. The drive was spectacular with miradores (viewing points) along the route but I would not let anyone stop as needed to get there. Whoops that was a bird that flew into the bonnet, the first bird that Josh has hit. Luckily no damage to the car, but one less bird in the world. Jen spotted a condor but again we could not stop as I said that we could always stop at leisure on the return journey.

We enter the Los Glaciers National Park. Of course we made it with plenty of time to spare and no coffee available. The harbour consisted of a car park with a cabin to exchange the tickets and toilets and landing stages for 3 tourist boats of varying sizes, but not much else. It is amazing that there is no coffee or anything there, but there again there is no rubbish or permanent structures and we are in a National Park.

Our boat was docked and we eventually were allowed on and into the cabin for a brief and safety announcement before we set off to exit the sheltered harbour and get to the end of the glacier.

The glacier is spectacular, amazing, blue, incredible., Hopefully Josh will put up some photos to do the place justice. The glacier moves forward at a rate of 2 meters a day, it is 35 km long and 5 km wide and 70 meters high where we see it. We are lucky enough to see calving occurring at relatively frequent periods. The blues in the ice vary from an inky colour to bright turquoise. the height of the glacier is difficult to show in photos without having something else to show the scale. We watch the crew fish out some ice for people to touch and we discover to have with a drink later. It is extremely windy on the boat as it is everywhere in Patagonia and we are cold by the time we return to the dock one hour later. Josh has only been wearing shorts but is very brave and does not complain. We get in the car and continue through the park to a junction. Junctions are rare anywhere in Patagonia as there are very few roads. Map reading is not too difficult. Someone is standing at the crossroad and speaks a lot of spanish which we do not understand so we take a right and end up in a car park. Perfecto! We find a notice board with a picture of trails and a café / restaurant with wifi and toilets and heat. We have a coffee and some empanadas and William has a whisky with ice from the glacier to warm him.

I feel that we should go and enquire about the trails and also to find out what the kiosk was selling tickets for back in the car park. Luckily we do check this out and then catch the free bus to where the different trails of board walks start to see the glacier from a different perspective, ie from above. We walk a route that uses most of the trails but getting most of the view points. The noise of the calving is astounding sounding like pistol shots or thunder. The views are just amazing. The wow factor to me is more amazing that the Taj Mahal !! Photos are taken at every few metres by everyone. We walk back along to our original car park and then into the café again for another cuppa. On out way out a guy says hi to Jen. he turns out to be Jen and Josh’s host from their accommodation in Uruguay. Skylar and Fredericko are on holiday and I still can’t get over the chances of bumping into them so randomly. we then set off for the return journey to the hotel. Holiday traffic does not exist, In fact there is no traffic to speak of at any time of the day or night. We stop at the viewing area on the return but do not see much except for a bird sitting by the bonnet of our car. Again look at the photos.

We return to the hotel for a lovely refreshing swim before a slightly less crazy vegetarian supper. After supper Jen checks her messages on the phone to find that Frederico and Skylar have invited them for a drink. it is after ten by now but we decide to go and meet them for a short while as we have an early start the next day of breakfast at 6.15. William chickens out and sensibly goes to bed. We drive into town and to a bar to meet the guys. Loads of people are getting the free shuttle bus from the hotel into town and the town seems to be buzzing and packed. We meet the boys for a half a gin and tonic and a coca cola for Josh (driver)and a very pleasant chat. They are off to Chile at 7 the next morning to do the W trek which is a 3-5 day trek involving camping. They have not sorted groundsheets etc yet so have a little more organising to do. I hope that they are warm and comfortable as I write this.

So its goodbyes and good luck to them before Josh drives us back to the hotel and to bed by 11.25. Not a bad day by any standards!!! In fact I am already worried that this day will be hard to beat!!