We had a decent night’s rest for the first time in a while. Around eleven, we piled back in the car and drove for about two and a half hours until we reached El Calafate and the Hotel Kosten Aike. After checking in to the rather dated hotel and filling up on gas, we headed back on the road for about 45 minutes until we reached the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park. The main point of interest here is the Perito Moreno glacier, which is one of the most unique in the world.
Perito Moreno is a sizable chunk of ice at over 30 km long. But what makes it particularly unique in these times is that it is the only glacier that actually adds mass. In these times of climate change, glaciologists are stumped by it. With that being said, we could still hear ruptures and calving occurring. It is after all, the peak of summer, but at its worst, it replaces any ice lost to maintain the status quo.
The setup of the glacier viewpoints was somewhat inefficient. There was a common car park where visitors could take a shuttle bus to a central trail starting point or just walk on the metal boardwalk all the way to the central point. While the terrain was somewhat undulating, I felt that the metal boardwalk didn’t need to go up and down each time this occurred. I estimated we went up and down over 1200 steps to reach various viewpoints. Having done a rather ambitious hike yesterday, we didn’t even notice all these steps until much later.
I believe there was a sign that estimated it to take one hour to go from the parking lot to the central viewing platforms, but we did it (with all the steps) in about 20. And I didn’t think we were moving all that rapidly. In fact, we are feeling a bit stiff from yesterday’s exciting events. Once reaching the central area, we attempted to capture some glacial calving. This is obviously easier said than done. It is tricky to point one’s camera at the specific area of a rather massive glacier in time to catch the action as it happens. I was able to get a high frame rate video of one chunk falling off, but nothing more. Nicole says she got pictures, but the internet at our hotel is worse than dialup, so for her to get a photo to me could take a few days.
After returning to the hotel, we walked to a place called Mi Rancho for dinner. It came highly reviewed, but Nicole’s empanada appetizer appeared to simply be frozen and reheated as it had a bit of ice. The rest of the food was decent, and we even got a spontaneous tango show. I had a massive slab of Argentinian meat. They don’t do small portions of meat in this country — I think it’s a matter of pride.
After dinner, we returned to our hotel to play some table tennis. If the internet is going to be that bad, a hotel obviously has to make up for it with a ping pong table. I don’t know if you know this, but Bricole (everyone’s favorite celebrity couple) are amateur table tennis players on a sort of world tour — having most recently played in the Sultanate of Brunei. After a long day of driving, stair climbing, and ping ponging, we called it a night. Tomorrow we are heading back to Buenos Aires.
passports & pepto bismol 