We arrived in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. The BA flight was fine, but rather long as we didn’t realise there was a stop in Sao Paulo, we had to stay on the plane for an hour as they did a crew changeover and quick clean of the plane… Then we had to wait for an hour to get through passport control – Ugh.
BA was hot and sticky – a shock to our system coming from a Scottish winter, and the hostel in Recoleta we stayed in was a bit of a dump but clean and sufficed as a place to shower and lay our heads briefly as we were then up on Wednesday at 4am packing up and heading to another airport, for our flight south west of Argentina to El Calafate, Patagonia.
Lago Argentino from El Calafate
We arrived in the most beautifully set airport, right on the shores of Lago Argentino, which is Argentina’s largest lake which is the most stunning azure blue due to glacial water. El Calafate is a wee town (think Aviemore or Queenstown) whose current raison d’etre is a place for people to bunk in order to visit the glaciers. The town is growing so fast the infrastructure is struggling to catch up so there is a distinct lack of roads – in fact on the way from the airport which is 15kms away from the town, you soon realise that the main road into the town is actually the old runway of the now disused airport! We get covered in dust on the way up the hill to our hotel as the roads are actually dirt tracks…not too bad for walking on but a bummer when a car decides to drive past you, leaving you covered in a plume of dust! Pah!
Iceberg
Spegazini Glaciar - the tallest
Anyway, had a FANTASTIC day yesterday as we took a boat trip on a catamaran from Puerta Bandera to most of the glaciers including Spegazzini, which is the highest glacier, and Upsala which is the largest – its MASSIVE! (4 x the size of Buenos Aires which has a population nearly 14 million!). I have to say that the icebergs held a little more interest to me, although the glaciers were amazing as they are unlike anything I have ever seen, the icebergs have the most wonderful shapes and colours…. whereas the glaciers are so large it’s had to take them in.
It was on the boat trip that it suddenly hit me what we are doing, and I was jumping up and down for joy that we are doing this, despite the stress of packing up and leaving and the tears of saying goodbye, as it was sooo stunning, amazing, breathtaking! The size of the icebergs, the shapes, colours and textures are all captivating. It’s actually impossible to find the words to begin acurately conveying the wonder of the glaciers and icebergs…., not to mention the amazing mountains framing their glory! When I get time I will post a link to a picasa web album.
Upsala Glaciar behind icebergs
Iceberg blues
