PATAGONIAN POLAR PICS!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORGEOUS FINLAY!!!!!!
Hope you had the most wonderful 3rd Birthday!!!
BIG HUGS and LOVE Aunty Jen and Uncle Greg xxx
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Some more of our pics taken in El Calafate!

REST SUNDAY IN CALAFATE

Day 210

Sunday, 6th January 2008

Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

It´s a rest day today..and a day that internet is finally working!! WHOOooohhhoooo! I realise i really get irked and tired of traveling when i can´t send messages..or send and receive emails....i hate it when i´m somwhere remote and can´t communicate.

It´s lonely enough, after ten months, not having any family or being able to make friends because we´re moving around so much..without also having the isolation enhanced by not being to send a message when i want to! Or being able to write. I do have a journal and a diary..but i can´t carry too much in my pack..so i´ve been writing in this blog more to save carrying it all!

I love to write and without access to a computer i feel my right hand has been cut off! That´s when i start saying..i wish i had a laptop!!!!! And that´s when...we start going into shops to see how much they cost and thinking we´d use it for wi fi...but they´re not cheap. For a mini travel computer we´re looking at over 5 grand. And if we buy one overseas, we don´t have the local warranty..and it´s set up in the local language..and although i´ve gotten to know some Spanish..it doesn´t quite extend from menu language to computer language!!! ha!

But...only 2 months to go..and we´ll be back in our own home...and probably we´ll be thinking that this experience has been all a dream!

What if it is?

ANYWAY: As you can see..i can rave. Today...At last! We can get email! We still don´t have any mobile reception but at least all is ok at home! :-)

Okies..time to go...I¨m going to post some more of these wonderful polar pics on the next blog!

PATAGONIAN GLACIARS´ SHIP CRUISE

Day 309

El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

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Heard on CNN about the bushfires in Perth..5 houses lost? and the floods in the NT - not good!
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Solo Patagonia took us on our ship cruise today. It cost 240 pesos to go on the ship..and 28 pesos to go on the bus. And 30 pesos to enter the parque.

They picked us up at our hostel at 7.30am, as they do here in El Calafate, and we headed off for the 1 hour bus ride to the Punta Bandera port where we were sailing from.

We had our ice gear on..and we knew we´d need it after being on the ice two days ago. We were really looking forward to seeing the Upsala Glaciar, knowing it was even bigger than the Perito Moreno Glaciar that we´d already seen, and been on.

The Upsala glaciar is 60km long..and is almost 7km wide. It sounded like something pretty exciting!

As we were bussing it to the port we got the spectacular view of the mountains again...the sky is so amazingly blue! A real sky blue! And the clouds are really fluffy looking...like powder..pulled apart cotton balls...so fluffy and soft and like no other clouds i´ve seen. I wonder why they are like that?

One mountain i was watching at one point had the shadow of a cloud just surging over the white snow curtain of the mountain...it looked so strange the way it was moving.

The bus arrived at the port..along with a heap of other busses and we got a bit lost in translation as the language did not include english...but we hoped for the best. On thing we did find out..is..today..the Nacional Parque entry fee was 40 pesos, not 30! It´s like they just charge whatever they fancy. Nothing is constant. It´s been like that throughout Argentina..they charge their own price according to the day. YOu have to watch your change everywhere...they slip an extra 10 or 20 pesos night off your hand of change if you´re not careful!

By the way, we found out, after checking our booking sheets in email, we were overcharged in Buenos Aires, for our accomodation..the hotel room should have been 70pesos not 95 we paid..and the apartment should have been 100 not the 120 we paid! So..we´ve cancelled that place for when we get back..and we´re just going to stay at the hotel we were at for New Year...which cost 65 pesos for the night!!!!

Sorry bout that....the overcharging just reminded me of that!!!

Once in the Nacional Parque, we found our ship, and there were a few leaving (popular tours here at this time of year!) and jumped on..along with about 150 others. It was called the ALM. And it was big ship...all equipped for polar weather.

Firstly we headed out to Bocadel Diablo on the Brazo Norte (river)and we cruised through some spectacular scenery...the water was so milky....and green. The greenish colour of the water is called, ¨glacial milk´. This comes from the mineral particles that float on the water apparently. THey´re the particles that the glaciar has carried along when eroding the layer beneath.

The icebergs were in abundance..and floating like massive mountains themselves. We saw even bigger ones that the other day. SO HUGE. They break off in large chunks from the glaciars. These glaciars today are receding tho..and are not stable like the Perito Moreno. And you only see the top 15% of the iceberg. The other 85% of the iceberg is beneath the surface. Imagine running into one!!!

We also saw icebergs that looked dirty and they´re called ´moraine´s´. These are the broken rocks and soil debris that the glaciar carries along while they´re advancing. They look like dark lines on the ice. We thought they looked like stracciatella icecream..you know the one..the italian icecream with the chocolate streaks.

And everything is blue..the icebergs...the water is green but against the blue and white icebergs even that looked blue in places. So fresh and polar looking. We honestly felt we were in the south pole. And this is the closest thing to being there..without actually being in the Antarctic.













Condors flew overhead in the sky. We watched more fluffy clouds..and took photos of this white fluffy cloud phenomenon that had us mesmerised. The glaciars looked like big pieces of honeycombed mountains here. Or like white marshmellow and chocolate truffles or honeycomb icebergs with milky glacial water dripping around it´s edges.













We sailed down the Brazo Spegazzini on the Brazo Spegazzini river then on the Brazo Upsala to Glaciar Upsala. This glaciar is spectacular!! IT´s receding so the bit where it has receded is dark...and the face is not peeling off like the Perito MOreno but it´s beautiful.

We couldnt hear the icebergs cracking like the other day on the viewing plank because the motor of the ship masked it. If the boat noise wasn´t there it´d be silent. I know. The people were in awe so they were not speaking..and you could listeln to the surrounding and only hear the boat noise..so i know it would be. I wished they could turn it off!!!!

We cruised back on the Brazo Upsala to Lake Ondelli where we landed on Bahia Onelli at the Puerto las Vacas to see the three glaciars together...the Glaciar Agassiz and Glaziar Seco and the Glaciar Onelli.

It was 3.30pm.

Here we landed at the Puerto las Vacas (port) and walked through the patagonian forest to reach the area we were to see the three glaciars surrounding us. We only had an hour but i wished it were more.
















This was such a beautiful place. There was glacial ice everywhere that you could touch. And we did..we ate the ice! And threw the ice and just played with it. Even though it was cold! It felt like sitting in the antarctica here that´s for sure. And it was quiet. No boat noise. THis was so special..being surrounded by glaciars...three of them..and icebergs all around us.

The icebergs looked like huge polar bears here! Laying on their sides. There were so many changing shape of icebergs...all large..and all blue and aqua ice.

What an amazing place this was...

We scrambled back onto our ship at 4.30pm after such a peaceful experience on the ice..and sailed 2 and a half hours back again...before we caught our bus back to El Calafate.

It was a long day..and we were hungry by the time we arrived ´home´ at 8.30pm but it was an amazing day. Yet another truly awe inspiring experience!

It just keeps getting better here in South America!!!!

But do i have the energy to contine being overawed?

I am feeling the small annoyances of traveling for so long...

I dont want to detract from the experience of today but...i felt nitty picky and impatient at times again today. Especially with tourists!!!!

After 10 months traveling i think i´m almost óver it´! Even got annoyed at a french couple today who tried to hijack my piece of glaciar that i had hauled up from the lake to take pictures with!!! While Greg and i were taking pictures...the woman came over and decided SHE was going to use MY piece of ice to take pictures with...

I told her there were more pieces of ice in the lake!!!!!!!!!

Geepers..i must be losing it. El Calafate is so overrun by tourist that i think it´s ampifying my impatience with it all. I´ve even been dreaming of my house in Cotts...oh...to just have my own bathroom..my own backyard...my own wardrobe...i miss my weekend papers..especially the Sat´s west and the Sunday Times! I miss my vegemite...´

A friend said to me the other day...see as much as you can...and i know that´s true. But when you´re ín it, it´s different. And...this place is so big. I was talking about wanting to go to Mexico and she mentioned going now cos we may not be able to later....but Mexico is no hop, step and a jump! It´s 9000km´s from here!!! AMERICA....is such a BIG place!!!!!

LAZY HAZY CALAFATE DAY!

Day 308

Friday 4th January

El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

We recovered from our trek yesterday by sleeping in. As much as we could anyway! The 3 slice toaster cook starts clattering about in the kitchen at 6am! It´s so annoying!!! And she puts on the spanish tv which vibrates and sounds throughout our room like an acoustic guitar!

Went shopping again today..the funny thing here is there are no plastic bags in el calafate. No paper ones either. You either take your grocery shopping home in your own bag or you bundle it up in your clothes without even a sideways glance or a look or sympathy that might motivate some help from the supermarket staff!

We booked our ship tour today..for tomorrow. We´re going to go and have a look at some of the other glaciars on Parque Nacional Los Glaciars. Our tour will depart from Punta Bander and we´ll see the Upsala Glaciar as well as land on Bahia Onelli and take a walk around. There are a few other´s we´ll see on the return trip...teh Spegazzini and Seco Glaciars. We´re looking forward to seeing the glaciars..it´ll be a 12 hour boat ride to get there tho..but that´s what we´re here for!

Went back to La Lechuza for dinner and had empanada´s....they´re the meat or vege or pollo homemade pasties...ohlala..delicious! No time to diet here that´s for sure! Although..strangely...we´ve both lost weight! Especially Greg...who is swathing about in his lose jeans...He´s looking very handsome these days i must say!!!!! (could he get more handsome tho!) I know he´s reading this..but i´d say it anyway! ha!

This place is getting overrun by tourists.....far out. It´s getting frustrating!!!!!

PS Rang mum to see if she got back from Esperance safely...still no intenet or mobile connection. So annoying. The communication network in el calafate very frustrating! Do i sound grumpy about it? YES!!!!!!

ICE TREK ON PERITO MORENO

Day 307 Continued..

Thursday, 3rd January

The bus took us to the area where we were to catch the boat to get to the other side of the glaciar where we were to do the ice trek. We walked to the platform where the boat, Alacaluff¨ left from and boarded the boat. There were about 16 of us.













We reached the area where we were to trek, with our small backpacks and clipped on water bottles on and readied ourselves to trek the 3.5km bush walk to the ice.

The trees looked more jurrasic here than before..with long trunks and high foliage..and it felt like we were trekking though an unknown jungle. The trek wasnt´that worn ... and felt like a relatively new one. Tourism was still young so i imagine the trekking concept is new too.

The lakes were so blue and beautiful...and the trek was fun. It wasn´t that uneven or very up and down. IT was pretty constant and steady ground so that was good. Greg and i felt it was very easy actually..compared to the inca trail! So we just enjoyed the walk. Other´s were finding it difficult which surprised us.

After about 1km, Julio stopped in front of the glaciar with a fold out board and explained what the trek plan was and where we were going to trek on the ice. He explained the lake and ice system which was interesting as well. He introduced us to his partner who was to accompany us on the hike..and make sure we didn´t fall into any crevices!













We soon got to the spot where we were to put the crampons on, which are the steel spiky cramps that allow you to walk on ice, and straight away sat on benches where experts were there to tie them up for us.

It seemed there was no time for thinking or getting used to wearing trekking boots with crampons before we headed off on the 2.5km trek on ice.













And there was no turning back when we had to waddle like ducks..and stamp on the ice so the crampons hooked in...or when we were going up slopes at 60 degrees. We were amateurs on ice..and yet it seemed before long we were just trudging our way along like true champions.

The ice was so blue. This is from refracted light on the ice. And it looks amazing to see the caves and pools on the ice. Julio, the guide took us on ice that had not been previously trodden, as is the rule there..so it felt quite precarious at times!

I wanted to be in front, close behind the guide, so it wasn´t slushed and trodden on by 14 others first!!!!! And i managed to stay pretty much up there..when i could! I wasn´t taking any risks.

It was fun..and the glacial water was so fresh. I filled up my water bottle with it and it was the best water i´ve ever tasted i have to say. So pure and fresh and just tasty!

Greg was in his element! He was having a ball..and probably a bit relieved that i was having fun too. We stopped at an ice cave...where Greg was REALLY in his element!!! We both got in slightly..then he went right in! He´s more into this than me. I didn´t want the cave to collapse!













It´s quite addictive this ice trekking.....and although i had a few scares...like when i had to go down in a sharp angle..and couldnt think if i had to use the same technique as when i went up....and the guide said, ¨Tilt back lady!¨haha which made it so much better. THere´s a tendency when going on a steep slope down..to titlt forward!

I just kept thumping my ice clawed feet in! We were told to keep even..no tilting of the foot, or we´d fall! And to dig the toe in more when we´re going up..and the heel in more when we were going down! So much to remember! But you do feel you have to do it right..or fall in a crevice, or a pool, or something!












Julio did a display for us at one point and literally climed a ice mount with a 85 degree slope...using his ice pick to dig in and haul himself up! It was very impressive..but i wasn´t convinced i wanted to graduate to using an icepick on the ice! Greg had a go with the pick though!

The blue holes looked like aquamarine and blue sapphire. Hard to describe the blue of the water...it just kept impressing us and we were all in awe.

At 6pm...we reached the summit. Our summit anyway. The end of our ice journey. The two guides then said they had a treat.

From literally nowhere..the produced a makeshift table...and a bottle of Grouse Farmhouse whiskey and after Julio hacked at a big block of ice to make icecubes...we drank whiskey on the ice and ate chocolate biscuits!! What a way to go. All on the ice!













I feel like i achieved something by doing this ice trek. It´s something i have been worried about since Greg started making enquires about...and no joke, the fact that you had to be between 25 and 45 years old to do the trek...had me worried. Greg didn´t tell them his age.............and that fact never came up. But i KNEW he was slghtly over 45..and i was on the boarder!

But hey!

Us old foges made it. We went ice trekking!

And..we trekked the 3.5km´s home again, no problems. And at the end of the day..we were still running on adrenalin from the excitement..and other´s were asleep on the bus!

IT was a very cool day.

Or should i say..and ICE day! :-)

Later in the night....10pm...we ate at Ricks Parillo...and went to bed SO HAPPY.

PS Still can´t get messages home..and now the internet was not working!!!!

PERITO MORENO GLACIAR

Day 307

Thursday 3nd January 2008

El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

Woke up this morning thinking our trek was tomorrow instead of today...and maybe we got the day wrong! Checked the ticket and realised i must have been dreaming..because for one thing, the tours here can only be booked one day ahead..and the other is..we are going today..and that is that.

Felt really grumpy and didn´t know why...(because i was nervous about trekking with crampons on ice?) I was excited about seeing the glacier tho...and Greg was over the moon about it all. This is his dream.

I couldn´t eat breakfast..my stomach was churning a bit.. but i packed our lunch so we didn´t have to be lining up to buy lunch after our trek...and because i thought i´d be starving after not eating anything.

Got dressed in 5 layers. Three layers of woolens (my ícebreaker´nz clothes that were really warm in Machu Picchu) and my peru cardi and my buenos aires ´columbia´ski jacket), gloves, scarf and my el calafate beany...Greg had pretty similar on! We knew we were going on ice..and would also be spending time watching the Perito Moreno glacier calve ice from it´s front..

We waited outside and although we did need all our wet and ice weather gear the sun was shining. There was still a bit of wind tho..and it´s this that makes it really cold here. The glacial winds. It looked to be a glorious day to be going on the ice however. And we thought the more sunny..the more ice would fall off...that was our logic anyway! The tour bus picked us up which is a bonus on the tours here..and we headed off about 10am.

Driving on the outskirts of El Calafate was quite interesting. So much development is going on here. SO many more hotels being born..and so much more housing. THey need it. IT looked very barren as we traveled out toward the Parque Nacional Los Glaciars. The sky was pretty blue and the mountains changed from barren brown to green with foilage to finally, as we got closer..snow capped...such a change of scenery.

At 11.30am we stopped at the entrace to the Glacial Parque and paid our 30 pesos entrance fee in replacement for our stamped tickets.

Once inside the parque the scenery became wondrous. There were old jurrasic style trees and further along, milky silt blue lakes and snow capped mountains in the backdrop. SO pretty. How do you explain such a view?

We saw mountain tops like lacy doileys...with frost blowing off the top of the mountains. It looked like cake frosting on the mountains.

The arrhs..and the clicks of camera´s went beserck when we saw the huge glaciar peeping out at us! When we saw the glaciar our breaths were literally taken away. The lake was full of pieces of glaciar floating on the surface. We know there is only 15% of the glaciar on the surface..but it looked like it was floating. They looked like a huge frosty boys..with blue food colouring poured over them. They were so blue..sky blue. And they were all different sizes too....some looked like little igloos..some like massive buildings. But all were massive. More massive than we can describe. Three times the size of our boat.

That was just an entree because soon the view was lost and we were then anxious to get to our destinatin to see more!

It was beautiful. Panoramic and scenic and post card beautiful. Even our pictures came out looking just like they do on the postcards..so equisite!

We passed the Argentine Naval base and arrived at the platform where we were to view the Perito Glaciar at about 12.15pm. There were so many buses there! Arrgh.













We walked about 200 metres to the viewing platform (one was under water because the river was so high, so we couldn´t go on that one)and we had 2 hours to hope and watch that the face of the glacier would calve and fall...

At one stage we heard what we thought was thunder.....but we realised it was the ice. It looks so small as it drops..but we know they are massive. It´s a roaring thunder when it falls down..and yet, in the water it´s small...as if it´s just a slice falling off.

Our camera was fully charged...but the battery was draining because we were watiting to film THE large piece that we were hoping fall...

The Perito Moreno Glacier is a 20 kilometre long piece of jagged ice..it stretches across one land mass to another and is about 5km´s wide..and 60 metres high. The viewing point where we were was good because we could see where the edge of the ice was joined to a land mass on one side. This is where an ice bridge forms when the Agentino lake water gets so high it pushes the ice. It hadn´t broken through since 2006 and they are saying with the hot weather it may break through here within the next two weeks! It would be so spectacular to see that!

We spotted some ice falling..and heard the crack and crash of some ice...looked small again..then more splashing...camera was on..but it was on standby..greg was holding it...

The glaciar was rumbling...like a growling stomach.

THEN..1.42pm A huge crack! Thunderous roar. A MASSIVE piece came off. It looked like it lifted off..then fell on a ledge then roared into the other pieces of glacial ice beneath it...softening the fall a bit so it didn´t create such a wave of water....

There was a ship with a boatload of people watching on. It started up it´s engines and moved away from the wave that was rolling the water even though it landed on other ice.













IT WAS AMAZING TO SEE.

It left a huge blue indent in the glaciar where the iceberg had been! It was about 30metres high..about the size of a ten storey building. The way it lifted off....slid over the ledge and rolled down into the icy lake..ohhhhhhhh.

We felt so privileged to see it! And it was what we were waiting for. It was incredible.

AND...we got it on movie!!!!!!!!!!! (On the camera).

WHooohoooooooooooooooooooo

My heart was thumping! Greg said his was too.

I didn´t think i´d be so excited. Ha! It was GOOD!

This glaciar is constantly advancing...and it´s moving about 2 metres every single day. That´s what is so unique about this glaciar. THe fact that it is stable and not receding like other glaciars in the world. For every metre that the glaciar moves...ice also calves icebergs off it´s face. It builds up with ice and snow from the other end...as it snows every single day in El Calafate. So that´s why it is stable.

The way it was gouging the land on the side (where the bridge forms) showed the power of the glaciar. It waits for no one. Just advances if it wants to. I wondered what would happen if it weren´t stable. If it did continually go through the calving process off the face. It would just swallow up the land.

At 2.20pm we had to head back to the bus...so it could take us to our trekking postion on the ice.

But as we were walking back from the viewing plank...and then on the ramp back to our bus we had a spring in our step. And we had a glee imprinted on our hearts. As well as a huge cheesy grin on our faces.

It was as if we´d seen the ÏT¨that everyone talks about. YOu know the IT feeling...when you´re pregnant and people say..you´ll know when the baby kicks when you feel IT. Or when you´re driving to the pinnacles and people say..you´ll know it´s them when you see IT.

Well, that´s the IT we had...we´d seen IT..the glacial icebergs peeling off the face of Perito Moreno!

To feel that feeling..is amazing. To hear that thunderous roar...to see it floating in the air..then to splash so incredulously into the water..creating huge waves....is just so...

IT!

We soon forgot about the glory of what we´d just seen...because the next part of our adventure was about to begin...

We were going to catch a bus to go on the boat...to the area where we trek to the spot where we go ice trekking...

For a moment i had forgotten we still had that to do!