Patagonia Part II : El Calafate and the Glaciers

Our last night/morning in Ushuaia was very interesting. Our bus was to leave Ushuaia at 5 AM, and naturally, Abby and I didn't want to waste money by sleeping at the hostel for one more night. Instead, we locked up our bags, and hit the town. We found a restaurant that had the most delicious burgers I have had in Argentina, had a few drinks, and retrieved our bags around 4 AM. This begins the most awful bus ride I have ever been on.
Because Ushuaia is so far south, we had to go through Chile to get to our midway point - Rio Gallegos (in Argentina). Going through Chile sounds like it would be pleasant, but customs is a HUGE PAIN. Imagine: bus stops, everyone gets off, passports stamped for exiting Argentina, back on bus, 10 minute ride, bus stops, everyone gets off with all luggage, passports stamped for entrance into Chile, a couple hours on bus...ferry over the Straight of Magellan, a couple hours on bus, bus stops, passport stamped for exiting Chile, 10 minutes, bus stops, everyone gets off with all luggage, passports stamped for entrance into Argentina. I can understand why maybe this is necessary, but it was kind of awful regardless.
After a day on the bus, we arrived in El Calafate to our Che Lagarto Hostel. Che Lagarto is a South American hostel chain, and it is cheap, clean, and always has a very friendly staff. From there, we planned our stay.
We woke up early the next day to explore the small tourist town of El Calafate. About ten minutes into our walk, we met a friendly stray dog, who proceeded to guide us for about 3 hours.
Our first stop was a lagoon connected to Lago Argentino - one of many glacial lakes in the area.

The lagoon was beautiful, but it wasn't very well preserved, which saddens the environmentalist in me. They were in the process of paving a road within feet of the protected area.

Abby and our guide.



Extremely clear water, typical of the area.



Flamingos!


We continued to wander around the area with our dog; a steep hike up a nearby hill really wore her out.



Day 2: Minitrekking in Parque Nacional los Glaciares

We woke up early, caught a bus to the national park, paid the local student discounted park entrance fee (courtesy of our student visas), and wandered around the forest surrounding Perito Moreno Glacier.





We took our bus to a boat, which took us closer to the glacier. We walked briefly through a forest, strapped on our crampons, were instructed about how to walk on a glacier, and set off!



It's hard to describe an experience like this. It was beautiful and incredibly fun. Also, cold and wet.





The excursion ended with alfajores and whiskey with glacier ice!



We celebrated Argentina's bicentennial very quietly in El Calafate with our roommate - she works in Buenos Aires for Johnson & Johnson, but is originally from Brazil! We went to a restaurant to try the famous "Cordero Patagónico" - Patagonian Lamb. Delicious.