We got picked up in the morning for our day trip to the Perito Moreno Glacier. The bus ride to the national park took about 1 hour where we arrived earlier than other tours. The good thing about this was, that there were not so many people on the "catwalks" around the glacier. We had about 1 hour to enjoy the beauty of this glacier and to see how junks of ice break down and crash into the water. Later, we had to go back to the bus since we booked the ice trekking tour on it. We got transferred by boat to the other side of the lagune where we had our box lunch and prepared for the "hike". Putting on some basic crampones (not really nice ones but they fit to every kind of shoes) we were ready to have a stroll over the glacier, followed by a iced whiskey on the glacier. The colors of the glacier are really impressive (actually it's just a optical illusion, the ice is transparent, not white or blue)!
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| Perito Moreno |
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| On the glacier |
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| Junks in the water |
On our way back, we could also see a very big junk of ice crashing into the lake (it sounds like a thunder) Just Amazing!
We had one day left in Calafate which we spent with visiting a museum about the south of Patagonia, how it developed, what kind of animals lived here and how the local people got killed to get rid of them. It's an nice and interesting museum, worth to visit. In the late afternoon, we got picked up to visit the Estancia 25 de Mayo, which was the first "supermarket" in the town Calafate (at that time, there was no town, just this estancia). It's a small estancia, "just" 17'000 hectars of land, but you need this since for 1 sheep, you need about 1 hectar of land to survive. We had a very interesting talk about how it was founded, about the immigrants, the life and a demonstration how the sheep got sheared. The owner also showed us around, displayed the old tools they used and how it all worked there. After an aperitif, we also had dinner in the estancia (a parillada) which was also very tasty (the lamb is just great down here!).
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| Mammal that lived in Patagonia |
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| Estancia 25 de Mayo |
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| Small Parillada |
So, after some days in Calafate, we left the town (in a bus with no space for tall people) for crossing the border to Chile again (this means waiting for leaving Argentina, waiting for migrating to Chile and plague control (this means, your luggage get's x-rayed to check if you have fruits or meat with you which is not allowed). But once we were done with it it was just a small bus ride left to Puerto Natales.
We arrived in the afternoon and check in at our hostal (a very nice one). The owner helped us to organize the trip to the Torres del Paine national park and we purchased all things that we would need for 3 days there (food, water, tent, etc). We decided to take the afternoon bus so we had some time to enjoy the rich breakfast in the hostal before we re-packed once more all things and left for the park. We arrived around 17.00 there and a local guide told us (again) that fire is strickly prohibited in the park (and the other rules).
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| Not too difficult to understand |
As you might have read, some idiot burned down 10% of the park by lighting his toilet paper :-( well, the part around lago Gray is still closed, but the french valey and the torres part is opened, so we hiked till 20.30 to get to our camping ground. This time, we had a different dinner (rice) before we went to bed. We had an early start (04.00) to the lagune of the Torres since we wanted to see sunrise there. It was amazing when the mountains turn red in the morning! Great to see!
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| Las Torres del Paine at sunrise |
After a nap, we hiked down to the cuernos which was our base for the french valley. It's a nice camping with hot showers and toilets and a store where you can by things you need (e.g. beer). Ready for the next day, we started at 07.00 before the crowd started, so we were almost alone for the full trip into the valley. We just met a french couple that is on a 5 year jurney around the globe... not too bad :-)
The french valley is amazing, with the hanging glacier and the view to the cuernos. Furthermore, you can also see what the fire has caused: you see a lot of burned areas which are just black :-( On the way back we saw, that the crowd was up also and we headed back to our tent. On the way down, we also noticed that some very stupid people had lit a fire on a campground for a BBQ. The park ranger was just about putting out the rest of the fire when we passed there. I'm not sure how stupid and ignorant one has to be do this. It's a dry area and you can see the burned areas :-( just idiots! Well, we arrived in the afternoon at our campsite and enjoyed the sunny afternoon.
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| Morning view of lago Nordenskjöld |
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| French Valley |
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| View from the Mirrador Britanico |
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| Las Curenos |
Next morning, our only thing to do was to get back to the bus stop and head back to Puerto Natales. We had a wonderful sunny day and arrived on time at the bus stop where we had to wait, but this was nice since the weather was perfect. Blue sky and sunshine. The bus ride back was shorter since we didn't stop at any place and so we arrived early in Puerto Natales, just a bit tired. As it was Rosi's birthday, we went for a specially recommended restaurant, where they serve king crab (good, but not a lot of taste) and other food. It was nice but not the very best restaurant we have eaten so far, but it was a very nice day!
Now, we have one day left here before we head for 4-5 days to Punto Arenas and then some more days in Ushuaia (end of the world) before we fly to Buenos Aires (3. Feb).
