Tim_Day 18-20 (El Calafate)

Day 18
We spent all day just doing erronds. Nothing to exciting. Went to the grocery store 3 times. Seems were still not smart enough to buy all we need in one visit to the market. Oh well. We did some internet stuff and cooked some pasta for dinner. The place had stoves and pots but no silverware or knives. So funny to see that in such a nice place. We ended up finding a butter knife to cut all the vegitables we used and and one spoon and one fork in the back. Good stuff.

We also bought our tickets to see the glaciers. I can´t wait to hear the rifle crack of the ice and the big peices falling into the water. It´s going to be great.

Sleep good dispite our sometimes loud roomates.

Day 19
We took off at 6:30 to go see the glacier. We rode in a little bus. Took about 2-3 hours to get to the park from the city. Once we got there is was amazing to see the enormous glacier. The span of the glacier is massive. It such a strang natural occurance to see. The wall of the glacier rose 150 feet above the water and went for 300 feet below the water to touch the earth on the bottom of the river/lake it was on. Incredible sight to see. The span of the glacier was from one mountain to the other. Must of been around a mile long.

One thing that was really cool to see was how the glacier was feed snow from the mountains above. In my head I couldn´t understand how they get that much snow and ice. But when you looked into the mountains above the glacier you could see what was the most snow I´ve ever experienced on a mountain range. They said some guys mesured the snowpack about 3 miles back in the mountains and it was about 700 feet deep. It was amazing. The snow covered almost all the moutain expect the stong peaks where the snow couldn´t stick. They said the glacier also moved about 3-4 feet a day down the hill in the fastest parts.

We got out of the van and I walked fast like a little kid down the walkways to get a closer view of the glacier. I didn´t want to miss any large peices of ice falling off. Ana was way behind me as I walked as fast as I could without looking like an idiot tourist. Right as we got to one of the closer lookouts we say a massive peice of ice break off in front of use. It was about 150 feet tall and maybe 30 feet wide. It was incredible. There was massive stong and sharp cracking right before the huge peice fell. Then like in slow motion is fell to the water. It was funny but the peices were so big that everything seemed to move in slow motion with a force I´ve never experienced before. Was an amazing site to see. Then after the large peice off ice fell into the water it would make a massive splash and wave that would travel all the way across the lake.

We got lucky and during the whole day say 4 massive chucks of ice fall into the water. The largest one was massive. It hit the water like a large explosion throughing ice balls hundreds of feet into the air. All in slow motion like a balarina but with so much power you could feel it in your neck hairs. Man I wanted to sit there all day and just wait for more to happen but they only let us stay there for 2 hours.

One other thing that was amazing was the constant cracking of the glacier. Every few seconds you would hear massive blocks of ice cracking. Sounded like gun fire from far away and would almost echo from the mountains. It gave you the feeling the glacier was alive and contantly moving and chaning. I never expected to hear those noises.

We after 2 hours of viewing the glacier we went to the boat and across the left side of the lake to walk on the glacier. The boat ride was cool and it was really impressive to see the glacier from the water level. It was a flat light blue color rather than the white color we saw from the lookout. I guess the way the light went through the ice.

We walked a little trail to the where the ice started and they put our ice shoes on. The ones with the claws on the bottom. They strapped them to our shoes and we headed out onto the glacier. That was an amazing expericene as well. The glacier was really all ice. Almost completly hard but you were still able to dig your shoes into it pretty easily. There were a series of small rivers running through the glacier and it created these brilliant blue small pools of water. The closest way I can describe the feeling is it was like walking on a disneyland ride. It was like a little fake world of stricking little peaks and valleys. Walking with the shoes was cool and different. You don´t slide with the shoes and when you go downhill you need to walk facing forward with your knees bent. That feels wrong but when you go sideways you will twist your ankle since the shoe digs in the mountain and doesn´t slide or move. Very cook experience and I´ve always wanted to walk in those cramp on shoes.

We spent about 2 hours going all over the easy side of the glacier. It wasn´t very easy but was much more simple then the middle of the glacier. At the end of the walk they gave us whiskey with ice from the glacier and a chocolate bon bon. Funny they really like those bob bons down here.

I slept the whole ride back to the city. 2-3 hours. Was cool because I felt like a kid when I used to close my eyes and wake up in a destination. Was like magic. One second we were in the park the next we were in the city. I must have been pretty tired. Ana slept the same as me.

I slept good. Ana said our roomate came in at 3:30 and turned on the lights for .5 hours to brush his teeth and do some other shit. Nice guy. I don´t understand how some people can be so disrespectful. Luckily I slept through the whole thing.

Day 20
So far we have done nothing today but bum around and wait for our great bus ride leaving tonight around 9. Man I´m excited for this ride. We were looking into buying airline tickets but they didn´t have any available till March. Nice that´s a month away. Amazing how things can work down here somethimes. So we leave tonight to travel one day and two nights on the bus up to Badelochei. Were headed to try and see some of the volcanos in chile. We´ll see how this ride goes. Gotta do what you gotta do. Wish me and my butt luck.

t*