Photo Album: Perito Moreno & El Chalten
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El Calafate is on the southside of Lago Argentina, discovered 126 years ago on the day we arrived. You know what, they were having a 10 day festival and a holiday to celebrate this. How did this affect us? To start off, there was this concert that went on until 2 AM, some heavy metal stuff, in a small town, that's loud, everywhere.
Another morning, another big day ahead. We planned to have a short walk in El Calafate, this small Argentinian town, famous for the nearby Perito Moreno Glacier. A small place by Lago Argentino, perhaps one of the flag bearing towns of Patagonia, boasting a couple of supermarkets and great mountain views across the lake.
The supermarket had very small choices for fruits & vegies, as is the case in such remote area in Australia too. An apple in the extreme north of Western Australia costed $4 each. But petrol was still very cheap here, less than a dollar per litre vs $3.40 in a similar location in Australia.....
And here is a taste of the terrain we had to cover to get into El Calafate, some 120Km worth, and the views to put up with !
Twenty minutes later, we went about looking for a tire. After a few hand signs, show and tells, to no avail, as most shops are closed for the festival holiday mentioned above. We were about to give up, when we drove by a small tire shop hidden behind a little lane. the little old man had the tire repaired in no time for under US$5, all done with sign languages, they worked wonderfully !! Let's cross our fingers that the roads ahead will be kind to our little car !
We drove around the place a little, and drove towards Perito Moreno via a circuitous route, taking in Punta Bandera on the way.
We had our first sight of the grand glacier at Mirador de los Suspiro near Puerto Bajo la Sombras.
And at Mirador Velo la Novia, we had a loving couple there. Lucky them, with that view, I wouldn't be moving too. They would be gliding with glee everyday !!
These are Crested Caracara, though of vulture family, they are scavengers. My knowledge of birds are very very superficial.
And here we were, right in front of the World's only growing or non-retreating glacier, under the threat of climate changes.
The huge viewing platform, was very well oriented and professionally organised, built on a hill slope, with many levels, allowing each level to have an unimpeded view of the entire vista. And it was not crowded.
Soon we stayed somewhere near the front, with our camera ready and listening. Listening for the tell-tale cracking sound of a immediate calving ( or rupturing ) of glacier face. Sometimes a large falling piece could trigger a mini tsunami.
We were lucky to experience a couple of biggish calving ( rupturing of ice walls ) and boy, did they crack with a thunderous roar.
One has to respond quite quickly, first hearing the cracking, then figuring where it could be, turn around and capture....
And we had companies too.
The next morning we had a late morning start, trying to catch up with emails, researches for the trip ahead etc. For the next few weeks, we would be traveling north, zigzagging between Chile and Argentina along the Andes Range of mountains.
We got back on to the main highway RN40, about 30Km from El Calafate, fully fueled. Our destination would be El Chalton, almost next door, then again, it meant, over 200Km worth of driving, a fair bit of it on tyre killing rocky dirty roads.
Along this stretch of RN40, we noticed there were big rollers of cables of what looks like, fibre optics lying about, this confirmed my suspicions that were being laid to connect this wilderness to the World to outside.
Shortly on RN40, whilst stopping on one of the road side miradors (view point ), I started a conversation with this bicycle traveler, a real adventurer, Henrik.
At that moment, he would have been on the road for nearly 4 years, covered a huge swath of the Earth. All on his bike, alone for much of the time. A real hero of mine.
After we parted company, he went on to raft down the Amazon from Ecuador on a bamboo raft built by he and fellow adventurers and long hikes in the USA etc. Here is his web site www.worldonbike.com, really worth having a look.
Further along RN40 going north are these great sights, before we turn into RP23 towards El Chalten, another rocky dirt road.
Gradually, the majestic Andes Ranges are appearing on the horizon as we drove along side Lago Viedma.
And its signature glacier, the Videma Glacier, unfortunately, due to limitation of time, we were going to skip visiting this glacier.
But there were already so much to see, just on the short 87 Km going in.
Hiking amongst these mountains would be the key activities over the next two days.
And we reached El Chalten the township, hikers paradise.
Full of lodgings of various selections and tastes to hikers alike. It was mid afternoon, and looked very quiet, because most of them are on a trail somewhere. The tell tale sign that of their return was, the Internet speed would gradually slowed to useless usually starting about 6 pm. lasting into the night.
After organised accommodation, collected some ranger information about local hikes, we continued along RP23 to the end to see Lake Desierto at the end, another 40 Kms or so to go.
With ice capped mountains, saltos ( waterfalls ) should not be a surprise, this only surprises is, it is tiny.
The wide RP23 was getting narrower as we drove on.
But the mountains were getting closer.
And finally, the peaceful Lago Desierto, no Patagonia wind.
And we had a short day by comparison, just 330Km over 8 hours, full of joyous encounters.
We drove around the place a little, and drove towards Perito Moreno via a circuitous route, taking in Punta Bandera on the way.
We had our first sight of the grand glacier at Mirador de los Suspiro near Puerto Bajo la Sombras.
And at Mirador Velo la Novia, we had a loving couple there. Lucky them, with that view, I wouldn't be moving too. They would be gliding with glee everyday !!
These are Crested Caracara, though of vulture family, they are scavengers. My knowledge of birds are very very superficial.
And here we were, right in front of the World's only growing or non-retreating glacier, under the threat of climate changes.
The huge viewing platform, was very well oriented and professionally organised, built on a hill slope, with many levels, allowing each level to have an unimpeded view of the entire vista. And it was not crowded.
Soon we stayed somewhere near the front, with our camera ready and listening. Listening for the tell-tale cracking sound of a immediate calving ( or rupturing ) of glacier face. Sometimes a large falling piece could trigger a mini tsunami.
We were lucky to experience a couple of biggish calving ( rupturing of ice walls ) and boy, did they crack with a thunderous roar.
One has to respond quite quickly, first hearing the cracking, then figuring where it could be, turn around and capture....
And we had companies too.
The day started with a mini hiccup, and finished on a high note, leaving the image of Perito Moreno forever etched in our memory.
The next morning we had a late morning start, trying to catch up with emails, researches for the trip ahead etc. For the next few weeks, we would be traveling north, zigzagging between Chile and Argentina along the Andes Range of mountains.
We got back on to the main highway RN40, about 30Km from El Calafate, fully fueled. Our destination would be El Chalton, almost next door, then again, it meant, over 200Km worth of driving, a fair bit of it on tyre killing rocky dirty roads.
Along this stretch of RN40, we noticed there were big rollers of cables of what looks like, fibre optics lying about, this confirmed my suspicions that were being laid to connect this wilderness to the World to outside.
At that moment, he would have been on the road for nearly 4 years, covered a huge swath of the Earth. All on his bike, alone for much of the time. A real hero of mine.
After we parted company, he went on to raft down the Amazon from Ecuador on a bamboo raft built by he and fellow adventurers and long hikes in the USA etc. Here is his web site www.worldonbike.com, really worth having a look.
Further along RN40 going north are these great sights, before we turn into RP23 towards El Chalten, another rocky dirt road.
Gradually, the majestic Andes Ranges are appearing on the horizon as we drove along side Lago Viedma.
And its signature glacier, the Videma Glacier, unfortunately, due to limitation of time, we were going to skip visiting this glacier.
But there were already so much to see, just on the short 87 Km going in.
Hiking amongst these mountains would be the key activities over the next two days.
And we reached El Chalten the township, hikers paradise.
Full of lodgings of various selections and tastes to hikers alike. It was mid afternoon, and looked very quiet, because most of them are on a trail somewhere. The tell tale sign that of their return was, the Internet speed would gradually slowed to useless usually starting about 6 pm. lasting into the night.
After organised accommodation, collected some ranger information about local hikes, we continued along RP23 to the end to see Lake Desierto at the end, another 40 Kms or so to go.
With ice capped mountains, saltos ( waterfalls ) should not be a surprise, this only surprises is, it is tiny.
The wide RP23 was getting narrower as we drove on.
But the mountains were getting closer.
And finally, the peaceful Lago Desierto, no Patagonia wind.
And we had a short day by comparison, just 330Km over 8 hours, full of joyous encounters.
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