Southern Exposure

Wednesday, March 25

Last night we decided to spend two nights in El Calafate in order to visit the glacier and do some bike maintenance today. As planned, we slept in until we were feeling guilty about wasting away the day, and after a cup of coffee at the hostel we got on the road to the Glacier park. Perito Moreno is one of the only two advancing glaciers in South America, and one of the few on the planet, growing about 7 cm a day in winter. There are two options for visitors to see it. You can ride up to the platform overlooking the glacier or ride the boat that takes you closer to the glacier. We decided to do the boat.

It was about 85 km to the park, and we rode along a beautiful lake that was an amazing turquoise blue color. As we were getting closer to the park, we had a nice road view of the thick glacier sheet spilling into the lake. We pulled up to the boat pier and learned that the next boat was leaving at 2:15 pm. We had half an hour to kill before boarding time, so decided to ride up to the lookout platform.

Unfortunately, when we got to the entry post, the park attendant told us half an hour was not enough for the visit so we went back to the pier, purchased our boat tickets and didn’t have to wait long before being admitted onto the catamaran boat. It was really cold outside and started drizzling as we started sailing.

After ten minutes of sailing we reached the edge of the glacier.

I was hoping we could ride through a glacier arch I saw on the pictures but apparently it had recently collapsed and no boats, at least as large as ours, were being admitted further into the glacier. Once at the glacier’s edge the boat was parked, and we went out on the deck to take photos.

The wind and the frigid temperatures were bone-chilling, but we enjoyed the sights of the magnificent glacier and its beautiful blue hues as long as we could stand it. After half an hour and after most tourists retired to the cabin to keep warm the boat sailed back to the shore.

We thought about going to the viewing platform after the boat, but changed our mind as another hour out in the cold did not seem that appealing at the moment.

We rode back to the hostel and worked on the bikes for a couple of hours, cleaning and adjusting the chains and tightening the bolts. In the process, Matt discovered that one of the three attachment points of his right luggage rack had fallen off. Fortunately, the piece complete with the screw was stuck in between the rack and the box. We will have to find a welder in the next day or so to fix it.

It was past 7 pm when we were done with our bike chores. Yesterday we met a South African biker Bruce who was also staying at the hostel and was on his way north. We decided to have dinner together, and after walking the length of the main street without finding anything that interested us, we finally settled on an asadero (grill) restaurant away from the tourist traffic.

I very much enjoyed my dish of grilled lamb with plum and rosemary sauce and a side of roasted potatoes. For the whole evening we were the only customers at the restaurant, and used the opportunity to convince Bruce to not skip Bolivia and spend more time in South America.

On the way back to the hostel Matt and I could not resist and treated ourselves to a scoop of “Chocolate Bariloche” flavored ice cream (chocolate with almonds and caramel). As always, by the time we got to the room it was bed time, and we agitated about making little progress on the blog.