Living ice

What a day! After getting up at 4am yesterday morning to catch our bus, which took 18 hours to get from Ushuaia to El Calafate, arriving at 1.30am, we had to find our hostel, check into our dorm, make our beds and get to bed without waking our dorm mates, only to have to get up 4 hours later to catch the next bus to see the thing we came all this way to see - 250 square kilometers of frozen water, moving at a pace of about 2 meters per day - Perito Moreno Glacier. 

Sleep deprived and not looking forward to another hour and a half on a bus, we were not in the best of spirits, but the trip soon changed that as we drove through the spectacularly empty Argentinian steppe, watching the distant Andes draw closer. 

Driving through the steppe

Then when our bus stopped at a beautiful little goat farm, complete with home-grilled goat's bits, strong coffee and magnificent views, our moods took a definite turn for the better. 

Goat-café with a beautiful view!

The big advantages of having a great zoom!

When we continued on our way, we were fully awake and spotted lots of wildlife and birdlife, from buzzards and guanacos (like a little llama) to nandus (the South American version of an emu) and tiny little finches - Mic managed to get a lovely picture of one (he is a true-blue twitcher).

And then - we were there - standing in front of a wall of blindingly blue ice, listening to it creak and groan and crack like a whip, feeling tiny in the face of a force of nature so powerful that it can move a massive body of ice more than 30km long, 5km wide and 170m high, crushing rocks and literally moving mountains in its path. 

Perito Moreno - breathtaking...

...and fascinating!

We sat just watching the living ice for more than two hours, holding our breath at every creak, groan and crack, hoping for the colossus to throw some more of its extremities into the milky blue lake. And happen it did, more than once - huge chunks of ice left the walls with a resounding crack and crashed into the water more than 60 meters below, creating huge waves and inciting excited gasps from the onlookers - us included.  While two hours may seem like a long time to sit staring at a wall of ice, we were enthralled and disappointed when it was time to go! The living ice draws you in, and you want to wait for just one more ice block to fall...

There goes another block, the crack and roar have to be heard to be believed...

Despite our reluctance to leave the north-face of the glacier, we were soon consoled by the view we got to see next from the hour-long boat ride - the south-face, lit from behind by the afternoon sun, and brilliantly, blindingly, bizarrely blue. Mic compared the blue to LED lights - he was almost convinced that someone had hidden little lights in the contortions and crevices created by the ice. We took endless photographs, and although they are beautiful, they nevertheless fail to convey the magic the place radiated. 

 We got back on the bus sunburnt and slightly dazzled by it all, but very happy. Even the news upon our arrival back at the hostel that we were too late to book seats on the bus to Puerto Natalas tomorrow and we will therefore have to stay in El Calafate another night failed to damped our spirits. We bought and cooked a lovely dinner of steak and veg and are now relaxing in the cosy communal kitchen with a rum and coke and enjoying looking through our pictures for the 10th time....such a lovely place!!