El Calafate
During one final brunch in San Telmo (again, with coffee) I started reading up on my next destination: El Calafate. I had really loved everything that Buenos Aires had to offer, but the real focus of this trip was supposed to be nature so I was excited to get away from the big city. Unfortunately, this excitement distracted me to the extent I forgot I needed to check out of the hostel, resulting in madly throwing all my possessions in to my rucksack and running to the front desk to avoid late fees. I checked out 40 minutes late (but escaped paying extra in exchange for promising a good review online) and got to work repacking my bag and having the best wash a small sink could offer.
During repacking I met several fun people interested in where I was going next. Most of these quick connections are usually fun and fleeting - a small window in to someone else’s journey, who will then disappear from you life as quickly as they entered. Occasionally though, things line up nicely. I got chatting to Victoria, and we quickly realised we had may similarities, the most present of which was we were about to take the same flight. Pleased to each have half price airport transport we chatted excitedly the whole way there about our plans for El Calafate, and by the time we got on the plane had planned our next few days together, as far as the destination after. There so many instant connections out there just waiting to be made.
After arriving in El Calafate at night there was only enough time to organise my things and get myself in to bed before an early morning the next day. El Calafate is one of Argentina’s most expensive towns, so I decided that I’d save money where I could while here. The basic, but unlimited breakfast at my hostel was a good place to start then. I ate well, and snuck a basic packed lunch in to my bag for later. Proper backpacking. At the bus terminal I bought a bus ticket to the main attraction of El Calafate - the Perito Moreno glacier - and killed time before the bus arrived by making friends with the many friendly stray dogs who hang out there.
I had planned to visit the glacier with Victoria, however after she and some new friends of hers accidentally stayed out all night, she didn’t make it up in time to catch the bus. It always seems though that as one door closes, another one opens, and I ended up sitting next to Olivia on the hour and a half journey. We quickly made friends, chatted about the scenery we were passing and where we’d recently been, and spent the day together exploring the glacier.
Huge, imposing and beautifully asymmetrical, the glacier seemed to go back forever. It’s front edge rose 70m from the water and next to groups kayaking nearby (I tried to get a place but they’d been booked up for weeks) you could really get a sense of its scale. Mostly white ice with caves and slits that inside seem to glow a deep sapphire blue - such a mesmerising colour it was hard to believe it was natural. This between many snowcapped peaks, which my brain also struggled to process as truly there. They looked just like a film set. Or a Toblerone box.
The highlight of the day came when we were walking in an area with a clear view of the whole glacier and heard a loud crack. There had been cracks all day as small pieces of glacier fall off in to the water, and generally by the time you’d turned around there were only ripples in the water where the ice had fallen. This time we turned to see numerous small pieces falling off in an icy waterfall. The flow continued, and luckily Olivia decided to start filming because a huge chunk then became loose and plummeted in to the water below along with big cracks, crunches and splashes. A few minutes later, we heard more cracks, and with our sensed heightened, turned immediately turned to see not just a chunk of ice, but a whole iceberg (perhaps 10 times the size of the previous one) come loose and crash down, with thunderous sounds. We felt so lucky to have witnessed something we could have so easily missed, and I was struck by the juxtaposition of the unchanging mountains (at least in the last few thousand years) compared with the ice, the landscape of which had changed in the few hours we’d been next to it.
A note on global warming: It’s hard when seeing ice break off glaciers not to think of global warming causing all kinds of problems for the planet, however this glacier is still realively healthy and it seems ice breaking off it is part of a natural process caused by the channel of water that runs perpendicularly across it. Because of this I managed to just enjoy the moment for what it was, however I doubt I’d feel the same looking at melting polar ice caps.
After getting back in to town, I headed to a bird reserve for an hour or so to see some wildlife, changed some money at the local cambio (which turned out to be in a small room on the first floor of a steak restaurant), stopped in the supermarket for beers and ingredients to make about 8 sandwiches (money saving going strong) and finally had a little rest, chatting to others in the hostel about life, the universe and everything. We knew there was a good chance we’d never see each other again, but that made the conversations no less deep and no less meaningful.
