The first time Ella visited Argentina, we went all the way south to the Perito Moreno Glacier, El Chalten and the famous Mount Fitzroy. It was a spontaneous adventure to one of the big backpacker destinations, and it was everything we could have wanted, and everything we weren't prepared for. Warning: glaciers are cold, go prepared, don't be idiotic like we are.
[English version below]
El primer viaje de Ella a la Argentina fue una sucesión de improvisaciones. Pero no por falta de ideas, todo lo contrario, fue porque había tantas ganas de vivir cada segundo no sabíamos que iba a pasar en un minuto. Me dijo de ir a Calafate porque había escuchado sobre un glaciar impresionante. Y así como lo dijo sacamos los pasajes. Tal vez Ella no imaginó que las distancias en Argentina son enormes. (Consejo: No crean que todo en la Patagonia es cerca. De Bariloche a Calafate hay 1429 km). Volamos de Bariloche a Calafate despues de una noche furiosa en un bar. Yo dormí en el avión, como siempre, y Ella me despertó para mostrarme el Lago Argentino. Honestamente nunca vi un lago así. Grande como un mar y turquesa por el agua de deshielo te hace preguntarte si lo que es realmente así o si seguís dormido del avión.
Volvimos al hostel y tomamos lo que quedaba de la botella de ron en el cuarto. Terminamos saltando arriba de la cama por lo que decidimos salir al pueblo. El pueblo estaba muerto pero nosotros no. Fuimos al Casino porque era el único lugar abierto y tuvimos la suerte de dar con una clase de salsa para viejos! Bailamos y hasta jugamos 10 pesos en una maquina (Ella le erró al botón que quiso apretar!!!). Quisimos pedir un trago pero la risa no nos dejó. Nos dormimos a las 4 am borrachos, comiendo queso con galletitas que compramos en el único kiosco abierto, porque nos habíamos olvidado de comer. Como dije antes, en ese viaje (en realidad siempre) salimos, bailamos y tomamos como si no hubiera mañana. Pero siempre hay un mañana. Y en ese estado deplorable fuimos a ver una de las atracciones naturales mas impresionantes del mundo. Nos despertó el guarda parque del Parque Nacional Perito Moreno que se había subido al colectivo a cobrar la entrada. Todos los otros pasajeros estaban ya listos con sus clásicos sombreros y pantalones verdes.
El glaciar es indescriptible. Realmente, vayan y véanlo ustedes. Un monstruo de hielo, de unos 40 metros que sale del agua, imponente, ocupando todo el ancho del lago y extendiéndose hasta donde alcanzan a ver los ojos. Un ejercito de enormes bloques fragmentados, agrietados, pero compactos que van desde el azul oscuro hasta el blanco, pasando por el celeste y el turquesa. En las grietas el color se ve mas intenso, como si fuesen tajos que dejan entrever algo que hay adentro, inalcanzable para nosotros. ¿Que se esconderá ahi? ¿Habrá una ciudad oculta en ese castillo de cristal? (Con ella llegamos a una conclusion que es incomprobable pero irrefutable sobre el origen del glaciar. Si la quieren leer, está al final de todo).
Caminamos por las pasarelas que bordean el glaciar. Estábamos a unos 50 metros mirando y deseando que se desprenda un pedazo. Sabíamos en el fondo que es malo que el glaciar se derrumbe, pero con tal de verlo éramos hinchas fanáticos de shell. (Cada año los glaciares son mas chicos por el calentamiento global). De repende empezó a llover muy fuerte y nosotros teníamos dos camperas finas y viejas, porque nos parecieron cool y vintage. Realmente no tuvimos en cuenta que estábamos yendo a un glaciar. Nos empapamos.
Esa misma tarde volvimos a Calafate. Nos tomamos un colectivo a El Chalten, dejando atrás un lugar en el que estuvimos dos días pero que recordaremos para siempre. Ojalá pueda volver a apreciar este lugar tan impresionante en otro momento de mi vida y vivir otra experiencia. Pero la próxima vez si o si voy a llevar una campera digna del fin del mundo.
English version:
The first time Ella came to Argentina was a stream of improvisations. But this wasn’t because we lacked ideas, on the contrary, we wanted to live every moment without knowing what could happen next. She told me about going to Calafate, because she’d heard that there was an amazing glacier there. And so, I bought tickets. I don’t think she realised how big the distances in Argentina are – Note: Don’t visit Patagonia thinking everything is close. From Bariloche to Calafate is 1429 km, the distance from the top of Scotland to London.
We flew from Bariloche to Calafate after a big night out in town. So, I slept in the plane and was woken by Ella to see the Lago Argentino. Honestly, I’ve never seen a lake like that. It’s as big as a sea, and turquoise blue like you’ve never seen – I had to ask myself whether it was real or whether I was still dreaming. Calafate itself is like a typical touristic town in the south of Argentina. It has a main road with bars, restaurants, gift shops and tourist agencies selling trips to the Glacier Perito Moreno. Once we arrived into the city off of one of the many shuttles available at the airport, we walked around and found a hostel (as had been our method of finding accommodation since) and set out in search for our route to the glacier. We saw offers for kayak tours of the glacier, and were obviously attracted by the amazing advertising photos: a person, floating on a tiny kayak, in the middle of a turquoise blue lake, next to a HUGE 40 meter high block of ice. We were sold…until they informed us that it cost about £200, then not so much.
After booking a bus to the glacier, we headed out into the town. We began asking around for the whereabouts of the lake, “you know, the bright turquoise one, the only thing you can see when you fly in?” But no one had a clue what we were talking about. It was as if the lake was a taboo. So taboo, that the town didn’t even look at this glorious lake, instead it was hidden behind rows and rows of houses. We took it as a challenge: bought a bottle of rum, two glasses, and went in search of this blue lake. We walked between rows of houses with corrugated roofs, and the house of Cristina Kirchner (one of her many houses. And no, that house didn’t have a corrugated roof) and her army of private security, until finally we hit the shores of the lake. It was December, and summer was starting, but still it was so cold that your ears would freeze in the wind (well, mine, it is impossible for Ella’s ears to freeze under all her hair). We took refuge from the wind, in a sand dune, and sat gazing at the lake, the sunset and the clouds. All the while drinking our rum and coke. Priceless.
We headed back to the hostel, Folk Suites hitching a lift on the way. Greeted the cook and the manager who, since we arrived had been playing pool in the common room, and finally got to our room to relax. Just kidding, we finished half of the bottle of rum, and ended up jumping and dancing on the bed until we decided it was time to go out. The town was pretty dead, to be honest it was probably around 12am. It’s the type of place where people go specifically to take tours, but we found a cool small bar, and once it closed moved on to the only other place open, the casino. We had about twenty pesos between us, which, being two casino virgins, we tried to bet on blackjack and got sent away to the less inspiring slot machines (Ella sat down and whilst getting frustrated at the machine not letting her win, was actually not pressing the correct buttons). We tried to order a drink but ended up laughing so much about the slot machine, that we couldn’t even ask for anything. So, luckily there was an elderly salsa class going on in the dance hall, so we just joined in with that! We finally went home around 4am, via a kiosk to buy crackers and cream cheese, and fell asleep very prepared for our early morning trip to the glacier.
Like I said before, in this trip (and in reality always) we go out, we dance, we drink and we live like there’s no tomorrow. But, there is always a tomorrow. And in this state we woke at 7am and went to see one of the most impressive natural attractions in the whole world. We were woken by the Los Glaciares National Park guard, we had arrived, and we’d slept through most of the journey. I can only imagine what he was thinking; all the other passengers were ready to the day, with their classic green pants and hats. And then there was us, dressed in vintage water proofs (because Ella had said they were much cooler) and drooling in a post-night out slumber.
The glacier is indescribable, really. It is something else. You just simply must go and see it. It is a huge monster of ice, of around 70 meters in height, taking up the entire stretch of one side of the lake (splitting the Lago Argentino in half – which being the biggest lake in Argentina, is saying something!) and stretching back into the mountains as far as the eye can see (it has an area of 250km squared!). And it is unusual in so far as it is advancing forward, compared to other glaciers in the world, which are unfortunately retreating and depleting (global warming is real folks, don’t deny it).
The ice forms what looks like an army of huge, fragmented, cracked blocked which go from dark blue to white, running through the light blues and turquoise – the colours are immense, they will captivate your thoughts, and hypnotise you for ages. Within the cracks of the ice you can see the colours more intensely, as though the glacier was letting us glimpse something, which was unreachable, colours which are unattainable. What hides within? Will there be a city hidden beneath that crystal castle?
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