We made a quick exit from Ushuaia on the 4am bus to rio gallagos which was 11 hrs away. Beautiful snow capped mountains and beech trees and a lovely sunrise. After that it became a bit flat and dry with large grass plains with horses, sheep with young lambs, guanacos and the occasional lake with flamingos.
Ushuaia is on the island of fire (terra de feugo) so we needed a 30 min ferry crossing. Our old friend was there. The same make and model of ferry as the puerto williams trip but this time all blue. We opted to sit in the bus as there was a bit of chop on the water. Many others got of the bus and were standing on the deck until we got a large splash of seawater on the side of the bus followed by the rapid return of the outside people inside.
There is a certain insanity with the journey as we had to check in and out of argentina to chile and back again. Ushuaia is in Argentina but Chile has a band of land blocking passage back to the mainland. Went through immigration 6 times in the trip! Well keeps them occupied I guess...
The rest of the journey was flat,flat,flat. We arrived at rio gallagos with the intention of camping and looking at a large penguin colony. It is an ugly town, bleak perhaps, the campground was closed, and it didn't take us long to make the decision to jump on another bus and head for el calafate. Only problem was bus left as 830pm and arrived at el calfate at 2am. Long day.
Arrived at El calafate and no reasonably priced accomodation or camping ground location known. Wandered around. No street signs. Found a camping ground that looked closed but just went in and camped anyway. Found in the morning that it was closed. Toilet blocks locked. Found a better camping ground just a couple of hundred metres away which was cheap and comfortable.
Argentina is expensive relative to the other countries we have visited in south america. Actually relatively expensive compared with australia.
Headed out to Monero glacier next day. Big blue glacier with terminal face of 2km and about 55m high and fast moving. Great looking glacier but very touristy. So many american tourists. Something for the grandparents or less athletic. Handrailed steps all the way down to the glacier from the carpark and cafe.
We enjoyed our lunch watching a large ice arch collapse. It is remarkable how little ice needs to fall of the glacier to make a large noise so this make lots of it. Much applause from the masses.
We were stuck at the glacier for 7hrs! Plenty of gale force wind gusts to keep us on our toes and it was cold but did not buy from the cafe. Snuck into the out of bounds beech forest and read our books for a while with the glacier cracking in the distance.
Back to el calafate and prepraration for a camping trip to el chalten which is also in the los glaciers national park and contains the fitzroy mountain. This is the argentinian equivalent of torres del paine but also very different.
Adios,
David and Vanessa
