Ice Ice Baby

Patagonia for the uninitiated

We disembarked from the cruise in Punta Arenas - a town that has seen better days.  It was once a thriving port, conveniently placed for traffic making its way around the Cape, back when that was the only way to navigate the Americas.  The Panama Canal buggered that right up when it opened in 1914.  Tourism is a big focus these days, it being one of the main staging points for expeditions to Antarctica - in competition with Ushuaia and Christchurch, New Zealand.

The 'panoramic view' from a restaurant we ate in was less than stunning:

Although it was completely accurate in that it was a 'view'

They do make sure that the lampposts are kept nice and warm though:

God only knows

The next day, we caught the coach to Puerto Natales, which was a change of conveyance.  We slummed it with the backpackers this time: staying in a hostel - albeit in a private room with a private en-suite bathroom, we're not savages. It's a small Chilean town, again with a focus on tourism (it's lousy with backpackers, hikers and mountain climbers of every possible international stripe), but is sleepily pleasant and has a nice shoreline.

We took another (6 hour -for £15 each) coach across the border, back into Argentina.  There's a fair bit of rigmarole with this, as each country is keen on generating carbon-copies and stamping my passport as many times as their ink will allow.  The half-mile frontier between the two checkpoints is marked by a road that turns quickly to gravel.  Plainly, it's a "Bollocks, you pave it" situation.

The bus was filled with German and Russian backpackers and smelled very...organic.  The buses were a change from flying though.

One travels to El Calafate to get access to Los Glaciares National Park or as a hub for further travel in Patagonia. Specifically the big draw is the Perito Moreno Glacier - one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are still advancing.  Take a packed lunch though (we rolled the dice by pointing and ended up buying a garlicky breaded beef sandwich in town before we went) as the park cafe follows the "'How much does this cost?' -'How much do you and all your companions have, señor?'" business model. The park is apparently also guarded by Quentin Tarantino.

Anyway, the glacier - it is stunning.

It constantly creaks and cracks and periodically you'll hear the roar of a shelf breaking free. If you're patient, you can see it happen:

By this point in the trip I thought I was desensitized to scale and spectacle, but you peer over the top of the glacier and see millions of tonnes of prehistoric icy momentum advancing imperceptibly but definitely toward you, and you are acutely aware of your insignificance.  In a good way.

Best take a selfie, finite creatures

Our hotel was a great place out of town, overlooking Argentino lake and next to a nature reserve that we took in on our final day in the area.

Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Wir haben zwischen Chile und Argentinien in einem stinkenden Bus gereist. In El Calafate haben wir den Perito Moreno Gletscher gesehen. Es ist atemberaubend.