Icebergs and Supercontinents

When we rolled into El Calafate, Argentina, it was obvious we all needed to unwind a little bit, and a little tourist town was a good place for it. After checking into our hostel, booking our glacier tour for the following day, and wandering around town for a little while, we settled into our hostel to just breathe for a minute.

Soph and I took a number of pictures like this... we're real cute.

Thankfully, there's not a whole lot going on in El Calafate to miss out on. The small town thrives on exactly one tourist attraction, the Glacier Perito Moreno, located approximately 90 km away. So we joined a swarm of tourists on the town's streets that are lined with over-priced shops and restaurants. After we were done with our resting, we visited one of these eating establishments. It was worth the price, though. The rustic steakhouse looked out over the waters of Lago Argentina with the Patagonian Andes far in the distance, and, as if that weren't enough, the food was incredible.

We turned in early that night in anticipation of our tour the following day. At eight o'clock in the morning our tour bus picked us and about 15 others up and started rolling around the Argentinian countryside. And it was beautiful. Although the area is literally surrounded by water in glacial lakes, the weather patterns created by the glaciers themselves and the surrounded mountain range make the area almost a desert. Aside from a few small shrubs and trees the are doing the best they can, the land is dominated by barren rolling hills and plateaus.

So beautiful.

I chased these sheep around for an embarrassing amount of time.

At several points the bus stopped so the guide could point out a bird of prey or a sheep, which were kind of cool, bus on one stop our tour guide told us to look at the "rhea" to our right. Do you guys know what a rhea is? It's an ostrich! I didn't know there were ostriches in South America, so I was really excited about finding out. Cause listen, gang, rheas in South America, ostriches in Africa, and emus in Australia are like an astounding example of Pangaea, and I think Pangaea is really cool.

Around noon we reached the national park where the best viewing of the glacier is. Our bus dropped us off so we could take a short hike and look at the glacier at a distance. Then it picked us back up and delivered us to the viewing platforms. Let me tell you something right now... glaciers are cool. They are. Number one: They're enormous. We're talking mile after mile of seemingly endless, craggy, blue ice. B of all: They really are blue, shockingly blue. And the water in the lakes surrounding them is also blue. The color seems to be suspended permanently in the water as though every morning someone is in charge of mixing in a packet of Powerade. They're really, really blue. Finally, watching a glacier calf is really, incredibly awesome. You've got to pay attention because if you wait to look until you hear the explosive crash of ice hitting the water, you've already missed it. However, if you happen to get lucky and see a huge chunk of ice plummeting into the water below, you won't be willing to even blink.

This glacier was huge!

A little sunburned here... but very pleased with all the glaciering.

Such a cool experience.

After the viewing platforms, we were able to take a short boat trip up near the face of the glacier for more pictures and a chance to watch the calfing from another angle.

That evening, after Ryan and Dan took a four hour nap (apparently glacier tours really take their toll on boys), we went to eat at a pasta place for our final meal in El Calafate. The next morning we made it to our flight (just in the nick of time, mind you) to Buenos Aires.