Friday 15^th February – Our Patagonian Adventure! – Punta Arenas, Chile.

Ian phoned Kay at 8-30am to ask if we could get off at Punta Arenas and re-join the ship on 21^stin Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

After she recovered, Kay said she’d see what she could do!

Three hours later she phoned back to tell us it was a goer! So off we got at 2.30 and had a 3 hour taxi transfer to Puerto Natales, Chile. Several of the crew who shall remain nameless wanted to come with us!

Hotel CostAustralis right on the lake side with spectacular views. Good bar and bar snacks which we availed ourselves of including a free drink. Nesta enjoyed her first bath since leaving Portsmouth!!! Still very windy and glad NOT to be sailing.

                                       Nesta in Punta Arenas, Chile

                               Ian and dogs (not Nesta!) in Terra del Fuego

                                 A Rhea (South American bird - again, not Nesta!)

                                        View from hotel at Puerto Natales

 

Saturday 16^th February – Puerto Natales to El Calafate. (Chile to Argentina!)

Collected from hotel at 7.45 and taken to bus station.  Found the bus!  Shared coach journey for 6 hours with the ‘backpacking crowd’.  We could give 30 years to the next oldest people.  It took an hour and a half to clear both the border posts.

Scenery is flat scrubby ‘steps’ and the wind continues to blow.  At least it has stopped raining and the sun is out.

Met on our arrival and taken to Andina tours office.  It turns out our relaxing day at the glacier tomorrow is due to start at 7am and involves NOT an optional stroll but a 2 hour mini trek wearing crampons!!  We have declined, and changed to the more leisurely 9am trip.

 

Had a walk round and found the Laguna Nimez which is a bird watchers paradise (apparently!). Saw lots of birds, but didn't know the names of any!!

Our hotel here is the rustic Patagonia Rebelde hostel.   Basic, but clean and comfortable.

A bit of a walk down an unmade road into town centre where we enjoyed an Argentinian Pizza!  Better than the Peruvian ones.  Had an early night and caught up on more sleep.

                                          World famous - apparently...

                                          Can you spot any birds??

Sunday 17^th February – Perito Moreno glacier, Argentina. (Ship rounding Cape Horn).

Had a tour of El Calafate whilst picking up lots of other people from their hotels for shared coach excursion to the National Park and Glacier.  This lot are much more our age!  Saw lots of Condors flying and one also landed nearby to have its photograph taken!  A clear day, one of the 30 per year when you can see the tops of the mountains says our guide.

We declined a boat trip to the glacier and spent a leisurely 3 hours strolling the ‘balconies’.  Ian counted over 1,000 steps we negotiated up and down the levels. 

The glacier was named after an explorer called Moreno and Perito means expert – a bit of a misnomer when we were informed he didn’t actually get to this glacier!  The face is over 6kms long and up to 65metres high in places – spectacular.  We witnessed several big ice falls, but never when the camera was ready!!!

After returning to El Calafate, which is so named after the Berber bushes, the only wood found in the area by early explorers - we went to a recommended restaurant, which also just happened to be the nearest to our hostel where we enjoyed the shared meat plate.  Delicious Tenderloin and rump steak and local lamb.  We had to wash this down with the local Malbec of course.  An enjoyable evening which made the walk back to the hostel seem much less onerous!

 

 

                                      Condors flying (if you look hard enough!)

                          The Condor has landed! (4 metre wing span, apparently) a big bird!

                                    Nesta with the Moreno Glacier in the background

                                It goes back up the valley for miles

                              The glacier is still growing - but only a few metres a century

                                          Ian - cold but happy!!

                                         The splash - just after a big bit broke off!!

        Lake Argentina with the tops of the mountains that are only visible 30 days a year

                                        Watch out - there's a glacier behind you!!

                                   Gives you an idea how big it is - that's a boat down there!

 

Monday 18^th February – El Calafate to Rio Gallegos.

 

We took some photos of the hotel in the morning and when we got back we had had a phone call from Audley's Agent in Argentina, a Ms Incoming (yes, her real name), informing us that as we are such seasoned South American travellers now we do not need help to change buses at Rio Gallegos!  Taxi driver put us on correct first bus and off we went.  All South American buses do in our experience have a timetable but always run late and this was no exception.  We arrived safely and even had time for a coffee in the bus station cafeteria.  Nesta was tired and was heard saying to the check in desk ‘sorry I don’t speak English’, which luckily the clerk ignored and explained to us in English where and when our next bus left!  In reality we only had to choose from two neighbouring buses and got it right!

Another bizarre journey.  Just as we were getting ready to settle for the night at about 22.30 two trays and a 3 course meal arrived, accompanied by a polystyrene cup of red wine!  It helped Nesta sleep anyway. 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Our hotel in El Calafates (based on a railway station - but there's no railway!!)

                                    The lounge in the hotel

                                           Inside our hotel

Our hotel room - looks like Ian is in jail!!