Safa Sailing: August in Argentina 2

To back track a bit.

Thick ash from that pesky Chilean volcano

After another luxury, bed trip back to Buenos Aires and a sad goodbye to the sisters, we headed off down south to the land of ice and snow.

Our day starting before the sun's

We stayed in Le Estepa where they organised our activities for us and we had a driver who took us there.

First up was the Perito Moreno Glacier for a hike.

The Perito Moreno Glacier face

This is one of the few glaciers that is still advancing. Over time this face advances to the land blocking the through flow of the water from one part of Lake Argentina to another. Eventually the water level on the one side increases (up to 30m above the main portion of the lake) and the pressure etc wears away at the glacier boring a tunnel through. Then the crowds move in and keep watch for the Rupture which is when the newly formed ice bridge collapses causing tidal waves which then trigger more calving and so on

Mom standing a bit too close to the glacier for our guide's comfort

The blue glacial ice

The older the ice gets the more ice there is on top of it and so the denser it becomes thus it absorbs the longer wave-lengths of light only allowing the shorter blue light wave lengths to reflect thus giving it a deeper blue colour. Some of the old icebergs that have flipped actually look purple they're such a deep blue.

Trekking up the glacier

Looking out over the ice field

More single file trekking

Whisky on glacial ice.

Crampons to get there

(The only time you'll drink whisky on ice that's older)

Perito Moreno Glacier

The next day's early start took us speeding over Lake Argentina, between the icebergs to a few glacier faces

Another blue iceberg floating in Lake Argentina

A field of pancake icebergs

The boat for 400 that carried the 80 of us

The small boat was in for repairs so we got to go out in the big one AND we were in the Captain's Cabin which was basically the bridge with private balconies. Ah the life of luxury.

Secco Glacier

(Dry Glacier...any guesses how it got named)

The relief Captain convinced Mom to helm the boat. Mom happily perched in the Captain's chair, holding the wheel, giving it playful tugs left and right. You should have seen her face when she was told that there was no auto pilot and yes, she was actually steering the boat. Then there was the fun game where the Captain didnt speak english, so through my dodgy translation Mom "Steered a bit more left" "No not so much" "Ok now a little to the right"

We made it to the glacier without hitting any floating iceblocks with our aluminium bi-hull

Perito Moreno Glacier from the Lake

More Icebergs

We couldnt get close enough to Uppsala glacier as too much calving has taken place and you cant get a boat through the icebergs.

The trusting relief Captain under a chunk of Iceberg

Perito Moreno

Flamingos

View from my room in La Estepa

Wow what a hotel!!!

A ranch farm house converted into a hotel, this place is stunning!!! With its high ceilings, wide open spaces and massive windows it is amazing how warm they manage to keep the place.

But being gorgeous yet cosy with breathtaking views is not the best feature. That would be the five star service we received. Ok we were the only guests at the time but wow were we treated like royalty. We had delicious three course meals that no restaurant could have bettered, every night, and lunch packs stuffed fill with yummy local fare every day. Really and truly they organised everything we could possibly want, advising us on the best way to do things too. Ok I think you get the idea

View from La Estepa

The President of Argentina's 'Home in the Country'

The current (and possibly future) president of Argentina has her holiday home in El Calafate and happened to be in residence when we drove past - couldnt stop as apparently her bodyguards are rather protective...

Then it was back to Buenos Aires and another trip to SoloMia.

Finally it was time for the sad goodbyes and my Around The Americas Trip back to Grenada:

Buenos Aires -> Santiago -> New York -> San Juan (Puerto Rico) -> Grenada

Layover visit included Times Square

Central Park.

Around about now was when i was calculating the times involved in the flights to come and realised the times didnt add up. On reinspecting my eticket i saw i had mixed up my arrival and departure times so while i was enjoying my icecream in Central Park, at least half an hour from the airport, my plane was about to take off...

So I missed my plane but managed to get on the next one to San Juan. But this meant i had missed my flight that night to Grenada so it was a sleep in the airport lounge then...Hurricane Irene blew in and all flights were grounded.

An um interesting restaurant in San Juan

So with a 2 to 4 day predicted grounding I decided to explore a little.

I caught a taxi to the historical district where the above bar is. It was full of Americans who were having down down competitions with the coaxing of the energetic DJ and all at 11am