Too cool for school

Sunday night was yet another first for us. Sleeping in bunk beds. It seems that you're never too old to argue who gets the top bunk, though this time the loser got the top as we were both too worried about falling out in the night!

Monday started with a hostel breakfast (we'll leave that there!) and a shower in the shared bathroom (it's not quite the Savoy) then a walk around the town of El Calafate. 

El Calafate town is really touristy with trinket shops and travel agents every other shop so we'd decided not to stay too long and just do what we wanted to do which was to visit Perito Moreno Glacier.

We bought our bus tickets, bought some cheese, ham and crackers for our impromptu packed lunch and boarded the bus at 1pm.

Now, I really like surprises so I tend to avoid looking at pictures online of places i'm about to visit so that it's completely new and, well, a surprise! 

I think this behavior started when I was about 8 years old. I had always been told that, at Christmas, if you saw Santa delivering your presents, or got up before 7am, he would take them all away again. I'm pretty sure that this was my parents' way of making my sister and I go to bed on Christmas Eve AND STAY THERE! However, I am a light sleeper and 24th December 1982 was a bad night in the life of the youngest Brocklebank in the house. 

Around 11pm, a rustling noise from beside my bed startled me and, as I turned over to explore its source, my worst fear met me. Staring me straight in the face was a rather slim looking Father Christmas! His thin beard drew towards him as he gasped and I screamed in some kind of unplanned unison. As he ran away holding his bright red hood up, his hurried, retreating footsteps were somewhat muffled by an 8 year old's petrified cries for his mother! 

Within seconds, my Mum was there cuddling me and enquiring as to why I was crying. In between sobs and explanations I scoured the dark bedroom for any signs of presents left behind. Eventually, leaning against the Ivor The Engine wallpaper was a stocking, overflowing with presents! The tears stopped and after about 5 minutes, my Dad arrived, his hair in a mess and some weird white hairs hanging from his stubble. I didn't ask why it'd taken him so long to arrive. I wasn't bothered. I'd seen Santa AND lived to tell the tail AND I'd still got presents!

Yet again I digress.

After a 90 minute bus ride, we drove around a mountain bend and were faced with the most unusual, breathtaking sight I think I've ever seen. 

At the far end of the milky blue 'Lago Argentino' lake was what can only be described as a 60 metre cliff face made of ice rising from the water. This was the Perito Moreno Glacier!

This awesome sight was the first of literally hundreds of breathtaking "wow" moments during the next few hours.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing. It increases in size by up to 2 metres a day even though blocks of ice are constantly falling from the various different faces into the milky blue lake below.

First, we took a one hour boat ride to within 30 meters of the East face of the glacier. The boat was not allowed to go any closer to the glacier because of the huge chunks of ice falling in the water, some as large as houses. That gives you some idea of the scale of this ice mountain.

It was phenomenal.

I simply couldn't get my head around it. Here we were in a boat floating on water which by definition had to be above zero degrees. However, rising 60 metres out of this water was an enormous, stunning ice sculpture which, by definition, had to be below zero degrees!

I'm sure the educated readers of our blog will easily be able to explain to me how and why this phenomenon happens but it will always remain a mystery in my mind and I think I'd like it to stay that way. 

We then walked for several hours along the network of metal walkways that had been constructed to give the best view points of various different angles of the glacier.

All through this trip it's been so tempting to take hundreds of photos to get ourselves a permanent, visual memory of that moment. However, we have talked about it and are determined to not worry about missing a photo if there's a risk of us missing the actual moment ourselves.  A moment that is meant just for our personal memories.

Although we did take some photos of the glacier, the precious memories of those special hours will live with both of us forever. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, the Perito Moreno Glacier was the most stunning natural sight either of us had ever seen. 

These photos just don't do it justice but, if you ever get the chance to go, just do it.

It was completely silent apart from the occasional groans and cracks of the ice as the golden rays weakened the frozen cliff faces. Every few minutes a huge rumble, similar to the start of a thunder storm, would break the tranquility. People would gasp and quickly reach for their cameras as if they were cowboys reaching for their holsters at ten paces. A chunk of ice would fall away and descend like an avalanche into the freezing aqua coloured lake beneath it, followed by moans of despair as the disappointed travelers didn't hit record quick enough.

Through the different seasons the glacier changes in shape as rivers get blocked by fallen ice blocks the size of a building, then the rivers work their way through the fallen ice, creating beautifully sculpted natural ice tunnels. These then eventually fall down and the seasons start again. It truly is amazing.

This is a time lapse picture of the glacier over a calendar year (take time to zoom in):

We stood for hours just staring at the icy peaks, each one completely unique, each one glistening in the sunshine and glowing electric blue as the light passed through it.  As someone who believes in a Creator, I thanked God for this beautiful experience.

We didn't want to leave but, as all good things have to come to an end, we boarded the bus and headed back to El Calafate to eat at a restaurant a new travelling friends of ours, Nina, had suggested, "Pura Vida".

Lauren's Lamb and sweet potato bake

My beef stew served in a roasted pumpkin

We were not disappointed and went to our bunk beds with very large bellies and smiles to match.