Stef n' Kev Travel: Rest Days and a Big Ice Hike

Puerto Natales - 1/28/17 to 1/30/17

After finishing the W trek, it was nice to have a few days to rest in Puerto Natales, Chile. The first thing we did after we arrived was look for some place to celebrate the completion of the hike with ridiculous amounts of food. We found a burger joint called Bagueles that brewed their own beer. It, coupled with a brownie and ice cream, was good.. but we were looking for more. The following day, our hunger was answered by a random hole in the wall joint that I can't even remember the name of. But I have a picture that is worth a thousand words.

Packs of stray dogs everywhere in Puerto Natales

Eggs should be always on everything.

Our only other plan for the day was to find somewhere to do our laundry. We found a place that does it for you and returns it the next day for 2500 pesos per kilo (equivalent of ~$3.75 USD).. laundry ended up costing us a little over $20 USD all-in-all. I guess it was convenient compared to sitting in a laundromat.

We were at "We are Patagonia" again and we stayed in a nice double rooms - shared bath the first night then a private bath on our final night. We slept well then had one of their delicious breakfasts. Then we grabbed our laundry and stopped by an amazing dried fruit stand we had found in town... then off to the bus station and on to El Calafate!

Carrying the laundry back to the hotel.

El Calafate & Perito Merino Glacier 1/30/17-2/1/17

About 5 hours later, we arrived in El Calafate, Argentina. It was amazing how much easier it was to cross the border into Argentina. Crossing into Chili we had to do the following: (1) have our passport stamped and get a paper receipt that was ALSO stamped that we had to show to the hotel, (2) have our personal bags scanned, and (3) have all of the stowed luggage sniffed by a drug dog. Crossing into Argentina, all we had to do was have our Passport stamped. Go figure as to why it was so much more lax.

The walk from the bus terminal to our hotel was... interesting to say the least. The sidewalks were in various states of disrepair to we had to definitely put some muscle into it. We made it in about 15 minutes hauling 50 lb. suitcases behind us + our packs on our backs (~25-30lb. each). The hotel was cute, but we somehow ended up in a room with separate twin beds and lovely view of what looked to be about 30 plastic gas cans. Nice. Not my favorite.

Dinner was delicious though. We stopped a small cafe that served awesome crepes. Also a tiny appetizer of carrots and mayo dip came with the meal. Tipping in Argentina is unusual and I can't say we have it fully figured out yet. They charge cover charge that is supposed to be for these appetizers I think (around ~1.5-2 USD typically for each person), but only 2 of the 3 places we have to gone to have charged it. But the internet (and a waitress we asked) has said that we are also supposed to tip on top of that (around 10% - but it is optional based on service). Pretty odd. After that we grabbed a few fun snacks for our hike the next day and fell asleep soundly near our gas cans.. I mean in our beds.

Appetizer

And that is how every savory crepe should be.

Bridge near hotel looks nice with evening light

El Calafate from a viewpoint that you have to climb stairs to near the bridge

Our hotel in El Calafate

At least breakfast was good - the same selection as normal plus some sort of creppe/pancake hybrid and a hard custard dessert that reminded me of bread pudding. After breakfast, we waiting in the lobby to be picked up for our ice hike at Perito Merino Glacier which was arranged through Serac Expeditions (tour company based in El Chalten). A bus arrived at 7AM and the driver popped out and made sure we had our gear with us. Then we drove around picking up others in town for about 30 minutes... one guy forgot his money for the national park entrance and had to run back in to get it. The bus starting pulling away, probably just to let a car go behind him, but the poor guy thought it was leaving him so he started running after it. Oops.

Then we were off... it took about 1 hour to get to the entrance of the park during which we got lovely views of the mountains and lake. We parked at the entrance and a man came on board who collected about $20 USD from each person, then distributed printed tickets to us after. After a pit stop at the bathrooms, we arrived at the balconies another 45 min later. These balconies gave amazing views at varying levels of the front and right side of the Perito Merino Glacier. It was awe inspiring to see how gigantic this glacier truly was in person... it rose 70+ meters in front of us... like a 20 story skyscraper.

View from one of the upper balconies

Close up. Check out the crazy aqua blue colors in the water.

We spent about 40 minutes at the balconies and we were lucky to see a piece of the glacier actually fall into the water (called calving). It sounds like thunder when it breaks off and falls into the water. In fact, the entire time you are near the front wall of the glacier you can hear loud cracks as the ice slowly shears.

After the balconies, it was time to get on the ice. The bus drive us to the dock, where we boarded a ferry over to the other side of the lake. Upon arrival we walked up to these little buildings with restrooms. There were more guides there waiting. They advised us that we had 5 minutes to get our gear ready for the hike. Kevin almost got left in the bathroom changing into his soft shell pants.

View of other side of glacier from the boat. The story behind that hole is actually pretty interesting. The glacier naturally keeps damming the river... So eventually the boyancy of the ice causes the glacier to float which creates pressure and the water creates an ice bridge which eventually collapses and fully opens a channel until it dams at that point again. The cycle is every two years or so typically. In 1964, the dam caused a historic 70 foot rise in the water level. Last year it was 36 feet.

Disembarking from the boat below

Kevin made it back in time for us to start the 30-45 minute hike to get to our entry point to the glacier. We walked along the moraine which is the gravel next to the glacier. It wasn't very steep except for one short section at the end that required us to climb steep steps into the treeline to avoid a big sections of the glacier that had holes down to who knows where underneath.

Does that give you a sense of scale?

Random waterfall along route

Along the way we picked up our crampons, which we had to lug in our backpacks for about 30 minutes. After the steep section (which had a fence for part of it may I add, so no sweat), we had our harnesses put on. Then after about a 5-10 minute descent, we got to the glaciar and a set staging area to have the guides put on our crampons. These were old school crampons... there were different lengths, but basically they were a big rectangle with spikes on the bottom and nylon "laces" on the top that the guides wove to secure them to our feet.

Group getting their crampons put on

Kev and I are ready to go

Once you have crampons, you are basically spiderman on ice. Every icy surface, even steep, is glue for your feet. I'm glad that was the case because we definetly were literally jumping over a few small crevasses. We had two guides for our group of 9 people, and it felt very safe with their guidance. One guide would scout everything out and the other lead us, gave us information about what we were seeing, and even gave us a helping hand around certain obstacles.

Sometimes, there would be a somewhat unsafe hole or section of the ice; at these points the guides would stand wide and basically block us from getting close to the hazard. Also, there were a few points where we could look down and see where the "rivers" in the glacier were draining down DEEP below us; the guides held onto our harnesses so we could peer down and see. Most people took pics at this point, but sorry I'm a wuss. You can check out Kevin's pics if you want to see what was down there.

Ok without further ado, here's a whole bunch of glacier hiking photos. We were on the ice for 3-4 hours, so there are a bunch to choose from. I had to censor myself.

Example of guide holding so we don't fall over looking at something

Another "hold" area - where we a could see a HUGE drain hole

For a sense of scale, look at the large group of people.

After that, we hiked back the same way.. dropped off our harnesses and crampons... and then met back up at the little buildings near the boat. They had hot coffee for us while we waited for the other groups to finish. Also, more importantly, there were bathrooms. After having a tight harness on for a few hours, I was happy to see a bathroom. Then, on the boat, they had whiskey, chocolate, and keychains for us! Very cute. Then back on the bus and all the way back to Calafate by 7pm.

View on busride back

Hike Map:

That night we got some food (one of the best restaurant experiences thus far) and then prepared for our next adventure in Chalten. Stay tuned for more updates.