Victoria and Justin: Going, going, gone to Patagonia

So, after a great weekend in Buenos Aires, and a sad farewell to Alicia, we jumped on a plane to Patagonia, landing in the town of El Calafate. What a shock it was getting off the plane, it was only about 5 degrees with a pretty nasty wind chill factor. We checked into our hostel, booked a tour for the following day and went out for dinner. We went to a Parrilla restaurant called 'Don Pichon' overlooking the lake (with snow capped mountains in the background). A beautiful setting to polish off a kilogram of meat washed down with a local Malbec. NB; Patagonian lamb is by far the best lamb we've tasted, check out the photo below for how it's cooked!

The next morning we were on the bus at 8am to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, just spectacular. We had a little rain in the morning but it didn't ruin the day as the clouds help to highlight the cracks in the glacier. We took a boat trip to the southern face of the glacier, getting within about 200 metres. The glacier is huge, it measures 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high. A funny story on the boat, as you can imagine everyone is trying to get the best vantage point for their photos, well at one point an old lady almost pushed Justin overboard trying to improve her spot, which had plenty of the other passengers quite amused and the old lady just stood in front of us, oblivious of what had happened. After the boat trip we headed to the north face of the glacier, across the long boardwalk which ran along the side of the glacier. We could heard the glacier constantly cracking, but as the guide said to us, by the time you hear the cracking, the ice has already fallen. We didn't see much ice action unfortunately.

The following day we headed to El Chalten, a 4 hour bus ride from El Calafate, a base for hiking the local mountain range, which includes Fitz Roy and the Torre. We arrived on a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, so the mountains were out in their glory, absolutely spectacular scenery. We planned to climb to the base of Fitz Roy the follwing day, but we woke to rain. Lucky for Justin Australia was playing rugby so we hung out in the hostel for the morning. In the afternoon we walked up to the mirador (lookout) in hope of a sighting of Fitz Roy again, but no joy, we would try again the next day.

We were up early the following day to cover the 25km walk we'd planned. This time we were going, rain, hail or shine. It was almost sunny, the clouds had lifted, however a single cloud sat on top of the Fitz Roy all day, so again no perfect sighting. Our walk took us past an amazing glacier, a few lakes and to base camp overlooking the valley and a frozen lake. There were a few snow flakes as we reached to base camp, a sign that more clouds were moving in, so we headed back to town quick smart.

Overall, an unforgettable experience in Patagonia, what an incredible place.