More glaciers!

Yesterday, Rachel and I went on a whole day tour to the Moreno Glacier in El Calafate.

The first stop was the view points where we saw the 60 metre, sheer face of the glacier coming out of the water! It was amazing, certainly different to the other glaciers I had seen on the trip.

Suddenly we heard a noise like thunder very close by and saw a chunk of the glacier crashing down into the icy water below. The waves that it created crashed against the shoreline. It was all very impressive!

After a quick lunch of salami sandwiches (which made a change from the ham and cheese ones that we have been living off recently), we took a boat which took us along the face of the glacier. Luckily it didn´t take us too close, as another lump fell off and caused some severe rocking of the boat!

Once on the other side of the shore, Rachel and I had a quick talk about how the glacier is formed (took us back to GCSE geography lessons) and then donned some very primative crampons for my second bowt of glacier walking of my trip!

It was lovely walking on the glacier and seeing all the blue colours. The guides were very good and showed us how to climb up the ice using ice axes. After about 1 and a half hours we were quite exhausted, so the guides took the group around the corner of a crevace and there was a table set up. The guides took a chunk of ice from the glacier and broke it up. Put it into glaces and then brought out the Argentinian whiskey! Whiskey and chocolates on the glacier - how decadent!

Today, Rachel and I are flying briefly back to Buenos Aires for the night before heading up to the tropical north of the country and to the Iguazu falls tomorrow.