El Calafate, Argentina
Kara says:
Little town, big on tourists so lots of good pizza, on a lake of that alpine blue colour and with snowy mountains in the background. So kindof pretty. Had some of that sideways falling snow here too. We walked around, admired the views of the lake, the sunsets with really dramatic clouds (long, long, southerly sunsets), the pink flamingos in the lake, the general gorgeousness. And then we found the dump - an absolute disgrace, a huge area covered with plastic bags that have blown away from the dumpsite and just left there ruining the countryside in this beautiful area. So photos of lake, rubbish, sunset. The dogs here are a sortof cross between dog-friends and evil dogs. They bark like crazy and then they walk with you, but they leave you feeling like they've just escorted you off the premises.
Then the highlight of El Calafate - going to see a glacier, like a real live geography lesson! How much more interested would we have been if they brought us here on a school field trip? There's a whole area of national park here filled with glaciers (the Glaciers National Park) but one of the glaciers (the Perito Moreno Glacier) flows down to a lake where there's a conveniently located non-icy peninsula where you can get a view of the glacier and valley without getting your toes cold.
Apologies for lots of photos of ice but it was absolutely gorgeous and spectacular and of course as usual the photos don't do it the slightest justice. I've forgotten the exact statistics but it's something like 60km long and 4km side - so at the mouth of the glacier that's in the photos that's 4km wide (!!!). And it's blue! I know, I know, everyone knows that glaciers and icebergs aren't white, they're actually blue, because of refraction, blah blah blah, but it's really blue! It's the exact colour of (I know, doh!) Glacier Ice (Glaciareis?) schnapps. It's like a giant meringue that's white on the outside surface but wherever there are cracks you can see the blue inside and when the sun catches it just right it's as though it's lit up from the inside by one of those blue lightbulbs from airport runways. And it's like a little bit of time travel too - this is what Ireland looked like during the ice ages.
So photos of big glacier flowing down the valley, Argentine flag just in case you didn't know it belonged to them (and interestingly colour-coordinated), a front-on view of the end of the glacier - at the bottom left half of the photo you can see tiny people walking along viewing platforms to give an idea of scale, Karl gazing in awe at glacier, me gazing in awe at glacier etc., etc.. Karl tells me (and therefore i absolve myself of responsibility if this story turns out to be fictitious) that a few years back the glacier blocked the river, backing it up, so the Argentine airforce bombed it to try to clear a channel. Didn't work. Then they went to the Malvinas.
And a photo of a woodpecker! Got very sadly excited at seeing Woody the woodpecker in real life. They actually look like Woody! My new favourite bird. And they actually tap tap tap on the trees. And they actually laugh "ha ha ha hah hah" like Woody. They're great. I like woodpeckers.
Little town, big on tourists so lots of good pizza, on a lake of that alpine blue colour and with snowy mountains in the background. So kindof pretty. Had some of that sideways falling snow here too. We walked around, admired the views of the lake, the sunsets with really dramatic clouds (long, long, southerly sunsets), the pink flamingos in the lake, the general gorgeousness. And then we found the dump - an absolute disgrace, a huge area covered with plastic bags that have blown away from the dumpsite and just left there ruining the countryside in this beautiful area. So photos of lake, rubbish, sunset. The dogs here are a sortof cross between dog-friends and evil dogs. They bark like crazy and then they walk with you, but they leave you feeling like they've just escorted you off the premises.
Then the highlight of El Calafate - going to see a glacier, like a real live geography lesson! How much more interested would we have been if they brought us here on a school field trip? There's a whole area of national park here filled with glaciers (the Glaciers National Park) but one of the glaciers (the Perito Moreno Glacier) flows down to a lake where there's a conveniently located non-icy peninsula where you can get a view of the glacier and valley without getting your toes cold.
Apologies for lots of photos of ice but it was absolutely gorgeous and spectacular and of course as usual the photos don't do it the slightest justice. I've forgotten the exact statistics but it's something like 60km long and 4km side - so at the mouth of the glacier that's in the photos that's 4km wide (!!!). And it's blue! I know, I know, everyone knows that glaciers and icebergs aren't white, they're actually blue, because of refraction, blah blah blah, but it's really blue! It's the exact colour of (I know, doh!) Glacier Ice (Glaciareis?) schnapps. It's like a giant meringue that's white on the outside surface but wherever there are cracks you can see the blue inside and when the sun catches it just right it's as though it's lit up from the inside by one of those blue lightbulbs from airport runways. And it's like a little bit of time travel too - this is what Ireland looked like during the ice ages.
So photos of big glacier flowing down the valley, Argentine flag just in case you didn't know it belonged to them (and interestingly colour-coordinated), a front-on view of the end of the glacier - at the bottom left half of the photo you can see tiny people walking along viewing platforms to give an idea of scale, Karl gazing in awe at glacier, me gazing in awe at glacier etc., etc.. Karl tells me (and therefore i absolve myself of responsibility if this story turns out to be fictitious) that a few years back the glacier blocked the river, backing it up, so the Argentine airforce bombed it to try to clear a channel. Didn't work. Then they went to the Malvinas.
And a photo of a woodpecker! Got very sadly excited at seeing Woody the woodpecker in real life. They actually look like Woody! My new favourite bird. And they actually tap tap tap on the trees. And they actually laugh "ha ha ha hah hah" like Woody. They're great. I like woodpeckers.
Comments
Post a Comment