Bus Travel - W**k (sorry mum)

When we began planning this trip and looked at ways to get from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, the idea of a 36 hour bus journey (to Rio Gallegos) followed by a 6 hour journey to El Calafate wasn`t the most appealing option. In fact when we first booked our tickets we tried to use one of our 4 internal South America flights to fly to Rio Gallegos but couldn`t because LAN Argentina wasn`t part of the oneworld alliance. In the end, we weighed up the cost of buying an extra internal flight against the bus travel option and decided to save a bit of money and go with the bus - after all, we could spare the time and the "cama class" (bed class) that you can get over here is comfortable enough to sleep in. If anyone ever finds themselves in the same situation, take our advice, whatever the cost, get the flight instead!

It turns out that there is very limited operators that provide cama class services this far south so we were instead left with the much less comfotable "semi-cama" option. That may have just been comfotable enough to sleep in, except that the bus driver obviously found himself also getting a bit tired at around 1 in the morning and so put his favourite album on very loud. On repeat. And sang along with it.

3 tortuous hours later we stopped for a while while the bus picked up supplies and, apparently, a new driver who must have had a good nights sleep already as thankfully the music then stopped. Unfortunately the on board baby (who had amazingly been asleep through the music - maybe it was an Argentinian lullaby or something) then took this as a queue to wake up and start crying. I don`t know when it finally stopped wailing as mercifully I eventually fell asleep around 5 in the morning. Only to then be woken at 7 with breakfast. Two hours sleep is not a good way to start a 36 hour bus journey - note to self, next time use earplugs!!

Anyway, we eventually made it to El Calafate which was originally founded to support a local "Estacion" (Ranch) but has now thrived due to the tourism industry and the fact it is the closest town to the Moreno Glacier. The glacier is one of only three in the Patagonia region that is not receeding and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the region. It also flows very fast for a glacier with the frozen water travelling at a rate of up to 2 metres a day in the centre. This allows for (apparently) frequent spectacular displays as huge chunks of ice are eventually pushed off the edge of the glacier and plunge into the waiting Lago Argentina (Lake Argentina for the Spanish-ly challenged!) producing huge swells of water. We were there for five hours, camera always at the ready, even took a boat trip out on to the lake and for five hours, never once saw this happen! Finally, the boat pulled back into the dock signalling the end out our tour and we waited, ever optimistic, whilst everyone else funnelled back to shore, until eventually we realised that it just wasn`t going to be our day and so put the camera away so we had our hands free to decend the slippy steps of the boat. It was at that point that a huge side of the glacier wall, probably 30 metres across, broke free as promised. Unfortunately, we didn`t have a hope of getting the camera back out in time to capture it, but it was an impressive sight.

The Glacier as a whole is well worth a visit and even when ice isn`t falling dramatically into the lake is an interesting place and stunning piece of nature. The rest of the area around El Calafate is something we didn`t get much chance to explore, but we did manage a trip 2 hours north (by bus again!) to El Chalten for a walk in the mountains up there and a view of Mount Fitz Roy which was a lovely day. Overall, the place was nice to visit, but still not sure if it justified the 36 hour bus journey. Luckily, the journey down here wasn`t predominantly for that and the next stop on our list was just across the border in Chile, the Torres Del Paine National Park, which is something both Mandi and I have been looking forward to seeing for a long time and would be well worth the trip down here all on its own, and it was all just another 7 hour bus journey away!...

Steve