We spent our last day in Argentina...leaving it! We traveled by ferry to Uruguay and visited the town of Colonia Del Sacramento.
Our ferry to Uruguay.
It is located on the east bank of the Río de la Plata only 50km from Buenos Aires. taking about an hour by ferry, and is a super picturesque little town that is also as a Unesco World Heritage site.
Its historical city center, an irregular colonial-era stretch of narrow cobbled streets, occupies a small peninsula that juts into the river.
Pretty rows of trees lining all the streets are really beautiful and the riverfront is the place to be to watch the sun set...sadly the clouds socked everything in at the end of the day and we didn't get to see one.
Colonia was founded in 1680 by Manuel Lobo, the Portuguese governor of Rio de Janeiro, and occupied a strategic position almost exactly opposite Buenos Aires. The town grew in importance as a source of smuggled trade items, undercutting Spain’s mercantile monopoly and provoking repeated sieges and battles between Spain and Portugal.
This town changed hands a lot of times over the years and now belongs to Uruguay.
We arrived at around 1:30 pm and had the afternoon to wander around before catching the 8pm ferry home to Buenos Aires. We did a little shopping, explored the old town, had an afternoon gelato break and occupied a table at restaurant with a fantastic riverside view where we ordered wine and dinner which they cooked in a huge wood burning forno oven.
Today we head home to Calgary. It was great to travel again with my bestie (it's been 5 years since we last traveled together!).
Argentina offered some amazing travel experiences...the highlights would have to be biking though the Mendoza countryside drinking delicious wine and hiking the spectacular Perito Moreno glacier!....Oh yeah, and McDonald's dulce de leche sundaes are to die for and have become a regular habit!!!
We were both surprised by how European Argentina is, definitely not what we were expecting, but a wonderful friendly country and fabulous time was truly had by all!
We stayed in El Calafate for 2 days. El Calafate is a tiny city in Patagonia, Argentina. It is situated in the southern border of Lake Argentino, in the southwest part of the Santa Cruz Province.
It was a really nice place to stay and totally reminded us of Banff or Canmore. We spent one day at the glacier and one day just checking out the town.
Roasting meet found in lots of the restaurant windows!
We rented bikes and biked around the lake, had coffee in a café, checked out a few shops in town and ate dinner in a cool pub.
El Calafate as seen from the other side of the lake.
Our hotel was about a 5 minute drive from the center of town with great lake views, they had a shuttle service every hour as it was a good 20 min walk. The hotel also had a huge indoor/outdoor hot tub to sooth our aching post hiking muscles!
Our first day there, I woke up and was just rolling over in bed when I noticed a weird red glow from under the drapes...it was enough to make me get out of bed to investigate and I was rewarded with the most stunning sunrise I have ever seen in my life.
These photos are not retouched in any way...it was really that spectacular!
The Perito Moreno Glacier is a located in the Los Glaciares National Park in south west of Santa Cruz on the border with Chile. In 1981 UNESCO declared the Los Glaciares National Park a World Heritage Site.
The 250 km2, 30 Km long ice formation is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian ice field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This ice field is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.
View from the boat that took us to where we started our hike.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that is growing. Perito Moreno Glacier has an average height of 74 meters above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres.
It is famous worldwide for its rupture process.
We first drove up to a viewing area an were treated by an amazing view of the side of the glacier. The coolest part was when we would hear like what sounded like a bomb going off and a large chunk of the glacier would break off and crash into the water.
Rupture occurs when the front of the glacier reaches the coastal margin, closes the passage of the waters from Brazo Rico and produces a dam effect where the water rises causing it to move and break.
I captured the video below of one of the smaller breaks, we saw a few bigger ones but I wasn't fast enough with the video!
The Perito Moreno glacier is located 78 kilometres from El Calafate, the nearest town where we are staying.
We spent all day yesterday hiking on this amazing glacier! The hike was a solid 7 hours and definitely not for someone who wasn't in good shape, it was pretty strenuous and it poured rain on us almost the whole day. Despite the less than favourable weather, the glacier was so incredibly awe inspiring that no one really cared and as long as you kept moving you weren't really cold so much as wet!
Getting fitted with crampons to walk on the ice.
These are 2 other groups walking up ahead of us.
Thankfully, I packed my warm snowboarding pants and good waterproof gloves...the only part of me that was truly dry was from the waste down. I brought a puffy warm coat and a light rain jacket and lots of layers but I was definitely planning for warmth and basic water resistance when I packed my bags....had I known I would be hiking for hours in the rain I would have brought a way better outer rain shell (who knew it rained on a glacier)!
A few hours into the hike, as we stopped for lunch and I was retrieving my sandwich, I realized that my backpack was completely wet inside and out from the rain....like really wet. I suddenly remembered that it had a built in rain shell that could be pulled over it....probably would have been nice to remember that a couple hours earlier but at least I stopped any further water intake.
Sooooo wet!!!!
The hike started with about an hour uphill on the adjacent mountain to reach the top of the glacier, this is where we were fitted with the crampons on our shoes and harnesses (in case we fall into a deep crevice and need to be pulled out). Then we began about 3 hours of hiking on the actual glacier.
Hiking up the mountain to the top of the glacier.
The glacier was so incredibly picturesque..so much so, that it looked like a photo-shopped picture we were walking into...the ice was every shade from clear to pure white to deep blue and there were deep holes that go down as far as the eye can see, flowing rivers of water, tunnels, and caves.
Ice cave...there was a couple feet of rushing water in that crevice and we had to dig our feet into the sides of the wall to get through.
Ice cave...the colors in the photo are accurate as to how it looked in really life...it was intense blue.
Maneuvering over a deep stream of water!
Sue jumping the water!
Don't fall in!!!!
That's me in the red getting ready to leap over the rushing water!
It was tricky walking on the ice....you had to very purposefully dig your crampons in as you walked, especially up or downhill. There were deep crevices, pits, "rivers" steep slopes etc. all of which you could fall into if you slipped or weren't paying attention. Someone from our group actually fell butt first into an approx. 1 foot deep stream of water we had to cross and was soaking wet for the rest of the hike. I also had a close call but someone behind me grabbed me before I hit the water myself.
Near the end of the hike the ice got really hard which made walking very difficult!
My body was definitely feeling it by the end! Blisters on my heel, sore ankles and feet, screaming quads and some good shin splints! Not an activity my pour old legs are used to. The hike back down the first mountain at the end of the day just about did my knees in and I was hobbling around last night at the hotel like an old lady. Thankfully, feeling a lot better today with a little rest, ice and Advil... Thanks Dr. Sue!!!
This was, for sure, the highlight of the trip so far and we both agreed that it makes the top 10 list of travel highlights we both have experienced worldwide!
