El Calafate, the entry town is a one-stop tourist shop in a bare landscape that is reminiscent of the Yorkshire dales albeit slightly flatter! The town is full of tourist shops and restaurants and we couldn't help ourselves but to have a slap up meal and too many bottles of wine in anticipation of nature's wonders the following day.
Of course we ended up with cracking hangovers and being picked up at 7am felt like torture. Nevertheless, the tour we went on, consisting of a day-long boat trip around the lake, stopping for a short walk though some beautiful woodland to a glacial lake full of little icebergs, then 3 further stops at 3 glaciers all of which terminate at the the lake. Some are stable and one, the Moreno, is actually one of the few remaining advancing glaciers in the world and every day (by about 2 meters), icebergs break off from the end of the glacier and so the lake is full of amazing vibrant blue icebergs, partially eroded by the wind and water into incredible shapes and it is really an amazing sight to behold.
We were incredibly lucky (again) with the weather and we had beautiful skies, and although it was chilly, it wasn't half as freezing as we were expecting. Through all the awe and spectacles our hangovers soon slid away and we really felt like we'd made the right decision in taking an expensive flight for just a 24-hour trip.
We had seen the Mer de Glace on Mont Blanc, and 2 lovely glaciers in New Zealand, but really these ones are bloody massive. The ends of the glacier are these incredible vertical walls that loom above the boat and the width is kilometres long. They are vast and incredible and, once again, words can´t describe the majestic feeling that these towers of frozen water incite.
We were even lucky enough on one of the glaciers to see a part of the ice breaking away - not exactly an iceberg, more of a mini avalanche - and felt our day was complete.
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