Binge Drinking in Your 60's

It started out innocently enough…….we made a responsible decision to visit the El Calafate Glacier Museum prior to spending a full day at the famous Perito Moreno glacier. The museum is only 5 years old and did an impressive job of depicting the importance of the glaciers, their various formations, the historical discoveries, and the global ramifications if atmospheric warming continues. We spent 3 hours soaking up knowledge that will assist us in our upcoming expedition to the White Continent. Then we decided to visit the Glacier Ice Bar located in the basement. For $20 pp we were able to pretend we were back home in the freezing cold (-11C) sitting on our deck chairs (covered in snow and ice) and having adult beverages……..what a brilliant idea! The 25 minute session included free drinks and good music in the ice room where the walls, seats, drink glasses and bar were all constructed of ice. Either because the ice glasses didn’t hold enough volume, or it was more comfortable to set your ice glass down on the bar to warm up your hand, our drinks kept getting refilled and we consumed 5-6 drinks each (beer, gin and tonic, but mostly an Argentinian liquor mixed drink that tasted splendid) before the music stopped and it was time to usher in the next group of Eskimo wannabees. Fortunately we had a 25C day outside to return to and a shuttle bus to get us back into town.

The next day we took the bus out to the Perito Moreno Glacier which was 80 km’s away. This is the main reason people come to El Calafate. The glacier is one of the few in the world that is actually growing. At Lake Argentino,into which it flows, it is 5 km wide, 30 km’s long, and almost 70 metres high at the lake. It currently is touching the shoreline, blocking off lake access to the other side. Every 5 – 20 years there is a major break and the waterway opens again. Unfortunately for us it didn’t happen yesterday but we were still awestruck to watch calving going on every 5 minutes from our boardwalk viewpoint (the boardwalk, upper and lower, is 5 km in length). Your eyes kept scanning the entire glacier face and when the rumbling started everyone changed their focus towards the sound. We spent most of the day observing the action which happened too quickly to catch on our camera. The biggest calving we saw was a 50 metre high slab (3 metres thick) drop into the lake………pretty impressive. Definitely worth the visit and highly recommended. If you come here, make sure to get a seat on the right hand side of the bus for the best views as you approach the glacier. Then walk the entire boardwalk, like we did, to get different views of the glacier…….but always keep your camera ready for the inevitable action.

Yesterday we walked to Laguna Nimez at the north end of the town which is the home of a wetlands sanctuary. We spotted all kinds of birds (including flamingos) during our 3 km walk around the natural reserve on another warm day (25C). We stopped several times to watch harriers (hawk family) land near us and keep an eye on us, protecting their nearby nests and newborns.

We leave today for Ushuaia, the southernmost town in Argentina, and very close to the tip of South America. Interestingly enough, it is situated at 54 degrees south, which is not much different than Edmonton (53 degrees north). The average temperature for the next week is 15C which is not bad, but a lot cooler than Edmonton would be in early August (their summer).

In El Calafate they appear to have found a more accurate way to forecast the weather.

Chillin at the Glacier Museum Ice Bar.

Another bar on the main street that won our business on a warm afternoon.

The Perito Moreno Glacier which captured everyone's attention. The ice in the lake was recently part of the glacier.

The left side of the glacier where it as reached the shore on the viewing side of the lake.

There was also calving going on inside the glacier. Harder to see but the sounds drew your attention to the general area.

A large harrier (hawk family), oneof many we came across while walking around the wetland reserve.

The secret to only ordering one drink with your meal.........beer in one litre bottles and a glass of wine that held almost a half bottle.