Ice Ice Baby

Since our last blog we’ve made great progress on the Patagonian extension. The first leg saw us depart with heavy heart from the red wine Mecca of Mendoza, busing 17 hours through the night to the lakeside ski resort of Bariloche (or San Carlos de Bariloche for those parents at home trying to locate it on the map).

Our travels in Argentina have seen us sleeping in by far the best accommodations of our four and half months on the road. Our hostel in Bariloche stood out in a number of respects and rates a blog mention. Criticised relatively heavily in our Lonely Planet Guide, a couple of British friends advised us not to miss ‘Hostel 1004’…

Our taxi dropped us outside an auspicous looking apartment building, and after 10 minutes of searching for any sign of a hostel, a doorman directed us to the service elevator of the appalling blemish on the Bariloche waterfront that was the previously mentioned apartment building. Emerging on the 10th floor, we found a door at the end of a long hallway (think of the hotel from Stephen King’s ´The Shining’) labelled ‘1004’.

Essentially, this hostel is actually a penthouse apartment, subdivided within to fit a few extra rooms and offering fantastic views of the lake and surrounding alps. The communal lounge area was graced with the sweet smell of incense and a gaggle of seasoned Bariloche travellers.

It is funny how you find travellers that have been in a place for one week longer than you have, have purchased numerous beaded necklaces, live in a pair of multicoloured travel pants and have likely paid too much for a jamaican coloured bag, that will look down their nose at "newbs" that have just arrived. The locals in the hostel were a little like that, but needless to say it was still beautiful and we had a great time.

The big ticket item for winter travellers to Bariloche is skiing at Catedral, the southern hemispheres largest skifield. Now to be fair, reports from other travellers on the skiing were poor. Two weeks without snow, continual low cloud and plenty of tossers on snowboards (no criticism intended) were the general comments that proceeded our arrival. Thankfully, the day of our arrival signalled an end to a recent storm, with 70cms of fresh snow to greet us on the Catedral slopes.

An early start saw us at the top of the mountain by 9.30am to catch the sun rising over the lake, Caroline kitted out in a rented 80’s ski kit that would have Mount Olympus members grinning from ear to ear (with compulsory glass of Pimms in hand). The snow and weather were fantastic, and with Mat hangover free this time, we were able to ‘carve pow pow 8´s on our static planks’ all day long on any of the 30 different runs.

With a morning remaining in Bariloche after the skiing, we headed towards the gondola for the Cerro Otto lookout. Upon departure, all was in hand for some great views. Unfortunately, as we climbed to the 1332m lookout, the cloud base descended from 1500m to 1331m, obscurring any views from the 360 degree revolving/revolting restaurant. Nevermind – when life deals you lemons, make lemonade. Or in our case, grab a mulled wine and beer and time how long it takes the restaurant to do a full revolution (18 minutes and 20 seconds fot those playing at home).

From Bariloche, we farewelled our new friends at Hostel 1004, looked disapprovingly down the nose at ´newbs´ arriving and missioned it on three buses and 35 hours on the road to El Calafate at 50 degrees south.This journey took us into the heart of Patagonia where the wind shaped environment is truly spectacular. We arrived in El Calafate in the wee hours to the start of 24 hours snowfall.

Here, the must see attraction is the national park full of glaciers. With the snow easing, we made our way to the star of the show, the Perito Moreno Glacier, a glacier which terminates in a 180 metre deep lake and makes the Franz Josef look like a defrosting incident with a late model Fisher & Paykel freezer.

To gauge the enormity, that is a 300 seat sight-seeing ferry half way up on the right side of the photo!

As the day progressed, the weather lifted and the true enormity of this beast was revealed, as were the changing colours of the ice field. While checking it out from the comfort of a 30 metre launch on the lake, we were lucky enough to witness an ice calving event, with a chunk the size of two shipping containers taking the plunge and sending out a wave Piha would be proud of.

From here, we head a little further south before making the massive effort back to the north for our departure from Rio in three weeks time. We´ve updated the travel map on the right panel to reflect the new route, and big ups to the Makos on their massive win over the Magpies – may the climb up the ladder continue this weekend against the mighty Taniwha.