Back into Argentina, I have so many stamps on my passport, going in and out three times.
El Calafate is an adorable town. Has a very Alpine feel. Which isn’t surprising, the Andes are mountains too and many people from the Alps moved here.
Gnome alley. There is a whole store dedicated to these creatures, as well as all the decorations in the alley. Must be Alpine influence. You might notice that the guy on the barrel is drinking mate, I’ll talk a little more about that national drink soon.
Unlike the other glaciers, we had crowds with us here. The park service did a great job about 12 years ago building incredible cat walks that really allowed us to see this massive glacier from many angles.
We saw the tail end of the this calving. Those three big chunks and all the ice around them weren’t there when we arrived. We sort of saw and certainly heard this ice fall. So I got a picture as soon as I could.
This is the northern side of the glacier, as you can see, it goes way back.
And here is the Western edge. This glacier is very very active. There is a clump of glacier on the land side. Every couple of years the ice will fill in between these two and block off one of the lakes. As the pressure of the water builds, the water will break through, first creating an arch, but very quickly simply breaking the ice block down. Water will alway equalize, no matter what the obstacle. With that rush of water, people down river can expect some flooding.
The streaks of brown are silt that gets ground up as the glacier moves and is then pushed up into the glacier. It comes from below, not above.
Here is a close up of an arch in the ice, it will collapse quickly, so I’m glad I caught this image.
Another close up of that incredible blue ice. I have been able to really crop my photos in order to get these close ups. I am still determined to get a stronger lens one of these days. At least I know how happy I am with what I already got.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHvw3sHLWW/
One of these days I’ll figure out how to really embed an instagram post. Go take a look, it’s a movie of the whole glacier with Joel at the end.
And now, Mate. We learned a lot about Mate. It is an herb, that is brewed sort of like tea. People in Argentina, Patagonia and southern Brazil will drink it out in public like this. Notice one girl has a thermos, the water is at 90 degrees Celsius, not quite boiling. Then the mate leaves are put in a gourd cup, some are highly decorated, others not. A special metal straw with a strainer on the end is used to drink the beverage. This is a common sight, people sitting around drinking Mate. Oh, one more thing they all share the same cup and straw.
All of our bus drivers had a mate kit, as did our Group leader and other guides. We were offered the opportunity to try mate, with the communal straw. First person in our group to do so was getting over a cold. Needless to say I declined. Our dinner hosts in Argentina were a funny couple, he loves his Mate. He offered us some, no thanks. His wife and her son hate the stuff. So as universal as it is – not everyone likes it.
Marcela brought a special brand to our Chilean guide. She also had to buy a special brand, found only in the north – to send to her son-in-law in Spain.
I guess for the Chinese, the tradition isn’t Mate, it’s a bottle of wine!
Leah