Glaciers and a Good Telling Off from the Argentinian Navy
We leave El Chalten in our mirrors under clearing skies with the relentless Patagonian wind at our backs. Without the pouring rain of our arrival we are able to take in the beauty that surrounds us. And it is magnificent! We follow the shores of the impossibly blue Lago Viedma east until we reach Ruta 40 again and head south toward El Calafate along the southern shores of Lago Argentina. El Calafate is a bustling tourist town focussed on adventure tourism with classy fashion and souvenir shops mingled with hiking hire outlets and local street artisans pedalling their wares.
We ride out to the Perito Moreno Glacier and take a boat ride right up to within a couple of hundred metres of the massive cliff of ice to witness huge chunks calving into the lake with an accompanying mighty crash. The glacier is unusual in that it is one of the few in the world that is not actually retreating but remaining constant. And did I mention it is spectacular to behold.
Ice Bar
We return via the Glaciarium Museo which includes possibly the only bar in South America where you can eat the “glasses”.
Every drink comes with ice!
Along the way we stop to get some photos on a convenient concrete pad beside a small building at the lakeside. No sooner have we dismounted than a uniformed and armed guard comes out and starts gesticulating wildly at the bright orange bollards and various signs declaring “No Estacionamiento”. It appears we have unwittingly parked on the Argentinian Navy helipad! We escape without being shot or arrested which we are told was a very real possibility.
From El Calafate we ride on to Torres Del Paine national park and if it is possible the scenery becomes even more dramatic.
Torres Del Paine
We ride out of the mountains onto the vast treeless (this place makes the Nullabor look like a rainforest) Patagonian steppe. Back into the mountains again and we crest a rise to see a lake of chrysocolla green framed by mountains of impossible proportion. The most imaginative human mind could not make this stuff up!
Did we really need to be told
Our lodge for the next 2 nights is by a broad, swiftly flowing river of icy grey water with those magnificent snow covered mountains as a backdrop. 
As I sit here writing this the park has been temporarily closed due to high wind but we don’t care as we sit in in the appropriately named Pampa Lodge and sip hot coffee by the fire and marvel at the view. Compass Expeditions really do find the best places to stay! This morning waterfalls
One lake crashing into another
and this afternoon horse riding,
Sally and Tequila
weather permitting.
