El Calafate and The Moreno Glacia

We arrived on New Years Eve! Looked around the village, which is very spread out and more like a German ski village! Lots of Germans here! We were amazed at the roses.
 and lovely plants everywhere.
 Our B & B had an alpine flavour

with magnificent roses.
But wandering the streets we saw some local houses
with very doubtful electricity!
and some very rickety cars!

New Years Eve we spent having our first South American Parilla - grill in English.
This meat was for two people!
cooked like this.
The red Malbec wine was excellent

We returned to sleep at about 12.30am and the next day decided to take it  easy, visiting the bird sanctuary just near our B & B.
the flamingo's were very pink - and stay all year - despite the cold in the winter.

We saw some very pretty flowers all native to the arid countryside. 3mm of rain a year, their water comes from the melting glaciers.


We were very lucky to see this young eagle.
We though these dredging ducks were rather fun!

El Calafate is the base for the Argentinian Glacier National Park. The Moreno Glacier is one of the few that is advancing. A day's trip was most enjoyable - hundreds of photos were taken but I just give you a sample!
On the way we stopped at an old finca.
The original farmhouse was still to be seen and the original wind turbine was still surviving.
There were sheep everywhere.
With magnificent horns - in the village we had seen a pair made into candle sticks!
This chap was in the restaurant - getting lots of attention.
After our brief stop at the finca we drove onto the Glacier.
It is truly magnificent. 
It was a very hot day and we heard a lot of huge cracks 
and bangs and lots of calving ice.
We took a trip on a boat to get right up to the face, which is 80 mtrs high.



There is a walkway right along the length of the Glacier with many viewing areas,
magnificent views of the whole glacier.


It was a wonderful day, small alpine plants abounded too.
Leaving the glacier behind we returned to El Calafate to pack ready to take the bus to Puerta Natalis tomorrow morning at 8.30am - so up bright and early.



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