Not enough, and lots and lots, of energy

The flight to Rio Gallegos was far more interesting than anticipated. We breezed through the quiet airport corridors and settled ourselves for a little power nap for the three hours it took to speed south. This was largely unsuccessful but we caught as much rest as we could. At one point I was rudely awoken by the drinks trolley slamming into my knee. On arousal, I also realised this contained the in-flight meal (served at the sociable hour of midnight), which Stu and I both preceded to decline in favour of some well earned rapid eye movement. Broken sleep took us to the proposed landing time, and sure enough we descended through cloud to be graced with the lights of Rio G. below. As I do on these occasions, I fastened my gaze through the little portal on the side of the aircraft to watch the final moments of flight exhaust themselves. Landing gear came down, so did the plane. I estimate that at approximately three seconds before the plane should have grounded itself a rather strange event passed in front of me however. All the lights in Rio Gallegos went out. This sudden blackout decided to spread its tentacles into the usually immune airport terminal for good measure and I also witnessed the lights go out on the parallel runway. My general response was initially, 'I'm sure that's not normal' and then 'I'm sure that's not good'. My concerns were confirmed when I glanced in Stuarts direction and saw the most bewildered look I think I've ever been party to, etched on his still half asleep features, and then when drives gunned the engines with all his might and the plane shot back into the air like a frightened rabbit. Needless to say, the power cut could not have come at a worse time, not could the airport have had a worse set of backups! Still, we did indeed manage to land after a scenic tour of Rio G's outskirts. Stu then smuggled some bananas through customs (we did buy them in Argentina, so couldn't understand the fuss) and then we both laid in the very comfortable and warm terminal and finished our nights sleep (hopefully sarcasm is still apparent in blog posting...).

At around 8 in the morning we taxied to the bus terminal and somehow managed to book not one, but our next three buses, creating a sizable dent in our budget, but providing security that we will indeed end up travelling north again. We then got on the first of these and once again slept where we could on the way to El Calafate.

El Calafate is very small. It's also for the most part fairly shoddy. It does however have some rather impressive surroundings and also affords access to Los Glaciers National Park. So we went there and sampled the Perito Moreno Glacier, which is massive. Like, truly huge. It is also one of the most dynamic natural spectacles we have come across and genuinely can consequently be described as very exciting. At first it just looks like a big chunk of ice, which isn't far off, but you only have to stand around for a few minutes to start hearing the cracks, creaks, and bangs. And then, if you are as lucky as us you also get to see chunks as large as 20 storey buildings just fall straight of the edge and plunge into the waters below. We managed to witness quite a few of these outstanding occurrences, but there was a serious cigar moment to come. There was one chunk of ice that looked like it was rather precarious. We both agreed that if it fell it would be the piesta resistance. It was perhaps a 20m high, roughly 8m diameter cylindrical affair, and so we always kept one eye on it and subtly prayed. After about 2 and a half hours we found ourselves on the balcony closest to this monster, and we basically sat there starring at it, half in awe, half in anticipation, sharing thoughts about how amazing it would be, that if, after all this time it actually went. Then stuff started falling out of a crack behind it. Then its neighbour fell. By this point we were on the edge of our... balcony. After about another half hour it simple slid off the top of the glacier, cascaded and exploded into a million pieces and thundered into the water accompanied by and almighty roar and crash. We were so damn happy! And so damn lucky!! It must have been like that for days. The fact that we picked it out, waited for so long, and actually saw it fall was far beyond unlikely and possibly one of the best moments we've had yet. The glacier is truly unbelievable, and as I said... exciting. We would jump at the chance to go back one day and watch it twist and turn and fall again.

We finished off our time here with a walk out round a glacier melt lake that borders El Calafate into the isolation of Patagonia (and the wind!!). We are now going to El Chalten, were the hiking is meant to be some of the best in the world. Worth coming south!!