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Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog
The Just One More Mile story of Paul's Trans Americas 2009 motorcycle expedition.Thursday, 19 November 2009
Glaciers and Grandkids... part I
A rest day, and boy, do I think I need it. First job of the day was to find out what's going on back home, as Laura has posted a comment on Facebook that her waters have broken and she's been taken to the hospital... could today be the day I get to find out what the beans (her nickname for the twins she's carrying) are? Well, perhaps, but she's not really progressing with the labour, so we'll just have to wait and see...
The main activity we have planned for the day is a short ride to see the Porito Moreno Glacier, which is at the head of Lago Argentina some 50 miles from El Calafate. After riding into town to book our boat tickets for tomorrow's glacier trip, Aaron, Nick, Al and I set off out of town to the viewpoint. Fortunately the road has been paved in the last couple of years, so the ride is simple if a little windy. Having paid the national park entrance fee we continue to ride along the lakeshore on a winding concrete road for several miles before we get our first glimpse of the glacier. And it's huge. Roughly 3 miles wide and 19 miles in length it covers some 97 square miles as it cascades down from the Andes into the lake. The icefield is the 3rd largest reserve of fresh water in the world. Like I said, huge... and at this stage, we were still a few miles away...
The road eventually terminated at a car park, from where we caught a minibus the remaining few kilometers up the hillside to the viewing area. This is a huge are that has been laid with metal walkways and overlooks, so we joined the throng of people steadily climbing down the steps to the terraces, and then joined in the mad shutter-pressing as everyone tried for that one perfect shot. From here it was possible to see the icefield extending all the way up into the mountains, and the North and South faces of the glacier where it meets the lake, the great walls of ice an average of over 70 metres high. The colours were beautiful, the bright white of the icefield contrasting with the shocking blues of the ice near the edge, where the ice is so compact that it reflects only the blue end of the spectrum.
We stood and stared for ages, looking at the different shapes formed as the ice breaks away, marvelling at how some of the structures were still vertical and hadn't collapsed under their weight. We listened intently as the ice cracked and groaned, the distant sounds of ice falling just out of view teasing us as we willed some of the larger pieces to fall so we could get a great action photo. Needless to say we did see some large pieces carve themselves off, but only after I'd put the camera away... It's hard to convey the sheer size of this huge mass of ice, but if you look at this next picture you can hopefully see a boat just above the trees in the bottom right-hand corner... that's one of the large catamarans that take tourists on the glacier tour we're doing tomorrow. They carry over 150 people... and it's dwarfed by the ice...
When we had finally had enough of glacier-watching, we climbed back up the multitude of steps (funny how there always seem more on the way up than on the way down) and caught the bus back to the bikes before retracing our ride back to town. We filled up on the edge of town ready for when we leave on Saturday, then grabbed some lunch from a pizza-café before going back to the hotel to change. As we had a couple of hours to kill before the meeting at 6pm, I checked in with home (no further news) and then fell asleep. Well, it is a rest-day after all...
After the meeting, which basically covered the next few days as we head back into Chile and on to Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southern tip of the americas, I briefly checked in with home again. No news, and unlikely to be any until morning. Without the excuse of babies' heads to wet, I wandered to the bar with Finn, Nick and Al, and discovered they served draught beer. Finn, being Irish, also noted they had the special Jameson whiskey so he bought us a taste. Several others joined us in the bar, but I didn't move from my bar stool for several hours, enjoying the delightful draught beer and chatting to Finn. When the others left for dinner, we reasoned we were still in the mood for a drink, so stayed put and continued. Finn went in search of an ATM to replenish his diminishing stocks only to discover he'd lost his card, and as mine was in the hotel, and we no longer had sufficient funds for food, we did the only sensible thing and had another beer (we still had enough for that). And so when skint, we staggered back to the hotel... only then remembering we have an early start and I need to be up even earlier to find out how Laura is getting along... when will I learn?
The main activity we have planned for the day is a short ride to see the Porito Moreno Glacier, which is at the head of Lago Argentina some 50 miles from El Calafate. After riding into town to book our boat tickets for tomorrow's glacier trip, Aaron, Nick, Al and I set off out of town to the viewpoint. Fortunately the road has been paved in the last couple of years, so the ride is simple if a little windy. Having paid the national park entrance fee we continue to ride along the lakeshore on a winding concrete road for several miles before we get our first glimpse of the glacier. And it's huge. Roughly 3 miles wide and 19 miles in length it covers some 97 square miles as it cascades down from the Andes into the lake. The icefield is the 3rd largest reserve of fresh water in the world. Like I said, huge... and at this stage, we were still a few miles away...
The road eventually terminated at a car park, from where we caught a minibus the remaining few kilometers up the hillside to the viewing area. This is a huge are that has been laid with metal walkways and overlooks, so we joined the throng of people steadily climbing down the steps to the terraces, and then joined in the mad shutter-pressing as everyone tried for that one perfect shot. From here it was possible to see the icefield extending all the way up into the mountains, and the North and South faces of the glacier where it meets the lake, the great walls of ice an average of over 70 metres high. The colours were beautiful, the bright white of the icefield contrasting with the shocking blues of the ice near the edge, where the ice is so compact that it reflects only the blue end of the spectrum.
We stood and stared for ages, looking at the different shapes formed as the ice breaks away, marvelling at how some of the structures were still vertical and hadn't collapsed under their weight. We listened intently as the ice cracked and groaned, the distant sounds of ice falling just out of view teasing us as we willed some of the larger pieces to fall so we could get a great action photo. Needless to say we did see some large pieces carve themselves off, but only after I'd put the camera away... It's hard to convey the sheer size of this huge mass of ice, but if you look at this next picture you can hopefully see a boat just above the trees in the bottom right-hand corner... that's one of the large catamarans that take tourists on the glacier tour we're doing tomorrow. They carry over 150 people... and it's dwarfed by the ice...
When we had finally had enough of glacier-watching, we climbed back up the multitude of steps (funny how there always seem more on the way up than on the way down) and caught the bus back to the bikes before retracing our ride back to town. We filled up on the edge of town ready for when we leave on Saturday, then grabbed some lunch from a pizza-café before going back to the hotel to change. As we had a couple of hours to kill before the meeting at 6pm, I checked in with home (no further news) and then fell asleep. Well, it is a rest-day after all...
After the meeting, which basically covered the next few days as we head back into Chile and on to Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southern tip of the americas, I briefly checked in with home again. No news, and unlikely to be any until morning. Without the excuse of babies' heads to wet, I wandered to the bar with Finn, Nick and Al, and discovered they served draught beer. Finn, being Irish, also noted they had the special Jameson whiskey so he bought us a taste. Several others joined us in the bar, but I didn't move from my bar stool for several hours, enjoying the delightful draught beer and chatting to Finn. When the others left for dinner, we reasoned we were still in the mood for a drink, so stayed put and continued. Finn went in search of an ATM to replenish his diminishing stocks only to discover he'd lost his card, and as mine was in the hotel, and we no longer had sufficient funds for food, we did the only sensible thing and had another beer (we still had enough for that). And so when skint, we staggered back to the hotel... only then remembering we have an early start and I need to be up even earlier to find out how Laura is getting along... when will I learn?
posted by Paul # 22:06 
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