Click on a photo to enlarge it.
We woke up to sunny blue skies but it was still very windy. I checked our oil and our diesel had stopped leaking so maybe the problem is the tank. We'd have to fill up and see but that couldn't be done in Torres del Paine National Park. So we packed up and headed for the Argentinian border and stopped for photos along the way.
It was so windy that our spare tyre cover was blowing off. Whilst Kirsten took photos I moved the motor home so the wind wasn't hitting it and got out to fix it. Unfortunately Kirsten didn't realise in time that she would have to get into the motor home from the drivers side and opened the passenger door.
The wind flung the door open and Kirsten slipped on the gravel bank and nearly went flying! She desperately held onto the door to stop it from flying off it's hinges and shouted "Help!" I was already switching off the engine but had to put the handbrake on before I could get out and push the door whilst Kirsten got in. We were both laughing despite the fact that she wrenched her thumb and hurt her shoulder in the process! What a performance! The wind here is no joke!
The road to the border was really bad gravel. They're in the process of paving it but it's not ready yet so we had to put up with the very bumpy, slow ride. Exiting Chile only took 10 minutes then we drove 8km to the Argentinian side which only took 20 minutes to get through. Most of that was spent with Adella, a really sweet puppy who may be a future border guard! The customs officers didn't bother checking inside our vehicle but we didn't have anything to declare anyway.
Shortly after the border we sighed with relief as we got back onto tarmac on the famous Ruta 40. Most of it is now paved although, at the time, we didn't know how much gravel we would encounter. We stayed at Esperanza for the night and it went below freezing so we had to have our heater running.
It was still only plus 1 degree at 8-45 the next morning. We filled up with diesel constantly watching the tank underneath. We were going to shout stop as soon as we saw it leaking but it never did. Not until 3 minutes after we'd filled up that is! During that time I was cleaning up the spillage because the man who was filling up our tank somehow managed to get diesel all over the side!
At least we now know that our tank is the problem and we set off to use up our diesel by driving up to El Calafate. It was a very scenic drive past snow covered mountains and we could even see Mount Fitz Roy which is 200km away! It certainly didn't look that far away. We stopped in the town for shopping, drinking water from the fire station, and to get some info from the not very helpful tourist office. Then we drove out towards Perito Moreno Glacier.
The park entrance is 32km before the glacier and we found out that the entrance closes at 4pm. It was already much later so we drove back 3km to a spot we'd already seen where we could park for the night. The park opens at 8am so we got up and made sure we were at the entrance when it opened up the next day so we could spend a full day there. The sunrise was beautiful along the way.
Among Earth's most dynamic and accessible ice fields, Glacier Perito Moreno is the stunning centrepiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The entrance fee is 260 pesos per person ($17 US). The glacier is 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high, but what makes it exceptional in the world of ice is its constant advance - it creeps forward up to 2m per day, causing building-sized icebergs to calve from its face. Watching the glacier is as much an auditory as a visual experience and, whilst sedentary, it manages to be thrilling.
The glacier formed as a low gap in the Andes allowed moisture-laden Pacific storms to drop their loads east of the divide, where they accumulate as snow. Over millennia, under tremendous weight, this snow has recrystallized into ice and flowed slowly eastward. The 1600-sq-km trough of Lago Argentino, the country's largest body of water, is evidence that glaciers were once far more extensive than today.
We were here 14 years ago when virtually all the roads in Patagonia were gravel. Back then we were on a tour and took a bus from the entrance to the glacier. We had two flat tyres en route - one on the original bus and then another on the replacement bus! Now that it's paved we don't have to worry about flat tyres.
The lookout point at the upper car park has been greatly extended. Now there are 4km of steel catwalks with vantage points along the way allowing visitors to see, hear and photograph the glacier. Sun hits its face in the morning and the glacier's appearance changes as the day progresses and shadows shift.
Perito Moreno Glacier - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
It was bitterly cold and we needed hats, gloves and scarves but it was well worth returning to see it again. The beautiful glacial blue is one of my favourite colours and there were a number of loud cracks that sound like gun shots. We heard a lot of calving but the glacier is so wide that we weren't in the right place - the action was happening around the corner and out of view.
We spent the whole day there and walked all of the steel catwalk. There wasn't much action in the morning but Kirsten got stung twice by a bee!! It stung her neck but then went under her shirt and stung her on her back. She cried out, dumped her camera on the floor and did a really quick striptease!! We were on part of the catwalk with other people around but she didn't care. I quickly pulled up her shirt and let the bee fly out before it stung her a third time! Ouch!
After a lunch break we walked along the catwalk in the other direction. We had been speculating all morning as to which piece was going to fall off next and watching out for the tell-tale sign - small pieces of ice that would fall off at the bottom of the glacier, denoting that a larger piece above it was about to come down. In the afternoon we got it right. A large piece came away from the ice wall and fell into the water causing a big splash and tidal wave. By the time the sound reached us it was already in the water.
As soon as it started moving I shouted "video!" The video camera was still in the camera bag and if I tried to get it I would knock Kirsten so I wanted her to switch to video mode on her camera. Nope! She just took photos. But at least we saw it and have still shots.
Then we were given another chance. This time I had the video camera in my hands and as soon as I saw the small pieces of ice coming off the bottom of the wall, I started filming and managed to get a super video of a large piece of ice coming off. Yippee!!
Perito Moreno Glacier calving
It was super day. We did well over 2,000 steps along the catwalk, Kirsten was really happy with all her photos including sunrise and sunset photos and we managed to capture calving ice on video. What more could we ask!
Sunset at Perito Moreno Glacier - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
Of course it meant driving out of the park along the winding road in the dark so we stopped just outside the park entrance at the same spot for the night.
We spent the next two nights in El Calafate, got our laundry done (hugely expensive and cost us $20 which is three times more than we would normally have paid for that amount of laundry), and checked out a mechanic who was very busy but got us in the following day.
Cacho, our mechanic, is 73 years old and wants to retire but there's no one to take over his business and he's very popular. His garage is literally the garage of his house and he had to move five cars out of the way before I could drive over the bay.
He spent 75 minutes checking everything out, including unscrewing a panel next to the drivers seat inside to inspect the top of the diesel tank. Result - the seal on our diesel tank has corroded. We will need a new tank because the one we have is the original which normally only last up to 20 years. Winnietwo is 17 years old.
We don't need to get it repaired right away because it is not dangerous. As long as we only fill up to the three quarter mark, we won't leak. He also checked our oil leak which is still small but to get it fixed we will need everything taking out because it's right at the back. A lot of labour work. So that will wait too.
Our peace of mind cost us 650 pesos ($43 US) but at least we know we're not going to explode any time soon!
