EL CALAFATE

After 4 nights in Ushuaia we caught a plane upto El Calafate for three nights in order to visit the Moreno Glacier. Again checked into a lovely Pousada called Neunkelen overlooking Lago Argentino.... (I should point out here that after 2 nights spent in a dodgy hostel in Rio de Janeiro we took the decision to spend the extra and stay in simple hotels / pousadas .....the internet is such a wonderful invention) and set off to explore the town. This did not take too long as the town is essentially one very tourist orientated street whose architecture (on the ground floors at least) has been lifted from a swiss ski village. It was in El Chalten that I realised that Emma has an uncany knack of finding really good restaurants as we had dinner in one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at ( we were to return here twice again). Emma ordered Bife de Lomo and was served the best steak either of us has EVER eaten and I ordered Patagonian Lamb which arrived on it´s own hotplate the size of a butlers tray .... it was, quite simply delicious amd all washed down with two bottles of Bianchi Chablis ..... Anyway, I digress as we were here for the glacier .... hired a car and the next day headed to the Moreno Glacier early to avoid the tourists which we did (we were the second couple there ). The glacier is breathtaking and even more astounding is the noise that it makes when a piece of ice the size of a three storey house breaks off and crashes into the water!!! We were both mesmorised and spent the next five hours simply staring at it ..... didn´t even notice the busloads of tourists who started arriving a few hours after we had got there. We even managed to reach an ice berg that had floated up onto the shore .... I had my first taste of 10,000 year old water ... deliciously cold !