From Perito Moreno Glacier to Bariloche

The day after Torres Del Paine we were back on the road and trying to head north. There are only a couple of ways to do this as southern Chile/Argentina is rugged, mountainous and the roads are simply gravel ways. The Navimag Ferry up the Chilean coast is one way but a costly one, flying from Punto Arenas is another, but our chosen option was to head back into Argentina and cut across country to the east coast - as we love busses a lot!

Adventure Patagonia in Puerto Natalas was our extremely helpful hostel and sorted us out with a mini bus across the Chilean border and north to the Perito Moreno Glacier; situated outside the tourist hell hole of El Calafate. The sheer size, colour and noise of the glacier is awe inspiring and as you watch chunks occasionally fall off crashing into the lake as it advances toward the land. Once you go up onto the viewing platforms the scale of this ice field is realised and stretches for miles.

After visiting the glacier we were dropped off in the nearest town, El Calafate. In my opinion this place is touristy, garish and in comparison to the rest of Argentina it is extremely expensive. It´s sole existence is to feed off tourists who want to see the glacier so my advice to anyone wanting to go/needing a stop over is to get through it fast! We stayed one night at an equally souless and over priced H.I. hostel aptly called Calafate Hostel.

From El Calafate we had to head south and across country (east) to changes bus in Rio Gallegos and head northwest back across country to Bariloche, in the heart of the Argentine Lake District.

At last we had finished the roller coaster journey of 33 hours and slept, sunbathed and slept some more for a few days in Bariloche. We did little more than eat steak, drink excellent red wine and stay at an incredible hostel called 1004, so named as it is on the 10th floor of an apartment block over looking the lake and mountains. From the balcony we had this view of the full moon every night. It was quite incredible and the nicest hostel we´ve stayed in so far on the trip.