Dec 30-31 El Calafate-Glaciers, Argentina

This is our last stop before going back to BsAs to catch a flight home.  We are not looking forward to BsAs as the temperature today is over 100 degrees and there are riots because of energy blackouts caused by the usage.  This heat wave has been for the entire month of Dec so tempers are running high.  We wonder how it will affect our getting into and out of the city, but that is a worry for tomorrow. 

Here in El Calafate it is a comfortable 60 degrees.  The weather does not have the enormous variations of other parts of the country.  It is maintained in the 30’s in their winter and the 50-60’s in the summer; there are really only 2 seasons.  In the upper Andes, however, it is always below freezing and the weather pattern is such that water is sucked up from the ocean and deposited as snow every day.  The result is glaciation over the last 13,000 years or so.  This is nothing compared to the age of the mountains which is around 60 million, however the climate has been fairly stable in the last period.  The snow falls and gets compacted, turning into a glacier which is now up to 2,000 ft deep.  The top layers appear white but the compacted area is a sky blue for the same reason for the color of the sky, only blue is refracted-the other colors trapped.  So, in the pictures you will see many aspects of the glaciers, ice flows and icebergs.  And, from what we can see the icebergs are in fact 80% underwater, with just the tips sticking out.

One of the most fascinating sights was the glacier river in the National Glacier Park.  The glacier rises around 600 ft above the lake it drains into.  Its size has not changed since it was first measured in 1917.  Each day it creates 2 m of new wall and 2 m fall into the lake.  So every few minutes you hear a crack like a gunshot, the fracturing of the ice.  This is followed by a groaning sound and then the toppling over of a piece of the wall, a small avalanche into the lake.  It happens so fast and unpredictably that I could not capture it on film.

Away from the mountain sides the land is semi-arid and sheep farming is practiced.  In the 80km we drove to the glacier there were only 3 farms that owned all the land.  Because of the sparse vegetation you need an enormous amount of land to feed the animals.  I pictured this area.

Finally, there is the forest that climbs up the mountain side.  There have been man-made forest fires and they have been devastating.  While there is plenty of water falling on the Andes there is little on the ground.  So when a fire starts combined with the high winds here it can eat up thousands of acres of forest.  And, because there is so little water it may take a century to regrow.  On the other hand there is so little population here that there is fortunately not the loss of life and property we see in the U. S.

We have finally figured out the cooking in Argentina.  They basically grill or fry the meat or fish with no marinade or adding salt or spices.  You are then given salt, a mixture of mustard/mayonnaise, or other sauces to apply yourself.  When you order fish, you must also order the sauce and it costs separately.  Even with this new knowledge we are not impressed with the offerings although the bakery items are quite good.  The prices, however, are very cheap.  We both had tenderloin steak, salad, French fries, and drinks for under $40.  It should be noted that Coke costs more than gin!