On The Rocks?

Day: 170

So Markus arranged to rent us an extra small car today, for the four of us to head out to see the Perito Moreno Glacier and ice field.  This mass is 60 meters high and grows at a rate of 2 meters a day, its a mammoth wall of ice that during the summer (it currently being summer in the southern hemisphere) continues to break apart, sending icebergs tumbling into the lake below with deafening crashes, its so loud that the sound reverberates through the canyon for minutes afterwards.  This thing is monstrous, 14 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, and supposedly it continues another 180 meters below the water.

We got there bright and early before all the tour buses arrived and had the place more or less to ourselves for the better part of an hour, just standing awestruck before this thing.  Once the crowds arrive we wandered around the boardwalks for a while longer then headed off to find a table to have our picnic.

After lunch we found a trail down to the lake, which we weren’t really supposed to be on without a Park Ranger guide, and I was able to get a few different angles that aren’t shown on every single postcard in every giftshop all over Patagonia. In all we spent more than six hours just sitting and watching this thing, hoping everytime that a huge chunk would plummet to the water below.

The rest of the day consisted of a coffee break (complete with an assortment of pastries), a shower, the realization that I may not have put on enough sunblock today, and finally meat and wine. I am getting very into the Argentine way of dinner not being until extremely late, when we got to the Parilla (steakhouse) at 11pm we were made to wait until a table freed up. It was their busiest hour.

After dinner I was completely involved in trying to talk a socialist Italian into the glories and freedoms that capitalism provides, that we (and a couple others) moved on for a couple more bottles of wine and another bar… Then another bar… (and on and on…) I finally made it back up the hill (which seems much larger drunk) to my hostel around 4 am, and passed out hoping to be able to wake up by 9am when I am getting picked up by our little car to try and find some more trouble.

See Randy, the alcohol isn’t too expensive, I just hadn’t had a good bender in about a week; but you are right, it may have been the longest this blog has ever gone without good drinking stories.

I’ll try not to let it happen again.