After a couple of days chilling out in Ushuaia, post Antarctica (for 'chilling out' read doing laundry, checking our slightly depleted bank accounts, sending some post etc), we took an hours flight north to El Calafate.Wow, what a change of scenery! From the lush greenness and peaks of Tierra Del Fuego, both of us said the same thing when we arrived.... we're in the Wild Wild West! The landscape is dry and dusty, with steep rocky hills covered with low lying brushes and grasses. This truly looks like the home of the Gaucho, the Argentinian Cowboys and Horsemasters.
Yesterday we took an hour long bus ride to the main tourist attraction... the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is one of the largest in the world, rightly a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and even after the splendours of Antarctica, boy is it impressive and absolutely enormous! Just to get an idea of scale, the glacier is over 5km wide at the base (where we were standing), 60m high and snakes its way 30km up into the distant mountains. It is extending 2 metres each day!! Ash was rather excitable at the sound of the glacier creaking and groaning as it made it's 
slow way down to the lake below - Lago Argentino. The highlight was when we saw a big slabs of the glacier calving off into the lake. They would make a really really loud cracking noise and then come crashing down into the lake spraying water into the air. After a few hours simply watching the glacier and waiting for pieces to carve off, we returned to El Calafate and mapped out and arranged our plans for the next few days. We keep bumping into people we have met on our travels, whether it be the people we shared a boat with in Antarctica or people we have met in previous hostels. It's quite nice, because it feels a bit like a travellers community almost. We had coffee with an Irish guy that we met a few weeks ago in Ushuaia and he gave us lots of useful tips for our camping and trekking trip into the Torres del Paine next week.
Today we spent the day at Nibepo Aike Estancia, a working farm 55km from El Calafate and located in the Los Glaciares National Park. We had a bumpy but scenic journey along a dirty and dusty road and along the way we spotted foxes, hares and giant condors - big birds of prey like eagles which were perched on the fence posts alongside the road. We were welcomed with hot drinks and cake in front of a log fire before taking a horse ride around the Estancia and up into the hills behind for some spectacular views of Los Glaciares National Park. It was so peaceful. We returned to watch a sheep getting an 'authentic' shearing by hand, and then sat down to an enormous barbeque... Ash got his first taste of raw sheep tongue, which he said was 
delicious! Bi was disgusted of course, especially at the fact that it came from a sheep! She gets a special mention for bravely handling the greasy wool just after the shearing, although you should have seen her face, followed by the prompt washing of hands!!
delicious! Bi was disgusted of course, especially at the fact that it came from a sheep! She gets a special mention for bravely handling the greasy wool just after the shearing, although you should have seen her face, followed by the prompt washing of hands!!Tonight we are chilling in the hostel. Tomorrow we are on the move again and take an early bus to El Chalten for a few days of hiking and some more spectacular scenery around Mount Fitzroy.
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