Friday 29th Nov Around El Calafate

A slow start as I recovered from what appeared to be a dose of food poisoning. Decided we would drive about 100km north up along the' route40'  the Pan American Highway, and try to see if we could get a good view of Cerro Fitz Roy.
The picture of this iconic mountain appears in most promotions of Patagonia. A wild and wind swept area as the sign post warns. We were not lucky enough to see Fitzy without cloud but had a great day never the less. Stopped for coffee at a very old roadhouse, La Leona that is famous for their lemon meringue pie and that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up there for about a month back in 1905.

First afternoon around El Calafate 27th Nov

After thankfully getting to El Calafate and our apartment we picked up our hire car and set off to explore. Feel we are really down in Patagonia now. A wild and wind swept place, wind had dropped to a gale as opposed to what it had been like the day before.
We set off towards one of the regions most famous destinations, Glaciar Perito Moreno. This glacier is one of only 2 advancing glaciers in South America. An awesome sight , about 30km long and reaching heights of 60mt with stunning shades of blue ice. My photos certainly don't do it justice. ( there is a limit after all with a camera in a tablet)

Finally Arrived

Thursday 28th Nov
Up extra early (4am !) Taxi back to airport to make rendezvous with airline folk and to find out what the go was. Yes they had found a plane !! Yes El Calafate airport opened again !!Booked bags through again then waited,7am we began boarding and in the air by 7.30 .
10.45 we finally arrived to EC , a spontaneous round of applause as we landed.
Its windy ,very windy.
We have 4 days here, have hired a car for 2 days so will be off exploring.

Update

After hours of mucking about and waiting we were finally told at 20.30 to come back at 5am tomorrow morning and hopefully a flight at 7!
No help what so ever re getting a hotel so fortunately we had not thrown out the card from the Roco  hotel so we borrowed a phone from some other standard passengers ,rang &they had 2 rooms left ! Wait in the longest taxi queue I have ever seen,now finally 22.30 we are here! Time for bed.

Major Change of plans

Well here we sit, on a runway,not sure exactly where it is,Argentina somewhere. Very strong +100km winds prevented us landing in El Calafarte so a detour was made to find somewhere safe to land. At one point we were flying over the southern Atlantic ocean,then we turned back towards land.
An hour and a bit after we were to land at EC we made a bumpy landing in a what looks like a very remote place. We have been sitting here now for over an hour,latest news is that we will fly back to BA and wait until airport is opened again ( talk of a day or two!! ) As you can imagine there is a lot of hand waving and excited Latin gestures.
Outside is flat, dry, and generally windswept. Other planes appear to have been diverted here too, so I imagine soon there will be a general shortage of food and drink.

18.50 BA finally back in the big smoke,really never expected to be back here in a hurry.
Total confusion reigns, no one knows what is happening, will keep you updated

Back to Bariloche

Another gorgeous day, a easy 80km drive back to Bariloche, and to our hotel Monesterio ( nothing Spartan about it at all) from my lounge on the balcony I can look over the lake to the snow capped mountains in the distance. Appears to be a bit more snow than last Wednesday, certainly they has an unusually cold few days over the weekend (  -4° Sunday night !!)
The shrine like structure is not uncommon along the road sides.

Hike to beat all hikes

Bluebird sky, going to be great day for a hike. Plan was to drive out to the National Park of Los Arrayanes,( this park is within another National park Manuel Huapi ) leave the car,hike out to the point, 12km, then catch a boat back. This was all done without a hitch. What a fantastic walk,the photos do not do the place justice. A stiff climb for 1km to begin with then it was a easy walk from then on. Towards the end we walked through Myrtle forest,very pretty colouring on the trunks.