From El Chalten, we took a bus for the first time in a while again – to El Calafate. We had thought about hitchhiking again, but were worried that we might not make it and get stuck in the middle of nowhere for NYE since it was Dec 31st. The bus ride was quick and we soon found a good camping in the centre of El Calafate which was thankfully much more protected from the wind than the one in El Chalten. We were a bit worried about our tent already, as the zippers were having an issue and not closing properly anymore, so didn’t want to risk any further „injuries“. Fortunately, we found a trick online how to fix the zippers which only required some nippers we borrowed from the camping and about 5 min of work. Haha, nice!

For New Year’s, we decided to bake pancakes in our busy hostel kitchen and after midnight we joined a group of Argentinians and Germans for some games and even went out to a disco. Odd fact: when we looked for a bar to have drinks before midnight, everything was closed, it was like a ghost town. They only open up around 1.30 am for people to go out after celebrating at home first!

After a fun night, we didn’t get too much sleep but booked our transport to Perito Moreno glacier departing at noon. It was a 1.5 h ride after which we arrived at a network of boardwalks which we basically all walked around during the next few hours, while watching impressive Perito Moreno from different viewpoints.

The constant cracking sounds of the ice get you really excited for something big to happen – and while I was expecting more calving action overall, we were lucky enough to see 2 big ice pieces break off and plummet into the water, generating big waves.

Perito Moreno is the only glacier in the world that is considered stable, it is (for now) not shrinking. Even though the weather could have been better, we were fascinated by this glacier and the views across the ice. Glaciers are something really cool!!

We then spent 1.5 rather uneventful days in El Calafate because all the busses to Puerto Natales, our next destination, were fully booked. At first we were a bit annoyed we had to spend so much time in a place where there was not much to do, but then actually enjoyed relaxing and getting things a bit organised again. It was definitely good for our bodies too to get some rest after so many active days in El Chalten!