Goodbye Chile, Hello again Argentina ....

Bus journey over the Andes, Chile to Argentina

The Friday before last, we said goodbye to Chile. As a treat on our last day, we allowed ourselves a taste of the standard breakfast, with the homemade wholemeal bread and homemade cake, the smell of which had been tempting us every time that they baked it. We said Hasta Luego to the staff that we had got to know at the hostel, and they dropped us of where our bus was due to leave from.

We were pretty early, but this turned out to be a good thing. As we waited, a woman came up to us and asked us if we were going to Bariloche with the Andesmar bus company. When we said yes, she proceeded to tell us that she was from the company, that there was a strike, and so we should go with her and she would put us on a bus with another company to take us to Osorno, where we could then get an Andesmar bus on to Bariloche. At least we thought that was what she said, as it was all in Spanish.

Bus journey over the Andes, Chile to Argentina

Now the cynical part of me is always a bit dubious about this kind of thing. Is it just another company trying to steal the business (though we had already bought our ticket with Andesmar), would they try to charge us extra for the bus to Osorno, or even was this an elaborate ruse to get us to go with her and then we'd get mugged? Any of these is possible, but we were reasonably confident that she was on the level, so we went with her.

We picked up another couple on the way, which was a good sign, and when we got to the other bus station, she went in and bought our extra tickets and explained it all to the driver. So all was good, no scams or dodgy deals, just another case of strikes in South America requiring a change of plans. Just as well we were early though, as otherwise we would have missed this alternative, and I'm not sure what would have happened then.

Bus journey over the Andes, Chile to Argentina

We arrived at Osorno an hour later, were able to get our tickets altered without any problem, and off we went for the 6-7 hour trip to Bariloche.

We've had some pretty lengthy and painful border crossings between Chile and Argentina in the past, although usually going the other way, so we were ready for a slow process when we got to the border. Leaving Chile was quick and easy - most places are generally pretty relaxed about you leaving - and then we had about an hour further to drive through no man's land before we officially got to Argentina.

This drive had potential to be really pretty, as it went up across the Andes. What we could see was nice, but visibility was pretty poor as it was snowing quite a lot up there. No sooner had I cleared the condensation off the window, it was back again, and even without that, most of the time you couldn't see very far anyway. Hence the lousy photos.

Bus journey passing the lakes to Bariloche, Argentina

After we'd crossed the mountains, and left the snow behind, we finally arrived at the Argentine border. Sometimes they insist on every piece of luggage coming off the bus, and do a lot of bag searches, but today was straight forward, with just a few sample bags checked and we were off again fairly quickly.

We arrived in Bariloche, got our remaining Chilean money changed, bought our outward tickets and grabbed a cab into town. We had a very chatty taxi driver, who was keen to point out things that might interest us on the way, as well as talking about the weather and other topics.

Bariloche - or rather to give it its full name - San Carlos de Bariloche, is famous for its scenery, but also for its chocolate. So knowing that we would be unable to resist completely, the first thing we did here was to join a gym, figuring that even if we only go half the days, it will help to offset any bad moments. If you ever need a gym here, I would happily recommend Vertice 7 - good cardio machines, excellent weights machines, and friendly helpful staff.

Succumbing to kuchen in Frutillar ...

Frutillar

Towards the end of our stay in Puerto Varas, we finally found a day when we weren't going to the gym, weren't too sleepy, and it wasn't raining - which it seemed to be most days we took off - and got the bus over to Frutillar.

It is only half an hour away, even with going through Llanquihue on the way. Llanquihue was another place we were considering popping over to, but having seen it from the bus, I don't think we'll bother, but it does have some interesting wooden sculptures strewn around.

Although there may well have been some others here before, Frutillar as it is now was founded in 1856, and from the start was intended to accommodate the new settlers coming over from Germany. Like many of the towns here, the German influence is clear in the architecture, street names and the kuchen, or cakes.

German Museum, Frutillar

There is a German museum, although we didn't go into it. It is set in a lovely garden, and they have constructed typical buildings, such as a watermill, warehouse and house. They use these buildings and the displays inside them, to tell the story about the German settlers and their influence here.

We are told there is also a nice educational walk through the woods, but as we were there on a Saturday, it was closed, so I can't vouch for that.

Frutillar

We walked through the town, seeing the various wooden buildings and a couple of nice old churches, and then carried on out of the main part of town to an area a little further around the lake side, to a restaurant called Meli for lunch. The food here was nice, but not ideal for our diet sadly, as most things were cooked in ways that broke the rules. But that will happen sometimes when we are out, and if we are going to be doing this for over a year, then we just have to accept it, and be extra good afterwards to help make up for it.

Restaurant Meli, Frutillar

Today wasn't going to be a good day though, as we had already figured that we couldn't really leave the area without having one of the cakes, and today seemed as good a day as any. So we eschewed dessert in the restaurant, and instead stopped off in the café at the rather impressive theatre on the lake. Annoyingly, the cake wasn't as good as we'd hoped, so I was remarkably restrained and left some of it, rather than eating it all for the sake of it. It felt terribly wasteful, but I know that these are the decisions I have to make if I want this to work. That or never having a cake in the first place, but we know that isn't going to work!

Teatro del Lago, Frutillar

The concert hall is a lovely building though, and sits on a platform over the edge of the lake. As the largest specialist music venue in Chile, it is very popular, and is part of the reason that the town is known as the City of Music. The musical theme is continued with the large musical notes that decorate the lake edge.

The base of Osorno Volcano, Frutillar

Sadly, although it was a nice day, it was also quite cloudy, so we couldn't really see the volcanoes across the lake. We could see the base of Osorno some of the time, but not the rest. We are told that on a nice day, you can see seven volcanoes from here.

Frutillar

As we waited for the bus on the way back, we watched one of the many dogs that walk around town try its best to make friends with someone sitting outside the empanada hut. When that didn't work, it came over to us and decided that even though we had no food, we would do. It rubbed its head around my leg and plonked itself down on my feet, making it absolutely clear that I was expected to make a fuss of it. I obligingly gave it a scratch, and then suddenly it went running off after a couple of guys.

Monkey Puzzle tree, Frutillar

Overall, Frutillar is a pleasant enough day out, even though there isn't a great deal here. Of course it would be nicer on a day when you can see the view properly.

Frutillar

Frutillar

Frutillar

Frutillar

Frutillar

Restaurant Meli, Frutillar

Frutillar

German Museum, Frutillar

Frutillar

Still good in Puerto Varas

Sculpture, Puerto Varas

After our six weeks in Pucon, we reluctantly said goodbye to Emma and Olivia, and got the bus a few hours further south to the heavily German influenced, Puerto Varas. We hadn't been here on our last trip, so it was nice to arrive at a new destination, even if the plan was simply more of the same.

Our hostel is a nice homely place, and we have enjoyed chatting with lots of other people here, including a few where we have exchanged details and hope to keep in touch with.

The hostel includes breakfast in the price. Unfortunately breakfast means lots of homemade bread and cakes, which we aren't allowed to have. They do offer porridge as an extra, which when we explained what we were doing, and why we didn't want to eat their cake, they agreed to let us have instead of the normal meal.

Lake Llanquihue and the Osorno Volcano, Puerto Varas

The only problem is, they will keep cooking these loaves and cakes, and they smell delicious. We have promised ourselves a treat of the normal breakfast on our last day, to try to keep us from giving in to temptation in the meantime.

Our gym here is actually in the nearby hotel, which is very convenient, and although it is only small, most of the time it is only us there, which is great. They also have a lap pool, and I finally decided to brave the idea of a swimming costume and get in. I'm not a strong swimmer, but am actually quite enjoying my swim after the machines in the gym.


Nic occasionally joins me, but as he has entered the London Parks half marathon in October, he is more focussed on building up to running that. He is actually aiming even further, as he is hoping to complete a full marathon before he reaches the age of fifty. That means he has until December 2018. He is running the half marathon for a charity called the Mental Health Foundation, so if you'd like to encourage him, and support a worthy cause, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nic-Green

Puerto Varas

This is a good thing for me, as Nic not only has considerably less weight to lose than I do, he is also losing it faster than me. This seems par for the course for men to lose weight quicker, but it is most annoying. I have considered sabotaging his diet by adding sugar to his food, but decided that would be too mean, so restrict myself to just calling him a git occasionally instead!

But with him needing to train for a half, and then full marathon, he will still have to stick to healthy eating and exercise after he reaches his target weight, which means that I won't still be ploughing on after he is done. That will help me to be less disheartened by how long it takes.

Sculpture, Puerto Varas

So we are sticking to our healthy food and to our routine at the gym. And the weight is still gradually coming off. We even bought ourselves a cheap stick blender, so that we can make our healthy soups.

We have actually had a couple of meals out here too, as we have found that if we stick to a fatless fillet steak, salad with no naughty dressings, and no alcohol, we can keep within the rules and not affect the diet.

We hit our second milestone target, and again treated ourselves to a less restrained meal, but again, have gone straight back to being good again. La Marca is our restaurant of choice here.

We have taken a few strolls around town, and again stopped in a few cafes, still avoiding the kuchen, or cakes., which the German influence means that there are a lot of! This is another lakeside town, this time on Lake Llanquihue, and this one has two volcanoes in view, Osorno and Calbuco, although I personally don't think they are as pretty as Villarica.

We had intended to take a few day trips out of town to places, but for one reason or another, we never quite got around to most of them. We did make it to Frutillar, so I'll post about that next time.

Lake Llanquihue and the Osorno (left) and Calbuco (right) Volcanoes, Puerto Varas

Being good in Pucon, Chile

The view from our hostel room, Villarica Volcano, Pucon

We took the new overnight direct flight from London to Santiago on 11 January, and spent the day loitering in the city, where a couple of ladies tried to have a go at dipping their hands into my handbag while we were at a café.

It was right next to me, so was quite flagrant. I spotted an odd movement, so checked, and kept a closer eye on it, which obviously stopped them. Then the waiter came over and suggested moving all of our bags, so clearly he had his suspicions too. They left just after that.

Emma and Olivia, Pucon

Aside from that, we had a pleasant enough day in a very hot Santiago, and then got an overnight bus down to Pucon. Having expected not to get much sleep on the flight, we had treated ourselves to a cama bus, which has seats that recline into a fully flat bed. We had a very comfortable night, and slept far better than on the plane.

Villarica Volcano, Pucon

In Pucon, we arrived at a hostel we had used before, where we were pleased to find that not only was our room ready for us, but they also had recently got two gorgeous little kittens, called Emma and Olivia. We soon settled in, and allowed ourselves to go out for a meal and a last beer that night, before starting our healthy regime in earnest the next day.

Fire Station, Pucon

In the morning, we hit the supermarkets, and bought ourselves plenty of healthy meats, fruit and vegetables, and set about planning our menu. We have opted to do the Slimming World plan, which is a little easier to do when you're on the move as we will be, and we know a few people who've had good results from it.

Not wanting to end up with any excuses for not sticking to it, we had made sure we were staying in places with decent kitchens, but we also supplemented this by bringing a few items that wouldn't normally be included in our travel kit. One is a large silicon collapsible microwave steamer, that can also go in the oven as a casserole dish; we have used that almost every day, and in fact we are considering making a regular part of our luggage. Another is a spiraliser, which is much less essential than the steamer, but it has encouraged us to eat more courgette in particular, as that works really well, and it has certainly been a talking point with our fellow travellers!

Olivia, Pucon

Then on Monday, we joined the gym in town and did our first session there. I knew I was unfit, but my goodness it was hard work. Still, we stuck to the plan for food and regular gym going, gradually increasing the time and effort spent there over the weeks.

We were both so exhausted after our gym efforts, and spending so much time cooking up healthy foods to try to keep things interesting, that we never really got around to doing anything much else. We concluded that taking bikes out wouldn't really get us that far and would just leave us too achy to do the gym the next day, and we were burning off more calories in there that we would have done cycling. So we decided to stick to the gym.

Emma, Pucon

We spent a lot of time semi watching the TV screens while we pounded away on the cross trainer etc, and one of the main things we were seeing was the horrific wild fires that were raging through the country further north. Whole towns had been destroyed in some cases, and it was heartbreaking to watch footage of people literally seeing the fire creeping up to their homes, doing everything they could to create firebreaks and divert it, but knowing that in all likelihood, their home would be destroyed.

When we saw the fire brigade in town doing a collection, we stopped and made a donation. The guy we spoke to was interested to hear we were from the UK, and quickly got his smartphone out to show us a photo. It was of him and his brother, as young boys, presenting flowers to The Queen when she had Prince Philip visited Pucon in 1968.

On our two days off per week, we walked into and around the town, and stopped off in one of the cafes for a well behaved cup of tea, virtuously resisting all of the rather lovely looking cakes.

And the good news is, albeit that it is slow, we are losing weight. I had hoped for one of those wonderful first weeks that you hear other people talking about, where you hop on the scales to find you've lost huge amounts. Sadly that was not to be, but we're not doing badly.

Aside from never-ending shopping and cooking, and being in the gym, we spent a lot of time enjoying the company of those two lovely kittens, whilst looking at the rather splendid view of the 2840m high Villarica Volcano, the closest of the three volcanoes in the area. It is an active volcano, and last erupted on 3 March 2015, albeit only a shortlived one. 

When we hit our first milestone target, we treated ourselves to a meal out at what we had heard was the best parilla in town, La Maga. We weren't disappointed. We treated ourselves to a fillet of beef, by which I mean the whole 1.5kg fillet, and it was delicious. We even had a drink to go with it.

We needed that treat, but we were right back on the straight and narrow afterwards.

If you're in Pucon for normal tourism, rather than chained to the gym, there is plenty to do here. Last time around we had a hike in Huerquehue National Park and went kayaking on the Lake. There are also plenty of bike rides out to waterfalls and other sites, there are thermal springs that you can go to, and of course, you can hike up the volcano if you feel so inspired.

We may not have seen much of Pucon ourselves this time, but it was certainly a good decision to come here to do this. It is working.

Christmas - and making radical new plans ...

With my back having been so bad for so long, we were a bit loathe to make plans for a new trip. We decided to stick around in London until after the New Year at least, and found a great cat sit close to where we used to live in Clerkenwell over Christmas. More on that later.

In thinking about where we wanted to go, we found ourselves discussing a whole range of possible destinations and reasons why we might or might not go, regardless of any (hopefully temporary) issues about my back.

Those of you who know us - or have seen our photos in some of the blog posts - will know that Nic and I are, well, let's just say on the large side! We've made some efforts to lose some weight before, but never really had the motivation or determination to succeed. However, since we 'retired' to be travelling most of the time, we notice the effects of the weight a bit more. Sometimes it is the smaller things, like low energy levels, difficulty buying clothes in some countries - Asia in general is not good for me, or that the simple fact that larger clothes makes limiting ourselves to carry-on luggage pretty difficult.

The bigger problem is that there are trips that we want to do, that we realistically can't. With Nic being a firm fan of lemurs, we'd love to spend time in Madagascar, seeing them in the wild, but we know that we just aren't physically capable of the level of hiking involved to get to the best places. We keep putting it off, telling ourselves "We'll wait until we're a bit fitter", but of course, we never are. We'd quite like to see gorillas and orangutans too, but the same issue arises.

We got to talking about all of this, and realised that we had finally reached the point where we were ready to really do something about it. The problem with my back helped the decision, because although I suspect my back may be a problem anyway, my extra weight isn't going to be helping it.

So we decided that, we would put our usual kind of travelling on hold, and instead of another trip like our previous ones, 2017 would be the year we get fit. And whilst Nic doesn't have as much to lose as me, so will get there much quicker, the reality is that, even with being very determined, it is going to take me well over a year to get to where I want to be, so we needed to get a good start in to have any hope of keeping the motivation going.

We knew we couldn't face the idea of diets and exercise in the gloom of a UK winter, so we decided to take ourselves off to the southern hemisphere. We also had to make sure that we went to a place where we knew we could get good, healthy food, not be too tempted by bad things, and preferably join a gym, as I'm a long way off from getting my exercise from big hikes or bike rides.

So we booked ourselves a flight to Chile in January, and figured we'd spend a couple of months in the southern lakes area, staying six weeks each in Pucon, which we had been to before and Puerto Varas. Our plan was that this would be enough time to kick start our new healthy lifestyle and make some headway in the weight loss, so that then we could spend a couple of months travelling in the more dangerous territory of Argentina.

When I say dangerous, I am of course only referring to the lure of good wine, empanadas, and that deliciously evil thing that is dulce de leche. For anyone not familiar with dulce de leche, think the very sweet, very rich toffee bit of a banoffee pie.

We are banking on the fact that once we have got going, we will be determined enough to resist most of the temptations at least, and whilst the fitness campaign may slow down a little during that time, we at least can avoid undoing whatever we may have achieved thus far.

Then after a short break back in the UK, we plan to do the same kind of thing again in the northern hemishere's summer, this time in Canada. We'll be off to Vancouver Island for a while, and then do some travelling across country. More on those plans closer to the time.

The intention is to continue in this way until we are both where we want to be, and we can finally see ourselves hiking to see the lemurs in Madagascar, or anything else that we want to do, as well as simply being fitter and healthier.

We don't know if we'll manage it, and we know that it will be a long hard slog, especially for me, but we're going to give it our best shot.

Of course in the meantime, it was Christmas, and being us, we couldn't resist the lure of one final blowout before we begin our new regime. So we filled our Christmas cat sit with turkey and all the trimmings, good wines, a chocolate truffle cake and a meringue gateau. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas, and felt stuffed, slightly heavier, but ready to make a start when we arrive in Chile in mid January.

Wish us luck!

Torres Del Paine - rambling at length

After 11 months of travel, it is time I wrote a blog entry. I seem to have been busy with stuff like accommodation & spending. But also I can be a bit idle! This is about trekking in Torres del Paine in Chile, a massive national park, in 26-29 January. This was my first trekking over a several day period, and included some great scenery, so it was certainly something new for me.

Day 1 got off to a bad start - a pretty wet morning, and I forgot my waterproof trousers. The scenery also wasn't that dramatic, including lots of damage from the recent sad fire, but we saw lots of guanacos (llama cousins). By then I'd not eaten any, or else I might have been a bit more eager for lunch. Interesting fact: rheas (ostrich cousins) lay a few eggs, cover them and then lay more eggs on top. This gives better drainage, and the bottom eggs are a first meal for their siblings from the top eggs. That's nature for you.

The afternoon was better, with just me, Margaret (retired, from Edinburgh) & Fernanda our guide trekking for 3 hours on some 'Patagonian Flat', i.e., not at all flat, but rather a bit up and down. The weather & scenery were better, often next to a river and trees as far as I could see. Then we walked to and along the beach at Lago Grey, via a very shaky (fun) footbridge. Very dramatic, mountains one way and the Grey Glacier at the end of the lake, with strong and cold winds making the waves crash in hard on the beach. Also, the 3 of us had a good chat along the way. A good trekking intro day.

Day 2 was my hardest day, about 18k to the base of the Torres del Paine. The Torres are, well, big pointy stone towers. The 5 of us split into 2 groups, me being with Joan, a friendly American from Alberquerque. We chatted for most of the way up - which was fun and deflected the effort - until it got to the steepest and last part, when speaking was definitely best avoided! We even got the offer of a place to stay in Alberquerque if we are in the neighbourhood, which was very nice.

The guide walked ahead and set the pace, which on the way up was good and steady, taking a bit over 4 hours. The weather was very decent, neither hot or rainy, so I thought it wasn't as hard as I feared it could be. Much of the way up gave a clear view from a good height, and there was some variety as part was in woodland and part on paths on the side of the mountain. Of course, this being South America, there were never any fences or ropes next to these paths!
The best part was turning the corner at the top to find ourselves next to a small lake staring up to the top of the towers. Partly it was about the satisfaction of getting there (although it's not exactly Everest) and partly it was just a great view. Also we were lucky that there weren't masses of people around. It was also a great place to stop and have lunch.

Just after lunch and the obligatory photos, the drizzle started and the Torres started to cloud over a lot more, so we were lucky to get there before that. Despite a bit more rain on the way down, having made it to the top and the view there, the effort of the way back seemed worth it by then. We saw a lot of people walking up in the afternoon, including many with big rucksacks - definitely not the way to enjoy it!

Given that I'd not done any real exercise for ages, I was pretty satisfied with how I did. But sadly my feet and legs were not used to so much walking, and about half way back the first of the blisters on both heels had burst. I had to push myself to the end and walk carefully and deliberately. The end took a long time to arrive, and was not helped by finishing the last bit without the guide, not being totally sure of the path, and then on finding it discovering that it was a short but steep path up to the camp.

Immediately I downed a Coke and a beer, then had one of the best showers ever. Then I spent much of the evening hobbling. I didn't really expect to be walking like that for at least another 30 years. I definitely advise doing some short treks to build up to anything as long or challenging as this. Obvious when you think about it, but I hadn't. The few shorter treks we'd done earlier in January were not much preparation.

Day 3 was supposed to be a very scenic trek. My body - knees, balls of feet, and blisters on heels - would however not allow me to go. Sometimes you just have to obey the body. This was one of those times. Gradually through the day I hobbled less. Good to have a day of rest from all this leisure.

Day 4 was an 8 hour, 19 km trek to Los Cuernos (The Horns) & back. They are more pointy mountains, which are very scenic as they are black at the top and a rocky grey colour at the bottom. This walk involved more Patagonian Flat, thankfully only gentle exercise. My blisters were covered up well, so didn't bother me much. But this was a day of impressive and varied scenery, with many lakes and mountains, a few rivers and some different vegetation to normal.

Stopping for lunch at the base of Los Cuernos was one of the best lunch stops I could remember for a while, with a great view up to the mountains in front and a big lake behind, and my legs needed a break by then! I had also made myself 2 particularly tasty and well-seasoned rolls for lunch. I like to think that the view was more inspiring than the rolls, but as I experienced both together I'm not sure. Anyhow, I didn't speak much at lunch, preferring to take in the views.

As with the previous trek there was a small group, 7 of us & 2 guides, which made for good conversation before lunch. On the way back I was instead often by myself, partly so my legs could go at the pace needed to not seize up! Not sure that I had any great revelations, but it felt good to just take in the scenery at times without focusing on anyone else around. My legs were aching from half way back, but in terms of the balance of effort and scenery this was actually a better walk than the one to the base of the Torres.

Overall my trekking experience was painful but rewarding, for the scenery, the sense of achievement and the relaxed chatting along the way. I wasn't really properly prepared, but that didn't stop me seeing plenty. It is a very scenic park, and certainly worth visiting, but it is harder work relative to the views you get than El Chalten in Argentina.

I am also a bit of a fair weather trekker. I will go out if it's wet, as long as I have all the gear, but I'm not going to enjoy it so much in the rain. Or in the bright sun. This was a good enough experience to persuade me to do more trekking, and it certainly helped with my fitness, but I will pick my moments. Especially as the bar, meal and bed waiting for me after the treks will not usually be as good as at Eco-camp!

Viewpoints, wildlife and the Grey Glacier

Torres del Paine national park

On the last full day, the easy option was so easy that even I decided to get off my butt and go with them.  And as Nic had already done a similar walk to the challenging option, and was still coping with his blisters, he stuck to this one too.


Guanaco



Rhea



 We left at a civilised 10:30am and drove around the park, stopping at various different viewpoints along the way.  Obviously the views weren't as good as those that you got if you walked closer to the peaks, but they were still impressive and much less effort. 



As we walked up to one of the lookouts, we passed by a set of Guanaco bones, which had presumably been a puma kill and then picked clean by the various smaller animals and scavengers in the park.  Once at the viewpoint we got some good condor sightings as well as the views of the mountains.

Patagonian fox eating another fox






We also saw rhea, live guanacos and a Patagonian fox.  The fox had found the remnants of a puma kill, which looked like another fox, and was happily if slightly warily, eating while we watched.



Salto Grande waterfall

 



We stopped off at the Salto Grande Waterfall.  The walk up to this was incredibly windy, and it was actually quite an effort to stay on your feet at times.  You could quite see how it was that the wind carried the fire so effectively.  And we saw plenty of evidence of the fire during our drive, but I am posting on that separately.



Torres del Paine national park

After stopping off to eat our lunch we headed for the Grey Lake.  Here we took a short walk down to the beach and got into a zodiac to reach the ferry that was going to take us around the lake and to the edge of the Grey Glacier.


 

Torres del Paine national park







The ferry was back on its normal duties now after having been pressed into action rescuing people who had been stranded by the fire.  The captain had only had about three sleep a night for three days as he made multiple journeys carrying firefighters out to try to control the fire and collecting walkers and staff whose route back was cut off.

Grey Glacier



And all this trying to land the boat on a rocky shoreline, with no piers, in very high winds creating huge waves on the lake.  Thankfully by this time he had caught up on his sleep and wasn't having to cope with such difficult conditions. 

Grey Glacier



The trip across the lake was best done from inside the boat.  The waves were fairly strong, and even going slowly, the icy cold water splashed up over the front of the boat.  When we got to the glacier itself, the water was calmer, so we ventured out into the cold to look at the glacier and take our photos.

Nic at the Grey Glacier



  



There was a free drink included in the trip, I think solely for the novelty of serving the drink with ice from the glacier.  Not that we needed any extra ice by this time.

The glacier was nice enough, but having recently seen the Perito Moreno, we decided to head back into the comparative warmth of the cabin after a while, and look at the rest through the window.

 

Grey Glacier



We were nearly driven back out again by a rather noisy, grizzly and irritating child, and a number of us agreed that we were sorely tempted to throw him overboard.  We just about resisted, but I think we all had our fingers crossed that he would fall in when he started moving around early on the zodiac on the way back!