Today was spectacular weather--blue sky, and we could see the snow-covered Andes across the brown steppe. We hung out in town and found the tourist offices, finally--municipal, provincial, and national park--all within four blocks of our hotel. And we discovered there was a public bus out the the Glaciarium, a museum some 15 mins drive ouside of town. There is NoTHING else out there, just a broad expanse of plain, Lake Argentino, and the distant mountains. The museum is of course devoted to glaciers, and because it's only 8 years old it's displays are hi-tech and in English as well as Spanish. So we learned a lot, and bought their message that global warming is going to melt the glaciers and kill the planet. Then it was time to try out the Glaciobar, opened only five months ago--a bar in the basement built out of ice. We and 15 rollicking locals were dressed in silver capes and gloves lined with fur and let loose in the bar, where stool, tables, the bar itself, as well as the walls were all ice. The music was loud and throbbing, and the free drinks flowed-- we'd paid to get in, after all--but we had to drink quickly because if was so COLD. It felt like we were in a meat locker with a loose kaleidoscope. We finally realized we could open the meat locker door ourselves and leave, and we did.
Back in El Calafate, Richard read and walked the golf course, while I walked to the Nature Preserve, some 7 blocks from the hotel, created in a marsh on the banks of Lake Argentino. The place is totally fabulous, loaded with all kinds of birds, the stars for me being the pink flamingos, white ibis, and black-necked swans. The well-marked path meandered around the very large marsh to the lake, but as it turned out part of the path had been flooded out, thanks to Perito Moreno Glacier. As I said yesterday, the glacier is advancing and creates an ice bridge to the land periodically. That creates a dam, and one arm of Lake Argentino rises higher and finally breaks down the ice dam, which makes huge news around Argentina and is an amazing spectacle. (In 2004 when the dam crashed, it was allegedly heard in El Calafate 80 km
away.) The dam rebuilt itself and then crashed again in 2008. And then last week it crashed again just before we got here (people told us about it in BA, sondisappointed that it happened at 4am when noone was there to see it). So after the crash, the water is able to flow back into the lake which causes the lake level to rise everywhere for several weeks--hence the marsh flooding!
By the way, between the preserve and the hotel I passed the get-away home of President Kirshner and her husband, who is from here--a grand house of brick, across from a park. For three blocks around it, however, there is clear poverty. We've been struck by the contrast between the haves and have-nots, here and in Bariloche, and often the two are living side by side. El Calafate is hugely expensive, like any resort town, but it feels less like Vail here than Leadville, and we suspect locals are having a hard time.
Tomorrow, off to Upsala Glaciar!
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