Our mixed dorm at the Hostel del Rio in Colonia del Sacramento turned out to be empty, which was just as well since we needed all 6 beds to re-pack our backpacks to prepare for our assault on Patagonia.

This is where we hope to unleash some of our expensive kit, which was bought in a bit of a hurry from some overenthusiastic shop attendants before we left London. We were both itching to get the walking boots out of our packs and onto our feet, thus significantly reducing our carry-load!

Our Buquebus left Colonia for Buenos Aires at 10am, whereupon we proudly ignored the expensive taxi-men in the car park in favour of flagging a much cheaper alternative from the side of the road. We arrived at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (BA’s domestic airport) for the third and final time, a little sad to be leaving such a wonderful city but excited for the next phase of our trip.

At the airport Ed met up with an Argentinian friend of his that he’d met when he’d travelled to Italy aged 18. Sadly, all attempts to spend more time with Barbara and her son had failed, so we had to settle for a rather hurried 17-year catch-up at the foot of an escalator!

Coincidentally, on the same flight as us was Francois, a French friend of L’s from London, who is on holiday with his girlfriend Amaia. Upon arriving at El Calafate, we agreed to go for dinner that night and settled on the guidebook’s top choice, famous for its spit-roasted Patagonian lamb.

Fresh from the 1½ hour trauma of queuing and booking 6 bus journeys at the bus terminal, we descended on La Tablita with a serious thirst and proceeded to drink our way through 3 bottles of wine, some beers and a Pisco sour amongst the four of us. Dinner was excellent and the “Mix Carnes” (mixed grill of lamb, sirloin, fillet and ribeye) did not disappoint.

Four hours and three rounds of “Happy Birthday” later, we stumbled out, exceptionally merry but we were both a little embarrassed, since Francois had picked-up the bill – a wonderfully generous gesture, which will be settled once we’re back in London! Thanks guys, we thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening with you and best of luck with the rest of your trip.

The next day, we were very grateful that we had opted for a slow morning and hadn’t booked our day-trip to the Perito Moreno glacier until 1pm. This allowed us time to cure our headaches and do a bit of planning.

The Perito Moreno glacier is one of Argentina’s greatest natural wonders. It’s not he longest of the country’s glaciers or the tallest (at 60m), however, such comparisons prove irrelevant when faced with the towering wall of a seemingly endless field of immense ice. As in Iguazu, the Argentinian authorities have done a superb job of building a network of broadwalks, which offer wonderful, uninterrupted views of the glacier head-on.

Unfortunately, the selfie-stick brigades were out in force once again, however, we managed to escape the hoards and settled in quieter spots along the often empty trails. We were at the glacier just over 5 hours and most of that time was spent watching and waiting in anticipation for something to happen…

…suddenly, following a thunderous crack, a sheet of ice would slide and tumble silently from the face of the glacier. You’d see it hit the cold, clear blue water before you heard the deafening blast of a 60m wall of ice crashing into the water below.

We witnessed several moments like this but unfortunately our camera “draw” was not quick enough to capture them on film. Reason being, on every occasion, despite having cameras and iphones ready, we’d both freeze and stand open-mouthed with looks of dumb bewilderment. A raucous cheer from the crowd would usually stun us back to reality, at which point we’d head-tilt one another, acknowledging that we’d messed it up again but not to worry, we’d get the next one. We didn’t.

El Perito Moreno glacier was an amazing spectacle and right up there with Iguazu. Bravo Argentina, your natural wonders haven’t let us down yet!

That night we cooked in-house and set about planning the next phase of our trip and the 5 hour bus journey at 8:30am the following morning.

Next stop: Puerto Natales and the Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile…

Highlights:

• El Perito Moreno glacier, should be on everyone’s “things to do before I die” list
• Dinner with Francois and Amaia

Gasto highlights:

• Spit-roasted Patagonian lamb – delicious despite there being no mint jelly