Ice Age

Written on: 15-07-14 in between El Calafate and Bariloche 

Our arrival in El Calafate was more than tinted by the beginning of the World Cup final. Finding a place to eat which was open seemed a doomed mission and was complicated even further by Capucine being convinced that she would bring bad luck to the German team if she watched them play. We finally settled down for a quick lunch so she wouldn't be in front of a screen long enough to doom her home team! We compensated for this with the most humongous ice cream we could find. Cecile got more than a little excited by hers which was dipped in chocolate. 

And was undoubtedly an extremely messy eat... 

We decided to spend the last of the daylight wandering through the seemingly deserted town, enjoying the sunset whilst listening for any shouts and horns indicating an Argentinian goal. Luckily for Capucine, only howls of stray dogs were to be heard. We managed to see the last few minutes of the final by peaking through the window of a hotel (Capucine was still hesitating to stare too long at the screen). Upon their loss, the Argentinians streamed out onto the streets beeping their horns and waving flags; to such an extent that we were starting to doubt our knowledge that Germany had won. 

Back at the hostel, Capucine felt a little more comfortable expressing her joy. As the whole hostel was gathered in front of the screen we made friends with some other frenchies, and all set out for dinner together in a neighbouring Parilla. 

We set off early the next morning to discover the national park which houses the Perito Moreno, a world famous glacier. On the way we were awed by the sunrise and couldn't resist making a stop to capture the moment.

If we already thought that was beautiful, our breath was quite literally whipped away when the glacier came into sight. It finally hit home that we're on the other end of the earth, living something truly unique.

After a few snapchats - nothing is as much fun if you can't brag about it on social media - we set off on the hiking paths around the glacier. 

Every so often a muffled thunder warns spectators that a piece of the glacier is about to break off and smash into the water below. During the hike, we inevitably slipped and slid along the icy paths resulting in Capucine and Cecile spending some time on the floor and earning a few bruises. We both insist on the unfairness of this as Flora is undoubtedly the clumsy one of the group, and the only one without proper walking boots! 

Our time was up and we reluctantly left the glacier, treasuring our many snaps of the beauty. 

Back at the bus station, we found policemen searching bags with dogs and taking everyone's fingerprints - quite the excitement! This spurred us to share horror stories about people being tricked into carrying drugs for others or getting falsely accused. 

This is definitely the most luxurious bus of them all so far, Flora and Capucine found it quite exciting. 

We settled down with our huge bag of food to last us for the whole ride and our own little comforts (see Capucine with her fluffy socks).

 

We had warned those travelling with us that the food on these buses is sparse and extremely unappetising. However, obviously this bus ride is the one which serves hot platters. So our reputation as little obnoxious Parisians seems to be here to stay. They served us a very patriotic dessert - proof that their loss has not dented their national pride.

After having sat through several violent and absolutelynotintellectuallychallenginginanyway films, finally something context-appropriate came on : ICE AGE 2. We even felt we were improving our Spanish while watching it! We happily sat back and enjoyed the ride (except for Capucine breaking out into a sweat whenever she's asked to present her German passport)! 

Cécile and Capucine