The amazing glacier!

From Guillermo, sent at 5pm this evening:
After I talked to you last night, we walked back to the hotel, probably 8 to 10 blocks, and the snow was really coming down. This morning, the snow was all the way down the mountains and there was snow in the town on some rooftops and cars. It has been an interesting day today, the Perito Moreno glacier was very impressive. A bus picked us up at 9:00 and it took about an hour and a half to get out to where the glacier is. On the way there, we drove along the shores of Lake Argentina. It was snowing and the clouds were so low you couldn't see much. Some places the bus had to go very slowly because the snow was accumulating on the road, the trees and vegetation were covered by snow, but it didn't seem all that cold, so I am still saving my gloves for Ushuaia! However, I did wear a T-shirt, that quilted blue long sleeve shirt, my gray striped shirt, my fleece and my jacket a good part of the time, so I shouldn't have been cold!!

We stopped along one of the arms of Lake Argentina and got on a large catamarin that went along the north face of the glacier, but not too close. The ice cliff of the glacier varies from 40 to 60 meters (about 130 to 200 ft) and it is a very impressive sight. Some of the ice is very blue and there are huge cracks in the ice. While we were out there, huge chunks of ice broke off the cliff making a very loud cracking noise and crashed into the water. There were two especially large ones where whole sections of the cliff from the top to the water surface broke loose and crashed into the water making a huge wave that really rocked the boat. Fernando and I spent almost the entire time (1 hour) on the top deck and while we were up there, the snow let up for a little while and the sun even tried to show itself for a moment. It was really pretty, we took a lot of pictures. I wish you could have seen it and I know your mother would have loved seeing that too.

We then went to a place where there are well designed walkways that allow you good views of some sections of the glacier, but before we did the walkways, Fernando and I ate our bread, cheese, salame, potato chips, pears and drinks that we bought at a grocery store after talking to you last night. We also had bought some dried fruit and nuts, but we didn't eat any of that until after we got back on the bus a couple hours later. It was snowing the whole time we were eating and it was very pretty.

It also snowed on and off when we did the walkways and there were some very impressive sites of the glacier, some through the trees. We could also see where the glacier has blocked off one arm of the lake and the water in that part of the lake is at least 25 feet higher than in the rest of the lake. Eventually, the weight of the water will break that dam and I imagine it will be a spectacular sight. The last time it happened was in 2006 and it makes me wonder what will happen if the catamarin is out there when that occurs, because there will be a huge amount of water rushing down to the lower level of the lake. Shortly after starting our walk, we saw a good sized parakeet on a tree. It was strange to see a parrot in the snow and when it flew off, 7 or 8 others that we hadn't seen flew off with it.

Well, that has been our day. Tomorrow we leave for El Chaltén at 7:30 and we are hoping for good weather, otherwise the trip up there may be a waste because the Fitz Roy peaks will not be visible. We will come back here Thursday night or Friday morning and then head to the bottom of Chile as soon after that as we can.

It seems like they had an amazing day today!! I also wrote Guillermo this morning, after I talked with the people at the credit union. I wanted him to know that the ATM transaction that went through, that he didn't receive but we were charged for, was reversed, so everything is, at least up to this point, fine again.

Today, here at home, I picked up my sister Linda from SAKS Fifth Avenue, where she works, and we had lunch at a great Korean restaurant. We had Beef Bulgogi and also a Shrimp Pancake and it was so delicious. After lunch, I went to the park by our house to walk because I didn't have many steps yet on my pedometer and my goal is to get over 7,000 steps every day. As it turned out, I didn't need to go walking because I ended up mowing the garden around Guillermo's garden this evening and ended up way past 7,000. But that's good!!
Our neighbor also came over and helped me move the last of the plants out of the small greenhouse and the three huge plants that were in our garage. So now, the garage is cleared out and the little greenhouse is totally empty!!! The ten biggest and heaviest plants are left to move, and those are in the big greenhouse and we tackle that tomorrow!