My friend Doug, who is visiting from home, only has a few more days left of his vacation before returning to The States. He has one of those job thingies and some other responsibilities that I didn't quite comprehend.   Doug predicts I am going to be a total social misfit when I return home as things such as the day, month, and time have little meaning to me anymore. But, before I deal with all that, we have some time to check out El Calafate. We heard nice things about the town and the hostel where we reserved,  but the place turned out to be really boring.  There is just no vibe here and as hard as we looked, we couldn't find anything to entertain us.  
The only reason this town gets to exist and overcharge tourists for their presence in the first place is the Perito Moreno Glacier than spills into Lake Argentina .  It is an awesome display of solid ice in action; constantly cracking, popping, and shearing off at the leading edge. It is basically a solid block of ice 3 miles wide, 18.5 miles long, and stands 180 feet tall above the water line and in some places reaches as much as 590 feet under water in the iceberg canal. Quite simply, it is massive. And entertaining too.   We watched for hours as huge chunks of ice the size of houses calved off and fell into the water. The glacier is in a state of equilibrium right now... not advancing, not receding. Each day it slides forward about 6 and a half feet but that's about what falls off the leading edge. And that's what's so cool to watch.

After a day trip to the glacier, Doug and I had to get out of this crap town. We have just enough time to check out the famous Cerro Fitz Roy in Chalten, 4 hours from here.   We're off........