We arrived in El Calafate Argentina at about 7pm after a pretty good 5 hour bus ride from Puerto Natales. We finally found our hostel and freshened up and went out to dinner. We walked around for a bit and then found the perfect place up on a hill over looking the town with views of snowed capped mountains. We ordered the Parrella (BBQ meatfest as Junior calls it) and some great wine. It was literally a little BBQ placed on a little table next to ours. It had 4 different cuts of steak, 3 different types of sausage, rack of lamb, ribs, some pork, and as we found out later heart and intestines. It was amazing and we nearly got through it all. Although some of it I could not eat. Junior tried everything but left the blood sausage until the end and was full and didn't want to risk ruining his meal by eating trying it.

As we found out when you sit down at an Argentinian restaurant you get bread and salsa and its always so good but later found out that it's not free . It's cheap though so worth it.

A popular tourist attraction in this area is the Perto Merano (Glacier) which is 80kms from town. You can do it on a tour which includes a boat ride out to near the glacier but Ian had done it and said it wasn't really worth it so we just got a local bus out there. Theres only one that leaves from the bus terminal around lunch and returns at 7pm. There was also a 100 peso park entrance fee for non-locals. This area is very flat and dry just brown land and then the glacier pushing towards a forrest. It was massive 60mtrs high and 14kms long. They have built a walking path around it so you can get close and watch the falling pieces of ice crash into the lake. It was really really cold and spitting rain but amazing to see.

This glacier is 1 out of only a few that is still growing. While waiting for our return bus back to El Calafate we kept ourselves occupied by playing cards and drinking hot chocolate. We also met a Kiwi couple Kate and Mike who had just started travelling around South America. We caught up for dinner back in Calafate in this great resturant. Note in Argentina they also eat really really late and ended up getting a table at 10.30pm. It was a really fun night and we hope to see them around Argentina in the next couple of weeks.

We left the next day to Puerto Madryn which was a 20hr bus trip. It ended up costing us $150USD each for this bus. OUCH.