So here I am deep in the land of trekking... somewhere I am sure nobody expected to find me, including myself! But, I am here and it would be rude not to embark on a little walk from time to time whilst in Patagonia, so that is exactly what I did. The main attraction nearby my current town of El Calafate is the Perito Mereno Glacier, which is huge. By huge I mean HUGE; 258sqkm surface area of ice... basically it is the same size as Buenos Aires city. But this bad boy is not the biggest glacier in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, it is actually relatively rather small compared to some of the monsters they have here. However, it is one of only two advancing glaciers in the whole continent, and for this reason it is a massive tourist attraction as people flock to hear it creak and watch huge chunks of ice fall from the various faces as it moves two metres each day. El Calafate also has a casino and many all you can eat grill restaurants despite being quite a small town, so there is plenty to keep you busy at night too.

It is a little bit of a drive away from the town to get to the National Park, and unfortunately I do not have a car. Apparently if you wake up really early and take a taxi there you can arrive before the park opens and you don't have to pay to get in, in total this will make you a marginal saving if you can pack the taxi full. However I was too lazy to seek out three more people for a taxi, and I am not a fan of pre-sunrise wakeups, so I paid the little extra and took the honest way to the Park. When the minibus arrived to collect me from my hostel I was followed out by an old guy that had been loitering uncomfortably around the reception area a short distance away from me. The driver greeted us and took my voucher, the old dude didn't seem to understand he had to hand one over too. I was talking to the driver a little (in my best Spanish) and then he tried to talk to my wrinkley follower who did not understand what he was saying at all. Despite claiming that he could speak English, the old fella could not understand much of what I said, or any of the driver's attempts at speaking English. Turns out he is French, so I got to use my few French phrases once more before resuming the easier option of a conversation in Spanish with the driver. I have no idea how this man is getting himself around the country!

On the way to the park, we stopped off and took in some of the beautiful views of Lago Argentina; the biggest lake in the country. I also got to try the Calafate fruit, after which the town is named, or maybe the fruit is named after the town? I had already tried the jam and liquor which were both ok, the fruit itself is rather bitter but pleasant enough. I was advised that eating the fruit meant that I would one day return to El Calafate... and the driver very kindly offered his house as my next place to stay! Other things that we saw on the way were one of the president's houses, some flamingoes on a lake and an eagle catching a hare, which was quite exciting. Fortunately we were also joined by a Dutch family in the bus so I could avoid taking to Mr Frenchy, and the slightly sleazy driver.

I had taken the decision not to go glacier hiking here as an excursion called Big Ice, which gives you four hours or so on the Perito Mereno glacier also comes with a Big Price. The other option called Mini Trekking hardly seemed worth the also relatively high price for just over an hour on the ice. I had heard that it is available in my next destination for a lot less, although on a much less famous glacier which doesn't really bother me. Plus I have already been glacier hiking in New Zealand, and to the untrained eye such as my own I imagine they are all pretty samey; what I would quite like to try is ice climbing as I've not done this before. So instead I walked around it and took a boat trip to get up close and personal. When you walk around you can see the surface for about 30km and the glacier continues for around another 30km all the way to the border with Chile. I got to see some good big chunks of ice falling off the face of the glacier which made such a loud noise and was very impressive. You can never tell which bits are going to come crashing down next, thus creating a huge amount of tension as everyone waits open-mouthed. I even found the spot from which the front cover photo of the Lonely Planet was taken, along with a person with a copy of the infamous "book of lies" for me to pose with.

Not too far away (in South American terms) is the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile, which coincidently is the home of the famous Torres Del Paine. I decided that despite my disliking of early mornings, I would do it this once for a trip over the border to one of the most impressive sights in Latin America. Really I should have thought about going there earlier and stopping off in a nearer town (Puerto Natales, Chile) on my way up from Ushuaia, but due to my bad planning I got on a bus at 4am to back track into Chile for one long day. Despite my best efforts to find a place to get hold of Chilean pesos in El Calafate I did not manage to find anywhere to make an exchange, meaning I had to change cash at the border for the most outrageous rate imaginable. To make things worse I had just crammed as much of my packed lunch into me as possible, as I was advised that the border we were using was very strict and they searched everyone's bags for traces of fruit or meat products, which are all forbidden to come over the border with you. I was quite annoyed by this as it was still quite early in the morning, and the only reason I had taken a packed lunch with me was on the advice of the lady working in my hostel. Anyway, full of sandwiches and fruit I had my bags half-arsedly searched and got on my way.

On our approach to the National Park I could see Torres Del Paine in the distance, however I could also see a massive blanket of cloud moving in. We also saw lots of alpaca/llama type animals grazing in the fields. By the time we entered the park and got towards the point where we could start walking, the cloud had come in really close and the wind had picked up to a pretty high level. Unfortunately this meant that the closer I got to the Torres, the more impossible it became to see them, and the harder it became to walk! At this point I was thinking that maybe I should've taken the usual option of camping out and walking around for three or four days to get a good view from various angles… something that I would no doubt be doing had I been on this trip with Rees (or you Miss Lee). However as it was, I was there for one day walking as much of it as I possibly could on just a few hours' sleep and an unusual eating pattern.

Once we had done a lot of walking and not a lot of seeing it was time to drive around the park to take in some of the views of the lakes and waterfalls before leaving and heading back over the border. Just as we were on our way out we happened across an overturned jeep which had been flipped by the wind. The weather had got so bad and the worst storm in years was forecast, which left me feeling very glad I had decided against camping and hiking for days! The passengers of the jeep were all ok and after a while we left them to it. When we arrived back in El Calafate it was just after midnight and the casino was the last thing on my mind as I crawled into my bed and passed out after a very long and tiring day.