Okay, so I lied about there being nothing to do in El Calafate. There is one thing to do here. You can go see the Perito Moreno Glacier, which is the only game in town. But even if you skip the pricey tour and take the public bus, it´s still kind of expensive.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is quite a spectacular sight though. I didn´t think I would be too impressed since I already saw Glacier Grey in Torres Del Paine, but the massiveness of Perito Moreno is mind blowing. You can hear and watch big chunks of ice falling from the glacier. It sounds like loud claps of thunder.
The glacier seems to stretch infinitely. All I could see for miles were dramatic landscapes of ice, and where the sun hits, it turns a beautiful hue of blue.
Yay, I'm in Argentina! After a 5-hour bus ride and several passport inspections, I have finally made it over the border. It's weird calculating things in another currency. I was just getting used to $600 Chilean pesos to $1 U.S. dollar, now it's 3:1 with the Argentine peso.
So while it's exciting being in another country, I can't say that I'm thrilled with El Calafate. There are tourists towns, and then there are tourist traps...I should have listened to the Australian girl when she said to try to avoid El Calafate (even though from Puerto Natales it's kind of unavoidable). Everything in El Calafate is outrageously overpriced, and there is really nothing to do. After a half day of bumming around I was ready to leave so I went back to the bus station to buy my ticket to the next place. Unfortunately, the next bus bound for Bariloche didn't leave for another three days. Ouch!
