Chalten - Calafate - Puerto Natales Whirlwind

The next couple days were travel days for us.  Things you need to know about travel within Patagonia: 1) the "cities" are really far apart  2) you will go on long bus rides, and you will not be able to reserve them from the U.S. (despite much effort)  3)Argentina and Chile don't exactly have the most amicable border, so travel between the countries is a little harder than expected  4) you will inevitably spend more than one night in El Calafate.  [Seriously though, if any of you plan a trip to Patagonia, we would love to offer more tips. The guidebooks and websites are seriously lacking in some areas.]

So...back to El Calafate for us, where we would spend one night and then get on our bus to Puerto Natales, Chile the next day.  Since we did have some extra time in Calafate, we saved one of the half-day attractions for a visit to a museum outside of town called the Glaciarium.  This museum is dedicated to explaining glaciers: how they're formed, where they're located, and what is happening to them.  We particularly enjoyed learning about the Southern Patagonian Icefield, which exists in the area we were currently exploring.  It stretches over 365 km and is formed by 48 outlet glaciers (one of which is the Perito Moreno which we visited a few days before).

Outside of Glaciarium

Ok, so learning about glaciers was cool, but I have to admit that my favorite part of this experience was the GLACIO BAR.  Everyone goes into a frozen room for 25 minutes, they give you a silver cape and mittens AND "you get to drink as much as you can in 25 minutes" (that is literally how they phrase it to you). Plus, they played fun dance music (from the US, which felt nostalgic) and no one cared how you danced because everyone was wearing huge capes. Let's just say it definitely lived up to all of my expectations.

The next morning, we got on the bus for the long haul to Puerto Natales.  The bus ride was long, but relatively uneventful.  We arrived in Puerto Natales and looked forward to exploring Torres del Paine and the surroundings in the next few days!