El Calafate

A Hiking I will go...Stayed at a wonderful hostal in El Clafata. Every staff member remembered everyones name. I became friendly with the morning guy Juan because when I said my name was Mo he said (say in a very think SA accent), "well what do you know my name isa Lari (Larry)" he is the only South American who has done that thus far so we got along great.
Okay Hostal living 101. Yes you can sleep in your underwear but I repeat you should NOT, NOT walk around your SHARED dorm room in your underwear! I don´t know why but it only seems to be the Australian & German men who seem to do this. If it was boxers (and good looking men) I would not mind so much but these guys I have been fortunate (unfortunate) to share rooms with always seem to be older, not so good looking and ALWAYS wear the little bikini briefs. Now there is not much room in a 4 person dorm so when you all are getting ready for your day and there is this guy in his small blue underwear combing his hair in front of the only mirror...jeez get some pants on! I felt like Father Harry was right there in the room! (those who know my father harry stores will get this others will have to wait for the book).
Okay let me get back to El Calafate. The only thing really near here are the glaciers. They were incredible. My first tour was on a big boat with about 50 other ppl. Side note: If you ever go there try to get on a small boat. They seem to have more leverage getting up close to the smaller glaciers). It was a rather comincal ride. So when we would come upon a small glacier everyone would rush over to get a picture so if you were not on the "right" side of the boat the chances of you getting a good shot of yourself in front were slim...and I got frustrated the first few times and then I started to laugh at the ppl. This is ice we are taking a pictures of...froen water. Then I got the hang of the boat. The captain would hang around some of the big ones a while so you just had to be patient until ppl got cold or bored and then you had a great shot. I met a man from Germany and we formed a picture taking bond. He would take my camera, I his and take pics of each other. It worked great. The first glacier (it was an all day boat trip where we went to 3 huge glaciers) was great I got some great photos...then I reformatted my camera to get better quality pics and erased everything I had on the camera...yep that would be something I would do. Luckily my German friend said he would send me his. So lets hope he remembers!. I still had two more Glaciers to go...
Sitting behind me were two women from Ireland. Susan and Mary. Can´t get any more irish than that. They were great and we hit it off. On the boat trip there was a lot of down time traveling to each glacier so we got to talking. very funny they kept saying they needed a glacier romance. Our chances on this boat were slim.
The last and most famous of the three was Petito Morano. It is famous because it is the most vocal, meaning that you can hear and see big chunks of ice fall into the the water and the site sounds are amazing! Loud booms and gun shots. Okay so the boat is just kind of hanging out in one spot. I have a great spot that I am NOT about to give up so I wait patiently becasue it seems we are waiting for something. So a lilttle piece of ice falls into the lake and everyones camera goes up to that spot and waits...camera´s aimed and ready. Looking around I see a lot of NICE cameras with huge lenses that can get 100 shots in 5 seconds...I feel so inadequate with mine and the small lense and I get about 1 shot every min (as soon as I get back I am getting a better camera!!!). So I flip mine to the movie setting and waited. You kind of feel foolish waiting, so I started taking bets with the people around me where the next big piece was going to fall. The woman next to me said right in front of us will drop next. So I told her we had to "Be the glacier, imagine it falling in..." Right then a small piece dropped I switched on my camera and then a HUGE chunk of ice fell into the water. I am not sure you can hear it on my camera becasue of my "holy shit" right next to the mic but it was amazing. Then the boat gunned his engine because a massive wave was headed our way. It was amazing and well worth the wait. Then we all had our camera up and ready to go for the next one but alas no.
After our glacier dventure we went out for drinks. Along the way to the bar I met my blue bikined roommate Alex (again late 50´s in age - picture it blue bikini underwear...yep my roommate). They invited him along...I could not say NO HE is the one who WEARS BLUE BAKINI UNDERWEAR. I had mentioned it to them nd then they figured it out. However he SEEMED like an okay guy so we all went out for drinks. It was agood night and then we decided to meet up for Dinner the next night. It was an awesome dinner (La Tablitha). Good conversation UNTIL Alex started down a conversation path one should not take with 3 women. It was rather a bizarre conversation and I am not sure I want to put it down. So ask me about it when you see me...