You've Been Iced: The Happy Hour Edition: Ice Ice Baby!!!!

CALAFATE: Perito Moreno Glacier

We took an over night bus (this one was 27 hours long) to El Calafate to the south of Bariloche.

Nat reading her kindle on the bus.

We were greeted at the station by a very cute, goofy, and charming girl with a free taxi to a nice hostel (Natalie made sure Bobby wasn't looking too hard at this girl!!). The hostel was super informative, thankfully, and we got to book our plans for the next day: Perito Moreno Glacier.

There are a few tours on this glacier about an hour outside of town, but only one company has rights to enter the National Park. Because of the weather/season, it was the first day of the tour we hoped to do: Big Ice. This is no whimpy glacier hike like the mini-trekking option. No No, this is Big Ice! and totally worth every one of the many dollars we had to pay. We got picked up early in the morning and once at the park we hiked to various viewpoints of the glacier from different decks across the water way.

Nat doing her Glacier dance.

Then we got fitted for crampons, and this is where we realized once again Bobby is too big for Argentina. The largest adjustments for the crampons still did not fit Bobby's feet; thus they had to rig it up with some wires to make it work. And then we began our hour hike up the land beside the glacier (the moreno)...we passed all those whimpy mini-trekkers on the way. We were not skirting around the edge of the glacier like those whimps. No No, this was BIg Ice (hahaha-totally joking about the mini-trekking-both excursions provided great views of the glacier making the high cost well worth it).

The hour long trek to the starting point of the glacier hike put us further into the glacier, whereas the mini-trekkers just hike for a bit around the front edge. Once on the glacier, our group of about 15 was further broken down into two groups, English and Spanish speaking groups.

Nat putting her crampons on for the big hike.

After our group of 7 headed out we were surrounded by the never ending glacier for the entire 4+ hour long glacier trek. Sooo amazing.

Also amazing, was the new love Natalie found. Who would have thought that an innocent day of glacier hiking with her boyfriend would introduce Natalie to the man of her dreams!! Below is an exaggerated recap of the events in Natalie's head in the first 2 minutes after seeing him. It all started when we arrived on shore and were introduced to our English-speaking guide (Carlos) for a short introduction:

OMG, he is beautiful. He is like a younger Argentinian Daniel Day-Lewis...but he has an axe and crampons. Am i staring? I can't be the only one staring at this beautiful man. I bet he even stares at himself...he is sooo beautiful. Oh, you Argentinian iceclimber you...you crazy outdoorsman, you. I don't see a wedding ring. I bet he is such an outdoorsman and totally crazy that he hasn't found a woman worth giving up his dangerous lifestyle...I bet you're so dangerous and such a risk-taker...you Argentinian daniel Day-Lewis you.

About 2 minutes into his introduction speech, Bobby looked over at me and with a little smile on his face says, "you're in love wtih our guide, aren't you." He knows me pretty well! I smiled broadly at the love of my life and admitted, "a little." We both laughed.