Glaciar Martial

Our second day in Ushuaia we spent talking to two porteños about possible routes as we proceed up north on Route 40. We received great advice, and it was entertaining because they enjoyed our humor (sometimes there is a boundary between American humor and other cultures) and they both somehow looked like George Clooney.

After our conversation I mentioned Glaciar Martial, and a different man at the hostel, Luis, wanted to join us. So he grabbed his thermos of hot water and mate, and we left.

We chose to walk the 7km to the glacier, because a taxi is expensive, and it was still a nice day for a walk (despite going up hill the entire time). We found several short cuts along the way, then finally made it the base of the glacier. Here we chose not to take the chair lift up to be closer to the glacier, because it was also expensive, it was still a nice day, and we wanted the exercise. We continued sipping mate and made our way up.

It took forever to get to the top of the chairlift, then there was still the actual steep trail up to the glacier. Let's just say, as we were climbing up this steep trail, the George Clooney look alikes passed as going down. They had visited a museum FIRST and somehow passed us completely, seeing the glacier before us and everything... By the bicycle pants they both wear, I knew they were well fit, but gosh.

-I believe they did opt for the taxi and chairlift, if I understood one George correctly. But, still.

Anyway, with walking slow and several breaks, all three of us made it to the snow of the glacier and took many pictures, and it snowed a bit on us, and I may or may not have slipped and fallen on the glacier snow when I was posing for a picture.

We walked the long walk back to town, hit up a grocery store, and arrived back to the hostel 7 hours after our adventure began. A great day in Patagonia!