Day 6 - Rio Serrano to El Calafate

Most of today was spent travelling, in various degrees of wakefulness. Another early start (on the bus about 7am this time) for a one and a half hour drive over dirt roads to the border. Then on and off the bus at each side of the crossing, queuing to have our passports stamped by men in uniforms who otherwise ignored us. The scenery there was much like the Highlands of Scotland; imposing, steep-sided mountains separated by wide grassy valleys.

After that we switched buses to a single big Argentinian bus (we'd been on a couple of small 12-14 seat buses for navigating the back roads) and off for another four hours or so. Not sure exactly how long as I was asleep for much of it, but certainly for longer than was planned. It doesn't help that the Argentinian guide talks a lot and has a rather grating, metallic voice which inclines you to switch off and sleep. We got to the hotel in El Calafate closer to 3pm than to the promised 1.30. The terrain was, we were told, Argentinian steppe as it's drying than the pampas with shorter grass. Quite a lot of guanacos and assorted birds.

After a late lunch at the hotel and a much appreciated period of rest, we were off again at 5.30. This time to a local station, Estancia Alice, where we had afternoon tea (not needed) before taking a big bus up to the top of Cerro Frias which had a great view over Lago Argentino and the surrounding area. On the way we saw an armadillo scurrying across the road.

The hill top was beautiful, barren and extremely cold.

And this final one might be interactive/VR if you click into it and it works correctly:

By the time we got back to the base of the hill it was close to 9pm. We had a dinner that was fairly bland and at any rate we were too tired to fully appreciate it and got back around 10.30.