To sum up the very small town of El Calafate - you would swear you were on the set of Twin Peaks (and for those of you not old enough to remember, get the video!). There is a Main Street and a few side streets off it and that's about it. Each store and restaurant in Main Street is built from wood and very picturesque. There are only 4,000 people in this town which seems to exist soley for the purpose of maintaining the nearby Glacial National Park. Everything is ordered, wonderfully clean and you get the impression that everyone knows everyone else and their business to boot! Whilst this is one of the most visited places in Argentina, there is actually not that much you can venture out to do - unless you are into extreme sports like ice climbing and glacier hiking (Chris did try and persuade Carol to have a go at the ice climbing - but it is all she can do to make it to the top of the stairs, never mind a 200m sheer face of ice with an ice axe!). Today we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier, one of only a handful of glaciers around the world that are moving. We were in for quite a surprise. As we turned a corner the glacier was right there in front of us - no gentle slope just a sheer rock face of glistening, luminescent blue ice that could chill our G&T's for the rest of our lifetime! Sitting in Lake Argentina (the largest in Argentina) the glacier covers a total of 160 square kilometers making it as big as Buenos Aries. Like all icebergs only 15% of the total glacier can be seen above the surface of the lake - We can't even begin to do the sums on how big that makes the glacier overall. The glacier performs for it's audience by during the day breaking off huge chunks of ice in a thunderous cacophany that breaks the silence and can be heard for miles around. Sheer walls of ice break off from the main glacier with the rise and fall in the temperature and fall the 50m or so into the icy waters of the lake below, forcing showers of water into the air, with the weight of their entry. Over recent years 32 people have been killed watching this event either by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being crushed by the ice or by being swept away by the huge waves that are generated. Over a period of 3-7 years the glacier dams the river feeding Lago Argentina and a battle of wills develops between the glacier and the water, culminating in flooding and a massive build up of pressure on the glacier. Eventually the water pressure becomes so great that the glacier succums and chunks hundreds of tonnes in weight fall off, which can be heard in El Calafate over 50 miles away. All around the lake you can see huge pieces of ice, that at some time have come off the main glacier, each looking as though it has been beautifully sculpted from the ice and tinted in various shades of blue as they begin to melt into non-existence. This was a really impressive thing to see and we were very fortuneate to see several large chunks come off whilst we were there. From here we move to the very end of South America and Ushaia, the starting point for our journey to Antarctica.