El Calafate is situated in the Andes - yes we're back there - in a wonderful setting among snow capped peaks and glaciers. We've progressively been getting into an area where travel is difficult and journeys south often have to mean road travel between Chile and Argentina. El Calafate was to be our launching pad into the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The town was much more pleasant than we were led to expect - and consequently, as we have found to our cost as we have travelled south, much more expensive. Nothing here is cheap like the northern parts of Argentina. Refreshed with a cool beer we worked through the financial mess and set about withdrawing what we could in various currencies - Chilean and Argentinean pesos and US dollars that are more than welcome in these parts - before the cashflow was stopped. We've found our bank's services to be extremely effective whilst travelling but on occasions aspects of their internet banking requirements leave the traveller - in our case, us - much less well served. This needs looking into when we return to the UK. To be fair we did manage to get things sorted quite quickly although we could have done without this problem in this area (few ATMs) and at this stage in our journey.With only one full day in town our priority was to visit the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares including the highly impressive Perito Moreno Glacier which moves forward daily. Still a bit shaken with our own financial crisis, we missed the early buses from the nearby bus station but nevertheless managed to get seats on a new service that left at 10am. This took us on a 90kms journey into the National Park where had the chance to take a boat trip on Lago Argentina to the face of the glacier then walk the extensive walkways to see the extent of the glacier from every angle. From the boat and the walkways we could hear cracks and pistol shots as the glacier moved and every so often a chunk or serac would fall into the water with an almighty splash. But as we stood with only minutes remaining before we had to dash off for our bus back we were given a feast for our eyes. Right in front of us a huge chunk broke away and hit the icy water. Then an even larger piece came tumbling down, followed by another piece of ice. No sooner had this hit the water than the whole ice face gave way causing an immense splash and pile of ice in the waters below leaving a cool clear icy blue wall of ice before us. Everyone, not least us, was absolutely thrilled by the display Perito Moreno had put on for us. The glacier is certainly impressive in terms of the height of its face (55 metres) and width (5 km across). E & M xxx