El Calafate

Thursday, March 24

We flew out of Ushuaia in the morning and landed in El Calafate in the early afternoon, again to unseasonably nice weather.

Our Airbnb host, José, was at the apartment ready to great us. He told us how to get to important places and recommended the best tour of the nearby glacier. We had several errands to do before we could enjoy the town. First on the list was getting a bus ticket to El Chaltén, a town in Patagonia just north of El Calafate. We were able to walk from the Airbnb to the bus station, just up the street. As we crossed a bridge a big black dog started to follow us. He heeled next to us like he was our dog, all the way to the bus station and he even came inside with us. At the ticket counter we got round trip tickets to El Chalten for exactly the price we had budgeted, which is always a relief when dealing with limited cash.

Then it was back downhill with our new dog and into town to the tour agency to see what treks were available. When we crossed the street, Martin (our new dog) got distracted so we said we’d catch up with him later.

We went to Hielo y Adventura (ice and adventure) which was recommended by several people. They didn’t have any tours available for the time we were in El Calafate. But, with some creative reshuffling we figured out how to go to El Chalten and come back a day earlier, to be able to do the ‘Big Ice’ tour. So we booked and paid and then had to walk back to the bus station (about a 10 minute walk, uphill) to change the dates of the buses we had just booked. The lady was very nice and understanding and, although we had to pay a change fee, it wasn’t a hassle to change the bus dates. Plus, while we stood there we saw day trips by bus just to go see the Perito Moreno glacier (and next week we’d hike on it). So we booked a bus trip for the next day when the weather was supposed to be nice.

Then it was back down the hill (again) to (finally) get something to eat. We went to La Zorra tap room and got two IPAs (duh) and a surprisingly good chicken ceasar salad.

Finally we needed to get some groceries. After eating out at fancy restaurants every night in Ushuaia we needed to balance out our budget with some homemade meals in our lovely Airbnb. Plus, going to grocery stores in foreign places is always fun to see what kind of weird or unexpected cultural differences there are for making food. We got two bottles of red wine to test whether the $1.00 or the $2.00 bottles had any notable difference.

Back at the Airbnb we made a humble dinner of raviolis and chorizo and tested out the cheaper wine.

Friday, March 25

We had breakfast of granola and drinkable yogurt (we didn’t know it was drinkable but it was the cheapest one and now we’ve read the label and it definitely says ‘bebible’ which means drinkable and is very fun to say). Then packed ourselves some sandwiches for the day ahead.

We walked over to a nearby hostel, Schilling, where we will stay when we come back into town for the glacier hike. A few minutes after 9:30 a huge bus rolled up and we got on with another guy staying at Schilling. The guide spoke in Spanish and English and explained the flora and fauna of the area and then some of the history of the Perito Moreno glacier.

The glacier is named after Francisco Moreno, an explorer and surveyor who helped protect Argentine interests in border disputes with Chile, especially around the Patagonia region. He was an expert in his field so he was often referred to as Perito, or expert.

The Perito Moreno glacier empties into Lago Argentino. PM is unlike other glaciers in that it’s actually growing, or retaining its size every year, not retreating. The glacier spreads across the lake and every couple of years dams it so that the lake on the south side has no where to flow. Water builds up and floods the surrounding area. The pressure of this water pushes against the glacier and creates a tunnel of water under it. Every couple of years this tunnel collapses and all the water flows to the north side. When we visited the glacier was a good distance away from the edge of the lake, so there won’t be any collapsing parties any time soon.

The bus stopped at the Mirador de los suspiros (the viewpoint of gasps) where we were able to get out and see the first look of the glacier. Indeed, everyone gasped or said ‘whoa’ or ‘wow!’. Then back into the bus to the actual viewpoint.

The park is well designed and has a series of metal and wooden boardwalk trails that loop around the side of the hill, offering many different viewpoints of the glacier. We started on the south side and took a bazillion photos. Then we ate our lunch while glacier watching – watching to see if any bits broke off. When a chunk would break it would seem like a tiny piece until the sound of its breaking would hit your ears seconds later. Again when it crashed into the water we’d wait to hear a loud crash seconds later, making us realize how far away we still were and how colossal the wall of ice in front of us was.

We walked to the north side and took another gazillion photos and JUST missed a huge chunk breaking off that everyone was excitedly talking about. The color of the lake water on the north side is that perfect glacial milky blue/green and it contrasted so well with the intense blues of the glacial icebergs floating in it.

Then we went back to the drop off point and the bus ferried us to a catamaran on the southern lake. We paid a little extra to take the boat and it was definitely worth it. The boat took us up to the south side of the glacier and even crossed over icebergs as it got close to the most southern edge. We could see hikers that had just been dropped off, about to start their hike onto the ice. Having humans in the foreground again made us realize how massive the glacier is, and our tiny brains struggle to comprehend it.

We prayed for the sun to come out one more time as we took a zillion more photos and then sailed back to shore. The bus drove us back into town and dropped us off near one end of the city center. We walked through the city center scouting for a place to get a small bite. We ended up at Oveja Negra (black sheep) which is a chain we’d seen before and which offered good price happy hour beers. We got a couple of beers and some chicken fingers and took advantage of their high speed WiFi, which our Airbnb sadly lacks. When we went to pay they said the beers we got were not happy hour sized (would’ve been nice to know before) so we vowed to never return.

Saturday, March 26

The weather was forecasted to rain all day and I woke up with a cold (not covid, I tested) so we decided to lay low. We ended up walking to the downtown area and to the bordering lakefront on Lago Argentino. In the middle of the traffic circle they’ve built the nicest jungle gym out of wood and metal. We tested out their slides and swing sets and gave it high ratings. On the walk back we bought some chocolates-which the town is known for- and Calafate jam. Our happy hour was happily spent at Wanaco pub where we split a lamb burger and tried beers from a Patagonian brewery.