El Calafate and El Chalten, Argentina - 20-25 Nov

We arrived in El Calafate after spending 23 hours on a bus and another 2 waiting for the bus at Rio Gallegos, a rather long and tiring journey! The weather was cooler than it had been in the rest of Argentina but we were here to find glaciers so it should be cold. We were staying in a lovely little hostel, Hospedaje Lautaro, where the people welcomed us very warmly and Belen was great in running us through all the options that there were to explore the many glaciers around El Calafate. She was also kind enough to assist us in the booking of the bus for the tour to the Glacier Perito Moreno the next day. We spent the afternoon cruising around the very touristy town seeing what there is in the town: loads of restaurants, outdoor and souvenir shops, but we loved this little town.

We woke the next morning ready to experience the glaciers. We got on the bus and it’s about an hour and half from El Calafate to the Perito Moreno glacier. As we rounded the corner in the Parque Nationales Los Glaciares and got our first glimpse of a “real” glacier we were both really excited and in awe.  We had seen a good number of glaciers along the way so far, but these were all mountain glaciers i.e. frozen ice at the top of snow-capped mountains instead of a river frozen in a valley, slowly moving down the valley. Perito Moreno is a massive frozen river in a valley. It’s the only glacier in the area that is not receding due to global warming. The face is 70m high above the lake, 120m below the surface, 5kms wide and 30kms long. A massive and amazing glacier!

The South Face from our boat trip

Our first good look at the glacier would be from a one hour boat trip to see the Southern face. It really was so impressive. It is so big and so white in the brilliant sunshine that we had been blessed with that day! The boat trip was ok. Tess and I have started to loathe large group tours, there are loads of people who never listen to what they are told and everything takes ages to get done.

After the boat trip the bus took us the last 7kms to experience the central and north faces. The national park has set up 4kms of walkways with numerous viewing points that make it really comfortable and easy to view the glacier. This glacier with its jagged shapes is absolutely fascinating to watch. The ice is brilliantly white with deep blue crevasses and every so often chunks of ice break off and fall into the lake. We were lucky enough to see 2 large pieces of ice crack off the glacier and fall into the water. The sound the glacier makes is so impressive, as the ice cracks off then hits the water, it makes the sound of a gunshot and this echoes around the valley. It was really a great day out and we were both so impressed by the Perito Moreno glacier.

A view over the whole glacier

The North Face of Perito Moreno Glacier. Look on the right of the picture, that is a boat carrying about 200 tourists. Puts some perspective to the sive of this amazing glacier.

The next day we headed off to El Chalten at lunch time as we had heard this town was nicer than El Calafate and there was more to do in that area. It’s a very simple little town that is nestled among the mountains and hills and is prettier than El Calafate. Most of the walks and activities start right from the town and so no need to drive anywhere. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and we arrived to persistent rain forcing us to have a quiet night in that we really didn’t mind. We hoped for better weather the next day to begin all the great activities we had heard about.

Well when we woke up it was a little brighter so our spirits were high as we headed for another long hike (about 22kms) from El Pilar, past the Piedras Blancas glacier and then we headed up a seriously steep climb straight up to Lago de los Tres to try and get a view of Fitz Roy, the highest peak in the region. The walk was tough to the top and to make it more difficult it was seriously cold, it was hailing/snowing at numerous times at the top of the mountain and blowing a gale all the time. Tess and I were tucked away in our beenies, scarves, gloves and jackets. Even so it was still freezing! Unfortunately for us we didn’t get a clear view of Fitz Roy no matter what we tried. The weather was slightly warmer as we headed back to El Chalten but not much. Just before we got the town we saw a condor flying above us, perch on its nest and then take off again into the wind. Condors are really magnificent birds! Still cold we needed to stop in the town to get a hot chocolate and a waffle to warm us up.

The best view we got of Fitz Roy

Lago de los Tres completely frozen over and covered in snow

Where we hiked to trying to get a view of Fitz Roy

A view down the valley on our way back to El Chalten

An iceberg floating on Lago Viedma

The next morning we were off ice trekking on the Glacier Viedma to complete our glacier experience in Patagonia. We jumped into the bus and headed an hour to Lago Viedma, another hour by boat to get to the glacier. The boat docked on what used to be glacier 20 years ago and we then climbed up the large rocks for half an hour before we got to the glacier. Glacier Viedma is receding and it’s really sad to see the effects that global warming is having on the glaciers first hand. Anyway, the guides fitted our crampons (metal spikes attached to your shoes) so that we could begin our ice trekking on the glacier. They took us to see a few cool things on the ice: rivers that form by finding a weak part in the ice and tunnel through the ice creating a drain-like effect to the bedrock and then flows towards the lake. They also showed us massive ice crevasses that are amazing shades of white and blue (the older the ice, the bluer it appears).

Crampons on and ready to go ice trekking

Proudly atop the Viedma Glacier

One of the crevasses on Glacier Viedma

Baileys with glacier ice!

The guides had a treat for us on our ice trek: the handed around some glasses and used their ice picks to get ice straight from the glacier and then passed around some Baileys! Yum!! A nice sweet end to our ice trek.

On our last evening in Patagonia we headed out for dinner to experience some of the local cuisine. We headed to El Muro, a restaurant recommended by a few people. Tess went for the Patagonian lamb, since we were in Patagonia and we had not had any lamb yet, and I stuck to the steak. It was a great evening a fitting end to our time in Patagonia. The next day we were off to Buenos Aires, and flying this time!! At last!! We were pretty sick of the long bus rides, this would make a great change.