El Calafate
It’s all about the Perito Moreno Glacier
Days 21 - 22 30th - 31st February
The exit from Ushuaia is dramatic. The 737 that we were on was packed and seemed all together too large for the single runway on a slither of reclaimed land in the Beagle Channel. Clearly there wasn’t any need to build a second runway with an alternate direction for take off as the wind only ever comes over the Andes.
Pretty soon the stunning aquamarine of Lago Argentino came into view and we were on land again. The flight that we had been on was heading straight up to Buenos Aires and in such circumstances, there is always an opportunity for your bags to remain on board. The anxious wait for our bags was over when they appeared through the rubber flaps of the conveyor belt right at the end of the run of everyone else’s luggage.
In planning this stage of the holiday we had mostly (well, entirely actually) relied on our travel agent Ed, that we had chosen way back in January 2019 at the Olympia Travel Show. Now that’s a long time ago and in our state of early onset dementia we can’t exactly remember the brief that we gave him in terms of hotels quality and quite how much we were prepared to rough it. If at all! Also, having made this decision, we hadn’t been involved in the minutiae of things like; what time do we need to get picked up; what hotel are we staying in; what is the best excursion to go on; will there be a good restaurant available near where we are staying etc etc. in one way this is brilliant because, assuming Ed knew his stuff, we never have to worry about anything and everything comes at us without being tarnished by pre conceived expectation but on the other hand, and bearing in mind the hotel choice in Ushuaia, we did find ourselves unusually nervous about what we will experience at each new place that we arrive at. Being a bit of a control freak, I have to admit that I’m not always entirely comfortable with this.
Any trepidation about how much we would enjoy our stay at El Calafate, however, soon evaporated once our reassuringly on time taxi driver dropped us off at the Kai Yutan hotel at the edge of what felt like a nice town. It was immediately apparent that the Hotel Los Andes in Ushuaia was a low bar that was going to be easily beaten. This homely hotel adjacent to a ranch gave us a warm welcome and although we had only had a short journey, we were travel weary and glad for a comfortable room and a soak in the bath.
Not feeling it for a twenty minute walk to town, we opted to eat at the hotel although weirdly we were advised by a rather stern man at the desk wearing a face mask that it was nothing to do with the company that ran the hotel and if we chose to eat there it was our look out as he couldn’t possibly pass an opinion about whether it was any good or not!
The menu was short and seemed a little pricey but once I had spotted the huge selection of wine on offer (with a novel pricing method of writing the cost in pencil on the back), I knew we’d be ok.
When you are at the end of the world, there is only one wine to choose. A lovely Malbec / Cabernet Franc / Cabernet Sauvignon blend!
We made our choice and went for the local dish of Guanaco steak (pronounced ‘Wa-nar-co’) with roasted potatoes and vegetables grown in the hotel garden. It was fantastic and we managed to overcome the thought of Bambi looking all helpless and ‘don’t kill me for your supper’.
We awoke to a beautifully sunny morning noting that we were now just three weeks into our seven week journey through South America. Already, we have experienced so much and wondered what more could top what we had already seen.
After a really good breakfast, we were picked up from the hotel to join a group tour of the nearest big tourist attraction; the Perito Moreno glacier. A circuit of the hotels of El Calafate ensued as the mini bus slowly filled up. It gave us a good opportunity to work out where we were in relation to anything that might be going on in town as well as providing a great insight into the other hotel offerings available. By the time that the bus was full, we were feeling pretty smug about our hotel😌
We finally set off around the huge lake and during the two hour or so trip to the mighty glacier our guide, Vanessa, entertained us with some history and geological facts. It turns out that the town was only founded in 1927 as a farming and fishing station reaping the benefit of being set around a sheltered bay in the centre of the southern edge of Lake Argentino. It was only in the 1940s that the place started to expand off the back of tourism generated by the newly founded Los Glaciares National Park. With a surface area of 1.56km2 and up to 1000m deep, the lake itself is the third largest in South America and the largest in Argentina.
As we got closer to the main event we were reeled into the story of Francisco Pascasio Moreno, the man whose name is attributed to so many mountains, rocks, lakes, towns and, of course, glaciers in this area of Patagonia. He is regarded as a national hero in Argentina for using his expert (Perito) knowledge to define the border to Chile through the Andes mountains in the late 19th century. The decision as to which peak or lake belonged to whom was made on the basis of which ocean the melting ice caps contributed to: if the water eventually made its way to the Pacific the area in question was deemed to belong to Chile and if it got to the Atlantic then it was within the Argentine border. The problem is that tops of mountains don’t always reach a nice clear ridge that is easy to draw a line through so Señor Moreno is not remembered quite so kindly in Chile.
We get our first view of the glacier and the opportunity to pay an extra £30 each to get on a ferry to get a closer look at it. Feeling like we were already glacier experts and having the opportunity of only getting to within 300 metres of this one is a bit pathetic, we decline and opt to stay on the bus to get to the bit where you can walking to within 500 metres.
The starting point for the various walks around the island opposite the glacier was chaotic with hundreds of selfie ready tourists jostling for front spot at the information counter and to buy the inevitable jamon y queso sandwiches Plus Gatorade to energise their trip. We quickly worked out which of the coloured routes on the extensive and well built elevated walkways would provide a combination of the fewest people and best views and set off.
At 7km wide and up to 70m high above the water line, the shear scale of the glacier is absolutely mind blowing. It is even more difficult to take in the knowledge that the ice plunges down another 150m into the lake and is moving at a constant rate of 2m per day. Seeing the peaks of the mountains at the source of the glacier some 25km away makes the sight totally different from anything we had seen in Antarctica. The rate of movement is far greater too and there is a constant sound of thunder as huge chunks of ice topple into the lake at various points.
Every five years or so the ice builds up enough to block the gap that you see in the centre of the photograph above to form an isthmus separating the lake on the left from the lake on the right. Because the left lake is surrounded by mountains, the water level rises by up to 30m until the pressure is built up enough to bore a tunnel through the ice and drain into the right hand lake. The ice bridge then collapses and the process begins all over again.
The raised walkway eventually leads back to a tranquil beach by the larger lake where one can get on an altogether better looking boat to get a lot closer to the glacier at a lower price than the one that Vanessa clearly received commission from. Smug mode on making the right choice.
I don’t think that I would ever tire of watching icebergs
We were back in El Calafate in time for a freshen up before heading into town for our evening meal at the restaurant that Señor Facemask had kindly booked for us (although he made it very clear that he could not say one way or another if it was any good!). It was a meat feast of gargantuan proportions that we could not manage to complete so we asked for doggy bags in order to feed some of the local stray dogs. The waitress looked bemused and no doubt shared the hilarious story with her colleagues after we had left and pointed out how utterly stupid the British are.🙄 We had no trouble finding a candidate on the way back to the hotel though and he was sooo happy to make friends with a couple of Johnny foreigners.
We liked El Calafate, it had a good vibe although they do seem to have a bit of a fetish for building sets of stairs that don’t really go anywhere except to provide a view.
We slept well and were thankful for having two consecutive nights in one hotel. Tomorrow will be the last leg of our journey before we pick up our 4x4 to start out Ruta 40 road trip.