Stop 2: El Calafate
ARGENTINA | Thursday, 3 April 2008 | Views [218]
After Chalten, we traveled back on the bumpy unpaved road for five hours to Calafate. El Calafate is a tourist boomtown and much to our dismay, is expensive and filled with...tourists. Every shop on the main drag sells knick-knacky souvenirs and overpriced Columbia sportswear fleeces, but we did end up purchasing some hats and gloves, which came in very handy. Our hostel, America del Sur, which was little more than your average party youth hostel, was the most expensive place we stayed on our trip. El Calafate is worth a visit once, but just once, to see the glacier fields and the main attraction, the Perito Moreno glacier.
Our first day out was cold and rainy, but we spent most of the day on a cruising catamaran to several glaciers and lakes. The boat trip was fairly boring and ours happended to be filled with about 25 overly enthusiastic French tourists. Lots of "oh la la's" throughout the day. The boat let us off on a small island where we were guided to an even smaller beach to get glimpse of the first glacier, Glacier Onezzi. Unfortunately with the rain and clouds, we could hardly see a thing. Plus, our ability to explore on our own was restricted by the annoying tour company. We then cruised onto Glaciers Spegazzini and Upsala, the latter being the largest glacier in Patagonia. The darn thing is three times the size of Buenos Aires, which is astounding to imagine. I'd have to say that the most interesting part of the boat trip was cruising past all of the icebergs that had broken off from the faces of the glaciers. The blue color is unlike any other in nature and some of them are HUGE; they say that 85% of all bergs are under the water.
After a day on a boat, we headed to a nice parrilla restaurant for great beef and Patagonian lamb cooked right on a spit, which Ben said was some of the best he's ever had. A good thing too, because the rest of our meals in Calafate were tasteless and boring.
On day two in Calafate, we went to see the main star, the Perito Moreno glacier. According to our guides, Perito Moreno is unlike the other glaciers in the area in that it isn't growing or shrinking, it's just in a perfect state of equilibrium. Global warming, ha. It's also the easiest of glaciers to visit and view. We opted for a short mini-trek on Perito Moreno, so imagine stomping around on a huge snow cone for two hours with rusted tiny ice picks on your feet. The trek is very controlled by two tour guides lest any of the more adventureous (Ben) decides to scamper off the beaten path. There are tons of cracks, holes and caverns on the entire surface, so we walked in a single-file line throughout the whole trek. The scariest part of the trek was walking in front of an older women who looked like she just rolled out of bed. I mean seriously, would you wear light blue sweat pants and a fleece if you know you're about to walk on ice for two hours? Anyway, she couldn't figure out how to walk in crampons and one of the guides spent the majority of the time holding her hand across the ice. My advice, if you do go walk on a glacier one day, make sure you are the last person in line. We were rewarded in the end with whiskey and cookies right in the middle of the glacier. The day wrapped up with a tour to the opposite side of Perito Moreno, where there are long catwalks and viewing decks for a panoramic view.
There is something surreal about these huge ice fields and the fact that they've existed forever yet change everyday. If the world is indeed getting warmer, these are worth a visit.
Tags: the great outdoors
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