From El Chalten we took a 3 hour bus to El Calafate. We arrived in El Calafate and had a quick lunch before wandering about town to find a place where we wanted to stay. We ended up opting for a hostel that we heard about from a brochure given to us when we arrived at the bus terminal. The hostel was one of the largest that we have stayed in to date with room for almost 200 people. The size of the hostel was most evident at meal times when the kitchen and dining area was overflowing with people and it was near impossible to find cooking utensils or a spot at the one stove to cook.
The biggest draw of El Calafate for us was without doubt the Perrito Moreno glacier, but it was also the jumping off point for many other activities. After finding accommodations we spent the rest of the first day researching possible activities and their respective prices for our 3 upcoming days in El Calafate.
We decided that we would spend one day exploring the town and going for a walk around Lake Argentina along the edge of town, one day we would rent a car and drive to the glacier, and one day we would take a bus tour to Torres del Paine National Park across the border in Chile. The only day with availability for the Torres del Paine tour was in 2 days so we booked that space, decided to explore town our first full day, and then to do the glacier on our last day together. Having a day in town also gave us more time to do a little bit of research and rent a car to visit the glacier.
El Calafate has a relatively small downtown area with one main street littered with bars, restaurants, outdoor sports stores, and tour companies. We wandered up and down the street our first day seeing what the town had to offer. We also walked down to the lake which has a nice paved promenade and a protected wetlands where you can sometimes see flamingos. As we got to the wetlands park we saw that there was a trail inside of a fenced off area. We arrived at the midpoint of the fencing and it looked as though the trail went parallel to the promenade with entrance at either end. We headed left and walked along the promenade, constantly looking to see if there were additional paths into the park. We walked for about 15 minutes to reach one end of the park but sadly found that there wasn’t a way into the wetlands along the entire stretch. Thankfully there was a playground at the end, so our hike wasn’t in vain.
Lisa and Susan with the Lago Argentina sign
Looking into the wetlands park
Lisa and Suz thoroughly enjoying the playground
After playing on the swings and seesaw we headed back the other direction to find the elusive park entrance. It turned out that there was only one way into the park, through a ranger station where you had to pay 100 pesos per person, was only a hundred yards to the right of where we started our walk along the promenade. After looking into the wetlands we decided that it was too expensive to enter because we had nice views of the park from the promenade that ran alongside it. We continued our walk down the promenade in the other direction, enjoying views of the lake, the wetlands, and the various birds that called the wetlands home (sadly no flamingos). After our walk we headed back to town to secure a rental car for our glacier trip.
The biggest challenge in planning our tours was renting a car to get to the glacier. We had found a couple of local companies that rented cars at much better prices than the bigger companies like Hertz or National. The only problem with these smaller shops was their operating hours. We went to one company that had a car available at a reasonable price, but at the time when we met with them we weren’t sure which day we would need the car. When we had made our decision we went back and found that the company was closed for lunch from 12 to 4. We went and wandered around town, had lunch, and then circled back around just after 2 to find the door locked and the lights still out. In the meantime we decided to try another local rental company that was nearby but we found their prices to be substantially higher and decided to wait on the first company.
Thankfully the company was only a few blocks from our hostel but every time we went back that day it was still closed. Frustrated, we finally went to the travel agent where we had booked our Torres del Paine tour, whose office was in the same complex, to ask if he knew when the car rental shop would open up again. The tour operator fortunately had their cell phone number and called to ask when they would be back. We found out that they had to go and pick up one of their cars in some remote location and would not be back that day to open up the shop. Because we were going to Torres del Paine the next day, we would be leaving early and coming back late, which meant that we needed to get the car rental reservation taken care of immediately. With the cheaper option seemingly unavailable we decided to go to our backup, pay the extra money, and know that we had the rental secured. When we went back to the second company they told us that because it was Sunday when we wanted to go to the glacier they would not open until 11 am, which was much later than we wanted to set out. We decided that this was not a good option, so we went back to the tour operator and asked him to call the first rental car company again and secure a car via phone and fill out the paperwork the morning before heading to the glacier. All told it took an entire day of visiting rental car companies before we finally had a reservation set up for our glacier trip.
The next day we were up before sunrise to get on a bus to Torres del Paine. The distance from El Calafate to Torres del Paine as the crow flies is small, but due to political pressures a direct road linking the two has never been built. Basically, the town of Puerto Natales in Chile survives solely on tourism to Torres del Paine National Park. If El Calafate were to build a road and have quicker access to the park, Puerto Natales would become irrelevant and die out. The combination of a roundabout route and two border crossing meant that to have a full day in the park we had to leave early in the morning and come back late in the evening. To save a little bit of time there is an unpaved road that cuts off a decent portion of the journey, but only rugged vehicles can make the trek. We, in large part, decided to book the tour that we did because it boasted an off-roading bus that could make the drive and give us more time in the park. When the bus showed up we were not disappointed, it looked rugged, durable, and up for the challenge.
The tour stopped at various miradores (lookout points) throughout the day in the park. We visited vibrant turquoise lakes, impressive waterfalls, and went on a short hike. Our tour guide was excellent giving us facts about the countries of Chile and Argentina, the park, the flora and fauna, and even a geology lesson about how the granite peaks were formed. The day seemed to fly by as we were whisked from one stunning vista to the next, at each stop feeling confident that it was impossible to have a better view, and constantly being proved wrong.
Before going for our short hike our tour guide needed to prepare us for hiking in Torres del Paine. He told us that we needed to be ready for strong wind gusts and that when we saw a wind gust coming we needed to turn our backs and brace ourselves until the gust had past. Reading this I imagine you are having the same thought we had, how on earth will we see a wind gust coming. Well, it turns out that wind gusts can exceed 80 km per hour in Torres del Paine and come roaring across the lake. When the winds fly over the lake they kick up and pick up sprays of water that get carried along by the gusts. So, whenever we saw a cloud of mist in the distance heading towards us, we would quickly turn our backs and crouch down until we had been blasted with a spray of chilly water, then continue on our hike.
We stopped for lunch at a lookout overlooking this impressive waterfall
The first hotel built in Torres del Paine park was on an island in the lake
The lake waters were an incredible shade of blue
The after effects of one of the fires that raged through Torres del Paine years ago. As you can imagine, with the high winds they have in the park, once a fire starts it is nearly impossible to contain
The white mist that you can faintly see above the water is a gust of wind crossing the lake
The next morning we headed out just before 10 am to fill out the paperwork for our rental car and head out to the glacier. We were greeted with a perfect day, clear blue skies and a temperatures in the 70’s, ideal condition to admire a glacier. Thankfully, the rental car staff was punctual and we were able to get they keys and head out by 10:20 am. The drive from El Calafate to the glacier was its own site seeing tour along the banks of a lake and framed by snow capped mountains.
Prior to coming to Patagonia we had done extensive research and the Perrito Moreno glacier was definitely considered to be one of the highlights. As such, we were slightly worried that it may not live up the hype and the excitement we felt. We need not have worried, the amazing photos that we had seen could not do justice to the glacier itself. A towering wall of ice, incomprehensible in its magnitude and beauty.
The park itself was very well designed, a system of metal walkways, look out platforms, and stairs that traversed the hillside facing the glacier. The closest lookout platforms were only a few hundred yards from the glacier and let viewers truly experience the colossal size of the glacier. One of the highlights of the glacier is watching various pieces break away and go crashing to the lake below. The falling pieces of ice ranged in size from hand sized chunks to blocks the size of small houses. When the latter would break away a deafening thunder would sound as the ice cracked followed by a second peal announcing that the piece had hit the water. The challenge was that for the large pieces the sound would be delayed by a few seconds so if you weren’t paying attention all you would see was the waves and icy debris floating on the lake. We spent a few hours walking along to the various platforms and enjoying the phenomenal views.
Enjoying views from one of upper lookout platforms
The morning sun warmed the glacier and treated us to many portions, large and small, falling to the lake below. The ice in water would slowly dissolve only to be replaced as another section of the glacier would break free
A look at the glacier, the white rings in the water are debris from chunks that had broken free
Our lunch spot at one of the glacier lookouts
From the glacier we went to the only other attraction within driving distance, a lake called Lago Roca. After all the amazing sites we had seen, Lago Roca was pretty but nothing to write home about. The highlight of visiting the lake was on the drive to the lake we saw a few guanaco (an animal in the llama family) on the side of the dirt road that we were driving down. Kevin decided to stop the car so that we could take pictures, not knowing that contrary to being scared by a car full of humans, the guanaco were curious and walked up to the car to investigate. The guanaco are beautiful animals and we all desperately wanted to get out of the car and pet them… until we saw the swarm of insects perpetually circling their furry bodies and decided to instead take photos from the protection of our rental car.
The shores of Lago Roca
One of the guanaco that came to visit us
All in all our time in El Calafate was incredible and we couldn’t believe that a week had passed since John and Susan had met up with us in El Chalten. We were very sad to leave them as we continued south towards Puerto Natales and they took their flight back to California with a brief connection in Buenos Aires.
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