Tao 15 – El Calafate

Argentina is going to be the first South American country we visit. This was going to be Peru, but we had to change our plans because there wasn’t enough time before our pre-booked Antarctica trip.

Our flight from Newark to Buenos Aires had a connection in Houston. We were able to sample some semi-authentic Mexican food from the food court before boarding the plane for Argentina. All these recent flying brought one small perk, Tracy and I both became premier members of United/Continental. We had no clue what benefits it gave us though. We later figured out that we could check in more luggage for free and had priority checkin/boarding – not a big deal for us as we never brought more than 1 piece of luggage per person and never needed much space in the overhead bin. If I had the pick, I would like better food onboard, but fat chance of that happening 

We arrived at the Ministro Pistarini Airport in Buenos Aires in the morning, then flight directly from there to El Calafate.  Neither of us realized prior to arriving at Argentina that the departure flight was from a different airport (yes, Buenos Aires is the 9th largest city in the world, it can have more than one airport).  This gave us quite a scare.  Fortunately we had a long layover.  Even after the hour and half bus trip between airports, we still have some time to spare.  No sweat.

Our limited repertoire of languages posed a problem when ordering in the airport’s cafe. After much pointing and gesturing we got what we wanted. I’m happy to report that our mastery of Spanish words got better later on, mostly about food.

El Calafate is a small town in the Argentinian Patagonia.  The name comes from a type of local wild berry bush.  Argentinians use calafate berries to make all sorts of things like soft drink, beer and ice-cream.  We tried the ice cream and it was delicious.

The town grew rapidly in recent years from tourist traffic to the neighboring Perito Moreno Glacier and hiking destinations in both Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia. We are not far from the south tip of South America, the sun doesn’t set till after 9PM this time of the year. We got here late in the afternoon, and it’s still sunny and bright.

El Calafate Airport. Not quite sunny now, but it will clear up soon.

We are staying at Hotel Rukahue.  This place is a little out of the way.  It’s a 10-15 minute walk from the town center, but that is the only negative thing I can think of this place. Now considering that we are here to hike, there were no negative side to this hidden gem. Our host Adrianna and her son/English translator Santiago made our stay thoroughly enjoyable. This was going to be our home away from home in Argentina.

Hotel Rukahue

We met a friendly couple from the Netherlands, Maarten and Joke (I pronounced it like YouKa, she didn’t correct me so I guess I’m close enough) who also just arrived. Both of them are very nice to be around with. We ordered pizza and did some planning together over dinner.  Adrianna is really helpful in securing some seats on a Glacier tour the next day for the four of us.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is the No.1 destination around El Calafate.  It is one of the few glaciers in this area that’s actually growing.  The 80km drive from the town took us about 2 hours as the van drove around town to pick up more guests from various hotels.

A view point just our side of El Calafate

An example of some local flora

and local fauna...

We saw two tour buses parked on the side of the road and a group of tourists taking pictures of some large birds.  I grabbed a quick shot and it was not very good.  These are Andean Condors.  They have a wingspan of up to 3.2 meters, the largest of any land bird in the world.  Tracy got a video of one taking off.  The condors are vultures, and thus carrion eaters.  They are not pretty to look at close up, but beautiful and graceful in flight. Note that the condors have the largest wingspan among land birds.  We will see some birds that will best them later in Antarctica.

An Andean Condor

Two rangers came on board to welcome us and issue tickets. The entrance fee to the park is 100 pesos per person per day.  That’s maybe $23 USD at the time.  It’s quite steep considering that US parks will usually let you stay for several days with one ticket. In Argentina, you often see parks and hotels charge foreigners a higher rate than locals.  I remember seeing this in China many years ago, but apparently it’s no longer practiced, at least not officially.

Moreno Glacier from afar

Fire bush trees. The red is so bright that on a overcast day the flowers seems to be incandescent

I asked an old lady to take a picture for us in front of the glacier.  I didn’t think she ever used an SLR camera before as she didn’t know to look through the view finder. The camera was in high speed multi-shot mode, so when she held the shutter release she took multiple pictures of us.  She was quite happy and made machine gun noises when she handed the camera back.  Thinking about it, I remember Joke made a comment later on when she examined my camera that modern cameras are generally smaller and lighter.

Moreno Glacier is right on a lake so boat trips is a must.  The boat will take us close to the ice cliff, but not too close as the glacier calves many times a day.

Our boat at the pier

Moreno Glacier from the boat

Another tour boat backing closer to the glacier

Here you see the glacier ice pushing against the far side of the lake.  Because the glacier is growing, this happens periodically.  When it happens it will completely separate the two sides of the lake.  One side of the lake water will rise because there’s no outlet for the water from melted ice and snow.  This difference in water level will create pressure and flows that will gradually undermine the glacier ice.  Eventually an entire section of the glacier will collapse and the lake will be one again.  Our guide told us that there’s a water level difference of two feet as of now.

Compared to glaciers we saw in New Zealand, Moreno Glacier is exceptional “clean”, probably because the top of the mountain has snow cover year round and there are little exposed soil.

Beautiful blue light where sunlight hit the crevasses

Tourists going for ice hiking

One the other side of the glacier there’s an extensive array of viewing platforms.  These are really well built and provide excellent views of the glacier face.  There were quite a few people sitting around waiting for ice calving to happen.  Tracy had a fit of migraine so we rested on the bench for a while under the warm sun until she felt better.

View of the glacier from the higher platforms

From the lower platforms, the top of the ice is about eye level

The elevated platforms protect the vegetation below, and make it much easier to move around.

Close up of the ice floating near the base of the glacier face

While waiting on the platform, you often hear very loud cracking sounds, which gave advanced notice of calving.  We did manage to capture one with our cameras.

The top of the glacier close to the ice face is full of sharp ice and deep crevasses.  This part is off limits for good reason.

Having heard many good things about the famed Argentine barbecue, we tried some in a local restaurant.  The place is right on the main street and touristy.  Tracy ordered roasted lamb, which was excellent.  I ordered steak and it was a bit overcooked.

The steak looked lonely in that plate. Nope, it doesn't come with sides.

Pickled wild rabbit. This was quite good.

We are staying only two nights in El Calafate this time.  We will be in El Chalten tomorrow, then come back for one night, after which we will be in Chile.  We will come back again after Chile before flying to Ushuaia.  Adriana graciously offered to store whatever we do not want to carry with us.  We bid farewell to Maarten and Joke, little do we know that we will meet again.