El Calafate & the Perito Moreno Glacier

We had another early start to the day on Sunday, as we walked to the bus station in Puerto Natales one final time. I was happy to say goodbye to the numerous stray dogs roaming the streets, as well as the poorly insulated aluminum houses. The bus ride from Puerto Natales was 5 hours north, a pleasant ride with nice scenery. The area between Puerto Natales is mostly praire/desert, barren, yellowing grass with small, low growing shrubbery. The horizon met with the jagged mountains, which were impressive even from a distance. Fortunately, we had a beautiful sunny day, and one of the clearest blue skies I have ever seen. I spent most of the bus ride sleeping, so by the time we arrived in El Calafate, I was ready to see the town. However, our first order of business was to figure out our bus onwards to Bariloche, and our Perito Moreno glacier excursion. After booking both, we set out in search of lunch. With sunny, blue skies and 10 or so degree weather, we were happy campers! I stripped off a pair of pants and a sweater, feeling content to be in one less layer of clothing than in Ushuaia and Puerto Natales. We walked through the adorable streets of El Calafate, and I was reminded of Banff or Jackson Hole. We ended up eating at a hotel restaurant called Isabel, that served heaping dishes of what can only be described as stew. Having not known the portions sizes, we were left with far too much food between the 2 of us. I guess we had dinner for the night!

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and met up with an American guy we had met in the national park the day before. We headed down to Lago Argentino with him, in search of the town’s famous flamingos. Although the flamingos were cool, I was definitely more impressed by the setting sun over the mountains, and the brilliant blue lake. The town was calm, the water was calm, and I felt peace wash over myself. We wandered through the eco reserve near the lake, looking at the local plants and seeing a few birds, before the sun dipped behind the mountains for the evening. From there, we set out to Librobar, which is a trendy second floor bar and restaurant filled with books (my kind of place), for a drink before calling it a night. We bid farewell to our new friend, without exchanging contact information. There are some people that we get email addresses or names for Facebook, and others who simply come and go. As much as I love getting to know new friends, I also enjoy having people that I make a memory with that I’ll have forever, and that is all. It’s one of those weird things about traveling, I suppose. You talk about everything under the sun, and then never see each other again.

On Monday morning, our glacier tour picked us at 8:30am, and we set off to see the glacier. On the way there, we took a gravel highway, stopping to enjoy the mountains in the area, as well as to get a cup of coffee at a local estancia (ranch), where we saw the sheep, horses, and other farm animals. I was reminded of home by the desolate prairies, with the neighbouring mountains in the distance. It’s cool to be so far away from home, yet feel like the landscape looks the same!

By the time we reached the national park, the day was turning out to be quite nice, and the clouds were high enough to get a great view of the mountains over the glacier. My first view of the glacier was pretty jaw dropping. It is snug between 2 large mountains, with glacial water on all sides, stretching for miles and miles in the distance. We continued to the very lowest point that we could, where we got out and walked along the walkways looking over the glacier. I was pretty impressed with the infrastructure of the intricate walkways, as well as the view that they provided me with of the glacier. The closer we got to it, we were able to see the curvatures of the ice, and the intricacies of the cracks. We were also fortunate enough to hear the boom of the glacier, as chunks of ice broke off into the water. Perito Moreno is the size of Buenos Aires in square miles, and is one of the only glaciers in the world that is maintaining it’s size, as the same amount of ice develops at the top of the glacier, as is breaking off into the water at the base of the glacier. We ate lunch, watching the glacier (you can’t see it moving, but it’s cool to try!), before heading to the upper entrance to take the tour bus over to the dock. At the dock, we caught a boat, which took us to the north face of the glacier. Here, we saw the glacier from an entirely different angle. The size of the glacier is very evident from this angle, as the people trekking on it, look like tiny ants, and the jagged spears of ice piece the sky like a towering castle above us. It was a pretty amazing experience, to say the least.

The tour finished at a pub back in El Calafate, where we enjoyed cerveza and empanads, before making our way back to our hostel for the evening. The following day, we slept in a bit, had breakfast and then packed our bags up in preparation for our 27 hour (no, that is not a typo!) bus ride to Bariloche in the Lake District of Argentina. Once we had packed up, we grabbed a coffee and set out on a long walk along the lake, before grabbing lunch, and bus snacks. What’s a 27 hour bus ride without multiple bus snacks?!

Our bus left El Calafate at 4pm, and unlike my feelings towards Puerto Natales, I was a bit sad to say goodbye to the adorable town. This is definitely the type of place where I could relax for a few days, enjoying every different restaurant, coffee shop, and ice cream parlour. Nevertheless, we were headed north. Or so I thought. Upon loading our bags on the bus, we were told that we were changing buses in 4 hours in a town that is southeast of El Calafate. I was a bit perplexed by this route, but what can you do? We had been told by other backpackers that long haul buses in Argentina were really nice (the best in South America, in fact), so we wanted to experience this at least once. When in Argentina, right!? In truth, the buses are pretty nice. They have 2 levels to them, a coffee and water machine, a decent enough toilet, and meal service. Our dinner was medicore, although eatable, and lunch was actually pretty tasty. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get any wine with dinner though. Nevertheless, I left pretty decently on my nearly fully reclining, extra large, lounger. It may not have been the best sleep of my life, but it was definitely not the worst.

Although bus travel is slow and takes up time, it is a great way to get a feel for the landscape. Waking up in the morning, I found that we were surrounding with much of the same landscape as the night before; however, as the day went by, we left the yellowing grasses and low lying bushes, and came across large, Rocky Mountains, with lush greenery, similar to what you would see driving through the interior of BC. We watched the sunset behind layers upon layers of mountains, winding even further into them. Now, most people who I have told that I have taken a 27 hour bus ride have showed a lot of pity for me, but it was actually quite easy to pass the time. Between answering emails, watching shows and movies on my iPad, reading my book, and sleeping, the time passed somewhat quickly. On this particular bus ride, an Argentinian struck up a conversation with us, and then proceeded to share his mate with his, which was pretty cool. In the end, he gave me a handmade bracelet for the collection I have growing up my wrist, to symbolize Argentina. It was pretty cool!

Despite the beautiful landscape, and activities to pass the time, I was quite happy to reach the adorable town of Bariloche, and get off the bus!