El Calafate: 13th - 17th March 2026
13th March – Friday
I fell in love last night with the guy in the store selling empanadas, the sparkle in his eye and his naughty smile had me captivated and, after my order, he just kept staring me in the eyes and asking me so many questions, I melted. He then disappeared into the back for a few minutes and when he returned informed me that he had to get back to work before he gets sacked. And that was the end of that romance.
I did not sleep well, I was in the bottom of a bunk bad, which was very comforatable and private with a curtain around it, but I was very much aware of the other 3 girls in the room. I resisted getting up to go to the loo more than once and tried really hard not to fidget, but the harder I tried the more I did. I finally got to sleep at about 1pm and had the maddest of dreams, I so wish I could remember it now, it felt so real at the time.
Anyway, breakfast was toast and then I jumped in a taxi to the airport. I was there two hours before take off but the queue for luggage drop was so long several of us thought we were going to miss the flight, of course we didn’t, but you cannot help that sense of panic when you haven’t checked in properly and the queue to do so it running a circle round the airport. We took off early and landed early, which was all good. The flight was amazing, probabaly one of the most scenic that I have ever been on. We flew really low over the mountains and you could see them in so much detail, all of the peeks and troughs, glaciers and lagoons, but what was most amazing was the turquoise blue colour of Lagos Argentina. My taxi driver, more eye candy, explained that the colour is due to the minerals in the lake and that it is also the largest lake in Argentina. I will need to do some research – it is stunning.
The property owner was cool with my early arrival and was at the apartment waiting for me. But, OMG, I am at the top of a really steep hill, like up a mountain type of hill. I don’t think I would have booked it if I had known, and it is 15 minutes walk down to the town, not 5 as advertised. The walk down is no the problem, it is the walk back up. My poor thighs. I had to change apartment as the hot water and one of the gas heaters was not working, but my new room is even better as the bedroom had an amazing view over Lagos Argentina.
I haven’t done much this afternoon, I walked into town, it is designed purely for tourists, and found a Santandar ATM than would dispense a decent amount of money, the Argentine banks only dispense small amounts but charge a lot for doing so. It took a while to find as it is on a back road and not advertised on G maps as an ATM place. It did mean I had a good walk around and found some very colourful stairs by an artisan market which only had a couple of open stalls. I did a small supermarket shop before heading back up the hill. By the time I made it I was so exhausted that I had an afternoon nap – I really am turning into a little old lady.
After my nap I made myself go to another, much better, supermarket that is literally two blocks away and more or less on a parallel with here. I bought 3 beef stakes and some mushrooms and other veg – dinner was delicious. I just wish I had bought some ice-cream for desert, I really could do with a sweet treat right now. But I did buy some hair dye and plan on spending the morning knocking 10 years off and booking myself a trip or two for while I am here. I also need to consider where to go next – Argentine is proving to be really expensive, I am not sure if I show just lap it up or move on to Chile sooner. Decisions Decisions.
14th March – Saturday
Today was a ‘house keeping day’ and very much needed. I got my laundry done, I paid a little extra for same day service, due to a lack of winter clothes it was needed. I also went for a walk to get more money from the ATM and a couple of bottles of wine, so in total that was three walks back up the hill – my thighs will eventually love me!
I have booked another night here. One of the main trips is going to the Perito Moreno Glacier and the tour I had my heart set one was sold out until Tuesday. It was not a problem and I think the lady of my apartment was quite pleased for the extra night / payment. I also spent quite a long time researching a trip to Chile and the Torre Del Paine, but I am already well over budget for Argentina that I decided against it. I also read a couple of review saying it is a long time on a bus for not a long time at the National Park. My final house keeping involved booking my next destination, El Chalten, and travel there. There a lot of free hikes in El Chalten so hopefully, unlike here, it will be a cheap one. I have had to book a bunk bed hostel as private accommodation is ridiculously expensive. However, I have emailed the hostel asking if I can have a bottom bunk. They replied saying they would do their best to fulfil my requirements. Oshovia hostel was ok for one night, especially with the curtains round the bunk bed, and it was fantastic to be around people. This one is similar, with curtains, but it is a smaller more intimate hostel, which is why I chose it, I am looking forward to it and, if it works out, may stay at more hostels rather than private apartments. Company is good.
I also did a couple of entries to my website, which I am happy about, but I am still 2 months out of date. I really do need to focus on it and catch up.
15th March – Sunday
Happy Mother’s Day!
I woke at 2am questioning why I did not book the trip to Chile and Torres del Paine. So what if I go over budget, it is a self imposed budget, I can afford to go over. But more to the point, I will probably never have the chance to go again, let’s face it, I doubt very much I will ever be in Patagonia again. So this morning I booked the trip for tomorrow.
So now I have 3 big days in a row, but I am a tough cookie, I can handle it and am actually looking forward to it. For now I am just going to have a spot of lunch and then I am heading to the Glaciarium, which is a museum just outside of town and a “Center dedicated to the dissemination of Patagonian Ice and its glaciers, one of the few glaciological interpretation centers in the world”. I am rather looking forward to it and transport there is free and runs every hour, which is a nice bonus.
Later: I went to the Glaciarium this afternoon. WoW, I will never look at an ice-cube the same again. It was quite amazing learning how glaciars have formed and about the people / explorers who discovered and named them. There was a presentation and film but the presentation was all in Spanish and I caught the last half of the film. But such is life. A lot of the diplays had information in English as well as Spanish so it was still worth the visit.
If I ever find myself in this part of the world again I like it to be in the winter. I would love to experience the intensity of the snow and cold that it has to offer. I bet it is stunningly beautiful.
16th March – Monday
Today was a pure fiasco and I am never doing a tour with Viatar again. If I remember rightly I did one with them in SE Asia which was also a fiasco. Calafate is actually only 80km from Chile but you cannot do a direct journey, you have to drive an hour and 40 further north in Argentina to a town called Esperanza and then do a left and drive for another hour and a half to the Rio Turbio crossing. This journey wasn’t too bad as I was sitting next to Anthea from Vienna, who is probably about 10 years younger than me, and we had a good conversation exchanging life stories. The drama started after our 3.5 hour drive to the boarder. We all got through customs but then found ourselves sitting on the bus waiting for the driver. We waited and we waited. Eventually some passengers got frustrated and got off, then everyone bar a couple of us got off and from what I could see the tour guide, Clara, was being screamed at from all sides. To cut a very long and painful story extremely short, the driver was not registered to drive the bus. Customs have brought in a new system where all the drivers have to be registered online for each bus they drive. Ours was not registered for our bus. So we had to wait for 3.5 hours for a registered driver to come all the way from Calafate to take us across the boarder and into Chile.
Poor Clara was getting the brunt of a couple of people’s anger – I felt so sorry for her. It was not her fault and she was under orders from the office to hold us there until a the new driver arrived. There was one guy in particular who would not give it a rest. Especially as he was being egged on by a couple of other guys. I really wanted to tell him to shut up and leave Clara alone but not knowing how he would react I felt it better not to get involved. Instead I tried to make light of the situation and stayed positive. In fact I was so positive that several other passengers commented on it. I told them that getting angry and wound up was not going to change anything, so there was no point in getting so.
We had lunch about ½ km away from the customs office, overlooking a couple of farm houses. After lunch I went off for a walk and took some macro photos of the fauna. There are not many plants in this area of Patagonoa, and very few trees. I learnt that the trees that are here have been brought in, usually by the farmers, and that they are not native. Trees and taller plants don’t grow here because of the fierce winds, which can often reach up to 120 km and hour, and lack of rain, which is about a large cup full in a year – or so I was told. So the landscape looks very barren, almost desert like.
Eventually the new driver arrived and off we went. It didn’t take too long to clear Chilean customs but by now we were over 4 hours delayed so everything was rushed. We did two viewpoint stops in the park. At the first, Largo Sarmiento, we were told we had 5 minutes to snap a few pics and the second, Largo Nordenskjold, we had 10 minutes. We were then rushed to Salto Grande Waterfall and the trekking area were we were supposed to get good views of the Torres del Paines mountains, which consist of three peaks. But by now it was not only getting late it was overcast, cold and beginning to rain. The trek was supposed to be three hours but we were cut down to one and a half. I don’t think I even did that. I returned to the bus early and then walked down to the cafe we had stopped at for the loos and bought a beer. We were supposed to do at least 4 more stops and even though we were promised Largo Pehoe after dropping off some passengers who were staying in the park, we did not get to do it as we needed to get back to the border crossing before it closed at 9 pm. It was very hard to stay positive but I did, just about. Clara had to stop engaging with the guy who kept having a go at here, I think she would have blown a fuse if she hadn’t. I am really not sure how she managed to hold it together. If I had been in her shoes I would have gotten home and cried or else smashed something in frustration.
On the way back Anthea started to freak out. She lost a ziplock bag with her driving license, yellow fever certificate and $500. I kept telling her to empty her bags and bum bag properly but she wouldn’t. She just kept shuffling through them. It wasn’t until we were at customs that she actually looked properly. Panic over, it was in her bum bag the whole bloody time. Sometimes I just want to scream.
I got back to my apartment at 1:30 am with the alarm set for 7am for yet another tour – god give me strength.
17th March – Tuesday
What a difference a day and a different tour company makes. I have used Get your Guide before and have never been disappointed and was not today. I was exhausted when I woke up but was determined not to let that ruin my day. My pick up point was two minutes from my apartment and I got there early, my pickup was on time. After a couple more pick ups we were dropped off at a larger coach which was almost full and headed off Parque Nacional Los Glaciars.
WoW, it was mad how the landscape changed as soon as we entered the parque, suddenly there were trees. I didn’t realise how much I had missed seeing so many trees. The steppe has some trees but they are few and far between, and mainly in the town or around the occassional farm building. So to see a dense woodland was a treat.
Our first sighting of Glaciar Perito Moreno was jaw dropping, I think everyone on the coach gasped. It was beyond humongous and so majestic just sitting there in the lake. I tried to take photos but as the woman, Donna, next to to reminded me, we were on our way to the walkways / platforms where we would be getting spectacular views of the glacier. And we did. I really don’t have words to describe it, I have never seen anything like it before, it is a 5km wide and 30 km in length of pure slab of ice covered in icicles type formations, and it is actually shrinking. So for years it was growing, ie. the new ice, which forms in the Andes, was pushing the glacier forward, but now due to global warming and natural causes it is receding.
The second part of the trip was a walk to the glacier. We re-boarded the coach and did the short journey to the pier where we jumped on a small boat and did the short crossing to a section of land that we could hike across to the glacier ….. unfinished!
01.06.26
The glacier was amazing but the area we got to touch was grey, I am not sure if this is from so many hands on it or just the natural way of things. The ice crystals were really large and broke off quite easily, it was very different from any ice I have seen before. It was quite a magical experience just being there. We could also see people up on the glacier actually hiking it, our guide said you do not need to be experienced to do this, but I am not sure I am fit enough for such a hike. After spending some take taking photos in and around the glacier we were given a free drink and then got back on the boat. I was a little disappointed as I thought we were going to sail around the face of the glacier, but we didn’t. However we did get to see some huge ice bergs, which again was a magical experience. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip.
