Crónicas Patagónicas, El Calafate

If there is a place in Argentina that you definitely have to visit, appart from Buenos Aires, that is the South. The patagonian region which, in fact, is shared with Chile, is a world unique scenario and an attraction for thousands of backpackers. However, when I planned my south american odisey, I didnt include it. It meant I really big deviation in my route (3000 km southern of Buenos Aires) and also it is one of the most expensive regions in the continent. But my original plan didnt include me settled down and working in Buenos Aires neither, nor getting the argentinian residence, nor the last changes in my life thanks to them I got a a few days off. Suddendly I came across a great oportunity to add another highlight to my trip with something it was not planned so I used my argentinian savings and went for it, buying two plane tickets: Buenos Aires - El Calafate and Ushuaia - Buenos Aires. By the way, thanks to my famous residence permit, they were considerably cheaper (in Argentina the main airlines have different prices for argentinians and foreigns). Seems all that effort to get the fucking papers is starting to pay off

You need months for a proper visit to Patagonia…I had 9 days. I planned to go from El Calafate to Ushuahia in that time, trying to make the most of the route. Really tight plan as usual but there was no way to get more time. I focused my trip in three main goals: the Perito Moreno glacier, the Torres del Paine national park and the city of Ushuaia, the most austral city of the country. Let’s get started with the first one.

El Calafate

There is a single but very important reason to visit this place: the Perito Moreno glacier, amazing natural wonder. The locals know it and they take advantage of that. After landing in the smallest airport I have never seen, a van took me to the hostel I had booked, Lonely Planet recomendation. The America del Sur hostel happened to be the typical backpacker place. The common areas are big and it has a relly nice view over the city and the surrounding nature. The staff is really cooperative although a bit too cool for my taste. Well, typical travellers place, full of yanquies, australians and israelies.

So, I was saying, locals are aware of the reputation of the place and you can see that in the prices they charge for taking you to the Perito Moreno. The guided tours start from 150 pesos and, if you wanna hire the unique experience of walking over the glacier, you better get your wallet ready, cause it will go up to 575. Talking about this, I have got to discover how false is that so spread idea of South America been a cheap destination for travelers. It is true that, in general, acommodation and food are cheaper. Even the transportation is not so expensive. In fact you can manage to reach and stay in most of the places at a reasonable cost. The problem comes when you want to do stuff there. Tourism agencies know people will pay for sure so they raise the prices for the excursions more and more. Traveling then becomes a constant decision fun vs budget. There is always this voice saying “now that you are here you have to do it!”, which I normallly listen to. But nowadays my financial situation is a bit fucked up and, for example, that ice walking thing would have consumed almost half of my total budget for the whole trip. Sadly I had to hire just the basic transportation to the glacier.

I would have loved the ice trekking, more after I saw how impressive the Perito Moreno was, but that was just unaffordable for me. Anyway, a good asado at the hostel helped me to forget the dissapoint. The atmosphere was very friendly and, as usual in this kind of places, I ended up speaking with a bunch of australians and americans. It was not my intention to punish the night too hard so I just had a few beers and hit the bed quite early. However, I dont know what the fuck was wrong with me that night that those two beers gave me an inmediate hangover. Normally that comes the day after and when you drink a lot!! I dont understand why I got it that same night and having drunk that little. Add this fucking israeli guy snoring like hell in my dorm and an austrlian who was speaking in his sleep and the result is a bad night. First lesson: never be such a lightweight drinker, apparently my body does not agree with this. Second lesson: for believing myself to be a professional traveler I am quite a delicate person when it comes to sleeping..

Anyway, I got up next morning very looking forward visiting my friend the glacier. But, before moving to that, I would like to talk a bit about El Calafate, a city which does not receive too many good words in the guides but that I found quite pleasant. Yeah, it is full of expensive souvenir shops and travel agencies for gringos but at least they put some effort on giving the place a good look. The action is mostly located in a long avenue (surprisingly called Avda del Conquistador), with green in the middle and shops, restaurants and hostels on both sidewalks. There are a few small markets built in wood, plenty of trees and the mountains as background. Fair enough, Calafate is ok.

Following the tradition coming from the last pots, I can recommend you a place to hang out. It is located in the second floor of one of this wood buildings I was telling you before and the peculiar thing is that is both a bar and a library. You have plenty of bookshelves with books, most of them about the area but also about some other topics, that you can read while having a drink. The atmosphere inside is nice, sofas, smalls tables, nice ilumination and a good variety of patagonian beers At 1015 Avda Libertador, next to the casino.

El Perito Moreno

All right, lets get to the real action. I wake after not such a restful night and still with a headache and I jump into a bus heading to the main goal of this stop. Good news for starting, my residence certificate gets me in the park paying three time less than the normal gringo. I am starting to like this “been argentinian” thing. The bus drop us there around 9:30 and would pick us up at 16:00. More than enough time to properly visit the glacier, in fact, we didnt know what to do the last two hours.

So we get to the park and, since I had only paid the transportation so far, I decided to get into a boat that takes you really close to the glacier. This becomes my first chance to appreciate the size of the thing. The Perito Moreno is fucking impressive. Its size is more or less equivalent to Buenos Aires Capital Federal and it spreads itself in between big white mountanins, producing an amazing and very long ice valley. You dont manage to see the end of that frozen ocean, only its end in the Argentino lake. The magnitude of this natural wonder really shocks you and it is difficult to stop looking at it. At the top of the glacier there are quite deep fissures of a very dark blue colour. The glacier looks like if it was bleeding blue blood. And the experience is not only visual but also acustic. From time to time big pieces of ice very loudly fall down in the interior of the glacier. The Perito Moreno is basically a 5 km length and 60 meters high very noisy and impressive piece of ice.
The boat trip was, therefore, very adviceable since it takes you really close to the ice and stay there for a wile. They even offer you the possibility of having a drink with ice cubes from the glacier they got somehow. Well, I will tell you later but I was coming to this place with an important mission in mind which had to do a lot with drinking with glacier ice. So, not knowing if I was gonna be able to do what I really wanted to do, I decided to take the chance and ordered a Baileys. In the end, this proved to be unnecessary…

In the boat I got along with this portuguesse guy, Carlos, and we did the rest of the visit together. The glacier is surrounded by a system of platforms at different levels, from which you have different views of the ice. In fact, there are bigger glaciers in the area, what makes the Perito Moreno so visited is its accesibility through the platforms.

I had a funny encounter in one of the platforms. At some point I heard someone speaking Spanish (from Spain) and, when I looked at him, the face was very familiar. I am not so sure from where but I have seen this dude before. So I go to him and ask and I was right. Maybe we had never spoken but we had played agains each other many times in the basketball school league, back in Alcalá de Henares, the city where I grew up. As they say, world is a small place…

Going back to the platforms, you can see the map below, I would recommend the higher circuit (in green) for various reasons: the view is more spectacular and there isnt so many people around. Watch out cause you can easily walk only the inferior level and forget about this one, actually we almost did it…

By that time I had already acomplished the mission I was telling you before. I am aware of the fact that what comes next is not very civilizied and also a bit unresponsbile but… a challenge is a challenge. I have a mexican friend, in a way an inspiration for this trip, who told me a thousands times how we had a drink with ice he got from the glacier himself. I had already had that Baileys but that did not count cause I had to get the ice myself. It was not such an easy job, the platforms were quite far away from the ice and, of course, it was not allowed to leave them. I didnt see it too clear and I was about to give up but suddently I saw the right spot, there wasnt people around and I jumped out… I went downhil through a small forest till I reached the only point where the glacier hits the rock and not the water. It was an strategic place, probably the only one in which you could not be seen from the platforms nor by the security guys walking through them. I got next to the massive ice, took a glass out of my bag, hit the ice with a rock and got some ice inside… Then I produced the last leftover of Brugal from my bag and…

Paco, master of disaster

• I found bad news when I opened my bag in the hostel. Part of my already quite small, provision of Brugal had made it out of the bottle spreading a nice perfume all over my clothes. Fortunately there is still a tiny ammount left.
• “Remember they dont have plastic bags at the supermarket, go with your bag”, said the hostel guy. I dont listen and I show up in the supermarket with nothing, having to carry the bottle of Fernet I bought all the way back to the hostel with a shitty paper bag. “Be careful with that bag, you can break it” said the woman at the cashier. I dont listen and when I am entering the hostel’s kitchen the bag fucks up and my bottle of Fernet crashes on the floor in front of all the people having dinner. Quite a show.
• Of course I cut my finger while trying to clean the mess. I would have to spend the rest of the trip with a pice of glass stick in there.
• Here I am, in the second floor of the hostel, having a beer and thinking about how messy I am when the hostel guy comes to me. He is got my handbad, apparently I left it downstairs. No big deal, I had nothing important there, just my camera, my passport and all the money I am carrying for this trip…

Tags: Glaciers, Patagonia