El Calafate

 

Leaving Ushuaia by plane was terrific. The taxi journey to the airport on the spit of land in front of the town, promised a bumpy take off as the car was buffeted by extremely strong winds. We arrived in the airport with twenty minutes to take off and wandered through the check in and up to the lounge. All very relaxed, the good passengers were all there early so we had no queues to contend with. The plane landed and ten minutes later it was fully fueled and we were onboard. The plane taxied down the runway, then turned around and took off into the wind, making for a very smooth take off, not a single bump. The scenery was breath taking and we could not have wanted more, having travelled the full length of the Chileanean and Argentinean Mountains we saw them from above. The snow covered peaks for as far as the eye could see. Once we were over the clouds and away from the mountains, we were flying over the Pampa of Patagonia. The wild rivers, the terraced steppe landscape was all fascinating, especially as we had spent such a long time driving over it.

Landing in El Calafate was interesting, the area seemed to be much drier from the air than we had previously experienced, and there was a beautiful azure lake with ice bergs floating? Glacier land, we had arrived. The mountains receive a vast quantity of snow each year resulting in glacier growth of a huge range of mountains. The perspective of which gives an idea of how earth might have looked 10000 years ago during the last ice age. We got to see the glacier a few days later…

We took a cab to a hostel which was based in the newer part of the town, dusty roads and an old airfield formed this part and it was a little surprising to see. There is are laws here to prohibit the dispersal of plastic bags from shops, but there are still a huge number of bags flying around which have been set free of both the bins they were in and the rubbish, not by humans, but by scavenging dogs apparently. One would think, the next step would be to keep the dog population under control. The town itself is a tourism town which we found to be very “nice” with main road and a few shops and bars. When we arrived the staff sat us down and explained the offers for tours, all provided by the same company, and sadly, waaaay to expensive for us. A day trip with some walking on the glacier was billed at over 600 Argentinian Pesos… which I around 100 GBP. What? A walk on a glacier with crampons and ice picks for what? Frankly the pricing is a joke and not as many people do it as there is space for, a real shame and a very short sighted attitude by the tour organizers. Apparently, a lot of the land in the area is being bought by the Presidential family, the Kirchners, one could speculate as to their power on pricing? We spent some time taking in the scenery and with our friends from Rio Gallegos decided to hire a car check out the glacier and then day trip to El Chalten the next day, only 200km north.

We headed out early the next day with the car and found the glacier, which is amazing, an amazing blue chunk of ice heading into the lake and of course took a number of photos of it from different angles. We saw and heard a number of ice chunks calving into the lake, but sadly the efforts to photograph it were in vain. The glacier advances each year which makes it the only one!

On the way home we headed out for a different route, turning off onto a dirt road. We drove past some enormous birds who apparently were juvenile Condors and also a lake with flamingos in it. We had to stop and I tried to get closer. These birds keep an eye out though and moved through the shallow lake as we moved around the outside. It was extremely amusing to be greated by two bleating lambs who were perhaps no more than a week old, fluffy floppy eared and slightly stupid, happily bounding through the sheep carcasses which are very common. Apparently the cost of sheep is so low that they are pretty much feral and left to get on with it, allowing the Condors and Eagles and I presume Jaguars and dogs to kill at will…

We saw a number of Condor families and we took some amazing photos of these gigantic birds flying through the mountains. We stopped to try and take a picture of one feasting on a bit of meat in the middle of the road to show how big they stand off the ground but didn’t quite manage as it flew off while I frantically tried to change my camera battery.
El Chalten was our target the next day. We started out our day with a great drive through a cold desert as we skirted the lakes created by the melting glacial ice and snow from the mountains. Two hours later arrived in a tiny village which called itself El Chalten, the old El Chalten was covered by ash from a volcano a couple years ago. It is known as the hiking capital in Argentina, and we expected perhaps a little more, but we were there in the off season, so we weren’t spoilt for choice when looking for a café. The wind was brutal, so we headed out for a wander, and found the tourist office, which gave us some options for some day hikes. They turned out to be straight into the wind which was driving snow into our faces so we decided a short walk would really be the only option. We would have liked to go for a longer one, given the lack of proper gear and the biting cold it wasn’t really an option. The area outside of the villages and towns in Patagonia are pure wilderness, without a compass and a good map getting lost is all too easy apparently. So we shall return I hope and do some hiking to the peaks in the future. The drive away from the area saw us photographing the clearing view through the mirrors and stopping frequently to get more photos of this incredible landscape.

Our final day loomed and we enjoyed great dinners and chats with the Irish and dutch we had met enroute. We packed our bags and got ready to go to the airport and said goodbyes the next morning. On trying to leave the hostel informed us or flight was delayed and would not be taking off till ten that night, so we called LAN to get confirmation. No, the flight was normal, so we booked a cab and headed to the airport much to the bemusement of the hostel guys. We got there and waited in line for a little while thinking that there weren’t too many people on the flight! When we got to the desk we found out that a bird had flown into the engine in Ushuaia and our plane was going to be 12 hours delayed. As we had not been contacted they would provide us lunch and a place to take it easy that day. Lovely. We then pointed out that our bus booked (not really) that night was our accommodation for the night and we would need them to organize something else for us. They did without fuss. BA etc learn how it is done . We then boarded a bus and got taken to a lovely hotel at the other end of the town and some.. overlooking the lake and with a view of the town. It was a tough day. Free three course lunch of steak and more followed by relaxing in a lovely hotel room. Then being chauffeured back to the airport for our flight. We eventually left an hour late as further technical checks were carried out, better safe and delayed eh!

Bye bye Patagonia as we flew into the darkness.

MT