DAY 168-176. JAN 16-24. El Calafate, Argentina 🇦🇷
Another short, but picturesque flight away was El Calafate, another portal town in southern Argentina that has great access to Patagonia. We stayed in the Americas del Sur Hostel which was a little on the expensive side, but was a really incredible atmosphere. The staff there helped us organize several tours, navigate some reservation changes, and gave us lots of tips about how to spend our time there.
The beers and food in town were really good! Still a little heavy on the meat and potatoes side, but we were still able to find a few green things for Chels to eat.
Our first tour was by boat, exploring some of the large glaciers nearby. It was Sam’s first time seeing a glacier, and it was a great way to introduce ourselves to the region. We visited Glacier Spegazzini & Glacier Seco via a large catamaran, and had lunch at a refugio nearby. It was really cool to watch the glacier for a while and see some pretty huge pieces fall, and tons of crackling sounds the whole time. After that we cruised past Glacier Upsala but we weren’t allowed to go very close because it’s super actively melting. Sometimes waves can be several meters tall. We did however get to see some icebergs up close which was also super cool. On return to our hostel we were able to play a guitar for the first time in a while which was really nice too.
Next adventure was the BIG ICE TREK! We headed out to the Perito Moreno glacier (the most famous one in the region) where we spent all day hiking to, on, and around the Perito Moreno glacier. This was one of the coolest experiences we’ve had on the trip so far. We got picked up early in the morning at our hostel, then were taken by bus to the viewpoint of the glacier. We walked along the walkways and got a great idea for how massive the glacier is and seeing it from literally right in front was very much worth it. Afterwards we took a boat to cross the water to the moraine on the side of the glacier. There, we met our guide who took us up the side of the canyon and into the forrest where we picked up our cramp-ons and walked down to the glacier.
Using cramp-ons for the first time was weird but super fun! They were old-school iron ones that fit over your shoes and have large spikes on the bottom to help you with traction on the ice. Our guide took us to a bunch of cool formations: cracks in the ice, super deep drainage holes, glacial rivers, and more! We ended up climbing to the top of one of the peaks and got a great view of the glacier & surrounding mountains from the middle. Then we headed back and had probably the best tour wrap-up of the trip: chocolate and whiskey, with glacial ice™. Sam joked that it would be a great product because the glacial ice is so compacted that it melts much slower than normal ice (what a goof). We bussed back to the hostel tired, but super accomplished.
A few days later, we opted to take a day trip to nearby El Chaltén, which is about a 3 hour bus ride away. It’s a mountain town known for exceptional hiking in and around Patagonia, as well as the famous rock formation: Fitz Roy. We got there, grabbed some empanadas for lunch at a shop in town, and then took the Sendero Fitz Roy to Laguna Capri, where we enjoyed a lunch on the shores, and actually met a family from LA (small world!). Fitz Roy was shy at first, covered up by clouds, but after a while she showed her beautiful self and it was an amazing sight to see. We made our way back, and posted up at a bar/restaurant with some beers while we waited for our return bus back to El Calafate. We had originally planned to spend a few more nights here, but most places were booked up! We would definitely like to return and spend some more time in this awesome little town.
When we got back to El Calafate, we took it easy for the next couple days, enjoyed sunsets, and a few more restaurants in town. Then, we experienced our first major hiccup of the trip. The tour company we were using for the next location in Chile had told us they’d pick us up at our hostel in El Calafate and take us across the border via car. But we learned through the hostel that the land borders were closed and it was only possible to enter to country through Santiago, by air. This would have incurred an unexpected $3000 airline charge in order to take a minimum of 3 flights to get somewhere that was only about 150 miles away. We ended up canceling and changing all our plans to go to Guatemala, but this company still hasn’t refunded us. We’re going to try and get the $1700 we spent for the W trek tour back through our credit card, but we wanted to warn anyone planning to do this to NEVER USE the Cascada Travel company! It’s a total scam.
Thankfully, we were both able to plan and adjust to a new opportunity in Guatemala, which we knew would be an awesome option. We’re still super grateful to be traveling the world, and stuff like this can happen, you just gotta go with the flow. This hiccup didn’t ruin our time in El Calafate which truly embodied our desire to have an awesome Patagonia adventure. We’ll be heading to Chile later in the trip to get back to that trek with a different company, and we can’t wait.
