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Patagonia is an odd place, gigantic and desolate it hangs around the bottom of South America luring unwary travelers in with mountains and glaciers. Given its unpredictable weather and lack of indoor alternatives we were surprised with the encouragement we received from everyone we discussed it with. So despite reservations about the advancing seasons and limited time we left a rainy wet Buenos Aires and headed south.
The plains around El Calafate were as enormous and featureless as we had imagined and cruising into town from the airport along the dirt roads it didn't seem to have the same cosmopolitan edge as BA. Still our giant log cabin hostel seemed welcoming enough especially when I put on my new Argentina football shirt and the staff particularly liked our surname and took to shouting it whenever we appeared. Still they were friendly and became friendlier still when we decided to go hell for leather and book three full day excursions to fully utilize our time.
To prepare for our outdoor activities we spent an arduous day eating toasties, drinking red wine and searching for a coordinating set of hat & gloves for Rachelle. We failed on mission three as none of the gloves quite matched the hat and Rachelle decided that she would rather sacrifice her fingers to frostbite than her aesthetic principles. Dodging our way back to the hostel through packs of friendly cuddly dogs and several pubs offering happy hours we felt at least partially prepared for our outdoor fun even if it was just the wine talking.
The next day was mixed, on the positive side we got to see Torres Del Paine a fantastic mountain system that springs up by itself, an island of mountains in the plain unconnected to the Andes. We also managed to spot loads of guanacos (like llamas) and were sniffed at by rabid foxes but those were the high points. Unfortunately for us Torres Del Paine is in Chile a bus journey of six hours from Calafate and our time in the national park was mostly spent on the bus or brief stops to take pictures. Not at all what we expected and enough to put us off bus trips but also enough for us to promise to come back for the full 5 day hike so not a total loss.
We arrived back by midnight and were up again at 7 for trip two. Our hearts sunk when another large coach pulled up to the hostel but this time our destination was the Perito Moreno glacier only 80km away so the time on the bus was relatively short. We had two hours to admire the glacier from an excellent set of platforms and it was wonderful to watch as the massive piece of ice gave off creaks, groans and loud cracks. Occasionally large pieces of ice would split away and tumble into the lake below and since the glacier advances at 2m per day pieces were constantly flaking off. We had to hook back up with the tour group again to take a boat across the lake to the glacier but before long we were in smaller groups slipping crampons on our feet and marching off behind our guide up and over the hills and ravines of ice. To be fair we didn't go very far but a hundred steps in the outside world disappeared and we were surrounded by dazzling white mounds, brilliant blue sinkholes and in a bizarre twist a bar set upon the glacier where the guides served us whisky chilled with 300 year old ice.
The final day finally broke our tour bus bad streak and our group turned out to be only five for a horse riding expedition in the hills above the glacier. In typical Argentinean style, there were no helmets and no questions asked about our riding abilities before we hopped on and started climbing the hills. Luckily everyone vaguely knew what they were doing and Luciano our guide soon had us trotting up narrow trails to a high outcrop over the glacier where everyone had a big swallow of cognac and paused to enjoy the panoramic view of the glacier, mountains and lake. Even better was to come, we stopped for lunch and spent two enjoyable hours working our way through three steak sandwiches each (Rachelle had two - she wanted me to put that in) and several bottles of wine. Feeling invincible still without a helmet and with several glasses of wine inside us we galloped most of the way back then giggled most of the way back to town on the minibus, one of our top trip days so far.
So Calafate is over after a whirlwind four days and the long trip north begins with a tiny five hour bus ride to El Chalten, baby steps.
Love A & R
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