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Published: October 17th 2018
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Today was a bit of a rest day with just one activity planned. We woke up in time to have breakfast and finish packing our bags before checking out at 10am. We left our bags at the hotel for the day as we were informed last night that a driver would pick us up at 6:15pm for the airport transfer.
The activity today was to visit the Glaciarium which is a museum dedicated to glaciers as suggested by its name. There is a complimentary mini-bus transfer that leaves on the hour. As we got there early we looked around a free open air museum dedicated to explorers of the Patagonian region with figures sculptured by an artist. It was also like a small botanical garden with typical plants and trees of the region. It was a pleasant way to spend time before walking across the road to the bus stop.
It was just a 20 minute ride to the Glaciarium which is set on a hill with lovely views of Lake …….. and the mountains behind. We were the second customers inside and I even got a seniors discount with my Australian Seniors card. Daisy hasn’t got a card
but showed her licence but you have to be over 65 or have a card. No worries, entry was inexpensive anyway. The presentations are very good and we learnt some new facts about glaciers and learnt more about the history of Patagonian exploration. There were also some nice movies including a 3D one and all the exhibits have English translations. We finished around 1:45pm and had just missed the bus back, but it gave us the opportunity to enjoy the view and take photos of all the horses who were roaming freely around the Glaciarium.
We got back to town at 3pm and decided to have lunch and we ended up at the same café where we had chatted with Angelica and Darlene two days ago. I decided this was going to be my main meal today so ordered a lamb stew and Daisy ordered a lamb-burger with chips. Both meals were huge but the lamb was so nice I polished it off easily. Daisy had to leave a quarter of hers though. Food here seems to be quite cheap. After that we just wandered around the shops and walked back to the hotel to wait for our pick-up
who was actually a little early. The driver was a lovely man named Alexis who has lived in El Calafate since 1999 and is married with 2 boys aged 9 and 12. He also gave us a quick Spanish lesson on the 25 minute trip to the airport.
This flight is the only one we are having on Aerolineas Argentinos and because it is a domestic flight the baggage limit is only 16kgs, so I knew we would have to pay excess baggage. The man servicing us told us we could have paid on-line and it would have been 360 pesos per bag instead of 450 pesos but I told him that I had tried 2 weeks ago but I wasn’t able to do it. I probably should have tried again last night but the charge wasn’t too bad considering some of the outrageous charges I have heard about on other airlines. The El Calafate airport is small but was only built in 2000 so is quite modern.
Flight took off on time and we arrived a little early. We had to get on a bus to get to the terminal and it was a fair way away
but we walked straight into the baggage collection area so was great. There was a long wait however for the bags to arrive.
Our arranged pick-up went smoothly and the driver has a daughter playing hockey in Cairns. He said he plans to visit next year. I had arranged an Air BnB studio apartment in the Recolletta area but because of the lateness we had to go to the owner’s apartment block first to collect the keys from the security guard. Our driver even went in and collected the keys for us, then drove us just a few blocks to our accommodation. The apartment block has a small lift thankfully and the apartment is lovely so we are very happy so far with our choice.
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