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Published: November 22nd 2010
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Flamingos in Patagonia
Who knew flamencos live in Patagonia! Despite the cold, wind and snow, they call the ecological reserve of Laguna Nimez home. After a fun and busy couple of days in Buenos Aires, we were both ready to leave the city grime behind and head to the beautifully pristine and "tranquilo" region of Patagonia (in both Argentina and Chile). I (Erin) will write about Patagonia in Argentina and Eli (I promise he is about to start blogging too) will write about our time spent in Chilean Patagonia, mainly the incredible and impressive Torres del Paine. 12 days amongst our favorite thing - big mountains and small towns (or even no towns) - we were in paradise...
We flew into El Calafate to begin our Patagonian adventures, mainly because we found reasonable airline tickets (something that is surprisingly hard to come by in South America), and because it's a good and convenient starting point to southern Patagonia. Flying into the airport seemed magical with the snow-capped peaks, turquoise lakes, sunny skies and an adorable little airport - a welcomed change of pace coming from a city of 4 million. Lonely Planet (LP) describes El Calafate as "a pleasant enough stop for a day or two," and we would agree. We found a nice enough hostel close to el centro, upon LP's recommendation, enjoyed
Los Caballos
Patagonian horses grazing by a beautiful laguna. some good food at Viva La Pepa (crepes and curried squash soup), and best of all, walked around Laguna Nimez one afternoon, home to a huge flock of flamingos. Who knew there were flamingos in Patagonia! Super exciting and so unexpected! One reason it was so shocking to find flamingos in Patagonia was because Patagonia is a cold, windy and often rainy/snowy place (but when it's nice out, it's magical). Another great thing about El Calafate is that they have a chocolate factory right in town called Las Ovejitas, and we had pretty much the best hot chocolate in the world there! It was so delicious and rich that we didn't even have room for an actual piece of chocolate (I know, Mom d., Mom C. and most other women, you are probably disappointed to read that). Besides that, we opted not to see the main tourist attraction 80km from El Calafate, Glaciar Perito Moreno in Parque Nacional de los Glaciares, and head to El Chaltén instead, which is a little town located within the same national park.
El Chaltén: an adorably tiny, sleepy and still developing moutain town ideally located in a serene river valley amidst breath-taking mountains.
Flying Flamencos
Who knew that flamingos not only live in Patagonia but that they also fly! The town was only founded in 1985, which means that it is younger than either one of us! Another interesting tid-bit is that it is located within the boundaries of Parque Nacional de los Glaciares (a different section than in El Calafate, but the same park). We stumbled into the "main drag" and El Relincho, a place with campsites in town that I had read about in LP. Yes, there were campsites and they were nice, but it was hilarious that they were literally in this family's backyard, along with their horses! Either way, the tall grass and blooming flowers made for a great bed for the night, plus we were both really excited to break out all of our new backpacking gear that we got for our wedding. We found two awesome places to eat in town - La Wafleria and La Cerveceria. The waffle place served up a huge array of sweet, dessert-style waffles, but also had lunch-style waffles as well (fresh veggies, chicken, cheese and spices), which was a deliciously fun and creative idea we had never seen before... yum! And La Cerveceria, hmmm, I could go on for days about that place. First things first, the
Las Ovejitas
Patagonian chocolate, yum! beer. There were two options, rubia or negra, and both were made in house from unfiltered glacial water... simply amazing! We personally loved the rubia. The food was great too - trout raviolis, fresh baked empanadas, complimentary soup of the day that came with every meal and locro, a traditional dish that is a heavy stew of sorts with meat, beans, veggies, lots of corn and other delicious ingredients. And to make the place even better, it was a cute little wooden log cabin with a wood stove, funky wooden bar, a wall of currencies from all around the world and a guest book on each table, full of signatures from all around the world. Ah, we do miss that place! While the food was awesome, that is certainly not the reason we went to El Chaltén...
...We went to that adorable little town to hike and enjoy the outdoors, and we totally lucked out with incredible weather for the 3 days we spent there, something that can be quite rare in the spring. Many world-class climbers flock to the area because of the grand Fitz Roy peak that is surrounded by glaciers - you are probably starting to
Fitz Roy Mountains
A view of the Fitz Roy mountains just outside of El Chaltén. imagine how beautiful that would be - and it was simply breath-taking! We hiked about 7 hours one day with magnificent views of the infamous Fitz Roy and other surrounding peaks, ending up at Laguna Torre to camp for the night. Laguna Torre is a glacial lake formed from Glaciar Grande, and yes, it was a big and beautiful glacier! We were able to drink the water unfiltered from the glacial river that ran just below our campsite making everything seem that much more pristine. The hike out the next day was much shorter, only about 3 hours, and knowing that a cold rubia from La Cerveceria was waiting made it fantastic. Wishing we had more time to spend in El Chaltén, we left by bus to go back to El Calafate where we would take the next bus to Puerto Natales in Chile, the starting point for Torres del Paine. Hopefully if and when you have the chance to visit El Chaltén it will still be a sleepy little town in a national park, but I would imagine in the upcoming years that it will really start to take off as a major tourist destination (they did just pave
Parque Nacional de los Glaciares
The national park in El Chaltén... que hermosa! the road from El Calafate, making it much more accessible). Eli will continue our blog on the Chilean side of Patagonia, so until then, que tiene mucho suerte.
Hasta luego,
e squared everywhere (written by Erin)
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Mom C
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"curried squash soup"
While reading your wonderful account of your journey in Blog 4, all that kept going through my mind is...really...Eli ate curried squash soup! I don't know my son anymore;)))))) How amazing to see flamingos, let alone in flight! The photos are beautiful. Some of the scenery reminds me a bit of the San Juans down around Durango. But then that is really the only place I have spent any time cold weather back country hiking/camping. You two on this trip are so very amazing...thanks Erin for the blog updates, I will look forward to Eli's entry. Love you everywhere, E2! Mom C