http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Argentina , Santa Cruz , El Calafate en-us Wed, 22 May 2013 13:59:33 +0000 Wed, 22 May 2013 13:59:33 +0000 Maria Chiara and I must be suckers for punishment. After two long plane rides we had finally managed to escape an excruciatingly long and severe British winter when we arrived in Buenos Aires. No sooner had we got nicely settled and acclimatised to the benign late summer temperatures than we took yet another long flight down to Southern Patagonia and yet more cold Aas our plane plunged towards A http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-784234.html Had our legs not done enough moving in the past few week Apparently not. So even more walking after the beast of the Torres Yeh sure. And in the socalled trekking capital of the world.... weather depending of course as we soon found out.After a long day of bus rides and waits journeying from Puerto Natales we were greeted by an unforgettable sunset over the Parque Los Glaciers. As the bus ro http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-779754.html We arrived at our next destination El Calafate by plane which was a nice change from getting an exhausting overnight bus journey. We had been told that it was pretty cold in El Calafate and as soon as we stepped outside the airport me and Jon both looked at each other and laughed as the freezing weather hit us immediately. We had acclimatised to the hot and humid weather of Brazil so 5 degrees was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-777339.html Feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready to go after our bus ride down from El Bolson we were keen to make the most of our time in El Calafate all of the two days we had.The first day was almost a write off after arriving into the town at 1.30pm then getting to the hostel sorting out our things and of course showering. It left us a few hours in the afternoon to do a couple of things. First and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-776676.html Today we went ziplining flying fox. It was Emiliano39s idea as it was his last day of his holiday and we had booked it the night before. Unfortunately he has come down with the cold that has been making its way through all of us and has bailed out. Just leaving Jo Mike and myself to do it on another beautiful day.We drive about an hour out of El Calafate to a private farm where they do http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-776618.html Arrived in El Calafate in the early afternoon after an enjoyable flight with Lade Air. Seeing as the tickets were so cheap i was expecting that we would be sitting amongst some chickens and a crate of fruit. But we were served a nice lunch and drinks including beer which i suprisingly turned down as i was still getting over a cold. Additionally we had views across the Andes the whole way down. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-776489.html Until now the longest bus journey we have done has been 12 hours and its about to be more than doubled. We have over 2000km of arid land to go over before finally arriving into El Calafate 5 hours outside Puerto Natales. We are more than likely going to go insane on it and I thought it would be best to write down this painfully enduring journey.11 am The bus pulled into El Bolson and we see exa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-776368.html After the intense hiking we did in El Chalten and before we got into more of the same in Chile we took a few days to recuperate in the town of El Calafate and per Craig Lan39s suggestion to allow Chris time to shave. The town was small but huge compared to El Chalten Population 600. It is the jumping off point for the Argentinian side of Patagonia so there was no shortage of tourists sou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-774677.html Il est temps de quitter El Chalten et le Fitz Roy a t sympa dtre l pour mon dpart il tait mme visible depuis lembranchement avec le route 40 50 km de l Retour vers El Calafate donc avant de reprendre un autre bus pour Bariloche. Pour ceux qui lisent ce blog et qui sont passs dans le coin je sais ce nest pas logique il y avait dautres solutions mais cest le http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-773481.html Finalement la facilit et un calcul rapide nous a fait prendre lexcursion de lauberge pour aller voir le glacier du Perito Moreno avec un petit dtour en dbut de matine par les routes adjacentes dans les montagnes et un stop dans une estancia. Il fait beau mais je sais dj que je naurai pas mes photos tant attendues du glacier avec un magnifique fond bleu comme sur dautres http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-773474.html Le soleil est El Calafate et la chaleur aussi Que cela fait du bien de retrouver le ciel bleu pendant plus de 10 minutes La visite du glacier sera pour demain donc pour moi ce sera journe cool aller se balader dans la rserve ornithologique sur la lagune prs du lac Argentino le plus grand lac dArgentine. Ah si vous naimez pas les oiseaux ce nest pas le 1er endroit o all http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-773472.html Hi GuysSo we have arrived in Argentina in the beautiful town of El Calafate We took a 6 hour bus from puerto natalies which was fine and got checked in to our hostel America del sur which was a tad hard to find but otherwise very nice. We got talking to an Irish guy Alex who is working there he is from Galway and he was very helpful with telling us what there is to do in the area. We headed down http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-772986.html Patagonia We flew straight into Base Camp Patagonia otherwise known as El Calafate the kind of place people stock up on Gortex gear and have a big last meal before launching into Patagonia proper.The first item on our itinerary was a day walking on Perito Moreno a huge advancing glacier that spills into Lago Argentino. Before you get too excited parents the walk had a strict age limit of 45 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-772789.html Highs El Glaciar Perito Moreno Nakal Yenu hostalLows NothingFood We were on a really tight budget so we had to watch in envy as the guys in the hostal stoked up the BBQ and put 4 chickens and basically half a cow on it. Still we had a nice salad that night Were both becoming hooked on Dulce de Leche which is kind of like caramel but your allowed to eat it at breakfast Also some great http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-770262.html Die naechste Station hat reichlich BergsteigerHistorie es ging nach El Chalten zu Fuessen des Cerro Torre und des Fitz Roy.So viel Pech wie wir am Anfang mit dem Wetter hatten so viel Glueck hatten wir in den letzten Tagen. Die Berge zeigten sich von ihrer besten Seite und so haben wir unsere 4 Tage mit dem Zelt vollauf genossen. Es hat sich einfach ein WOWBlick nach dem naechsten gezeigt http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-766601.html After an amazingly fun Christmas in Bariloche it was time to head south to see in the New Year in Ushuaia. Ushuaia lies just over 1500 kilometres from Bariloche so its 4 days of driving 2 border crossings and a ferry to catch across the Magellan straights to reach our next stop so with a quick goodbye to the staff at Los Coihunes we get an early start to hit the road Whilst its summer over h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-763918.html We39ve reached the southern point of our two weeks Patagonian Odyssey...we39ve reached El Calafate. But first there was the road from Menelik to El Calafate...some 480km with few gravels kms on the way. I did get 10 extra liters of nafta fuel from the Estancia Menelik at a serious premium but that was what it was...long journey without a single petrol station on the way. First 80km on http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-761229.html Calafate sits on the edge of Argentina 39s largest lake 1600 sq kilometre of milky blue glacier water as our bus drove past the lake we could see icebergs floating in the lake. Our main reason here is to visit the glacier Perito Moreno which is a couple of hours by coach away from Calafate and to travel onto El Chaltn to see the mountain Fitz Roy.We took the coach to the glacier first it st http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-759811.html After leaving Rio we arrived in good old Buenos Aries this place was beginning to feel like home. We had to spend a night here as we could not make a connecting flight straight to El Calafate from Rio.The next morning we had a flight at 630am to El Calafate which is down in the south of Argentina. The night before Zac had gone out waving taxis down to find out the cost of a trip to the airport http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-751987.html Our journey back from Ushuaia to El Calafate again started with an early departure time. This one slightly less ugly than the one that brought us here although not by much. We left at 5am. After grabbing a few hours of precious sleep on this bus I woke myself up put on my Ipod and took a look out of the window. After so many bus journeys you can almost lose the enthusiasm to keep getting on an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-720634.html