El Calafate

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El Calafate, Argentina -- this is the windy city!!! It feels like you are on top of a mesa when in fact we are only a few hundred feet above sea level. El Calafate is named for a little berry (looks like blueberry) that grows wild here. This town lies on the banks of Lago Argentina, the second largest lake in South America. The countryside surrounding the lake and the town of El Calafate is barren and scrubby, a bit like New Mexico. The winds just howl!

We got up early to catch the bus to catch the boat to tour the glaciers of Los Glaciares National Park. The glaciers all “spew” (for the most part) into various arms of Lago Argentina, the largest lake in Argentina. As a result the lake has this beautiful baby blue color with icebergs floating all over it that range in color from white to aqua to dark blue.
The lake is just beautiful, but not a lake to go swimming in.

On the lake tour, we saw small chunks of glaciers break off into the water. We stopped for a picnic at Onelli lake, and the boys pulled icebergs from the lake. Perfectly clear pieces of ice - apparently all the minerals precipitate out into the water, leaving pure H2O ice. Unusually clear, fabulous, and cold!! Theresa spotted a woodpecker flying through the woods. It’s the woody woodpecker variety with the pointy red head and all. Its not the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of recent fame in the states, but it is big and flashy.

We had a particularly good time on the boat tour, because there was a family sitting on the boat in front of us. They (Andrea from Argentina and Jonathon from England) have two girls the same age as our boys and currently live in California. The boys were so excited to have English-speaking friends to play with that the glaciers could not compete with these girls for Ben and Oliver’s attention.

After the boat tour we had a wonderful dinner with them too. We all enjoyed having new friends to talk to and we look forward to visiting them the next time we are in California.

Andrea tells us that El Calafate was nothing 20-30 years ago and it does look like everything in the town in newish. Of course it is summer right now so everyone is doing their outside work, but there is so much construction going on (in the form of big hotels), that you can tell that in 5-10 years this town will not look the same.

Our second day in El Calafate, we got up early again. We are all feeling really tired. But we were on the bus tour to the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park. This glacier is famous because it is so active and so beautiful. When we arrived, it was still fairly quiet (except for the ammunition and shooting sounds produced by Ben and Oliver). We could hear the glacier cracking and hear and see chunks fall off into the water. We did a boat ride up to the glacier’s face, the boys always seem to love being on a boat. We had a nice hike along the lake’s shore followed by a nice picnic lunch watching/listening to the glacier. Interestingly, horn honking (by cars/buses) is not allowed near the Perito Moreno Glacier.

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Photos

Andean Condor
FINALLY!!!