El Calafate, El Chaltén and Los Glaciares National Park

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From Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, I wanted to head to the Argentinean mainland. This is much more hassle than it should really be; buses leave Ushuaia every morning at 5 and take 12 hours to cover the relatively short 300km to the southernmost Argentinean mainland city of Rio Gallegos. The bus took so long as we had to cross into Chile and then back into Argentina, stopping at customs both times to fill in the “necessary” paperwork and have our passports stamped (relations between the two countries are like the weather here - very frosty). On the ferry from Tierra del Fuego to the mainland, I was lucky enough once again to see black and white Commerson’s dolphins swimming off the bow. The bus arrived in Rio Gallegos in the late afternoon, and I decided to spend one night in the city before moving on. Rio Gallegos is a large coastal and industrial city, pretty ugly and unwelcoming. Nothing of interest whatsoever. The following day I moved on to El Calafate, a small town 3 hours west of Rio Gallegos, and just across the border from Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. El Calafate exists for one reason - to cater for tourists coming to visit the Los Glaciares National Park, and specifically the Perito Moreno Glacier, described as one of nature’s wonders.

El Calafate, which is named after a Patagonian berry, is one of these towns with no attractions of its own - there is one main avenue filled with hostels, agencies, souvenir shops and a casino, with not much else. The town sits on the edge of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in the country, but the water levels at this part of the year are rather low (as most of the snow in the surrounding mountains has not yet melted), so there are extensive marshlands separating the town from the turquoise waters of the lake.

In the nearby Los Glaciares National Park, there are several large and impressive glaciers, but the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most beautiful and by far the easiest to see (as you can essentially drive all the way to it). The glacier was undoubtedly one of the most stunning sites I’ve seen in South America. The first glimpse, driving in along the road from El Calafate, was of the less impressive south face, and that by itself was stunning. We were dropped off at the entrance to a maze of walkways, which run parallel to the centre of the glacier, offering photo opportunities from thousands of angles. Luckily the sun was shining for most of the morning, which made the glacier gleam a light blue. Although the glacier is not the largest in the national park, it is one of only three in Patagonia that are in fact growing. And with a surface area of 250 square kilometres, with walls of over 60 metres, it is hardly small. As it grows, it cuts a section of Lago Argentino, on which it sits, off from the main body of the lake. The water in this section rises to 30m above the main lake, and every few years ruptures the glacier in spectacular fashion before the process begins again. Although I was not fortunate enough to witness this event, huge chunks of ice were constantly breaking off the glacier, plummeting with a thunderous roar into the lake below (watch the video for a mid-size collapse). I did manage to see a gigantic iceberg (at least football pitch size) break off from the north face and sink into the main body of the lake. I imagine everyone within a considerable distance would have heard the rupture. After 2 hours on the different walkways and balconies, it was then time to explore the glacier by catamaran. The 1 hour tour passed reasonably close to the whole length of the north face (though maintaining a safe distance in case an iceberg broke off). On the top deck, the views were serenely beautiful, but it was bitterly cold!

After the glacier, I had time to visit one more site in the El Calafate area, before moving on the next day. This last site was a nature reserve on the outskirts of the town, which was jammed full with Patagonian birds. Seeing flamingos flying above and landing on the lagoon was truly a majestic site. There were some other interesting species as well, including kestrels, hawks and countless varieties of duck, but nothing that particularly stood out. Having finished in El Calafate, the next day I took a bus to the small village of El Chaltén, 200km to the northwest. Chaltén proudly claims to be Argentina’s hiking capital, and in this it did not disappoint. El Chaltén is in the far north of the Los Glaciares national park, though here fortunately there is no charge to get in (but soon to change). The town was only founded in the early 1980s to counter Chilean claims to this part of Patagonia, and is still nothing more than a village which shuts down outside of spring and summer. The problem at the moment is that it still isn’t high season, meaning that transportation in and out of the village is somewhat difficult. There’s no large town within 200km, and the buses running north along Patagonia’s famously scenic Ruta 40 only leave every 4 days, which is why I spent 7 days in El Chaltén (3 would not have been enough). The only alternative would have been to head back to El Calafate and from there to Rio Gallegos, but that was not the direction I wanted to go.

The only reason to visit El Chaltén is to explore the northern sector of the Los Glaciares National Park. After spending my first night camping in the town, the next day I headed to the most iconic peak in Patagonia, Mt Fitzroy, which stands at 3405m, and was named after the captain of the Beagle who navigated his ship from the Atlantic to relatively close to the park. From the village, all of the high peaks in this area of the park are visible (on a clear day), but Fitzroy stands out as the tallest and most impressive. The trail towards it from El Chaltén was at first a steep climb, but then levelled off. The views of Fitzroy and the neighbouring peaks from a distance were quite beautiful. After a couple of hours I arrived at the campsite where I would be spending the night. After setting up camp, I continued along the trail, which was a steep 90 minute climb to a lagoon at the foot of Fitzroy. Unfortunately by this time the skies had started to cloud over, so Fitzroy was somewhat difficult to see. The Laguna de los Tres was completely covered in snow so wasn’t much of a sight either. The Laguna Sucia (Dirty Lagoon), 200 metres below the level of the Lagoon de los Tres, was a more impressive sight.

The following day I explored some of the trails in the area and in a private nature reserve outside of the park’s boundaries, before heading to the park’s other iconic peak, Cerro Torre, which stands at 3,102m. It was grey and cloudy the whole day so I unfortunately never got a clear view of the peak. The campsite was close to the lagoon near the foot of the mountain, but the next day the weather didn’t improve, so I was still unable to get a good view. On the positive side, I was able to view the glaciers that loom above the lake (though not as impressive a sight as Perito Moreno). I headed back for El Chaltén (3½ hours away) and was lucky to get there before the skies opened up in the afternoon. At first it was heavy snow, and then just heavy rain. In fact it didn’t stop raining until the following morning. The trail up one of the nearby hills I attempted the next day I had to abandon half way through due to the sheer amount of snow, but there were plenty of short hikes I could do from El Chaltén instead. In particular, there are 2 viewpoints within an hour’s walk of the village, one offering views over the village with the mountains in the background (plus I was lucky enough to see two condors gliding on the thermals below), and the other with great views in the opposite direction to Lake Viedma. The last 2 days I had in El Chaltén I did get a bit bored, but in any case I had to wait around for the next bus. If the higher level paths hadn’t been blocked with snow, then I would have had more things to do. On my last day, as the skies were clear, I decided to head back to Cerro Torre and see if I could actually get a better close up view, which was definitely worth it. Such a difference from when I was there 3 days previously.

As the distances in Patagonia are massive, my next stop, Esquel, is 24 hours away by bus. Hopefully, being that much further to the north, the weather should be a bit less fickle. The next blog will come from there.

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Photos

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