Blogs from Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 14

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 exactly where we are going to be spending the next day and a little bit. We had only one choice of seat, Premier or Cama, which is a big comfy chair that reclines to almost 160*. Here we go. 11.30 am - The initial excitement of spending all this time on the bus has begun to wear ... read more

Off to the Los Glaciares National Park today to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. Up at 6am to hunt for a taxi, or bus company to take us out there. Ended up getting a bus tour for a good price, but its still not cheap when you add in national park fee's and a boat ride. Once again a spectacular day, we can see Torres Del Paine in Chile, clearly - some 450kms away. The bus tour guide says that there are only a few days a year like this, and on bad days they get 3m waves on the lake!!! Bus ride is good, we briefly see an armadillo brefore he disapears, as well as some eagles and a condor ripping into some roadkill. We get to the park, and the glacier blows your mind. ... read more

After a great time in El Calafate (forgetting the bug bites), Sonya and I were both keen to discover more of the spectacular beauty that southern Patagonia has to offer. A three hour bus ride north brought us to the tiny town of El Chalten, at the foot of the Fitz Roy mountain range in the middle of nowhere. The town attracts tourists during the summer months because of its many walking trails to various mountains and lakes in close proximity. Now, as you may know, we're not exactly avid ramblers. In fact, we don't even own a pair of those super-trendy walking shoes between us but the beauty of Patagonia will make you do crazy things. In our case that meant a 12km round trip to Laguna Capri, under the gaze of Mount Fitz Roy. ... read more

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 Lan's 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, souvenior shops and credit card machines. Overall it was a great town with good food and good views of the water. However, with all the tourists the town restaurants have colluded to charge a "utensil" fee per person at 1-3 USD per person. During our stay in El Calafate we took a boat trip out to the Perito Moreno glacier (~ ... read more

Aujourd’hui, c’était prévu, beau temps prévu, la journée idéale pour aller faire la rando de 8h, 26 km et 750m de dénivelé jusqu’au Laguna de Los Tres, au pied du Fitz Roy. Eva est repartie la veille pour El Calafate pour faire une excursion en bateau et voir d’autres glaciers (les plus grands) mais moi je ne voulais pas manquer l’occasion d’aller faire cette rando dont on m’avait dit du bien les jours précédents. Eh bien, tout le monde a eu la même idée et attendait une belle journée pour s’y rendre (sachant qu’il allait repleuvoir mardi). En plus nous avons eu de la chance, car il parait que les sommets sont souvent nuageux et que ce n’est même pas la peine de faire la dernière partie de la rando si c’est le cas (tu m’étonnes). ... read more