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Published: January 25th 2015
Day 9 – El Calafate –
01 January 2015 Lie in! 9am Breakfast of bacon and eggs. One and half hour drive to the Chilean
border, quickly through without any problems.
However an hour and half wait to enter Argentina with several changing
of queues due to same windows for entering and exiting the country!
Arrived at the Hostel Del Glacier, El Calafate. After checking in walked into the town,
changed some dollars into Argentinean pesos.
Found a lively restaurant with tables outside, ordered a local beef stew
with potatoes and vegetables. Judith and
I continued through the town and found an ice cream parlour with more flavours
than you could image – ice cream heaven!
We both ate a quarter of a litre each – chocolate, almond and vanilla –
delicious!
Day 10 – El Calafate
– 02 January 2015 Armed with a packed lunch boarded a coach for the journey to
the Perito Moreno glacier. On the way
we stopped for a hike down a hill before walking along a rocky & stony bank
by the side of a river where we could view the glacier from a distance –
amazing! After a very steep
climb through trees we again boarded the coach to
drive to view the glacier up close. An
hour and half of viewing the glacier from different areas along walk ways. Able to see and hear the thunder like sound
of pieces of the glacier breaking into the water A short 15 minute drive took
us to the boat where we had an amazing cruise to see the glacier face up
close. An hour and half drive back to
El Calafate, back to the same restaurant as last night for a steak and baked
potato. Visit to the ice cream parlour
again for another quarter litre of ice-cream heaven, including a portion made
with Calafate berries.
Day 11 – El Chalten –
03 January 2015 A 220 kms drive into Los Glaciares National Park to El
Chalten for three nights camping. On
the way we stopped at a camping hotel, which is part of the La Leona Estancia
for coffee and loo break. It is reputed
that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up here while rustling
cattle. We are 13,754 kms from London
according to the sign!
Arrived at the El Relincho campsite, El Chalten where
another Dragoman truck ‘Tortunga’ had set up camp. They are going in the opposite direction on a
different route. On cook group duty
tonight, so off to the supermarket. Very
limited supplies – El Chalten is a new town built in 1985 to cater for trekkers
– as very limited in supplies as miles away from anywhere. Cooked savoury mince with mashed potatoes; we
were going to do a chili con carne, but alas not kidney or any other beans for
sale.
Camp site very large and considering the size only four
toilets and showers –not impressed.
Days 12/13 - El
Chalten – 04/05 January 2015 Chilled out took the opportunity to do some much need
laundry – very windy so dried in no time.
No cook groups for two days as plenty of restaurants and cafes in El
Chalten. Grilled chicken and full salad
including grated carrots!
Day 14 - Argentinian
Patagonia, – 06 January 2015 Early start so up at 4:45 am to take down tent in howling
wind – will be glad to leave this campsite! Long drive to Cueva de las Manos to
see cave paintings of hands
and animals arriving at 4:20pm, took an hour and
half tour of the site walking along a mountainside path to the caves –
spectacular!
Bushed camped off the beaten track near a gorge, open area
with no shelter and extremely windy taking eight people to put up one ten. While we put the tents the cook group cooked
up a meal of savoury mince and rice.
How the tents stayed up overnight is a miracle, it was a noisy with the
wind howling and hitting the fly sheet, but managed to get some sleep.
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Hostel del Glacier
