Sara Goes to Chalten and Calafate

Since the day I saw Jill's photos from the last time she came to Argentina, I knew the place I wanted to visit most was the Glaciers in southern Patagonia. So when I realized that I had to renew my 90-day tourist visa one last time, I used that as and excuse to book a last minute trip down to Patagonia, where I could cross into Chile. I was gone for about one and a half weeks, but it was one of the coolest places I've ever been. Here are my highlights.

El Chalten
I Flew from Bs.As. to the Calafate airport, which isn't actually in a city, and then immediately took a bus to Chalten so I wouldn't have to backtrack to get there. I spent two days and one night there, and would have loved to have stayed longer. Chalten is a little hippy town that calls itself the "trekking capital of Argentina" because there are so many easy day hikes in the area. Unfortunately, most of the town was closed since I was arriving at the end of winter. So I wasn't able to go on any glacier treks from here because those guided excursions don't start up until late spring.

After settling in at a hostel, I decided to take the 10 minute walk across town to the tourist information office, but that turned into a nightmare as a snow storm kicked in out of nowhere. Walking around town in just a fleece, I was underdressed for the wind and snow, and it became an incredibly unpleasant walk. Since nearly every business was closed, it was also really difficult to try to duck inside to warm up for a minute. When I finally got the the tourist office it was closed, and I was miserable. I returned to my hostel defeated. I missed Jill and felt like crying.

The next day, I found a panaderia that had some of the best pastries I've eaten down here yet. Then I headed out to hike to Laguna Torre (literally "Lake Tower"). It was an easy hike, but since it had snowed the previous day and the trails weren't clearly marked in any way, I lost the trail about 40 minutes into the hike. After climbing up a small cliff, I was able to see what appeared to be the trail, and finally got back on it! The rest of the hike was enjoyable, and it ended at a beautiful lookout point that stops in front of a lake. Beyond the lake was a massive glacier, and to the right of the lake was the famous Mt. Fitz Roy, one of the "towers" in the area. The view was breathtaking, and I intended to spend about an hour up there eating lunch, but the cutting wind was unbearable. So I headed back down after half an hour. Three hours later, I was back in town and running to the bus to head to Calafate. I probably could have stayed in Chalten another day, but I was worried about getting to Chile in time to renew my visa.



El Calafate
I had some work to do on my first day in Calafate, so I went looking for a hostel that wasn't too crowded and had a decent amount of computers. After checking in and getting some work done, I walked out to the costanera, where you can view various wild birds, including bright pink flamingos. Of course one of Argentina's many cute stray dogs decided to follow me along the way. I spent the rest of the evening strolling around Calafate's cute, but incredibly touristy downtown.

The following day, I began the "big ice" tour to see the Perrito Moreno glacier. One company has a monopoly on giving tours where you can actually hike on the glacier, so the prices are the same no matter where you go in town to set up your tour. I was incredibly lucky to get to hike on the glacier because the big ice tours had just begun two days earlier for the season. When the glacier gets covered with snow in the winter, it's too dangerous to go hiking on because there are large crevasses that get covered up with snow, and if you fell in one, it would probably be fatal... Anyway, the big ice tour started off with a walk along a boardwalk that follows the front side of the glacier. From there, you could see large pieces of ice that had fallen off the the glacier into the water, where they became icebergs. Luckily, we got to see one large piece of ice fall off while there. Although it's somewhat sad to see the glacier falling apart, this is one of the few glaciers that is actually growing, so it's not as tragic as it might sound. One of the most fascinating aspects of standing near the front of the glacier was hearing all of the loud popping noises that the ice made as it cracked in different places.

Next, we took a boat across the lake to a "dock," where we picked up our crampons and began our hike. For about an hour, we hiked on a mountain edge that ran alongside the glacier until we finally reached a point where the guides walked us onto the ice. We spent the next four hours hiking on the glacier, which is absolutely the coolest thing I've ever done. We stopped to have lunch on the glacier, drank fresh glacier water without any filters, watched our guide descend into a deep crevasse using only his crampons and two ice picks, tried ice climbing up a small 15-foot wall, and got to slide through part of a glacier where a hole had formed and created a natural slide. It was incredibly sad when it all ended, but afterward, we hopped back on the boat, which drove much closer to the side of the glacier than we had been before. On the boat ride back, our guides gave us a glass of scotch with ice from the glacier in it. I ended the day with a delicious Patagonian lamb Pizza and an artisan beer.