We caught a flight from Puerto Iguazu to El Calafate because the bus ride would literally take 3 days! Haha. So about 6 hours, two flights, and two disgusting and dry ham and cheese sandwiches later we arrived in El Calafate's tiny airport.
It was a really strange landscape. I guess I didn't really know what to expect, maybe a forest and trees since we were so close to the mountains. It wasn't; it was completely dry and dead nothingness with hardly a bush over 2 foot tall sparsely placed around the hills. The mountains in the distance were an amazing sight, though, and the lake that ran from well beyond the airport, another 23km to town, and then all the way up to the mountains was the strangest turquoise gray blue color. It is all glacial melt lying in the carved out valleys of extinct glaciers. Glaciers are the reason to visit El Calafate. The town reminds me of something like Whistler, but not quite as perfectly set up. Cars still drive through the middle of it, but its still probably as touristy. Nearly all the shops sell either hiking gear or tours to the glaciers and surrounding areas.
Captain Thrifty wasn't about to fall for that business. In our hostel they offered a "tour" of Glaciar Perito Moreno, which is the most famous glacier because it advances around 6 feet per day and is constantly dropping house-size chunks of ice into Lago Argentino. They wanted $AR130 per person and it said something like, "Your guide will take you to the glacier..." and blah blah. After knowing how loosely they use the term "guide" I asked exactly what it meant. I found out that the "guide" is really just a bus driver and they drop you off at the park, same as if you drove there yourself. $AR130 is about $34. Car rentals are $60/day. Easy decision there. No set schedules, no crowded crappy buses, stop whenever you want to take pictures. We got online and had a car from Avis within about 15 minutes. Then, while walking to dinner, we saw some people looking out the window of our hostel and talking. I also knew they were in one of the double rooms so it would just be two people, probably a couple. This is what makes hostels so much better than hotels... If you were in a hotel people would think you are going to rob them or something, but in hostels its totally different. I decided to just walk up to the window and ask if they were going to the glacier tomorrow. They told us they wanted to, but the tours were all booked up. Perfect. So we asked them to split the cost of the car rental with us and that was that. They turned out to be this really cool couple from San Francisco that was traveling Argentina and Chile for 5 weeks. It was also pretty nice talking to some people that spoke English AND we could talk to about home.
The drive out to the glacier followed the shores of Lago Argentino and had amazing views against the Andes. We stopped for pictures several times along the way.
Then while just driving along and chatting we came around a corner and were all suddenly stunned by the sight of the Perito Moreno glacier. It seemed to come out of nowhere and was massive. Its true dimensions are 5km wide, 30km long, and 70m high which is still impressive even just by numbers. In person its even more amazing. The park has walkways that come within just a few hundred yards of the face of this monster. The strangest part is that you can hear its advance. There are constant explosive cracking sounds and pieces of the glacier "calving" almost iridescent blue icebergs into the lake with a thunderous crash. Its really pretty awesome. There was one crash we missed seeing directly (I have a video attached below of a smaller one we saw) because we were around the other side of the glacier, but we could hear it. We could see the waves it created, though. There was a boat in the water nearly directly in front of where a big section of the front wall sheared off and dropped into the water. The wave it sent out was so huge the boat immediately flipped around and took off as fast as it could to avoid being capsized. I'm sure they are used to it; it seems to happen pretty often by the number of icebergs floating in the lake.
We spent about 5 hours there at the park just walking around to all the viewing platforms and eating lunch. We did not get the lunch available from the hostel, but instead opted to buy stuff from grocery store. I'm sure you can guess why. Ham and cheese! It started to get windy and cold later in the day so we headed back to the hostel around 7pm. The light is long down here. Sun up is around 5am and sunset after 10pm. The sunsets are amazing too.
Our dinner was at a place called La Tablita which was completely packed. We got there at 9:15, which is early by Argentina standards, and we still couldn't get in until after 10pm. The sunset picture from above was taken while we were waiting so it actually turned out good. It was totally worth the wait anyway. We had grilled chicken and steak, mashed pumpkin and potatoes, and a bottle of Malbec from Mendoza. It was so good and I can see why it was so popular. They even had a big fire pit with lamb placed around it ready for eating!
We were headed out of El Calafate the next day so we needed money to cover everything for the next 5 days. It seems that nobody here accepts credit cards. The stupid thing is that the ATMs have a withdrawal limit of $AR650 which is like $175. When you're paying for car rentals, hotels, food, park entries, etc all with cash $175 is nothing. It's really pretty dumb because everyone was making multiple consecutive withdrawals. Its also what I had to do, but check out this line! This is just showing what is outside, there were another 10 or so more people inside. Take a hint Argentina, up your limits and start taking credit cards.
Our drive to Puerto Natales, Chile took about 4 hours across a very windy Patagonian steppe. It was scenic, but I felt sorry for the bicyclists out there bucking that wind. I even saw a tandem bike covered in luggage climbing a hill in a biting 40mph cross wind. No thanks.
Our border crossing into Chile was a lot faster and less intimidating than entering and exiting Nicaragua. We had to stop on the Argentina side and get an exit stamp and have our car papers stamped as well. Then another stop in Chile to have our car inspected for fruits and animal products. They are apparently pretty strict about that here. Overall, it was super easy. Also, when you drive in you don't have to pay the $120 entry fee that you do when you fly.
Puerto Natales is surrounded by some huge mountains and by water. Its really pretty. Man its cold, though. The high is only around 50, but with the wind blowing off that cold water it feels way worse. We warmed up with some really awesome stone oven pizza and Puerto Natales' own microbrew, Baguales. Luckily here they accept credit card more often, because after hitting those ATMs this morning my card wouldn't let me withdraw any Chilean pesos!
We are headed to see the Torres del Paine tomorrow. Lets hope for a slightly warmer and clearer day.
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