El Calafate - Perito Moreno Glacier

Left the sweltering heat of Buenos Aires on Sunday, January 31st and flew 3 hours to El Calafate in the south of Argentina, known as the Patagonia area. During the last couple of weeks in Buenos Aires the heat averaged about 34 degrees and the humidity was extremely high, so were quite happy to feel the relief of coolness of the south.

When we arrived at the airport, Robin's suitcase got randomly chosen for inspection. Patagonia has very strict controls over meat, fruit and vegetables coming into the area. The other person who was chosen was  a Rabbi...they probably thought he was bringing in his own kosher meat!!! (sorry Lisa!!)

El Calafate is a relatively new town. The town itself reminds us of mountain towns like Canmore back home or Queenstown in New Zealand.  A headquarters for adventure seekers and tourism, and also the gateway to El Chalten, a mountaineering mecca. Our nephew Sean would also love Patagonia, as its' known for its excellent fly fishing. The name Calafate comes from a berry of the region, similar to a blueberry, smaller and a bit tarter, but very tasty. The make jams, chocolates and liquors with this berry.

We are told that five years ago, the towns population was around 4,000 and they had around 2,000 hotel beds. The main reason people came here was to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. Today, the towns' population is around twenty thousand and they have 8,000 hotel beds. They say that the reason the town has grown so quickly is due to the devaluation of their currency and that tourism is much more affordable in Argentina.  The area around the town is quite bleak and stark, reminding one of the moors of Scotland, the bareness of Newfoundland or the Sonoran desert in Arizona.  The town has had trouble keeping up with water, electrical and sewage infrastructure due to its huge growth, but they are finally catching up.

The temperature here is 11 degrees C. and the wind is  constant and  at times extremely high.  They say the weather right now is cooler than the norm, but we aren't complaining. We have been warned that the winds are even stronger in Torres del Paine.


Just to keep everyone up to date on the President, Madame Kerchner, she and her husband have another home here just a couple of blocks away from where we are staying. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon, she and her husband were here for the weekend. Her security people were all over the main road, keeping an eye out for the bad guys!!!

The "Los Glaciares National Park and Reserve" covers an area of some 600,000 hectares about 80 km. from the town of El Calafate. It was created in 1937, the third National Park in the world and the first in Argentina. We are told that the oldest National Park is in France and the second oldest is Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. Los Glaciares was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1981. We visited the Perito Merino glacier, the stunning centerpiece of this park. We  enjoyed a one hour boat ride getting quite close to the glacier. The glacier is magnificent...5 km. across and it measures 30 km. long and is 60 meters high. We are told that the glaciers here and in Antartica are actually stable if not increasing. The glacier advances up to 2 meters per day, causing spectacular calving (breaking off of parts of the glacier) and flowing into the 1,600 km. trough of Lago Argentina, the country's largest single body of water.

Although one might say that watching the glacier is a very sedentary experience, it still manages to take your breath away, due to its' size and magnificence. They have recently replaced the boardwalks with new catwalks and the viewing areas are numerous and allow one to see the glacier from many different locations and views. We spent several hours walking the various catwalks and spent quite some time in one area where parts of the glacier were falling off with thunderous noise and to the "oowing" and "aawing" of the tourists.

 We are staying  at a nice lodge, which is a 10 minute walk from the downtown and by the Nimez Lake, El Calafate Ecological Reserve with black necked swans, flamingoes and cauquenes (another type of bird). On our way to the glacier we saw guanacos, a llama and condors. Will spend our next day here walking around the reserve and just staying in town relaxing....and oh yeah....southern Patagonia is known for its' chocolate shops. So those of you who know Robin well, will know that we will be hunting down the best chocolate!!

We now realize that we  didn't leave ourselves enough time to really discover this area as we are headed off on Feb. 3rd by bus (5 hours) to Puerto Natales, Chile to start our 5 day trek in Torres del Paine National Park.

Pictures have been posted.  Will be out of touch for about a week to 10 days.