The following morning we were flying again. This time to El Calafate, further in Patagonia. It was very windy when we arrived, which is typical of the area. We really had some turbulence on this flight.
Got to the hotel and rested for a bit. Then went to walk around and check out the town. We walked and found a great little restaurant for lunch, Viva de Pepa. We even had to get dessert because someone else had gotten it and it looked so amazing. We had to walk off all that food and walked through town to the Reservation Laguna Nimez, bird sanctuary.
They only take cash, but they would also take USD, Euros or Pesos. Their exchange rate wasn’t the best, but for $10/each, why not. There are a number of birds that migrate here for the summer and a number that live here year-round. I didn’t have the right camera with me, but still managed to capture some decent shots with my phone. We even saw a number of flamingos. Flamingos are normally associated with warmer, more tropical climates, but these Chilean flamingos call Lake Argentino home.
The next morning, we got up and drove out to Los Glaciares National Park. We went to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It’s one of the few remaining glaciers that remains relatively stable. The glacier is about a 75km drive from El Calafate and was a nice drive on a beautiful sunny day. We ended up getting there just in time to get tickets for the first boat tour. It’s just an hour boat ride, but you get pretty close to the glacier and a different perspective. We were outside almost the entire ride and saw a few glacier calvings.
After the boat, we went back to jump on the shuttle bus that takes you to the main walkways of the park. Walked a couple of those. Got a bite to eat and walked the Cosa Trail all the way back to the car. Such fantastic weather, we got really lucky that day.
We went out to dinner that night to La Pulperia del Chabon. It’s a really funky little place on the outskirts of El Calafate. But I had read reviews that the food was good. Will and I both got the trout as we hadn’t had fish in quite some time. Man was it good. We highly recommend this funky little restaurant. You just need to look past the animal skins on the walls and a few taxidermied pumas.
We headed out the next morning for a few days in El Chalten. This town is considered Argentina’s hiking capital. It was another beautiful day for a drive. Got into town and our first stop was the visitor center. We got some great information and went to see if we could check-in. We were able to check-in early and got all our stuff together as we planned to do a little hike and take advantage of the great weather. Stopped for a bite to eat and walked on to the trail head. Like almost all the trails in El Chalten, they start off with a steep climb. Not sure what was going on, but we were both really feeling it. The trail eventually leveled out somewhat and we got to our destination the viewpoint of Cerro Torre.
We had been told by multiple people that we had timed it right. It is very rare to have a cloudless sky and have a full on view of the mountains. We decided to head back to town using the other trail option back. Will had asked a young couple about it as they had come up that way. Well, they really have a different view of hiking trails then we do. The couple forgot to mention that we’d be hiking along side of canyon and that the decent was quite a bit steeper as well. We had could then see why the ranger and our host had directed us to take the other trail. We were really spent after that hike. We had done about 6 miles and 1080 feet in elevation.
The next morning feeling recovered, we planned on doing the Laguna Capri hike. This is a 4km or 2.5mile hike one-way and is described as easy. Again that first kilometer is nothing but climbing. For some reason it didn’t seem as bad as the day before. There were a couple of areas that Will wasn’t too happy with but most of the hike was through the forest. Again the view was amazing. There is a loop you can make that goes from the viewpoint around onto one side of the lake. So, we opted for the little loop. We ended up doing 7 miles and climbed 1519 feet. So, even though we did more miles and more elevation, we felt much better.
We ended going for a late lunch/early dinner at Fuegia Bistro. I wanted to try the Estafuego de Guanaco. It’s a meat stew from the guanuco. In true Argentinian fashion, it was a MEAT stew with maybe a few pieces of potato and carrot thrown in for color. It was really good.
Later on that night we ventured back out for some ice cream. They have a shop there that makes it homemade and is a very popular place.