El Calafate (Argentina)
06 - 09 April 2015
06 - 09 April 2015
I was sitting in the Hardrock Café at Aeroparque Jorge Newberry in Buenos Aires gazing out over the runway watching the sky blue colours of a long line of Aerolineas planes launch themselves skyward over the city sprawl. Sitting here and waiting to head to El Calafate now felt like the real deal , it felt like the real starting point of our journey. Buenos Aires had been our base, our home and our welcoming post to both Argentina & South America but now he we were, standing on the precipice of our planned South American adventure. No rules, no itineraries, no schedules. It was go time. Inga & I sat for a while and ordered drinks. A moment later the waiter returned to our table and quite apologetically and sincerely said;
‘I’m sorry sir but the only red wine that we have is Malbec, is that suitable for you?’
Both Inga and I laughed out aloud. Now whether you want to believe in omens or not this occurrence typified the manner in which we were to travel for the next three months.
‘I’m sure I’ll be able to deal with that, thank you!’
Have passports - we're all set. Aeroparque Jorge Newberry - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Aeroparque Jorge Newberry - Buenos Aires - Argentina
A little later that afternoon as our Aerolines flight launched itself out over the Rio de la Plata and made the necessary right hand turn to start its journey south-west to El Calafate I felt that same sense of excitement that I had when I left Sydney. This was now the start of ‘our’ journey and the sense of freedom that came with that thought was powerful. Also personally, where we were now heading was a part of the world that for me had always carried such an air of mystery and it was within that mystery that I found my own sense of wonder. Patagonia, wild and rugged, expansive, desolate, remote and a world away from where my younger mind would try to imagine what that place on the map would look and feel like in reality. Now within 4hrs I’d get my first taste.
A few hours later with the flight descending into El Calafate both of us looked out of our little porthole into this new world. I remember Inga saying something close to, ‘Wow, it feels like we’re landing on the moon’ and I have to say that’s pretty much the way it felt. Arriving late in the afternoon the creep of darkness had already commenced with its moody, atmospheric blues reaching out over the white capped Andes mountains. Grey bellied clouds hung low above the earth and the deep blue of Lago Argentino contrasted magnificently against the brown, barren landscape that surrounded it. Its places like this, with their heavy weight of atmosphere that always captures my attention.
Arriving in El Calafate - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Arriving in El Calafate - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
The 20km drive into town on this section of the Patagonian steppe was enlivening. A lost highway winding through a landscape devoid of trees with just rudimental vegetation to keep us company and the odd inquisitive llama looking into our headlights.
As we stepped out of the cab at the America del Sur hostel I noticed that there was a distinct bite in the air, the dirt road beneath our feet making it feel like we’d arrived at some outpost at the end of the world. A short lived feeling of course, the moment we had waltzed through the doors it felt immediately felt like a typical hostel, and typically in that sense we found ourselves signing onto a tour for the next morning within minutes of entry. Not that it was an issue of course, we were now on the boundary of Los Glaciares National Park and the rock star in these parts was Perito Moreno. A place that I desperately wanted to see, so really was there a reason to wait any longer than we had to? I’ll answer that, ‘No’.
Early morning at America de Sur was…well, it was all about the view. The hostel was positioned high on a hill outside of the centre of El Calafate and with no impeding buildings the view over the lake and to the mountains beyond mirrored what I had always imagined Patagonia to be in my mind. Vast blue skies, white capped peaks that were now being coloured by the orange of the rising sun and stepping outside you also caught the chilled wind as it made its way across the steppe, it was a pleasure just to stand there and absorb it all.
Perito Moreno itself is in the Los Glaciares National Park some 70kms from El Calafate. The scenery is here is tough, spartan, rugged, and as we pass the entry gates of the Nacional park the bus slows as we take to managing the winding roads of the accompanying mountains. We make turns slowly and assuredly but then at one moment we capture sight of it, a white wall dramatically positioned between two distant mountains. A view we only encounter for a few brief moments as the bus once again turns away and continues closer to our destination.
First peak of Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Soon enough however we’re at the main Perito Moreno viewing area. A brief explanation of where to walk and where we need at certain times shoots in one ear and out the other as we immediately head for one of several elevated walkways that are situated on a hill across from the main wall of the glacier. And as we follow the paths and look both through and beyond the trees that line the hill we see the behemoth block of ice initially forming its own white backdrop and then as me moved closer we witness it rising imperiously for all to see. Then we're there, in front of it. Standing face to face with the glacier you realise that it has an unmistakable presence. Reaching some 70mtrs high (25-30 stories) off the waters of Lago Argentino and stretching 5kms across the valley, its state of existence in this space goes further to emphasising its size and the power it has in its dominance over surrounding physical elements. The glacier is immense in height and breadth and as you follow the ice up from its front face you see it wind back up into the mountains like an enormous white motorway leading into infinite whiteness.
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Winds off the glacier rise and fall without rhyme or reason smacking you in the face with short sharps cuts of cold and whilst that in itself sharpens your focus on where you’re standing ,its when that silence is broken, by sharp gunshot like cracks or long, rising thunder like rumbles, that you realise the glacier is very much alive, a work that is constantly in progress. Stand and stare at the front wall of the glacier long enough and inevitably you'll see chunks of ice fall into the lake below, the volume of which you can recognise from the wake that it leaves.
As would become a common occurrence for Inga & I, we found a walkway that moved away from the main viewing areas and followed the shoreline of the lake to a small dock. As we walked further around the lake we would see various pieces of the glacier that had broken off and floated to shore. Sitting on the dock and looking back to the glacier we cracked open our bottle of (Hiram Walker scotch) and toasted to what would be the first of many, many incredible sights on this adventure.
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Hiram Walker for lunch - I liiike - is good!
I've got my bottle and my boots - I'm good to go!
Now that's a solid lunch
After our tuna and scotch based lunch on the milky blue waters of the lake (trust me, tuna and scotch are an outstanding combination), we were driven to the south side of the glacier where we able take a boat ride across the lake to a staging area that would allow us to take trek on the glacier itself.
Looking out across the lake and the rising wall of ice as we approached only made for the realisation how incredibly insignificant we were by comparison and also made you wonder at the abilities of the boat to surf the wake of whatever wave that arrived should a significant portion of ice decide to carve itself away from the front wall.
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Disembarking the boat we walked about 15-20 mins around the shoreline of the lake before arriving at a location where we were asked to put on crampons, from here out it was going to be ice climbing time on the glacier itself. The guides advising that short steps for ascending and short v-shaped like steps for descending were the easiest ways to make progress and not become the glaciers bitch for the afternoon, but in all honesty everyone of us got 'owned' at some point. However the walk amongst the various shapes of tortured and teased ice coupled with the deep blue colours of the ice itself was just spectacular, just an amazing environment in which we were fortunate enough to have placed ourselves in.
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Our guides informed us that the glacial speed of movement of Perito is at the startling pace of 2 metres a day and that’s even more amazing considering the fact that the depth of the ice itself can be 170 mtrs in places, not bad for a block of ice that’s quite long in the tooth, some 400yrs. In direct acknowledgment of its age therefore, and the abundance of ice in this location, Inga and I decided that it would be a missed opportunity not to have ourselves a couple of glasses of scotch and utilise some of the ice that was probably around when Magellan himself was cruising these parts. Now my friends, that’s what you call a mature drink, with ice aged to absolute perfection.
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Well matured ice
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Perito Moreno - Los Glaciares Nacional Park - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
With the afternoon sun hanging low in the sky and our departure from the glacier imminent, we walked back to the departure dock and took some time out to once again view the glacier and appreciate the magnitude of what we had in front of us. To quote our good friend Rob Van Winkel from his 1990 album To the Extreme - 'Ice Ice Baby', and lets just leave Vanilla to have the final words on that one.
Borges y Alvarez Libro-Bar - El Calafate - Santa Cruz Province - Argentina
Our following two days were spent in El Calafate itself. Thinking back, I'm not quite sure why I thought we would require 3 days in this town other than making the assumption that assigning ourselves to get to Perito Moreno and Mont Fitz Roy, (which was not in El Calafate but rather El Chalten), would actually take longer and be more of a logistical challenge, which we found couldn't have been further from the truth. In any case the town of El Calafate, whilst small, is a nice little place that has obviously now started to have a growth spurt through the onset of tourism, the direct result of the El Calafate airport having been opened some 15 years ago. As you'd expect of a place catering towards Winter style tourists, there are the usual Winter style clothing stores, sporting goods stores, souvenir shops, restaurants and bars, the latter of which we were more than happy to investigate and in El Calafate we found a good one.
Borges y Alvarez Libro-Bar stood proudly on the main street, Avenida Libertador. From the outside the wood panelling and chalet type of look immediately caught my eye and on the inside its décor and sunlit corner facing onto the street were a place that we would love to sit, hijack a martini rosso or several and glance through one of the Argentinian travel based books that occupied a place on one of the booked filled shelves. We both found it to be just a warm and welcoming place and no matter how many times we walked up and down the Avenue with the intention of perhaps trying another location, the Libro-Bar, or Libreria as we called it, would somehow always receive our final vote. Now, that's not to say that we did copious amounts of drinking in El Calafate,(that was to come later), but we did get out and commit ourselves to a fitness regime that unfortunately we found impossible to maintain,(substantial travel tends to do that), but I should recognise here at least that we did find it in ourselves to undertake a cross-fit session, go for a run around part of Argentino Lago and take on running up one of the steep hills facing the town, all for the sake of maintaining fitness levels. It was a noble effort from us in El Calafate I must say, although I think we were both a little too optimistic in thinking that we'd be able to manufacture ways of remaining consistent in that regards. Still, for right there and then, everything was going well!
