Argentina continued: Southern Patagonia (El Calafate and El Chalten)

We flew into a a town called El Calafate, the central hub for exploring the southern area of Argentine Patagonia. Our hostel booked us a car from the airport, and the 45 minute drive took us through the sweeping plains of the Patagonian landscape, passing by glacial run-off lakes with a clear view of the nearby Andean peaks. We stayed at a small, single-level hostel with an AMAZING free breakfast included. Since we arrived early in the morning, we spent the day exploring the town which, similar to Bariloche and San Martin, had a very resort-type vibe, although not quite as fancy as those two places. El Calafate is essentially comprised of tourist shops, restaurants (mostly parillas), and excursion booking places. We went to several of the excursion shops trying to book a glacial trek for the following day (or two), but did not have success (similarly, we did not have much success online as the treks seemed to all be booked for the next 10 days). What we learned was that although there were dozens of online platforms and many excursion places in town, all of the glacial tours (including short and long glacial treks, kayaking in the glacial waters, etc) were all sifted through and run by the same company. So, instead, we opted for just booking a bus in the national park the following day. Pro tip - if you're going to this region, be sure to book things a little further in advance!

In addition to booking our national park bus, we also spent time planning out a camping trip in El Chalten (including renting camping equipment to be delivered in a couple of days), other transportation, etc. To stave off the hunger during the day we, of course, found more cheap empanadas. After our day in town, we walked back to our hostel and got ready to go out, as it was New Year's Eve! We decided to splurge on eating at a parilla for the special occasion. After we dressed up, we wandered back into town and poked our head into some of the best looking restaurants which had chanchos (pigs) and cabros (goats) roasting on spits. Although it was already ~9:30 at night, and most of the restaurants were empty, none of the parillas had a place for us. We thought it might have been because we were gringos, but in reality these places were reserved for the much-later-eating Argentine crowd, which must eat even later on holidays! We went off the beaten path and finally found a place that could get us a table (by now it was 10:30 pm, the place only had one other family eating, and they still put us in an odd table near the service counter). There were no prices on the menu, the waitress didn't speak English, and the whole place was filled with smoke from the attached asado grill that was, apparently, not well ventilated. We LOVED it and simply could not have had a more wonderful experience for New Year's eve dinner. The chef/grillmaster, who the waitress kept "well-oiled" with timely beer refills, was a perfectionist who handpicked cuts of meat served to each table. We were brought a bursting platter with beef, pork, chicken, sausages, and sweetbreads (cooked non-meat tissue portions of the animal). By the time we left at 11:30 (also well-oiled from the wine), other families were FINALLY showing up for dinner. We finished the night counting down to the new year at the Patagonia Brewing Co brewery with some new beers! Another note: even some of the stray dogs from the street came in for some pets and partying...

The following day we ate the amazing hostel breakfast (fresh fruit, pastries, hardboiled eggs, cereal - this is about as good as it gets in these countries as you have to specifically go to places shopped out to US tourists to get bacon, eggs, and pancakes). We then set off on our bus to Los Glaciares National Park to see the Perito Moreno glacier. We had booked the cheapest ride to the park, but it ended up coming with a fun guide along the way who told us the history of the area, described the wildlife and landscape, and who even stopped to let us take a few pictures and try some berries from the calafate bushes (what the town is named for) along the roadside. At the park, we spent a couple of hours walking the various loop trails that get closer and closer to the famous Perito Moreno glacier. The galcier is one of the most famous in the world, and is one of the few that is actually still growing (insert politically charged global warming debate here). It actually extends into a large lake, and all summer long on the lake side of the glacier, chunks of the glacier break off and cascade down into the water, creating mini tsunamis. The pieces break off every 15-30 minutes, and if you stay long enough you'll likely get a large breakage, which we were fortunate enough to see. One thing we also realized, while waiting and watching the glacier, was that this was one of (if not the only) dead silent major tourist attractions we had ever been to. Most of the really cool places we have been to are full of people jostling for better photo position, taking selfies, and talking about anything and everything unrelated to the beautiful/historic/meaningful thing they are at. But here, people snapped their photos at first, then spent the rest of their time just soaking in the sight. It was almost eerie how quiet it was, but it made the experience so much more enjoyable. After seeing the galcier from the trails/viewing platforms, we took a boat ride to get even closer before heading back for the evening.

That night, we got pizza from a local place (which had an ~50% discount for taking out, which was a nice surprise) and watched a movie after a long and eventful day. While we were hoping to relax before bed, it was a little more hectic as we had to pack for our camping trip that started the next day. What it made it even more stressful was that our camping equipment, which was promised to be dropped off that day, had still not arrived. FINALLY, somewhere close to midnight, it got there (we had rented a tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment - which we realized too late did NOT include utensils - sleeping pads, and a couple of hiking poles.)

The following morning we ate the amazing breakfast again (now would be a good time to say that breakfasts that included cereal, thus far, did NOT always include cold milk...instead, they always had strawberry, liquidy yogurt that the locals, and then us, used). We then set off for El Chalten, the trekking capital of Argentine Patagonia and the start of the the hike to the famous Mt. Fitz Roy, which is also the prominent peak shown on the Patagonia clothing line logo. When we got to El Chalten we bought groceries (we looked for dehydrated meals but they were sold out everywhere, so we went with pasta, random snacks, meat/cheese/bread, chocolate bars, oatmeal, some fruit, etc.). We also rented a headlamp, as finding a flashlight to buy was tougher than expected. Another Pro-Tip: it's probably best to get groceries and everything else necessary for your time in Chalten from the places in Calafate, as they are cheaper and offer many more options.

That same day, we made the journey from El Chalten to the Campamento Poincenot (the nearest campsite to Mt. Fitz Roy). It was a fairly easy 9km hike, with a steep incline for the first 3km but a smooth, rolling, scenic route the rest of the way. Most of the route includes absolutely epic views of Fitz Roy. Even with all of our camping equipment and getting a late start to the hike, we still had plenty of time to set up our tent (note that the campsite has two hole-in-the-ground toilets and a "Shovel of Shame" if you choose not to use them). We used our last sliver of daylight and decided to do a trial hike the last 3km to Lago de los Tres, the view point for Fitz Roy. This portion of the hike was definitely the most difficult, as it was straight up the side of the mountain and included a bit of boulder scrambling. However, our experience in Swizterland hiking straight up the side of way-too-steep mountains trained us well, and we made it up without too much difficulty (although Nicole lost her stocking cap somewhere along the way, RIP to the $2 we spent on it in Scotland). An amazing view of Mt. Fitz Roy was waiting for us. We hiked back down as it started to rain, and made it to the tent in time for a warm pasta dinner while we tried to remain dry.

It rained throughout the the night, so we awoke with a decision to make. The most breathtaking view of Fitz Roy is on a clear morning, when the piercing red sunrise creeps down from the peak of the mountain. To catch this view at this time of the year, it means starting your hike around 4:15am. When we woke up, it was still drizzling a bit, and we had to decide whether or not it would be clear enough at the top for a good sunrise. We did not have access to a weather report as there was, obviously, no cell coverage up in the remote mountains. However, we KNOW BETTER than starting a hike from the base camp to a higher elevation in the rain, we know exactly how mountain weather works, and what we need to do to keep safe. But for some reason, we decided to make the hike. The weather, as we got higher, continually got worse (I mean, duh, right?) and by the time we reached Lago de los Tres again it was a full on blizzard. Not only was there no sunrise view, we couldn't see the mountain at all, or even 5 feet in front of our faces. We convinced ourselves to give it 45 minutes….just in case (stupid, we know). We had brought one of our sleeping bags to use as a blanket and huddled below it for the entire time. Fortunately, we had hot coffee. Unsurprisingly….we didn’t see a single other person up and attempting to catch the sunrise. It was a brutal, cold hike back down, and an even more brutal day in soaking wet clothes. When the weather cleared up later in the afternoon, we made the most of it by walking some of the nearby trails to dry to dry off.

We decided to give it another shot the next day and, luckily, the weather was perfect. We made coffee and were on the trail once again just after 4 in the morning. We stayed at the top to watch the entire sunrise and then some, and headed back down to make breakfast, disassemble our campsite, and hike back to El Chalten. We were even able to have a quick celebratory beer and polish off our remaining meat and cheese before our 1pm bus back to Calafate. In Calafate we stayed in a hotel room that felt like a luxury suite after camping for a couple of days. We went birdwatching (there are flamingos down here!!), bought some souvenirs, got a takeaway pizza from the same place, and watched another movie to recover before flying out the following morning (this hotel also had a good breakfast, although maybe that's the sugar high talking as it included donuts, cookies, and pastries and not much else).

Levi's shirt count: 297