Next stop El Calafate, located in Santa Cruz province in Argentina. It is a touristy town, catering to the traffic headed towards the glaciers in the Los Glaciares National Park. The nearby town of El Chalten is a trekking hub for the region.
View of Lago Argentino
Our hotel, the Terrazas del Calafate, was located on an incline on the outskirts of the town and afforded a good view of the lake. It was comfortable and even had internet access which was useful to check in for our return flights.
The Perito Moreno glacier
El Calafate is on the shores of Lago Argentino which has several channels on one end, and glaciers from the Andes empty into most of these channels. The other end of Lago Argentino is an outlet, the Santa Cruz river that flows all the way to the Atlantic.
Trekking on Perito Moreno
Its quite odd to have glaciers at such a low altitude above sea level (around 180 m) and the reason is that the Southern Patagonian Ice Field which feeds the glaciers in the park is a remnant of the last ice age. It is the third largest ice field after Antarctica and Greenland and is also the world’s third largest source of fresh water. The major glaciers in the park are Upsala (named after the Swedish city that sponsored the initial glaciological research), Perito Moreno and Spegazzini.
Famous Grouse with glacial ice
Perito Moreno is more easily accessible and an authorized agency even runs trekking expeditions on the glacier. You need to wear crampons to get a grip on the ice and it was a novel experience. Perito Moreno is named for explorer Francisco Moreno who explored the region in the 19th century. The glacier is 30 km long and at the front wall is around 60m above water and extends about 150 m deep into the lake.
We also took a boat trip into the lake to view all the other glaciers – Upsala, Spegazzini\, Seco etc. It was a chilly experience as the wind was really strong.
El Calafate has a few bars and restaurants, where surprisingly the staff spoke decent English and we were able to order and communicate with ease. Three cheers for Argentina !
