Ok - we’re currently on the first of two bus journeys to get us from Argentina into Chile so I thought what better time than the now to blog about our adventures in Patagonia. We have visited three amazing places in this beautiful region 1) The glacier near El Calafate 2) Torres del Paine in Chile and 3) The Fitzroys - all described below...
1) El Calafate and the glacier
Leaving Bariloche (in the Argentine Lake District) we travelled on a 30hr(!) bus journey south to El Calafate – the main town in Patagonia. The bus had no onboard catering so whenever we pulled into a service station I would run out (attempting to overtake the Israelis who were represented en-masse on the bus) to get to the front of the queue to buy empanadas (like a beef pasty). Not the most relaxing of journeys but we arrived in one piece nonetheless!
On our first full day in El Calafate we took a bus to the Perito Moreno national park where a gigantic glacier is located. See here for the wikipedia entry. This thing is enormous. Boats in the lake that surrounds it look like dots and the glacier extends back into the mountains as far as the eye can see. We spent our afternoon relaxing in the sun at the main vista points and marvelling at the enormity and intricacy of it. Every now and then gigantic chunks of ice would break off and fall into the lake making thunderous noises and sending tidal waves rippling through the lake (see pics below). Very cool!
2) Torres del Paine in Chile
The next day trip we did was to Torres del Paine – tall protruding mountains located in Chile's number one national park. Sadly we weren’t as lucky with the weather and it was a wet (and very windy) day driving around looking at lakes, the odd waterfall (which was situated amazingly between two lakes adjoined at different levels) and a lot of guanacos (like llamas). Despite the weather it was all very interesting although Elizabeth dozed off mid-afternoon (clearly exhausted from being chauffeured around) and slept for several hours on the bus!
3) The Fitzroys
The next day we left El Calafate and headed to El Chalten, a small town next to the Fitzroys which some argue are the most iconic mountains in the entire continent. The day we arrived the weather was quite cold so we did a mini hike to a few viewing points of the mountains. The mountains themselves are absolutely stunning and one of our highlights of Argentina. The next day we did the longest hike in the park which took us from 10am to 7pm up to the base of the mountains where there is another smaller glacier and pristine lake. It was great to do some hiking (and a bit of exercise) again having been on a lot of buses recently.
Arguably one of the best things about the Fitzroys and El Chalten was the small microbrewery on the same street as our hostel where they make two types of homemade beers onsite – we asked for a tour of the ‘brewery’. We had a lot of fun sampling the different varieties and planning the next and final country of our South America leg - Chile...
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