Nov 13 – Day 20 – Travel/Ice Hike Booking
Awoke to clouds and rain in El Chaltén, but it is a travel day anyway. The drive down to El Calafate was uneventful… we are getting used to driving here.
We had mixed information about how to do an ice hike on Perito Moreno, so once we got into town we stopped in one of the places that had been recommended to us- after making a phone call they said there were no ice hikes available, but we could do a “safari” hike, which went alongside the glacier. Since we’d one that at Pia glacier we weren’t terribly interested, especially for the price they were charging. But we’d also heard that most companies offering ice hikes were resellers, and there was only one company that actually went out on the glacier….so we decided to go there and see what they would say.
What we know now is that Hielo y Aventura (Ice and Adventure) is the only actual provider of glacier hikes on Perito Moreno. Anyone else is just reselling spots, so you might as well go straight to the source, which is what we did. When we walked in the helpful young man in front asked how he could help us and we said- “we would like to to the Big Ice Hike please”. He smiled and said he’d be happy to help, but he’d need to check our passports to verify our age, because although we looked very young he had to confirm we were not over 50, the maximum age to do the “Big” ice hike. No amount of persuading would change his mind, so begrudgingly we pulled out our passports and got on the “mini” ice hike instead… the one for “old people”. But there was nothing available for the next day, it would have to be the following day. Luckily for us we had a weather/rest day built into this so we’d simply use that tomorrow. And luckily for us the weather co-operated and delivered cold and wet weather the next day and saved the great weather for our glacier hike day!
After checking out the town some more, buying some wine, bread and chocolate, we found a paid campsite for the night. There is not a lot of free camping in El Calafate itself, but we found Camping Niriguau very close to downtown. The sites were a bit small but they try to give you some vegetation for privacy between them- but it’s nothing like the rest of the trip! The showers were in need of some paint and repair, a bit shabby, but they were very clean and had very hot water- like be careful of burns kind of hot! But after several days without we were more than ready for a good shower.
Nov 14 – Day 21 – El Calafate
We are clean, rested and ready to explore Calafate! But it was a bitter and cold morning, so we scuttled our plans to do a full walking tour of the Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve and bird sanctuary- we did walk around it some, as it is right alongside the beach, but we really didn’t want to be out in the weather too much- it was just kind of miserable. We saw a few Harrier hawks and, most importantly to us, our first freaking flock of flamingos! We wish we had have had better weather to explore it more, but we did check a couple more off of our bird list….but we are not birders! After that we made a stop in the Centro de Historica– a very cool museum that focuses mostly on the dinosaur and giant mammal history of the area, as well as the original peoples. They had a english guidebook which was helpful, and it was a good way to spend an hour or so- maybe longer but it was not heated and the walls were mostly simple metal, so they only blocked the wind- still very cold!
We spent nearly 2.5 hours having a genuine lunch experience at Nina Pasión y Sabores (Passion and Flavors). We were drawn in (ok, I was drawn in) by the motorcycle theme but the food was amazing! Steak and salmon, local beers and cheesecake for dessert- all delicious, beautifully presented and the waiter was excellent. They treat meals in a very European style here- speed is not the most important part of a meal- it is an event to be relished and savored. And we did!
After lunch we wandered around the town. El Calafate is big enough that they have everything you might need for an adventure expedition and obviously targeted toward the tourist crowd. Melinda found another headband, made by a sweet old lady in the artisan shop area… she didn’t mean to become a collector of these, but they were sooo pretty she couldn’t resist.
Our plan for the rest of the afternoon was to stop by the Glaciarium Patagonian Ice Museum, then head out to Glaciers National Park and camp there…somewhere. The museum was pretty cool, no pun intended, and very informative about all things glacier. They do have an “ice bar” downstairs where you can put on a parka and gloves and have a drink at a bar made of ice. It seemed kind of touristy and a bit pricey…and since the ice hike we were doing the next day concluded with a “whiskey on the rocks” made with real glacier ice we decided to skip the tourist version. But the museum itself was worth going to.
We then went further west, out towards Los Glaciares National Park. We were a bit surprised by the lack of places we could just pull off and camp- I guess we were spoiled by Chile! But there is no camping inside of the park itself, and not a lot of places outside of the park where you can find wild camping, so we pulled up our iOverlander app (I recommend having this, plus several other map/camping apps on your phones- they all have different information). We found a few- very few- places we thought we could camp at and settled on an amazing spot, off the main road a bit. The app said it was 4 wheel drive only but realistically any car could make it up there unless it was particularly wet. Where we camped was here….
Nov 15 – Day 22 – Perito Moreno/Ice Hike
It was a beautiful sunny morning, so we drove ten minutes to the park entrance- again, we were happy to be in Ferdinand the Rental RV- where we had our exact pesos ready for entry. But when asked by the ranger “tienes mascotas?” (do you have any pets) I decided to do something I rarely do… over talk in a situation. My philosophy USUALLY is answer official questions with yes or no- or at least give only the information required. However on this beautiful day I decided to launch into a complicated humorous story- in spanglish, with many hand gestures- about how Melinda had wanted to adopt one of the cute dogs we saw in town. At which point the ranger walks over to another ranger, who comes back and asked in english- “do you have any pets?” and I, having remembered my own lessons, answered no… to which she asked if I was sure about that…. of course I didn’t have any- I knew they weren’t allowed in the park at all.
TRAVELERS NOTE: If you barely speak a language, do not try to engage in conversation that requires skill, nuance and tone. Like humor. Do not try humor with officials in a language that is not your own.
Once we made it into the park with our camper full of smuggled dogs (I kid, I kid…) we found there was a parking area off to the right when you get close to the boardwalk- that is the only area for cars and motorhomes. If you follow the road past there you will find it is only a dropoff/turnaround area for busses. The signage isn’t clear, so save some time and just take the first parking area.
We had a wonderful four hours on the boardwalks around Perito Moreno Glacier. Even if you can’t book an ice hike, or a boat trip, or a kayak excursion it is well worth it just to walk around this breathtaking glacier and just soak it all in- the shifting variations of blues as light and shadows moved across, the constant creaking and cracking of the ice, the thunderous sound of calving, with sections of ice that looked small but were really the size of trucks crashing into the water below, the power and mass of all this ice that grinds the stone beneath into such fine dust that the water turns grey from powder- it is just an awe inspiring and humbling place to be. We could have just been there and been happy!
But we had another adventure to go today, our mini ice hike onto the glacier itself and to see it up close and personal. So we headed to the boat launch area (different parking, back towards the park entrance) and got on our boat at 15:20. We passed in front of the 70m ice wall and were left on a rocky beach. From there we had a short 15 minute walk through some woods, then got our helmets and crampons fitted. Gloves are required for this hike as well- the ice is quite sharp and I could easily see some cuts happening if you fell and slid. But mine were on and off a lot as I took pictures, which made me wish I had bought some photographers gloves.
But the ice hike was a stunning trip- more incredible blues, more incredible views! We were still mildly miffed we didn’t get to do the Big Hike because of our age, but we did see an (older than us) lady need a lot of help from the guides and thought she was not making the case for us older than 50 but in good shape types! But the mini hike was fine and fun, and finished off with whiskey on ice- glacial ice that is! The pours were generous and the whiskey was a decent quality and it was a neat way to finish our ice hike- also effectively our last real hike of our trip.
That night we spent it in the same very, very remote camping spot again- but it had been discovered by three other campers. There was still lots of space around us but we did not feel as remote as the night before
