El Chaltén to El Calafate to Buenos Aire

Today was a big travel day.

Allan got up for sunrise and hiked up to a nearby viewpoint. I watched from the car comfy in my sleeping bag 😁. Once Allan was back down from the viewpoint, we started getting ready to leave El Chaltén. As we were pulling away, Patagonia awarded us with perfectly blue skies and a brilliant view of the mountains (the clearest view we've had the entire time in El Chaltén).

With Patagonia in our rear view, we made our way back to El Calafate. We finished packing our bags and dropped the car off at Hertz. Twenty minutes of arguing over the dodgy tire we had to change later, we cut our losses and picked up some lunch at the grocery store across the street. We sat in. Nearby park and looked forward to how we were getting to the airport (Uber, our planned transportation wasn't working). Allan managed to book a transport bus, so we made our way to the tourist center across the street from the pickup point for a place to sit and wait.

Once we got picked up, we drove the same road we travelled this morning into El Calafate back out to the airport. It's surprisingly far out of town for such a small place! Our flight was delayed, so we made an insurance claim for the car while we waited for check in to open. It's a small airport with only seven gates, so it wasn't too busy. We also managed to get into the domestic lounge, so enjoyed some food and drinks while we waited. Unfortunately our flight got delayed again from 1800, then 2050, then 2230, and I was getting more and more annoyed. Allan poured a glass of wine to try and soften the blow. Things were made worse when our hostel messaged and said they wouldn't be open when we arrived. Then it was a scramble to find somewhere else to stay 😕.

Finally, the plane arrives at 2200 and we were all onboard around 2245. We slept most of the flight to Buenos Aires and woke up 3 hours later. We managed to get an Uber (lucky, that place was so busy!). Then it was time to get to the hostel, shower and head to bed 😴.Read more