El Calafate

I flew from Asuncion, Paraguay to Buenos Aires and caught a flight to Southern Argentina at the domestic airport there. I'm headed to El Calafate, a base for outdoor activities in Patagonia.

Matt Gallo met me at the airport and we headed into town. Neither of us had read too much about the details of getting around Los Glaciares National Park. So in the morning we spent a couple hours walking around town talking to travel agencies. What sticker shock! Matt was here last year and said everything is at least twice as expensive. National Park passes are three times more expensive for foreigners and maybe cost maybe 4 times more than they were last year. That works out to $90 for a 3-day park pass or $45 for a day hike.

We realized that renting a car for 2 days was our best bet since it would be cheaper than going on tours or just taking public transportation.

The area is amazingly beautiful. It's on a very large turquoise lake called Lago Argentina. The big draw is the Perito Moreno Glacier. So one day went to a lesser visited area and did a great hike upon a large hill with views of the glaciers and the lake. And the next day we did the big tourist draw and went to the boardwalks that are right across from the glacier.

The town is quite modern and looks just like a Colorado mountain tourist town. People from all over the world are here. But we have to say we were a little underwhelmed. There wasn't really that much hiking in this area. But there's another part of the park in a nearby town called Chalten that promises better hiking. So we screwed up by staying so long in this town when 2 nights and one day to the glacier would suffice.

The Perito Moreno Glacier was absolutely stunning and there's a really way well-made boardwalk that's about a mile and a half along the water where you can see many different aspects of the glacier and even hear ice chunks falling off into the water. That is pretty amazing so I don't want to downplay that part.

We looked into bus prices getting around the country. And we're absolutely shocked at how expensive those are. I was planning on taking buses from this southern Argentine town all the way back to Buenos Aires in the Northeast. That might be 45 hours or so in total bus time, many of which would be on bad, unpaved roads. So I decided to skip going to other mountain towns and just fly back to BA.

The costs here are on par with Switzerland. With a train pass, travel in Switzerland is actually much cheaper. But the infrastructure here is just not worth it for me.

Instead of taking 40 to 50 hours of buses and paying over $600, I decided to fly to Buenos Aires with Matt for $200 in 3 hours. I'll just shift gears and do some beach time and explore different areas of Argentina. Once I get out of this tourist trap area, costs will be more reasonable.

So my advice to anyone who wants to go to Patagonia in Argentina would be to skip it and wait and see if prices go down in the future. Or seriously, just go to Switzerland and get a mountain pass where you can take any train, tram, funicular, or gondola and see a lot more mountains, hiking trails, and glaciers for the same price.

More photos and videos are here.
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