Welcome to Patagonia!

After 3 weeks of travelling Uruguay and the north of Argentina it was time to swap out the bikini for a down jacket. Yet another freezing 17 hour bus ride and an overnight stay in Buenos Aires later, we boarded the plane to El Calafate in the (very) early hours of the morning -> Sleep deprivation is becoming our default state during travel.

We were finally on our way to Patagonia! 🏔🥳

A domestic flight of 3:30 hours duration tells you how large Argentina is and how remote Patagonia lies. Outside the airplane window, the landscape became more and more barren. So much emptiness!

We touched down in El Calafate, took a shuttle bus into town to our hostel and later went to check out the city. The town basically exists only because of tourism. There are lots and lots of hotels and hostels, many of them looking like they were freshly imported from Switzerland or some fancy american ski resort, and one main road with all the shops and restaurants, including a Grido ❤️ So we obviously treated ourselves to a tasty cone of ice cream each.

The main tourist magnet close by is the Perito Merino Glacier, which is fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and is one of the few glaciers that doesn't shrink (too much). So we booked an (overpriced) bus for the next day to take us there for some sightseeing. While there were also more adventurous activities available like a boat tour, kayaking or hiking on the glacier, the prices made our eyes water, and so we decided to skip those and "only" go for the scenic trail walks.

We (again) woke up quite early and took the bus at 8:30 to the glacier, hoping the first bus of the day would give us a head start before aaall the tourists arrived.

We had around four hours to roam around the National Park until the return bus and were a bit worried that we'd be done early only walking the hiking paths. But it turned out not to be the case as there were so many different view points with astounding vistas! 🤩
Turquoise water between mountains with chunks of icebergs, kayaks and boats roaming around, and of course the glacier itself, where every now and then a load roar announced some more ice breaking off and dropping into the water with a powerfull bang! 💥

Luckily our plan worked out, and we had the trails (mostly) to ourselves for the first half of the day! Until for some reason lots and lots of French tourists started showing up 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

Tourists or not, the glacier was an absolute highlight and we'd both loved to stay at the park even longer to all its beauty - especially in this amazing, sunny weather! ☀️🏔 But the return was already booked, and so we boarded the bus in the early afternoon and made our way back to town.

The bus dropped us off close to the city center and we could not resist passing by Grido once again for a frappuccino. On our last evening before entering Chile, we treated ourselves to a tasty stew and meat pie meal in a nice restaurant. We had read that it was a very popular place and when we arrived 5 mins before opening and saw a long queue already formed in front of it, we half expected to be turned away without reservation. But once again we were lucky and got some of the last seats 🍀 A perfect end to a perfect day!

🧊 Glaciers seen: 1
💥Icebergs seen collapsing: 1
🚶‍♀️Hours spent walking the trails: 4
📸 Pictures taken: 100+
🍦 Grido visits: 2Leggi altro