Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

From Puerto Natales, Chile and the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine we moved north to visit the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Home to the famous Perito Moreno glacier and the Fitz Roy mountain range. The huge park is split in a northern and southern section. Our first stop to visit the park was El Calafate.

El Calafate

The town of El Calafate is the primary hub for visiting the Perito Moreno glacier. That being said, it is also one of the most touristic towns of Argentina. The main street in town — Av. del Libertador General San Martin — is a facade of the real El Calafate. Prices are insanely high, especially when you want to book tours to see the glaciers.

We left Puerto Natales at 2:30 PM and after a good 5 hour drive we arrived in El Calafate. First thing we did at the bus terminal was to book tickets for transport to the Perito Moreno glacier, and get a bus ticket to El Chaltén. Just a handful of bus companies sell tickets, thus our choices were very limited. We ended up buying tickets with Cal Tur, a local bus company. After that it was just a 5 minute walk to get to the hostel. We did some grocery shopping and enjoyed our dinner with a bottle of Malbec in our hostel. If there is one thing that is cheap in Argentina, it is beer and wine. Prices for a liter bottle of beer are from €2. And for wine it is from €3 per bottle.

Visiting The Perito Moreno Glacier

Our bus to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares left at 8:15 in the morning. It was a 1.5 hour drive to the park entrance. There the park rangers entered the bus to collect the entrance fees: AR$260 (€16.25) per person. After the short stop the bus continued into the park to drop us of at the beginning of the trail to see the Perito Moreno glacier. We got some more information about the park from the bus driver, and he told us about the possible boat ride. Which was not included in the price, of course…

The trails to see the glacier are split up into three. A walkway along the lake gives access to two loops: the primary trail loop to see the glacier, and the inferior loop. After a short walk we got the first glimpse of the glacier. A light blueish/white color, with dark blue spots where the crevasses are. It was quite hard to put the glacier in the right perspective. It is huge! It is 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high. Furthermore, it is one of the many glaciers that are part of the 13,000 square kilometer Continental Ice Field.

The glacier is as much an auditory experience as a visual experience. It moves forward with 2m per day. Quite often huge chunks of ice break off and collapse as icebergs into the lake. We were lucky enough to see it happen for ourselves a couple of times that day! We spend 4 hours walking the trails of the park. Without doing any excursions, 2 hours would have been plenty for a visit. We returned to the parking lot and had to wait for one hour before the bus would go back to El Calafate.

After we arrived in El Calafate once more we got to explore the town. Besides the many excursion offices in the main street, there are a few souvenir shops and restaurants to be found. Like in most cities, every souvenir shops sells more of less the same items. The facade is quite apparent due to the style of the buildings on the main street: they tried to follow an Alpine style of buildings.

El Chaltén

Thursday afternoon, 25 February, we had a short 4 hour drive from El Calafate to El Chaltén. Just before we entered the town, everyone in the bus got dropped off at the National Park office. The small town of El Chaltén (400 inhabitants, …m above sea level) is situated in the northern part of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Thus, the park rules also apply there. One of the nice things about visiting was that we did not have to pay a park entrance fee like we did when visiting the Perito Moreno glacier. After our arrival we explored the town and shops for a bit. Within a couple of hours we more or less have seen everything the town has to offer.

The next day we started from town to do one of the day hikes nearby: Laguna de las Tres. We were really lucky with the weather, at the time we woke up there was a beautiful clear blue sky. Just the day before we were told that the weather in the mountains was going to be bad — luckily not for us! The first hour of the hike did go slightly uphill. We had some nice views of the town and the valley where it is located. Then it was a two hour walk through forests and meadows, mostly flat. The last 45 minutes were a steep climb uphill, rising more than 450m! When we arrived on top, we finally got to enjoy Cerro Fitz Roy. The location — with the lake and glaciers — did remind us somewhat of Torres del Paine. On the way back to the hostel we stopped at La Waflería to get some waffles. I tried the local speciality: a feast of Calafate berries and ice cream.

The following day, our second full day in El Chaltén, we did the other popular day hike from town. This time we got to the Laguna Torre to see the Cerro Torre, which is part of the Fitz Roy mountains. Besides that we followed a river upstream, the hike was not that different from the hike of yesterday. It was definitively easier: the height difference was only a couple hundred meters. Although the view of the mountains was nice, and the weather really good, this was the hike we enjoyed least so far. After we rested for a bit, we just decided to get back to the town and get some more waffles. I chose a different flavor: apples with cinnamon and rum.

Sunday, 28 February, it was time to move again. The bus to San Carlos de Bariloche would leave at 9:30 PM. To kill some time that day we did a couple of short hikes near town. Firstly, we went north to see a small waterfall. It looked ok, but there were many trees and shrubs that obstructed the view. We returned to town and got a dozen different empanadas at Che Empanada as lunch. Secondly, we went south of town to do a short hike with a viewpoint of the nearby lake, and a viewpoint of El Chaltén. The viewpoint of El Chaltén had one of the most beautiful views we could have wished for. We could see El Chaltén, Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy at once! Halfway in the afternoon we were back in town. We got some more waffles — they are so nice, with chocolate now — and had a couple of beers at a pub during happy hour. Back in the hostel we said our goodbyes and walked to the bus terminal. Next destination: San Carlos de Bariloche. A 23 hour bus ride to go…