Don't cry for me Argentina!

El Calafate
(17/ 18/19th February)

Hello! This is the final bombardment of "catch-up blogging", although we are still about 3 weeks behind, sigh! Feel free to skim the words and just check out the photos as I probably would after 4 days of blog updates, haha!!

So..... goodbye Chile and Hola Argentina!! The border crossing from Chile into Argentina was possibly one of the easiest border crossings of any past travel experiences so far (i.e. no rabid dogs chasing you across, no guards asking for ‘baksheesh’ or a bribe and no sudden pat down searches behind a tattered old curtain!).

El Calafate is a cute little town that seems solely designed to cater for the tourist. It is expensive and a lot of people we have met travelling didn’t enjoy their time here, as they felt it was a “tourist trap”. However, we had a great time because of some lovely experiences which we will recap for you!

The little tourist town of El Calafate

The main street in El Calafate

• The BEST hostel in Argentina: We stayed at 'Hostal Lautaro', which was run by a young married couple, Belen and Dario, with amusing and well meant “help” from their one and half year old daughter, Andina. Andina would help serve us breakfast in the morning by sprinkling sugar over everything and putting the cornflakes into the coffee! They made us feel a part of their family and so at home, even waving goodbye to us as we got on our bus! The icing on the cake was discovering that Dario used to be a chef (for the Argentinean President no less!), and he cooked up a gourmet storm for us each night. His home made ravioli was possibly the best pasta that we have ever tasted! Ben was even more impressed when they served us a red wine labelled “Benjamin”. However, Belen thought it was unfair that it only had Ben’s name on it, so before she served it to us she quickly created a label saying “Michelle’s Wine” and stuck it on the other side of the bottle!

Dario's scrumptious vegetarian pie.

Enjoying nights in with Dario's home cooking at Hostel Lautoro

Belen's creative label for Michelle's wine

And the real wine!

• Trekking on the Perito Moreno Glacier: The stunning Moreno Glacier is impressive to look at, being 5km wide and rising 74 metres above the surface of the water. Up close the glacier looked a bit like a meringue pie (maybe I , Michelle, was feeling particularly hungry on the day but I really thought that it looked like something you could stick a dessert fork into and take a mouthful of!). We joined an Ice Trekking tour and had an amazing 2 hours trekking on the Glacier. It was our first experience using crampons (the metal spikes they attach to your shoes so that you can walk safely on the ice), and they took some getting used to! Parts of the glacier, where the top surface of the ice has cracked, were a piercing blue colour. There were also water holes, where water gushed down an opening in the glacier and was sucked underneath never to be seen again (not something you would like to fall into!), and glacier lakes. We enjoyed a drink from a glacier water stream, and finished our ice trek with a small shot of whisky served on glacier ice at a makeshift bar near the bottom of the glacier! A fantastic experience!

Petit Moreno Glacier

The glacier is constantly carving with a thunderous noise as huge chunks of ice break off

Petit Moreno Glacier

Chelle and Ben at one of the lookouts

My first experience with crampons!

One of the bright blue water holes

Kung-foo fighting!

Who has a dessert fork? Looks like a meringue pie to me!

The make-shift glacier bar!

• Bird Watching at Lagoon Nimez: Being first time bird watchers we were rather unprepared for the experience, lacking the compulsory binoculars, a wide brimmed hat and a bird whistle! However we did have a little booklet with pictures of the birds, their name and a brief description. Even armed with this, we can only recall the birds as being “big pink ones” ( OK, those ones are easy- Flamingoes), “little blue ones”, “brown ones”, “flying small ones” etc etc. Despite our lack of knowledge about our fine feathered flying friends, it was lots of fun and we can understand how it becomes a serious hobby for people.

The view of El Calafate from the lagoon

Bird watching at the lagoon

• Arts and Mate: The Argentineans are famous for their tea drinking of the herbal brew “mate” (pronounced like “mah-tey”). It is a strong tea brew that is usually passed between friends, sipping from the one mate straw. We came across a quirky bright blue house set by the lagoon, which had a sign up saying “Casa de Arte” (House of Art), and some musicians sitting on the front balcony sipping their Mate tea. They invited us in and brewed a fresh pot of Mate for us, before then starting up a great jam session of Argentinean folk music (a rehearsal for their concert later that night). So we got our very own little concert and Mate experience, as well as meeting some great locals, Pancho and Juan, and their two playful dogs who loved all the attention Ben was giving them!

Ben's new furry friend!

Our very own live music concert!

Mate Tea, a strong herbal brew shared between friends

We loved the fun times in El Calafate (Ben even came face to face with a dinosaur), but the next town called and off to El Chalten we went.....

Making our own fun in a museum.....Ben v Dinosaur!

El Chalten
(20/21/22 February)

Just 3 hours north of El Calafate is El Chalten, an even smaller town located within the Los Glaciares National Park. El Chalten is trekking paradise, home to Patagonian mountains and granite peaks, waterfalls, lakes and more glaciers. People come from all over to catch glimpses of the Fitzroy Peak between the misty clouds. We met some people who had spent 4 days waiting in El Chalten for the clouds to part and reveal the magical mountain, however after day 4 it still remained veiled and they gave up and moved on. Unbelievably the 3 days that we spent here were picture perfect- blue skies and only small gusts of the famous southern wind. We used the great weather to do 3 day hikes (yes that’s right- day hikes! No camping or big backpacks required!!):

• Laguna Torre Walk and Lookout ( 28km return hike)
• Waterfall ( Taking it easy with only a 6km return walk)
• The 3 Lakes / Fitzroy Walk ( aprox 26km return hike)

The hikes and scenery were spectacular, and physically a lot easier than Torres Del Paine. We loved our time here, and couldn’t believe the natural beauty that surrounded us. All the colours seemed so bright and dazzling, the mountains massive, and the lakes the most beautiful yet. The photos say all that needs to be said ( except don’t decide to jog the remaining 3 km back into town at the end of a day hiking just because your body is feeling so warmed up and fit..... I ended up re-pulling my hip flexor muscle and Ben hurt his knee, causing us to limp slowly back into town at the very end! The towns micro-brewery made all well again with their local brew!).

Photos from our walks around El Chalten:

This incredible view was well worth the 26km return hike and hard mountain climb at the end!

The fitzroy lake

The stunning view at the end of the 3 lakes trail

More of the Fitzroy lake view

Enjoying the walk!

The mighty Fitzroy

Our relaxing day at the waterfall

Walking back into El Chalten as the sun is starting to set

Aussie Aussie Aussie! We met a swiss man on the Laguna Torre trail who was wearing an Aussie bandana which we borrowed for this photo!

Snickers really satisfies!

The Laguna Torre

Enjoying a quick rest in the sun

From paradise to hell...... cue "Route 40"!

Route 40 (or Ruta 40)

Route 40 is one of the longest roads in the world, and runs parallel to the Andes Mountains, linking southern and northern Argentina. It mostly passes through barren landscape broken occasionally by sparsely populated towns. It is on the “Must Do” list for adventure travel in Argentina, so we excitedly set off on this adventure ourselves...unaware of what lay ahead!

The lonely view from route 40

"On a dark desert highway...."

The route turned out to be mostly unpaved, gavel road, and we spent 35 HOURS on a cramped, smelly and sweaty bus, with a bus-driver who smoked continuously. The longest break we had off the bus was only 1 HOUR. The rest of the time was spent on the bus, which was furnace-hot during the day because the AC was broken, and then was Antarctic-cold at night because of the desert temperature outside. The seats barely reclined, meaning that sleep was near-impossible. To top it all off the bus blew a tyre on the “dark desert highway”, and we spent close to 2 hours standing around in the freezing cold early hours of the desert morning while the bus driver and assistant comically tried to change tyres. They resorted to using sticks and stones from the side of the road to help jack the bus up even higher! So, Ruta 40 was definitely an unforgettable experience, but not in the way we expected!

Trying to keep our sanity- a bottle of red and a movie!

It was a cold cold morning waiting for the bus tyre to be changed and Ben wasn't happy!

The never ending Ruta 40

Our stranded bus

Now, when we catch a long distance bus we smile when the ticket sales person tells us it will be a 16 hour bus ride...... Only 16 hours, ha! We laugh in the face of 16 hours!!! Nothing will ever be as bad as Ruta 40! The only thing that made it all OK was our safe arrival in one of the most picturesque places on earth- Bariloche. But that is for the next blog which we hope to get up before too long.

Love Chelle and Ben