El Calafate is a small town with beautiful views of the Andes. Located on the banks of Lago Argentina, it is the popular base for all southern Patagonia travelers, being just a few hours away from both EL Chaltan, the trekking capital of Argentina, and from Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, touted to be one the most beautiful national park in South America.
The main attraction of Calafate is Los Glaciers National park, home to some 47 odd decent sized Glaciers including Perito Moreno, the only stable glacier in the world. The Los Glaciers National Park is the largest ice cap after Greenland and Antartica.
Interestingly, the name Calafate comes from a local berry and not from its main attraction, so as you can expect everything from Calafate liquor to calafate flavoured ice cream (not too bad, a bit like our Jamun) to Calafate snacks inundate their markets.
We arrived in the afternoon and after settling into our hostel, decided to spend the day walking around the lake. Yannick befriended a large dog and named him woof. Woof followed us around for 3 hours. Yannick would throw stones into the freezing lago and Woof would jump in after the stones. We saw what looked like a pink tint on the far bank of the lake and as we reached there we saw that it was a group of some 30 Flamingoes! Beautiful graceful birds. There were also swans, swans with black necks, fluorescent green ducks, and so many other birds that we unfortunately could not recognise. El Calafate and the area around is home to Eagles, Falcons and Condors and seeing a falcon sitting on a wire fence along side the road you realise how majestic a bird he is.
Anyway, woof continued to walk around with us and even re entered town when we did. I was getting a little worried as Yannick was now asking if we could take him back to Bombay with us. Suddenly, woof was not around, and Yannick looked back only to see him jump into a car and drive away. Argentina is full of dogs that roam around free of leashes or collars. It is quite an amazing sight to see them that free.
The next day we were headed out to see the glacier. My expectations were pretty low, and the trip was bloody expensive. A hour or so drive took us into Los Glaciers National Park. The park is beautiful, with the water on one side and different kinds of vegetation on the other. Finally we turn a bend and get our first view of Perito Moreno! I was stunned ! I felt the river had frozen in its path! The glacier is huge, some 30 kms long. At the point where is suddenly decided to stop freezing the water, it forms a wall of ice that is about 70 feet high above the water level and 110 feet below the water. This giant wall is inundated with crevices and has a very craggy upper layer, something I did not expect. These crevices reflect a blue that I have not encountered before.
We took a boat and sailed close to the wall of ice before being landed on the opposite shore from which we had taken off. From here we trekked a short distance to the Glacier and got our crampons tied to our feet. Crampons are like rudimentary roller skates that we grew up with, expect that they have 6 steel pegs instead of wheels. You need to walk with your legs apart and you need to crunch the crampons into the snow as you walk. We trekked on the glacier for a couple of hours and saw some incredible crevices. They were deep and blue and scarily inviting! Yannick was designated co pilot and enjoyed his duties leading the pack. To see a piece of ice calve off the glacier and fall into the water is quite something, but what is of much greater impact is the huge sound it makes.
A few hours later, we had our packed sandwiches at the base of the Glacier, headed up to a few different view points from where we got a view of the whole Glacier which is when we realised how big it really was. Perito Moreno isn't the largest glacier in the park, Viedma is the largest, but unlike every other Glacier that is shrinking, Morena continues to stay stable.
The main attraction of Calafate is Los Glaciers National park, home to some 47 odd decent sized Glaciers including Perito Moreno, the only stable glacier in the world. The Los Glaciers National Park is the largest ice cap after Greenland and Antartica.
Interestingly, the name Calafate comes from a local berry and not from its main attraction, so as you can expect everything from Calafate liquor to calafate flavoured ice cream (not too bad, a bit like our Jamun) to Calafate snacks inundate their markets.
We arrived in the afternoon and after settling into our hostel, decided to spend the day walking around the lake. Yannick befriended a large dog and named him woof. Woof followed us around for 3 hours. Yannick would throw stones into the freezing lago and Woof would jump in after the stones. We saw what looked like a pink tint on the far bank of the lake and as we reached there we saw that it was a group of some 30 Flamingoes! Beautiful graceful birds. There were also swans, swans with black necks, fluorescent green ducks, and so many other birds that we unfortunately could not recognise. El Calafate and the area around is home to Eagles, Falcons and Condors and seeing a falcon sitting on a wire fence along side the road you realise how majestic a bird he is.
Anyway, woof continued to walk around with us and even re entered town when we did. I was getting a little worried as Yannick was now asking if we could take him back to Bombay with us. Suddenly, woof was not around, and Yannick looked back only to see him jump into a car and drive away. Argentina is full of dogs that roam around free of leashes or collars. It is quite an amazing sight to see them that free.
The next day we were headed out to see the glacier. My expectations were pretty low, and the trip was bloody expensive. A hour or so drive took us into Los Glaciers National Park. The park is beautiful, with the water on one side and different kinds of vegetation on the other. Finally we turn a bend and get our first view of Perito Moreno! I was stunned ! I felt the river had frozen in its path! The glacier is huge, some 30 kms long. At the point where is suddenly decided to stop freezing the water, it forms a wall of ice that is about 70 feet high above the water level and 110 feet below the water. This giant wall is inundated with crevices and has a very craggy upper layer, something I did not expect. These crevices reflect a blue that I have not encountered before.
We took a boat and sailed close to the wall of ice before being landed on the opposite shore from which we had taken off. From here we trekked a short distance to the Glacier and got our crampons tied to our feet. Crampons are like rudimentary roller skates that we grew up with, expect that they have 6 steel pegs instead of wheels. You need to walk with your legs apart and you need to crunch the crampons into the snow as you walk. We trekked on the glacier for a couple of hours and saw some incredible crevices. They were deep and blue and scarily inviting! Yannick was designated co pilot and enjoyed his duties leading the pack. To see a piece of ice calve off the glacier and fall into the water is quite something, but what is of much greater impact is the huge sound it makes.
A few hours later, we had our packed sandwiches at the base of the Glacier, headed up to a few different view points from where we got a view of the whole Glacier which is when we realised how big it really was. Perito Moreno isn't the largest glacier in the park, Viedma is the largest, but unlike every other Glacier that is shrinking, Morena continues to stay stable.
No comments:
Post a Comment