Buenos Aires and beautiful Patagonia

Patagonia - El Calafate

On December 31st, it was time to pack our bags again and head to the airport, as shortly before New Year's Eve we flew to El Calafate in Patagonia, a tranquil tourist town over 2,000 km south of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, on the outbound flight, we had seats on the left side of the plane, so we missed out on a first taste of the upcoming highlights. We hope to see them on the return flight :-). Upon arrival, we booked a shuttle bus that took us directly to the hostel we had booked in advance, which turned out to be very cozy.

The small town with just under 22,000 inhabitants, which lives exclusively from tourism, is a very well-known place, as it is the starting point for tours to the famous and beautiful Perito Moreno Glacier. As soon as we arrived, we booked a tour for January 1st to the glacier directly at the hostel and then hurried to a supermarket to get supplies for dinner. For the first time, we were lucky and felt like the last ones to get into the supermarket, as it had actually already closed. However, the lack of Spanish knowledge, a pity-inducing look, and a small amount of assertiveness led to success ;-)

The next day, we went on a tour to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is located about 80 km away from El Calafate in the Los Glaciares National Park, is one of Argentina's biggest attractions, and one of the largest outlet glaciers of the largest glacier region in the South American Andes. We were really looking forward to this tour and it was one of the main reasons why we ended up so close to Antarctica. The glacier is the only one in the world that ends in water and is preceded by a peninsula. It is also one of the few glaciers in the world that is still growing (about 1m per day). Tip: Sit on the left side of the bus on the way there, so you can catch glimpses of the glacier on the drive.

Every few years, it reaches the opposite Magellan Peninsula and dams up part of the lake. Once the water pressure becomes too great, the ice collapses spectacularly. The glacier tongue is between 55 and 77 m high, with a further 100 m lying beneath the water's surface.

Due to the peninsula in front of it, you can get very close to the glacier - which is also rare, as you usually only get that close to a glacier by boat - and you can spectacularly hear and see the so-called glacier calving. It creaks and cracks from the depths of the masses of ice, and we were able to observe large pieces of ice breaking off and crashing into the lake with loud noises. These pieces can easily be the size of cars or multi-family houses. Our endurance in the cold was rewarded with breaking ice chunks and the sun coming out.

But now let the pictures speak for themselves:

Zusätzlich wünschen wir natürlich euch allen noch ein frohes, gesundes und erfolgreiches neues Jahr!

Morgen fahren wir mit dem Bus in die Wanderhochburg Südamerikas schlechthin, El Chaltén, welches sich ca. 230 km nördlich am Fuße des Fitz Roy befindet. Bis dahin hoffen wir, dass sich Lisas Erkältung endlich verabschiedet und wir ein paar ausgedehnte Wanderungen machen können.