Patagonia 5

by Melanie and Jim

See previous parts on our journey at these links 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Click photos for larger views.

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We headed north by bus from Punta Arenas, Chile, amused and amazed by sightings of pink flamingos at a latitude almost as far south as Dublin, Ireland is north. The 220-mile long ride to Torres del Paine National Park gave us many opportunities for wildlife sightings. Mostly they were rheas, tall flightless birds similar to emus and ostriches, guanacos, llamas’ more elegant cousins, and a variety of large birds of prey. A cattle drive complete with gauchos caught our attention, as well.

For most of our ride, the pampas opened up to the east of us, and Andean foothills to the west. As we neared the park, the snow capped and cloud draped mountains began to rise around us and ahead of us.

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We stopped for a hike before reaching our hotel. Spring in the mountains had sprung, with lady slippers and tiny orchids among many other lovely gems.

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The hotel at Lago Grey in Torres del Paine had a main building with restaurant and services, and a series of long cabins raised on posts containing guest rooms. There were surprises everywhere we looked. Underneath a cabin lived a fox with her kits. On the front window of the main building, we found a large Magallenic woodpecker, similar to the North American pileated woodpecker. And behind the buildings to the north was Lago Grey, complete with glaciers and a small iceberg next to the stone beach. When we say “small,” our rough estimate is that the visible part was perhaps 50 feet high. And remember, the vast majority of an iceberg is underwater!

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The spectacular scenery surrounding Lago Grey gave way to pampas again, as we headed east and north, crossing the border again to reach the small city of El Calafate, Argentina. This part of Argentina is covered by vast estancias, cattle ranches ranging from 5,000 to as much as 600,000 acres!

El Calafate is a tourist town, reminding us in some ways of Bariloche far to the north. It serves as a gateway to the tremendous glacier fields to the west. Shops and restaurants line the main drag, and large calm dogs roam freely there, as they did in many of our stopover cities. One dog accompanied us from our hotel to downtown, backtracking once to sniff someone else’s tote bag, stopping once to snuggle with a surprised but delighted backpacker. But on with us the dog trotted until suddenly crossing the boulevard-divided street. Whether it had been enjoying our company or simply finding safety in numbers, we’ll never know.

As implied, the purpose of staying in El Calafate was to provide us with easy access to glaciers, specifically, Los Glaciares National Park. The nearly 50 glaciers in the park are fed by the third largest continental ice cap in the world, after Antarctica and Greenland. Our objective was to see the Perito Moreno Glacier in the southern end of the park.

Before leaving for South America, we were told to be prepared for any weather, from temperatures in the 80s (F) in the northern city of Buenos Aires to the 30s in the southern part of the continent. The winds, with three oceans surrounding and a mountain range to climb, could be hurricane strength. The rain could be torrential. We packed for all eventualities, but everywhere we went, the sun came with us. Our group leader continually shook his head at our good luck.

Even in Los Glaciares, the weather was our friend. Though the air was cooler, damp, and overcast most of the day, we were able to view the Moreno Glacier without problems. Taking in what we saw was harder. The photos below can’t give any sense of scale of the 200 foot front face of the glacier, seen from both a long overlook walkway and from an excursion boat.

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The next day we flew 3 hours from El Calafate back to Buenos Aires as our Patagonian experience ended. We arrived at the same hotel we had stayed in at the start of our journey. After a couple of hours of free time, our group gathered with our trip leader Lucas to share our feelings about the experiences we had. We then departed by bus for the farewell dinner at a fine restaurant.

During the middle of the night, we were awakened by the sound of very strong wind blowing against our hotel room window. At breakfast, we saw images and reporting on the TV about a terrible windstorm that had moved through Argentina that night. Bahía Blanca, a port city about 400 miles south of Buenos Aires, was hit with gusts of nearly 90 mph blowing roofs off buildings and killing at least 13. The storm continued north through the Buenos Aires region, knocking down trees and limbs all over town.

We boarded our bus after breakfast for our final two experiences. Storm damage forced our bus driver to take some detours. First was to visit La Recoleta Cemetery in the heart of the city. It was established as a public cemetery in 1822. The wealthy and famous built nearly 5000 vaults on its 14 acres, of which 94 are National Historic Monuments. It is the resting place of Eva Peron, Nobel Prize winners, military and government figures, and more. It has been designated one of the most beautiful in the world. Images and a listing of prominent burials are available at the link above. You may take a Streetview walking tour via Google Maps with this link.

We then drove to the city Tigre north of Buenos Aires in the river delta of Rio Paraná. This unusual city is a collection of islands separated by channels of water in the delta. Access to the homes is by boat only. Boat tours are available and took us around the city. Residents have electricity other services of a city such as mail and water taxi. It was a rainy time while we rode in the boat so we have no pictures. Use the link above for some images and description.

Later in the day we were taken to the airport to check in for our overnight flight back to the U.S.

Thanks for joining us on our trip. We’ll have one more post on Patagonia, where we’ll share some impressions and final thoughts about our travels, the people we met, and the sights and experiences we enjoyed.