My last part of the trip before
returning back to Buenos Aires for 2 days and ultimately returning home was El
Calafate, a city almost at the very bottom/end of the world towards Antarctica
and is where El Perrito Moreno Glacier (one of the largest glaciers in the
world and one of only three glaciers that is still growing) is located. Fun
fact: Argentina actually holds 90% of the world’s glaciers and I went to El
Calafate for a total of 3 days to get a glimpse of this wonder.
I decided to go
to El Calafate alone because I wanted some relaxing time on my own in
Patagonia, where I could think about and reflect on the last five and a half
months I had just spent in South America. I arrived without any hostel
reservations and found a nice, reputable hostel, called Marco Polo, which I had stayed at in
Bariloche as well. The hostel was 80 pesos a night yet when I asked
him why it said the 3 bedroom suite which I was staying in was 300 pesos a night, he told me that the
Marco Polo Hostel was actually closed at the time and they were only offering
rooms in the Marco Polo Suites where I was currently at, therefore they were giving
the “dorm room” price for the 3 bed suite I was staying in. So I got an upgrade
and it happened to be the nicest hostel I had stayed at. They even had a TV,
which although I don’t normally watch television, I definitely took advantage
of and enjoyed all the movies dubbed in Spanish that they played each night. The first
2 nights I shared the suite with a guy from Boston who was really nice but rarely there except to sleep and the 3rd night I had the suite all
to myself. (What should have been 900 pesos for 3 people ended up being 80
pesos just for me).
The first day in El Calafate I
explored the town, made my reservation with a tour group for the glacier and
went to the ecological reserve, which Gabriel had recommended to me. When I
found out the ecological reserve costs 30 pesos, I told the young Argentine guy
working there that I didn’t have 30 pesos as this was the last sector of my
trip, but that I really wanted to see the reserve and would probably just walk around it as
far as I could from the outside if I couldn't get it. He then told
me that if I’m willing to pick up whatever trash I see along the way in the
reserve, that he would let me in for free. So I did...but my “trash bag”
was pretty empty and mainly consisted off cigarette butts; in my opinion, I had the better end of the deal.
The next day I set off to the
glacier at 7am with the tour company, Hielo y Aventura. I signed up for the
Mini Trek, which was 600 pesos but included transportation from your hostile to/from
the glacier, a ferry ride over to the south side where we put spikes on our
shoes and trekked the Perrito Moreno Glacier, a hike through “the forest” and
then transportation to the north side of the glacier where I spent an hour just
staring at the giant ice chunk watching pieces fall off and crash into the
water making huge cracking noises…cool stuff. This glacier was incredible. The turquoise
color of the water and of the glacier amazed me and what even amazed me more was
how this huge thing was formed on a lake, in between mountains which split the frontiers
of 2 countries and covers 97 square miles, measuring 19 miles in length…yet
another breathtaking site on my adventure and definitely a great one to end on.
No comments:
Post a Comment