Kathleen
Argentina – El Calafate
April 9, 2014
We head back to El Calafate to see the big glacier, Pedro Moreno, before heading back to Buenos Aires. El Calafate is much bigger (not really saying much) and even more touristy than El Chalten and the main tourist street is about 10 blocks packed full of restaurants, pubs, souvenir stores, mini-groceries, hotels and cars. It begins to feel like every other small town that has a tourist destination nearby. We are only in town for two nights and we have rented a fabulous mini-cabin, not fancy, but complete with a kettle and mini-fridge, so we certainly are ready to make the best of it. Steve is still recovering so we are eating pretty sparsely. We have an entire day just to drive the one-hour road to the glacier and enjoy it, so that is what we do. The park entrance fee is exhorbitant (about $30 per person) but the glacier viewing area is so spectacular that we feel ok about it in the end. The park has build a series of viewing platforms that go down the side of a steep mountain that is directly across from the foot of the glacier as it slides into Lake Argentina. There must be approximately an entire mile of hanging, constructed walkways that allow viewing from a wide area of the glacier face as well as above and below. The entire apparatus cannot be more than about 100 meters from the mammoth glacier face (about 55 meters above the surface of the water) and although there are hundreds of tourists visiting the balconies, it is easy to get to a place where you can stand on your own and contemplate the massive glacier, listening to it creak and sometimes crash as bits of ice cleave off in the sunshine and plummet into the water below. It is truly an amazing place and really, really well planned and constructed for appreciation of the glacier. We spend about two hours wandering back and forth and up and down the walkways to different platforms and viewpoints before heading back to town for dinner.
Luckily, Steve is seeming to be on the mend, and we treat ourselves to dinner out at Mi Rancho, which gets the number one spot on trip advisor out of probably 35 or so restaurants in and around town. It is a very small place with a cozy vibe and Steve tries some fantastically tender Patagonian lamb while I opt for the local trout (absolutely delicious in a lemon sauce with almonds and capers). We finish off with dulce de leches ice cream (sheer bliss) and enjoy a brisk walk back to our little cabin to pack up and get ready for 5 nights in Buenos Aires.
