Zigging & Zagging through Patagonia

From Bariloche we planned to take a quick six hour bus trip down to the town of El Calafate... however this was not to be. Despite what every guide book says, Route 40 which is the famous road down to El Calafate taken by Che Gevera, closes during winter and doesn´t open until the 15th of November each year. Instead of the documented 6 hour bus ride, the suggested option was a 32 hour bus ride that travelled right to the east coast of Argentina, down south to Rio Gallegos, before cutting back inland in a north west direction to El Calafate! After Renee´s recent bus experiences this was not an appealling option.

Instead, we came up with the brilliant idea of crossing the border into Chile and catching a boat south with the aim of eventually reaching El Calafate. We met a lovely Swiss couple (Patric & Barbara) on the bus out of Argentina who had the same plan as us and we ended up travelling with them for the next two weeks as our ¨brilliant¨ idea turned out to be some what less than time efficient!

We got off the bus in Puerto Montt and immediately tried to find out about boat options. Unfortunately the boat that travelled a long distance south had left the day before, so instead we decided to take a Navimag ferry to Puerto Chacabuco which was a 24 hour trip. The boat ride was beautiful, travelling through the Chilean fjords. We were accompanied by a group of young men from the Chilean Military. With only about five females on the entire boat, Barbara and Renee got a lot of male attention!

Renee after getting off the Navimag Ferry in Puerto Chacabuco

Sailing through the Fjords in Chile

Our Cabin in the Ferry

When we got off the Navimag Ferry we organised a ferry ride for the next day (Tim´s birthday) across the lake that lay between us and Argentina. Unfortunately, the ferry was cancelled due to strong wind and instead of the two hour ride across the lake as we had planned, we had 18 hours on a bus going around the lake (the second biggest in South America!!). As a result we arrived too late to cross the border and had to stay another night. The next day we managed to cross into Argentina but met another stumbling block when we were told that the road from there to El Calafate was closed... despite all of our efforts to avoid the bus to the east coast of Argentina we ended up having to take this option anyway! The bus ride itself turned out to be a good experience with only five us being on board most of the night.

The second biggest lake in South America... that we drove around instead of sailing across!

Our private bus ride to El Calafate

So, eventually, after six days of travelling, we arrived in El Calafate. The main draw card of the town is ¨Los Glaciares National Park¨ of which the Perito Moreno Glacier is the star attraction. The Perito Moreno glacier is one of only a few glaciers in the world that is not retreating. The terminus of the glacier is 5 kilometres wide, with an average height of 60m above the surface of the water, with a total ice depth of 170 metres. It advances at a speed of up to 2 metres per day or around 700 metres per year. At its deepest part, the glacier has a depth of approximately 700 metres. The enormous pressure caused by the massive amount of ice moving slowly down the valley causes large chunks of ice to break off regularly, calving icebergs of various shapes and sizes to be formed. The noise of the glacier creaking and groaning is incredible as is the enormous cracking sound that can be heard when a portion breaks off and falls with an almighty splash into the water below. We hired a car with our Swiss friends and drove to the National Park early in the morning with the hope of beating the ranger who mans the pay station at the entrance. Admission to the national parks is not a cheap outing with a charge of around $20 per person. Unfortunately the ranger overtook us in his 4WD a few minutes before arriving. However, despite having to get up early and pay anyway, we were amongst the first few people in the park for the day and had the glacier to ourselves for a few hours before the tour buses started arriving. We were fortunate to get clear (though cold!) weather, but the rain and wind had come in by the time the tour groups arrived. We huddled up nice and warm in the national park cafeteria whilst they wandered around en mass in horrible conditions.

One face of the Perito Moreno Glacier

Nice and warm in the cafeteria learning a dice game (Maya) from our new Swiss friends

From El Calafate we again crossed the border into Chile to Puerto Natales which is the base for visiting ¨Torres del Paine¨ National Park. We were running out of time so could only do a two day hike in the park. Even such a short hike was a bit daunting considering that the weather forecast was for 100% cloud cover, wind up to 140km hour, maximum temperature of 2 degrees, snow and rain. However, we were extraordinarily fortunate and got the most magnificent weather. Again, just visiting the national park was really expensive with the public transport and park entry for the two of us costing $280 (plus costs for the refugio that we stayed in over night etc). Incredibly pricey just to walk around in a national park!! Luckily it was magnificent and worth the money, however if the weather had been miserable, we might have felt otherwise.

A highlight of ¨Torres del Paine¨ are the ¨Towers¨ and the ¨Horns¨. Apparently there are only 20 sunny days a year in the park making it difficult to view either of these features due to cloud cover. We were fortunate to get a good view of both during our trek! We hiked for 6 hours through the stunning scenery passing icebergs and lakes of various colours until we reached our refugio located on the shore of Lago Grey with a view to Glacier Grey. This glacier, unlike Perito Moreno is receding, but still incredibly beautiful to see. We had to ban ourselves from using the word ¨beautiful¨ as it was being over used and not adequate to describe the splendor of the views.


Lago Grey in Torres del Paine National Park

Tim trekking towards the¨Horns¨

Glacier Grey

The ¨Towers¨ of Torres del Paine

View from our Refugio in Torres del Paine

The glacier from above