Today we woke up very early to catch our 5am flight from Buenos Aires back to the Patagonian city on the Argentine border (with Chile) of El Calafate. Unfortunately it was half the price to fly back and from Buenos Aires than to take the MUCH shorter route of direct El Calafate from Ushuaia… Oh well, once we were off the Antarctic cruise it’s back to our budget travel ways.
We made it in fairly early to the city and got some aerial views of Patagonia as we flew in, during the flight there was also an awesome and slghtly eerie view as twilight was coming in.The airport is also ~20km outside the actual city so the drive was pretty and welcomed us to the new scenery of the Patagonian Steppe. Much more desert (dry and brownish yellow) than we were expecting but makes a beautiful contrast to the many lakes (which we also weren’t expecting) around the region.
We finally got to our hostel, checked in, and then walked to town to run some errands. We needed to make sure we got tickets to see the glacier Perrito Moreno the following day (main attraction in El Calafate). Also had to make sure our bus tickets to Puerto Natales in two days were okay. Finally a stop at the supermarket was in order to re-stock our dwindling supplies.
Now that we were finally settled, we got a chance to go out and explore the city. It’s nestled in right on the coast of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina which is fed all by glacier melt. This area of the country is very close to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. We’re not sure if that is what gives it the beautiful aquamarine color, or simply Patagonian magic, but we very much enjoyed walking around it!
We were tired after a long day of travel so after cooking a simple meal we headed to bed to get ready and check out one of the worlds most famous glaciers tomorrow, Perito Moreno.
Travel Fun With Cassie and Alejandro 