After a three-hour bus ride from El Chalten to El Calafate and a short stop at the airport to drop off and pick up passengers, we pulled into the bus terminal at the east end of town.
Perito Moreno Glacier from the Boardwalk
From there, it was just a 15-minute walk to the America del Sur Hostel where I stayed for 4 nights. It was like a big ski lodge with open beam tall ceilings and a massive view of the surroundings and distant mountains and Lake Argentino.
I showed my iPhone that I had walked from 10 to 17 miles per day hiking the El Chalten trails. The staff said I could go to their office to see if they would make an exception. They also suggested another company called Southern Spirit which offered a Mayo Spirit Trek that included 3 stops with trails 2km each. Two stops would be to view two hanging glaciers and then a final stop to hike the boardwalk along the Perito Moreno Glacier. It also included taking our boat up close to and along the Perito Moreno Glacier, and there were no age restrictions.
I signed up for the Mayo Spirit Trek for a cost of 25,000 pesos—$77, especially since it sounded more interesting than the other company’s offering.
After booking the trip for the following day, I headed down the hill to explore the town and get some more blue dollar rate pesos at a Western Union office. The first two I tried had no more pesos and the third could only exchange USD since their Western Union system was down. I didn’t try the fourth one since it was further away so I would try these WU offices on the day after my glaciers tour.
There were many restaurants to choose from, including craft beer, and I decided to try the high-end Mako Restaurant and I was glad I did.
The dining room area was elegant from the place setting, with fresh flowers, along with the kitchen you could see through the glass walls including the parrilla where several racks of lamb and other meats were circling the fire.
I ordered tenderloin they call oyo bife, I asked for it rare because before when I ordered medium rare at other restaurants, it came out medium. That got me a visit from the chef who assured me he would prepare it as I liked it medium rare. He said if it was not right, he would make me another one.
This meal was the best and most tender meat I have had on this trip. The meal started with complimentary champagne followed by artistic appetizers laid out on wood planks.
After dinner, I asked if I could take pictures of the kitchen since my former son-in-law was a chef. I got the whole tour.
In the morning, a shuttle bus picked me up for the all-day Mayo Spirit Trek and made our way to the Puerto Bandera to our boat after paying the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares entry fee of 4,000 pesos—$12.
I had imagined that with no age limit, most people would be old, but it was a wide age range. Most people were from Argentina and there were few English speakers aboard.
We first motored up two of the channels where we saw the hanging glacier and got off the boat to explore the forest with a huge leaning tree and a large cascading waterfall at Toro Bay.
I spotted what looked like puffball mushrooms on the ground and then realized that they were growing in clusters in the trees, and falling to the ground when mature. Our guide said they were safe to eat when sliced and cooked.
We reboarded our boat after walking along the black shale-pebbled beach.
Our second stop was at Cerro Negro, where we walked through the forest filled with wildflowers along a small river to the clearing where we saw the Mayo hanging glacier and another cascading waterfall.
It was then on to see up close the Perito Moreno glacier. We drifted slowly along the entire front of the glacier hoping that we could see some calving of chunks of the glacier falling into the lake. We did not see any, but we heard loud crashing sounds coming from the glacier. Our guide explained that inside the glacier, rivers caused the glacier to crack and fall into the inner river.
We then headed to the boardwalk where we would have over an hour to walk about the many boardwalks overlooking Perito Moreno glacier.
The views of the glacier were spectacular and the weather was fair.
The clouds lifted some more so we had clear views of the other hanging glaciers on our way back to our buses.
Both museums featured this collapse of the big arch.
On Wednesday I resumed my quest for pesos at one of the four Western Union offices starting with the post office. They had no pesos nor did the one a block away. The third one told me that they were no longer working with Western Union.
The fourth was up the hill about a mile away. I was encouraged to see a short line outside the store. They had a limit of 60,000 pesos—$187. It turned out that this place wanted a copy of your passport, and most in line were turned away with no open copy stores nearby. I was lucky because I had a copy where on the back of it I had written instructions on what to do and contact my wife if I was dead. It turned out to be a lifesaver when it came to getting $175 worth of pesos.
While in El Calafate, I also visited the local museum and the Glacierium. Both were full of information on the area and nature of glaciers. They also had videos of the collapse of the big arch near the boardwalk area.
While in town, I had lentil stew two days in a row at Pipeta’s—it was that good.
On the 5th, I took the Bondi flight back to Buenos Aires for the last week of this 2-month trip. I ended up near the back of the plane in a middle seat with my knees touching the seat in front of me. I guess this budget airline likes to pack them in. We flew up the coast in clear weather.
After landing, I quickly found the bus that took me near the Che Juan Hostel where I had first stayed at the start of this trip. Once again Google Maps provided me with where to catch the bus, its route, and where to get off.
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