After dry and dusty Peru and lush and green Costa Rica, it was time to
explore a different South American landscape. Jagged snow covered mountain peaks,
awe inspiring glaciers, giant icebergs floating on massive icy lakes, flat
windswept plains dotted with scraggy sheep, gauchos herding their sheep mounted
on horseback, guanacos, wild hares, and wild grey foxes. This is Patagonia. And
we felt privileged to be here.
We have long wanted to visit Patagonia and were super excited when the opportunity
arose over the Christmas break. Patagonia is located at the southernmost end of
South America and is shared between Chile and Argentina with the Andes mountain
range as the boundary between the two countries. Patagonia is a sparsely
populated dramatic wilderness with rugged peaks, vast ice fields, glistening
glacial lakes, and a maze of fjords. The grassland plains are almost empty apart
from some sheep and cattle on estancias. Life here is tough, windy and cold.
Views aorund the Seno Última Esperanza at Puerto Natales
Distances here are vast and with only 2 weeks available for exploring,
we had to be selective and chose the main sights on both the Chilean and
Argentinian sides of Southern Patagonia. The holiday started with a long travel
day from Vitoria to Punta Arenas via São Paulo and Santiago followed by a long
bus trip to Puerto Natales the next morning. But then finally the exploring
could begin! Sightseeing began with the UNESCO biosphere reserve and one of the
absolute must-sees of this area, the Torres del Paine National Park (NP).
The landscape of the Torres del Paine NP is dominated by the Paine
massif or mountain range with numerous valleys, lakes and glaciers making up
the phenomenal beauty of the area. The cloud cover, on/off rain, and extreme
wind made for very dramatic atmosphere the day we visited. Unfortunately, with
all the cloud, we didn’t get to properly see the one of the main sights, the
three granite towers from which the park takes its name, the towers or Torres
del Paine. However, we were not short of amazing views or otherwise disappointed.
Views of the Paine Massif from Lago Nordenskjöld in the Torres del Paine National Park
It is very popular to hike and camp for several days in the park but we
decided a day visit would suffice for us. Most of our long distance travelling
in Patagonia was by bus, the services of which were comfortable, affordable and
punctual. However, we chose to rent a car for the few days in Puerto Natales
for more flexibility and for exploring the park. Many companies offer day tours
to the park but we were glad we had our own car and could stop and explore as
we pleased.
Gaunacos at Torres del Paines
We entered at the northern end of the park as recommended by the
friendly guy at the information centre in town and slowly made our way to the
southern end. We enjoyed the views of the massif from many points in the park,
most notably from Lago Nordenskjöld and Lago Pehoé; and a few short walks to
two waterfalls, Salto Grande and Salto Chico, and along the shores of Lago Grey
for views of Glacier Grey. We also enjoyed guanaco watching throughout the park
and were surprised when a wild hare dashed across the road in front of our car.
He was too quick to get a pic and oh so fluffy! We also saw lots of beautiful
flowers including a small green orchid and loads of small colourful flowers we
don’t know the names of inbetween the long grass, reminiscent of fynbos and the
Namaqualand spring flowers. Torres del Paine was quite an amazing place and it
is a pity it was a 2 hour drive from Puerto Natales otherwise we would have
liked to pop in again.
Salto Grande
Salto Chico
Views from Lago Pehoé
Glacier Grey viewed from the shores of Lago Grey
The following day we visited the Cueva del Milodon, a large cave where an
extinct giant sloth, or Milodon, once lived about 25 km from Puerto Natales. Remains
of sabre tooth tigers and other extinct megafauna have also been found in the
cave as well as that of the first human settlers of the area. Although there
was a strong wind, it was a mild and mostly clear day and we took advantage
with a nice long walk around the area to visit the other smaller caves and a
giant square rock called The Devil’s Chair. The rest of the day was spent
enjoying the scenery of the Seno Última Esperanza or Last Hope Sound.
We enjoyed the colourful little town of Puerto Natales where the people are friendly, everything closes over lunch time and life is pretty slow. We enjoyed some good meals here, the pizza at Mesita Grande on the main square and coffee and cake at the Coffee Maker on the water’s edge are worth a mention. We were surprised by the amount of wind, it was so super windy all the time! The wind would follow us the whole trip but our time in Puerto Natales was the coldest and we were surprised and pleased that the rest of the holiday was warmer and milder.
Cueva del Milodon
Devil's Chair
Woodpecker looking for something to eat
Views on our walk at the Cueva del Milodon
Our next destination was El Calafate and our first visit to Argentina.
We arrived after a 6 hour bus trip from Puerto Natales that included a fairly
smooth border crossing. The afternoon was spent getting to know this smarter
looking town and getting organised for the next few days. We discovered the
Borges and Alvarez Librobar, an excellent place for beers, coffees and
chilling, and an excellent ice-cream store. We would no doubt return to both
over the next few days.
The Los Glaciares NP is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the second
largest national park in Argentina with ~7 300 km2 of protected land.
The parks name refers to the 47 glaciers that originate in the Andes Mountains and
feed into several lakes, of which the largest two are Lago Viedma and Lago
Argentino which divide the park into a northern and southern zone,
respectively. Los Glaciares NP borders Torres del Paine NP (2 400 km2)
in Chile which is also adjacent to the Bernardo O’Higgins NP (the largest and
least accessible national park in Chile with ~35 000 km2 of
protected land) making up a huge area protecting the Southern Ice Field. The
three parks have very similar sights, amazing mountains and magnificient
glaciers, they are just more easily accessible in Los Glaciares.
From El Calafate it is fairly easy to explore the southern zone of Los
Glaciares NP. First on our list was a day tour to the spectacular Perito Merino
glacier. Perito Moreno was named after the Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno
who discovered many glaciers in the area (but not this one) and helped to
resolve the border dispute with Chile. The glacier is 30 km in length and covers
an area of 250 km2 and is the most popular due to being the most
easily accessible. Perito Moreno is only 80 km from El Calafate and has a
tourist centre with a system of boardwalks that approach the south and north
faces of the glacier.
Views of the south wall of the magnificent Perito Moreno Glacier from the boat
The south and north wall of Perito Moreno from the boardwalks
Our view of the south wall from the boat
Once inside the park, the first part of the tour was a one hour boat
trip to the south wall of the glacier. The second part of the tour was time at
the boardwalks to view the glacier from different angles at our own pace. We
packed a champagne picnic and found a mostly secluded spot to watch the
grandest show: huge chunks of ice calving off the north face of Perito Merino.
We witnessed quite a few calving events during those few hours; they are so
unbelievably loud it sounds like a gunshot, there is a big splash as the ice
hits the surface, and a small wave follows the submersion of the now iceberg
before it pops up again.
A calving event
Melting icebergs
A glacier is a difficult thing to describe. One expects it to be solid
and very static, and very smooth and white. After seeing a glacier up close in
Iceland, we were not expecting entirely white ones in Patagonia. But we were
very surprised to see so many cracks and jagged spires in the ice. Glaciers are
actually in a constant state of flux, they are concomitantly gaining and losing
ice. Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers in the world that is not shrinking;
it is stable, meaning it gains ice as fast as it loses ice, and sometimes is
even growing. All the glaciers we saw in Patagonia cascade down the sides of
mountains, take at least one corner and end in a lake. This process, especially
taking corners, puts the ice under enormous pressure. Hence the cracks,
fissures and spires. We really enjoyed our visit to Perito Moreno and highly
recommend it if you are in the area.
We wanted to see as many glaciers as possible so we booked a boat tour
of the north arm of Lago Argentino for the following day to see the other two more
easily accessible glaciers in this section of the park, Upsala and Spegazzini. Upsala
Glacier was named after Upsala University in Sweden and is the third largest
glacier in the Southern Patagonia Ice Field at ~54 km in length with an
ice area of ~765 km2. Spegazzini Glacier is 17 km in length with an
ice area of ~137 km2. The boat trip was about 4 hours in total and
during that time we enjoyed the snowy mountain scenery, many more smaller
glaciers tumbling down the mountain slopes into the lake, and many variously
shaped icebergs. It is quite special being so close to the front of a glacier
at water level and seeing calving events but we also enjoyed looking at
pictures of the entire glacier, they really are very impressive. We really
enjoyed the trip and found it worth the cost and paying park entry for a second
time. Back in town we found a cosy restaurant for a Christmas Eve dinner:
Patagonic lamb in Malbec sauce, simply delicious!
Icebergs on Lago Argentino.
Icebergs and glaciers look blue even though water and ice is colourless. This is because more energetic blue light photons can penetrate further into the ice further than the other colours. The deeper the light travels, the bluer the ice looks and explains the different shades of blue, turquoise and indigo seen.
Upsala Glacier
The very impressive Spegazzini Glacier
Mountain views on the boat trip around Spegazzini Glacier
Christmas Day was the first real slow day of the holiday, it was good
for us to have a ‘forced’ rest day. After a slow morning and phoning family, we
headed to the Glaciarium, a museum all about glaciers! It was really
interesting reading about how snow turns to ice and then glacial ice, glacier
anatomy, different glaciers and ice fields around the world and their
differences, and about the great explorers and researchers of glaciers. Glaciers
have two distinct areas, the accumulation and ablation area. The higher colder
part of the glacier where snow falls and becomes ice is the accumulation area.
The lower area where it is less cold and ice is lost through melting and
calving is the ablation area. These two areas are divided by the equilibrium
line where the gain and loss of ice is equal. Since the glaciers here are so
large, we only ever saw the ablation area. This helped us to understand why the
glacier looked the way it did, the accumulation area of the glacier is smoother
and whiter but the ablation area where ice is being lost is more and jagged and
spiky. Also interesting was the process of how freshly fallen snow with a density
of around 100 kg/m3 turns into glacial ice with a density of around
900 kg/m3. With a density like that it’s easy to see how glaciers
carve valleys and mountain sides. You have to visit the Glaciarium yourself for
more info! We highly recommend it. They also have an ice bar (which we skipped
since we’d been to one in Cape Town before).
Walking around the bird sanctuary and Flamingo gazing at Nimez Lagoon
The rest of the afternoon was filled with a windy walk around the bird
sanctuary of Nimez Lagoon on the shores of Lago Argentino with beautiful views
of the mountains and the lake. In the evening we found ourselves another good
restaurant for another delicious Christmas meal, this time a huge Argentinian
steak, and of course, more Malbec wine.
That brought to a close our time in El Calafate. The next day we boarded
a bus for El Chalten, the trekking capital of Argentinian Patagonia.
See you next time for more Patagonian adventures!
