Patagonia: Fin del Mundo (Part 2)

After an amazing first week in Patagonia, we were looking forward to more beautiful landscapes, breathtaking views and unforgettable experiences during the second week as we soaked up everything Patagonia has to offer.

Our next destination after El Calafate was El Chaltén, a small mountain village in the northern sector of Los Glaciares National Park (NP). Situated on the banks of the river Río de las Vueltas and at the foot of the impressive Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy mountains, El Chaltén is the trekking capital of Argentinian Patagonia with many trails starting in town. The town carries Cerro Fitz Roy’s Tehuelche name, meaning smoking mountain since the peak is almost always shrouded in cloud and was originally thought to be a volcano. The mountain was later renamed Fitz Roy after Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, the Captain of the HMS Beagle’s second voyage.

The day we arrived was reasonably clear but very windy. We were advised to make the best of the day since rain was expected over the two next days, our only days available for hiking. After checking in, a quick lunch and getting organised for the days ahead, we headed off for a first warm up hike. There are many short hikes in the area to different viewpoints and also waterfalls. We chose the ~2 hour hike to Mirador de los Condores and Mirador de las Aguilas to get started. The hike is an uphill climb on the edge of town near the NP Visitor’s Centre leading to a viewpoint that overlooks the town and the majestic Torre and Fitz Roy Mountains. Condors are often seen here gliding on the thermals over the valley, hence the name of the viewpoint, but we didn’t see any that day. At the back of this hill is a second viewpoint, Mirador de las Aguilas, over the Patagonian Steppe and Lake Viedma.

On the way up to Mirador de los Condores

Cerro Torre 

Cerro Fitz Roy

It is popular to camp at designated camping sites dotted around the hiking trails in the mountains of the park. However, carrying all our own gear and camping with no fires and no amenities in the cold did not sound appealing. Since many of the hikes start from the edge of town, we opted to base ourselves in Chaltén and try some of the day hikes. There are many hiking trail options in the area but with only two full days available we chose the two most popular, for obvious reasons, Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres. We really liked how the trails had been set up, they are multiple hikes in one with one or more equally good viewpoints along the way so depending on how you feel or the weather you can decide to continue to the end point or not but still enjoy a beautiful view and the feeling of achievement.

The weather the following day was much milder than predicted, it was quite cloudy all day but with less rain than expected. The plus side of the cloud and rain was the lack of wind, it was much more pleasant hiking without the 70-80 km/h wind howling in our ears. We were glad we started hiking early as the trail is very popular and quickly filled up. We found the trail less challenging than expected with only the first kilometre or so being really steep, there were some small climbs along the rest of the trail but not very demanding. We found the uneven surface most of the way more challenging. We were lucky with the weather and even though we didn’t see the whole mountain and its jagged granite needles due to the cloud, it didn’t rain as much as forecast and we still really enjoyed the hike and highly recommend it to anyone in the area. The 18 km return trip took us around 5 hours plus an extra hour or so for enjoying the views and a lunch break. We returned to town earlier than expected and enjoyed a slow afternoon eating ice-cream and preparing for the next day.

The first viewpoint about 90 min into the Laguna Torre hike 

Laguna Torre 

Icebergs on Laguna Torre and Glacier Grande cascading down Cerro Torre

The rain started in the night and continued for most of the next day but we were up early anyway and ready to tackle the 10 km Laguna de los Tres hike. Apart from the initial steep climb and the last 1 km of steep rocky mountainside, the hike was mostly flat and actually a really enjoyable walk. The scenery was beautiful and variable with views of the Rio de las Vueltas valley, paths through lush green trees, open fields passing lakes and ponds, glaciers between mountains in the distance, and beautiful mountain views. It was wonderful to have another windless day but it was a real pity about the thick cloud and mist, we didn’t even realise that we had reached the summit! The last rocky climb had yellow arrows marking the path and we were confused when they suddenly ended. Clearly a sign is not normally needed to indicate you have reached the summit. Like us, you will have to search google images to see the view and what we missed out on. We completed the 20 km hike in less than the average 8 hours and were looking forward to a hot shower and dry clothes.

Rio de las Vueltas

Cloud shrouded views on the way up to Laguna de los Tres

Hiking boibs! 

And then it was our last day in El Chaltén and time to hike on a glacier! Glacier Perito Moreno is the more popular choice for an ice trekking tour but we chose the more remote and less touristy Viedma Glacier operated by Patagonia Aventura in Chaltén. Viedma is the largest glacier in the Patagonia ice field covering ~980 km² and three times larger than Buenos Aires City. The snout of the glacier calving into Lago Viedma is ~2 km long and 40 m high. We were fortunate and grateful that the weather improved and was back to less cloud and no rain but the wind was back.

The tour started with an hour boat trip across Lago Viedma with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. The boat stopped at the face of the glacier for a few minutes before depositing us on the glacier polished orange rocks around the corner. We had to scramble over the huge smooth rocks to the edge of the glacier where we were fitted with crampons and given a demonstration of how to walk on the ice with crampons. Then we stomped around on the ice for about two hours with time to stop and admire the view.

Iceberg on Lago Viedma

Iceberg and Viedma Glacier

Crampons!

We were amazed at how different a glacier looks when you are actually on it. The surface is undulating with lots of jagged peaks and cracks and holes everywhere, some small and some very large that could be easy to fall into. And there was a lot of water from melting ice in the cracks and many holes. It was fun and interesting to see things we had learnt about at the Glaciarium a few days before. Such as where the ice melts around a small single stone since the stone heats up more than the area around it causing the ice to melt but an area covered with sand and grit is protected from melting and forms little cones as the ice around it melts. There are also often caves and tunnels in the ice but we didn’t see any of these.

Amazing Viedma Glacier

Boibs on Viedma Glacier

It was quite difficult to walk up and down the steep slopes of the jagged spikes but the guides helped us a lot and made little steps in the ice with their ice picks. The guides were really great, they told us lots of interesting information about glaciers and Viedma, were really friendly and took photos for everybody, and they were really competent on the ice, we felt very safe in their hands. They also provided a fun surprise at the end of the trek: Tia Maria liqueur over 200-400 year old glacier ice! The ice was really hard, you can’t crush it with your teeth like normal ice, but also so clean and refreshing.

Walking on the ice ended with enjoying our shots of Tia Maria while watching the snout calve into Lago Viedma. Before scrambling back across the rocks we spent a few minutes enjoying a natural ice cave where the glacier melting away from the rocks had created an overhang. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the rocks overlooking Lake Viedma before the boat took us back to Chaltén.

Tia Maria Happy Hour

The snout of Viedma Glacier calving into Viedma Lake

(note the smooth orange rocks)

One of the guides at the melting overhang of the glacier 

Ice Cave!

We had a few hours in Chaltén in the afternoon before the bus back to El Calafate in the evening and enjoyed some chill time with a last ice-cream from our favourite ice-cream store and a hot drink and waffle at La Wafleria. We had some good meals in Chaltén particularly the best pasta we have eaten outside of Italy after a long day of hiking and waffles at the Wafleria which we sadly only discovered on the last day.

We arrived in El Calafate in the late evening and spent one night there before a full travel day back to Punta Arenas. We had an early (05:30) pick up for the first bus from Calafate to Puerto Natales including the border crossing back into Chile. We had about two hours inbetween busses and grabbed a last pizza and beer lunch at Mesita Grande on the square in Natales (please don’t count how many times we had pizza this holiday). The second bus took us from Natales back to Punta Arenas where we would spend our last 2 days in Patagonia.

We arrived in Punta Arenas in the early evening and had some time to explore after checking in. We found the Shepherd’s Monument and the Sara Braun Cemetery, known for its antique mausoleums, European architecture and pruned cypress trees. Unfortunately we arrived in Punta Arenas over New Year when most things are closed both on 31 Dec and 1 Jan. We wanted to visit the Austral Brewery (good local beer) and Nao Victoria Museum (replicas of ships from the discovery and settlement of the area) but both were closed even though Bron had email confirmation that the museum would be open on those days. But we enjoyed some walks along the seafront promenade and watching the sea birds there, finding the Mirador Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint over the city, and exploring the more central parts of town. The city was extremely quiet with not much open and we took advantage of two forced rest days after the last few busy hiking days and before a busy weekend. We also enjoyed a good and festive meal on New Year’s Eve. And so ended our time in Patagonia. But it wasn’t the end of the holiday yet!

Shepherds Monument

Sara Braun Cemetery 

At the water's edge in Punta Arenas

Mirador Cerro de la Cruz overlooking colourful Punta Arenas 

On 2 January we had an early morning flight (06:30) back to Santiago where we met our special Chilean friends Joan and Mayira for the start of a wonderful long weekend together. Friday was a chilled catch up day by the pool with lots of good food including a braai and lots of good Chilean wine. On Saturday we visited the lovely quaint coastal town of Papudo 170 km north of Santiago. We enjoyed a long walk on the promenade, a delicious fish lunch, and chill time on the beach. On Sunday Joan and Mayira kindly hosted a braai and invited some of our other local friends from Justin’s time at his previous company PRDW. It was a lovely day catching up with friends over a braai and next to the pool. Thanks for having us Joan and Mayira! It was so lovely to see you guys and catch up again. We look forward to seeing you again soon in Buzios in a few weeks’ time!

The beach at Papudo

Cool old house in Papudo 

Joan and Mayira 

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Friends!

That is a serious steak!

Chilling in the pool: Joan, Chris, Andres and Justin

And then all too soon it was the end of the holiday and we were packing our bags and getting ready to fly back to Vitoria on Monday. We were very sad to leave but had had a really great holiday and brought back a few bottles of good Chilean wine to cheer us up. Having a few long weekend breaks planned ahead helped us to beat the post-holiday blues and get back into ‘normal life’.

See you next time for a long weekend in Buzios!

Sunset over the Andes from Joan and Mayira's house in Santiago

Patagonia: Fin del Mundo (Part 1)

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!