Rio Gallegos Hotels
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Argentinian Patagonia
Entry 14 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
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A hop, skip and an uneventful border jump from Chile to Argentina we arrived in El Calafate. Most striking as we ventured East across the Andes was the far more arrid landscapes awaiting us in Argentina. Some amazing rolling landscapes and "Wow" skyscapes were already evident in conjunction with this more dessolate environment. What also struck us in a significant way was the very strong wind.....something our Argentinian patagonian experience would become synonomous with.
El Calafate is an interesting little town geared largely towards tourists and various outdoor activities.It was interesting to note the difference in panach and class associated with the shops and resturants in El Calafate which is accessible by road from Argentina compared to Peurto Natales in Chile. Of course being loyal tourists by now, we signed up for some savouring of these establishments and enjoying some of the activities El Calafate has on offer. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Glacier Peurto Moreno - one of only two advancing glaciers in South America (the other was glacier PO XI which we fortunately saw from the Navimag ferry in Chile).
No matter how many glaciers one sees - they are ALWAYS amazing creeking sloths batteling time, global warming and the elements in their flow path. It struck both Sarah and I how much global warming is affecting the glaciers in the Himalayas by comparison.
Once again this glacier is a staggering blue and is very impressive in stature standing some 60m from the water and stretching about 16km. It is not so much the dimensions of this glacier that attracts spectators, but rather the close acrobatic displays of century old compacted ice tumbeling off the face and creating waves in the river below. We unfortunately saw Peurto Moreno on a cold wet cloudy day so missed some of the "better" ice sheet falls,nonetheless we still saw some significant ice-bergs created and wild waves resonating outwards as a result of this.
A slight peril of working with vastly different currencies and conversions in different countries on a trip like ours is grasping the conversion and hence correct number of digits when drawing money from an ATM. These transactions also often happen after long bus rides or flights with little real sleep. for example 1 UK pound =70 Indian rupees = apx. 1009 Chilean pesos = 6.1 Argentinian pesos. Yes many countries in Latin America have the "peso" as currency making matters even more confusing!
Sarah almost drew 300 000 Arg pesos instead of 300!! ( a difference of almost 49950 UK pounds!!). Fortunately we caught the oversight so no harm was done!!Lots of laughs were had.
Having read about and always dreamed about catching a large "Sea-brown Trout" we made a journey from El Calafate to the world renound area of Rio Gallegos in the hopes of expecting a quaint old town on the lush green banks to a tree lined clean river. We were met by a different reality. Rio Gallegos is a large urban town - mostly with a bland industrial feel to it. The barren treeless dry scrub landscape seemed to disguise the mere existance of any rivers here, not to mention trout holding rivers.
Once we had located a fishing guide (bizzarely challenging feat!) and sorted out permits and agreed a fishing date we were set to see what all the fuss was about in Rio Gallegos.
After meeting our guide at dawn and driving upstream parallel to the banks of the Rio Gallegos for 1 and a half hours we turned towards and saw for the first time this 20m wide river. Mysteriously this wide deep river glides along in a very understated way in terms of vegetative evidence of it´s existance. With the wind howling at speeds of around 30-40km/hr and gusts in excess of 80km/hr I was wondering why we hadn't brought a kite instead of trout flies!
With the obvious casting challeneges presented by this weather, my hopes were moderated of catching anything, let alone the titanic-trout I had dreamed of! All that said it was fantastic to catch my first trout on my 5th cast of the day!
After braving the howling winds in chest high freezing glacial melt water for 2 hours we opted to try our luck in the "Chico Rio Gallegos" (Little River Gallegos) in the hopes of being more sheltered from the endless gales.
Unfortunately while the winds at this new location were as sever the journey there resulted in some wonderful sightings of wildlife. We saw grey foxes feeding, numerous families of greater Rheas - some with chicks, wild guanaccos and various birds and birds of prey. Our best sigting was eagle eyed Sarah who spoted a beautiful pair of Patagonian skunks. Our local guide had not seen skunks in this area before so we were really lucky. I then did the unthinkable and braved them to take some close up photos.....downwind of course to prevent detection - fortunately no skunk mace!
The day fishing in these two rivers was wonderful. In total the bag of beautiful rich amber "sea-brown" trout caught and released that day numbered in excess of 25! Each of these was a worthy catch and thrilling fight. The largest fish was about 4lbs for the day, however being spring a number of the fish caught were longer and leaner thus a little lighter than their length suggested.
Another day in the town of Rio Gallegos booking and arranging travel and accomodation for the remainder of our journey, set us up well for the rest of our time in Argentina. A you can imagine this takes forever withthe language barrier so our little phrase book has become an essential tool. Note to all of you who want to travel in South America- take a Spanish course because you will need it.
Next stop the "Welsh-lands" of Trelew and Gaimann.
Latest Comments (1)
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So close yet so far! (reply)
Dec 15, 2006 22:58 EST by tarrantben
Guys! What an amazing adventure ashore! I can't believe how close we are - I'm in my ship MV Bergen Surveyor out of Montevideo Uruguay yesterday, enroute Falkland Islands by Dec21st, then flying home on Jan13th Mount Pleasant, Falklands - Punta Arenas - Puerto Montt - Santiago - Madrid - London! I hope to stop off enroute in Chile to retrace your hiking feet (if the Shabster lets me!). Love to you... show all
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