El Calafate and Incredible Glaciers
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2006
1
7
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Trip End
Mar 21, 2006
El Calafate, Argentina
Sunday, February 19, 2006
My flight to El Calafate, Provincia Santa Cruz, left around 17:00 and one and a half hours later I was nervously waiting, as practically the last person, for my luggage to come off the plane. Since the flight was going on to Buenos Aires, the baggage getting off was not guaranteed. At that moment, all kinds of thoughts go through one´s mind as to how one would carry on without the luggage.
El Calafate´s airport is about 15 km out of town and in about 45 minutes I had arrived at the Hosteria Casa des Grillos which is a bed and breakfast.
Staying here has been a pleasant experience since the host, Alejandro Grillo, a former teacher like myself, is very sociable
00- The Flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate
. I enjoyed speaking as much Spanish with him as I could and I appreciated the linguistic help he gave me--muchas gracias, Alejandro!web site: www.casadegrillos.com.ar
My timing has been very good here in terms of activities.
Feb. 19, Sunday
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
An incredible National Glaciers Park containing some of the world´s most beautiful scenery. El Calafate is the southern entry city to the park somewhat similar to what Banff is to the National Parks back in Canada. The "Jasper" would be El Chalten in the northern part of the park, which is my next destination. The park also has two major glacier-fed lakes--in the south near Calafate, Lago Argentino and in the north, near El Chalten, Lago Viedma. Both make for great cruises to access the glaciers
01 Alejandro Grillo
.Perhaps the best excursion of the trip so far to the Upsala Glacier started early with pick up at the B & B at 07:15. An hour and a half later we were on the catamaran for the cruise on Lago Argentino, Argentina´s largest lake, and its various fjord-like arms leading to the glaciers. What makes it particularly interesting are the many iceberg- like pieces moored in the relatively shallow waters which have broken off the glaciers. Their ice blue colour sparkling in the sun is very captivating.
Our first stop, Glaciar Spegazzini, was breath taking for someone like myself who had no idea as to the beauty of these glaciers. What makes it breath taking is the fact that the glacier ends in a lake and shows a solid wall of ice of about 40 meters. Yes, the Columbia Ice Fields in British Columbia are spectacular but at the foot of the glacier it just sort of tapers off. Not so here, where the solid wall of ice is approached very closely by the cruise boat. Gasps are heard often from the passengers as loud cracking sounds signal another part of the front wall collapsing into the lake.
Next was the Upsala Glacier which is also immense in size and grandeur. The name comes from research done many years ago by researchers from the university in Upsala, Sweden. A third visit to the Glacier Onelli involved some forest trails which lead to another lake where the glaciers Agassiz, Bolados and Onelli converge.
A brilliant sunny day added to the enjoyment of this long spectacular cruise. I kept thinking this was the best bit of scenery I had ever seen. But I have to admit that is very relative and subject to memory failure and how one feels at the moment.
