After our brief stop in Puerto Natales we crossed the border into Argentina and drove north to El Calafate. El Calafate is the most touristic town we’ve visited so far.  It has good infrastructure and facilities for tourists and many fine places to eat and drink.  However it is a busy place to visit after being in the sleepy towns of Patagonia.  It seems to exist primarily because of the Perito Moreno glacier, a stunning glacier in the southern sector of Los Glaciares National Park.  Perito Moreno glacier is unusual because instead of receding it advances at a rate of 2m per day.  It is 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high.  Massive!  Giant icebergs the size of buildings carve off the face of the glacier and collapse into the channel below.  It sounds like a gun going off and is an amazing thing to watch.  To visit it, you walk along a series of boardwalks across from the glacier which allows you to see it from different angles.  This makes it one of the most accessible attractions to visit in Patagonia, probably why El Calafate is so busy! From the town it is really easy to arrange a tour to see the glacier.  We didn’t do this, instead first visiting the glacier on our way to a campsite on Lake Roca, also in the National Park.  We spent a couple of days camping at the lake, before heading back to El Calafate to meet Erik and Nelleke for dinner.  Erik and Richard went to school together and hadn’t seen each other for at least ten years so a good old fashioned catch up was in order. We had a great night out with them! Continue reading →

We spent a few a days in Ushuaia, the most southern city of the world and the southern most point of our trip here in South America.  We did nice hikes from the town and in Tierra del Fuego National Park, visited some interesting museums, and saw lots of wildlife. In short there was plenty to do! Continue reading →

On the 25^th of January we crossed the Argentinean border at Chile Chico to Los Antiguos. Quite exciting as we just had to hope all our paperwork was in order. It got scrutinised, especially the Argentinean insurance and we were there for a while. But eventually we got the green light, after we had thrown out all our fruit and vegetables which you are not allowed to take with you. Los Antiguos is an oasis town and was a breath of fresh air after all the gritty Chilean towns. We struggled to find accommodation as it was busy with tourists, but eventually lucked out on a hostel room where we met some travellers who were on the gringo trail which we were crossing paths with.

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