Day 2
February 17, 2014
Estancia Cristina was built a hundred years ago to be a sheep farm. It is at the edge of Upsula Glacier in the Patagonia National Park.
Our pick up is again early. We have seen on-line the location, the types of food and especially the daily offerings and look forward to it. Nonetheless, the long transfer is long, but we are good at long bus rides and long cab drives and long boat rides! The views turn out to be spectacular!
Estancia Cristina on Lake Argentina
The catamaran to the Estancia Cristina is very comfortable. Every seat is taken! Some people are going to the sheep farm for the day. We will spend the night.
Our seats are to the front in the reserved section on this crowded crossing.The boat hardly pitches, although the wind is strong enough to create big waves that side swipe us across Lake Argentina! A full arching rainbow is created from the spray of the water off the whitecaps
We “sail” by icebergs that are bright blue odd-shaped blocks that calved from the main glacier and have unique shapes formed by the wind. The boat circles around the shapes enabling pictures and extending the crossing to three hours.
After a brief orientation on the megaphone, we shuffle down the plank to the penninsula that feels like an island. Several guides welcome us into the backs of 3, 4×4 pick up trucks retro- fitted with roll bars and seats in the back under camper domes. There are 20 rooms here in 5 cabins.
A troupe of 22 Belgian friends are laughing over lots of jokes. One of them is a politician. Their English is excellent. We chime in with some of our own political comments about what brought him here to the end of the world! Looking for one more vote? Is he holding a committee meeting?
We walk from the boat landing across a field and up to the estancia. It looks fresh with green rooftops shining across the expansive fields and nicely arranged outbuildings/ cottages. A central octagon house is the main dining area. We happily find our well appointed and well heated rooms a short walk from the main hall. Lunch is waiting – a buffet with at least 20 salad choices and three hot dishes. Drinks are included including beer!. Life is good.
We have a short orientation by a guide in our language. Our first tour is one of our own choosing. It begins at 2:30 today with Miguel. Joan and Paul join Michael and I on a beautiful walk to the cascada, the waterfall, across fields to the North Mountain. We look for views of Fitz Roy. The calafate berries are gone from the bushes by now. The lenge tree and its cousin the nerre dot the hills. The wind varies, puffing uneven strong blasts. It is not cold, but I am glad to have the “tube” around my neck to buffer against it.
We reach the waterfall in an hour. The glacial melt from the warm weather last week makes the stream water run very fast and high. Water tears through the rocky ledged landscape to the 7 km (short) river that connects two fresh glacial water lakes. They are the color of milky turquoise because of the magnesium from the glacier scraping along on the peninsula – it is a dramatic mini landscape! The colors are very unusual to my eye and it feels like a magical place.
The story is that it was a Brit who came to Argentina with his wife in 1900. They had two children when Joseph Masters decided to bring his young family settle here in what is now Los Glaciares National Parque. The Masters Family had two young children by the time they came in 1914. The daughter, Cristina, died of pneumonia when she was 20 years old. She loved this place as we can see from the black and white photo of her on the wall of the sheep sheering barn. Her father named estancia after her. Because the family had no more heirs, the Cristina property is now a part of the national park. The family wanted to adopt a child who would continue the ranch, but the request was denied. We learn that a private company has a concession for the hotel (I can’t find a company name anywhere?)
The family’s belongings are set up in the old tin roofed sheep shearing barn that has a small sign “museum” on the door. Their original wooden house was destroyed by a fire years ago. A guide opens the building for us. There is a long sheering machine, a work bench of tools, and remnants of the family’s furniture that were left after the family house burned down.
Horses are corralled nearby in a stable. They are released and let free in the winter to fend for themselves out here! A colt named Miracle roams the grounds, grazing on her own. She is growing up and may have to be constrained since she is starting to buck when visitors pat her!
With only an overnight bag here, the welcome shower is a pretty simple story – a change to a clean shirt- not much to notice! But MP and I agree that it is the best shower we’ve had “since we left home”!
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