Day 1 of Trip 3
February 16, 2014
We are planning a trip to Patagonia to see the Chilean National Park to experience the mountains, the lakes and the glaciers on these long summer days on the 50th parallel at the tip of South America.
We fly from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, a small tourist town. Here we meet our friends and fellow travelers Paul and Joan Kopperl from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In a few short hours, we are on the landing strip of the farthest southern point I can imagine! El Calafate airport has a mural map depicting the complex geography of the national parks, the lakes and the long straight roads that connect this small town to the other towns, trails, boat landings, glaciers, and camps. Camps here can be any level: from primitive tent compounds to expansive five star hotels. Stay tuned – more to explore!
A driver is waiting with a small van that we fit into nicely. Off to our hotel down the straight, unadorned open road without curves; it is a barren landscape of windswept desert. It is mid-summer here. These plains must be snowy cold in a few months! We see a few guanacos (wild llamas) and a rhea (small ostrich) across the pebbles, blending right into the landscape. There may be a carra carra bird, sitting along on the ground. There are sheep, herds of sheep that look like the large white river rocks against the dirt. There is Lake Argentina, the largest lake in the whole country. And there are large patterned clouds floating against bright blue sky. Analogies to Texas or Nebraska might be reasonable, but here there are no phone poles, no markers by the road, no guard rails, no green signs with white reflective lettering, and no exits. It is oddly soothing.
We know that El Calafate is a tourist town; the place for transfers, barbecue or lamb stew dinners and tourist supplies. I pick up another trekking pole (I left the first one right by my suitcase in the lobby at the hotel in BA).
We settle in to our hotel, and take a welcome walk into town a few blocks away. We wander the main drag, Avenue del Liberator, enjoy calafate berry ice cream – a bit like blueberry. (They say if you eat the calafate berry, you will return!)
We continue our walk to the small museum. There is an informative video about glaciers and a history of the Patagonian peoples. In the museum, huge dinosaurs’ bones of the maladon (we saw the maladon cave last time) loom in one back room with plenty of examples of flaura and fauna. Michael orders a matte tea that comes in a traditional round cup with a straw – very bitter tasting to me – but the popular drink among locals.
Matte is a drink or more a custom begun by the indigenous people of Uruguay, that took a while to be accepted in Patagonia. Now widely accepted as a communal activity, with a singular host who fills the cup up and offers the warm tea like drink, one at a time to those around him. The receiver is expected to finish the cup and return it to the host who will refill the cup and pass it along. This sharing continues and if one is done and doesn’t want to receive the cup he again, he or she politely says “thank you” when returning the empty cup to the host.
We find a delicious dinner at El Cucheron (“the ladle”). Wait staff is friendly, menu features a lentil dish, a lamb stew (called locro) a fish dish and several other choices. White wine is only sauvignon blanc, as usual, and the red wine is malbec, as usual. All very tasty.
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