Khrys weblog

From the heat of a metropole to the remote countryside, wearing hat and winter coat again. To Patagonia we flew after a small extra episode. In Buenos Aires airport they told us that our plane had already gone. Teaching: Always check the updated flight timetable before the flight. Luckily we got to still fly the same day without extra cost, only the flight was from a different airport so we had to pay the taxi there. By the way here you always need to have cash with you, the taxis for example dont accept credit cards.

El Calafate is a charming little town, reminds a bit of an Alp or Norwegian village, not quite as fancy though. The weather in the summer is quite warm during the day, but very very windy, and at night the temperature drops down close to zero. The town has got its name from a local blue berry, tastes like something between plum and blueberry.
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On the weekend we arrived to town, was organised a yearly rodeo festival.
Three nights in a row there were rodeo shows with horses and musical performances.
We stopped by one night to feel the local atmosphere.
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From El Calafate we did two amazing trips. The first one was to Perito Moreno glacier, located 80 kilometers from El Calafate. The scene was truly capturing and special obviously as one doesn’t see a glacier every day.
Cracking ice made sounds that like thunder echoing on the surrounding mountains.
Photos and videos
On the second trip we sailed by boat on the biggest lake in Argentina, lake Argentino to see three glaciers, Upsala glacier (which got it’s name from Uppsala university (Sweden) which financed majority of expeditions there, just with spanish spelling), Spegazzini and Onelli. None of these glaciers were as impressive as Moreno, but the most exciting thing on this trip were the icebergs floating around the lake. Upsala glacier is actually guarded by moomin trolley (see the picture) :)
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They do know how to take money from tourists here, looks like in the winter months many of them don’t work at all. There was possibility to take another 2-hour trip where you get a chance to walk on a glacier, but that costed a hundred euros each, so we decided that we get to walk enough on ice in Finland.

North from El Calafate there is a place called El Chalten where we went to hike for a day. Walked through beautiful forest smelling fresh air, to a picturesque scene with a lake, glacier and snowy mountains. Temperature varied from hot to freezing wind.
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On our way to the most southern part of Argentina we spent an extra day in El Calafate as there was no place on the bus before the following day. Would have had a full day for updating the blog, but the internet was not working as it was too windy.