Patagonia: Mountains, Glaciers, Penguins & more... - Ushuaia, Argentina
Ushuaia, Argentina
Where I stayed
Cyan Hotel Recoleta
What I did
Mount Fitz Roy
Torres del Paine National Park
Los Glaciares National Park
Penguins!
Perito Moreno Glacier
Base Las Torres
I arrived at Buenos Aires International Airport on time, early in the morning of Friday 6 November, expecting someone to be holding a little sign with my name on it as part of my pre-arranged transfer. After three hours and three costly international phone calls to the tour company I was advised to take a taxi. Annoying! But yes I did get a refund and an apology, so all is good. Despite the somewhat slow start it felt nice to be back in BA, one of the cities that I fell in love with during my first South American adventure in 2011. I arrived at Hotel Cyan in Recoleta at about 10am and as I couldn't check in until 2pm, which I knew before-hand, I had packed my bag with my laundry and kindle on top and head off to do some washing a chill for a few hours. I was successful in one of those ventures – had plenty of time to chill and good access to wifi in cafes on my cell, but could not for the life of my find a laundry where you could do your own washing. Dry cleaning only. For lunch I went to the Buller Brewery and Restaurant for a hamburger and a pint.
Accommodation: Hotel Cyan, in Recoleta. Stayed 2 extra nights before my tour started. Staff not particularly friendly or welcoming, but you get this a lot in commercial places in BA. Laundry charges are very high, but there's nowhere close to do it yourself. Great location right next to the famous La Recoleta Cemetery (where Evita is buried!), Recoleta Mall. Def worth booking the extra accom through the tour as the nightly rate I was charged was almost half the usual advertised charge.
Restaurant: Buller Brewery and Restaurant. I had googled this place before arriving and targeted it is a place to eat given the good reviews and a food & drinks menu which appealed to me. I can recommend the Toulousse burger and the Blonde beer (both delish). The service is not great, but again that’s typical of BA.
I met up with the tour group and my room-mate on Sunday afternoon. After heading out for lunch and a stroll I returned to the room to find an explosion of clothes, toiletries, general knick-nacks and washing all over the room and a Canadian woman in a shower cap skyping with her Mother, and that was my introduction to Rihannon. She was nice and friendly, which is lucky as we shared a room for most of the trip. The 3pm pre-departure briefing dragged on for 2 hours, after which most went out for a walk with a local guide and to dinner but I chose to stay in and try to get some sleep given my 3am wake up call for the next morning’s flight to El Calafate. Three of us were on this very early flight, arriving a few hours before the rest of the group, as there were no seats left on their flight by the time us tardy folk booked our tour (a hazard of leaving my trip bookings till the last minute, but at least I wasn’t alone). This was not my trip for good luck with transfers as again we arrived to find that our pre-arranged transfer was not there. It later turned out the guy had got drunk with another tour group the night before and didn’t remember that he had to pick us up at 9am. Again annoying, but kinda funny and not a big deal.
By the time we checked into our hotel and got into town we were starting and feasted on pizza while we waited for the rest to arrive mid-arvo. El Calafate is a nice, but very touristic, town and I enjoyed the day wandering around looking at the various souvenirs and other stores. This place is totally set up for tourism with every second store offering all kinds of day trips and other activities, plenty of English-speaking people and signage and ready access to ATMs (which is not the case in some of the other towns, so I made sure to get plenty). The next day we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier, where I had opted to go on the extra tour to trek on the Glacier itself. This was an experience that I couldn’t miss, and I would highly recommend it to anyone between the ages of 18-65 (they don’t accept people outside this age group for insurance reasons). We spent 3 hours trekking around and on the Glacier, which was a real trip highlight for me, and culminated perfectly with a scotch and glacier ice at the end – brilliant! In the afternoon we visited some other viewing platforms to get more photos of the Glacier. There are some great vantage points for photographers there and you can get some great shots, but of course the lasting impression for me was actually walking on it, watching some of the shards fall off, and getting up close and personal with this ancient ice block. It’s one of the few advancing Glaciers in the world, and such a magnificent sight to behold – especially on the beautiful clear day that we had!
On Thursday 12th the 15 of us on the tour piled into our small coach bus for the 4 hour journey to El Chalten, which is south of El Calafate and on the northern end of the Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina. It’s actually the only town which is located within the N.P., and therefore has some pretty strict rules and requirements for guests – we even had to attend an induction! It was like coming on to a new mine site. After sitting in the bus all morning we were ready to get out and about and enjoy the lovely sunshine, so a few of us headed on one of the shorter hikes for a couple of hours to the viewpoints over-looking the town and Lago Viedma. Glorious, and a good warm up for the next day when we were set to tackle a 9 hour hike to the base of Mount Fitzroy. This is one of the most popular hiking and climbing locations in the region, close to the border between Chile and Argentina. This hike was spectacular, and we managed to spot some beautiful wildlife on the way – my personal fave was the Magellanic Woodpecker (male) that we managed to get right up next to and watch do its thing. Unfortunately my pretty dismal photography skills failed me and I didn’t get a great picture, so you’ll have to take my word for it that this hard-headed bird was indeed something special.
We made it to the top point of the Laguna de los Tres hike, which put us at the base of Mount Fitzroy. This is as far as you can go hiking – to advance any further requires very experienced mountain climbers with dedicated climbing gear. When we got there we had about 3 minutes to grab some photos before the snow started. It was bloody freezing, and after about 10 minutes we’d had enough and started the long trip down and back to El Chalten, practically running the whole way to keep warm and to get out of the weather asap. The weather worsened as we went and since the rain was being blow almost horizontal we were all completed saturated, even those in rain gear, by the time we got back to the hotel at about 6pm. The next day was a shorter hike at about 6 hours, after which I decided it was time to bite the bullet and splash some cash on some wet- and cold-weather gear before we left the relative luxury of our hotel for three nights of camping in the National Park. It certainly was worth it and I don’t know that I would have survived without it to be honest. On Friday afternoon we hopped back on our little coach to return to El Calafate for the night, before leaving for Torres del Paine the following morning.
Sunday 15 November was a long travel day on a local tourist bus, which was luckily quite spacious and luxurious as we were on it for about 5 hours before a lunch stop at the border crossing into Chile, then another 2 hours on the bus to arrive in Torres del Paine National Park. The time on the bus was great to rest the legs, and we also managed to spot some amazing local wildlife throughout the trip including Nandues (a kind of small emu), condors, pink flamingos and guanacos (like alpacas). The Torres de Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia was established in 1959, and was previously a sheep estancia (that’s "farm" to all you gringos J). The landscape is truly spectacular – epic crystal clear lakes, diverse biology from grasslands to woodlands to alpine peaks, and views that can’t be beat. On Monday our park guide elected for us to do the most difficult hike that we would do in the park, as the weather was meant to be better on this day than the others. And it didn’t disappoint! The hike was rated difficult and certainly was in some sections, especially when we got up into the snow, but for the most part it was really pleasant and the guides kept quite a mild pace (which meant that those of us at the front had plenty of time to take photos on the regular stops to wait for the others to catch up). The hike we did was “Base Las Torres”, which takes you to the lake at the base of a trio of rock peaks (named the North, South and Central Towers –very original). This is one of the most popular day hikes in the National Park, and is part of the famous W trek (a 5 day camping route). We had spectacular sunshine and only the slightest of drizzles throughout the day so we really lucked out, and were able to hang out at the lake for about an hour over lunch. The trek was approximately 28km round-trip, and took us about 9 hours at a moderate pace in good weather with an hour stop at the top.
Accommodation: Refugio Torre Central. Camping accommodation, with 1-2 person tents. Sleeping bags available for hire (good quality, clean, $30 USD for 3 nights), and a sleeping mat and pillow are provided. There is a large central tent in the middle which was our common room / dining room, set up with long picnic tables, and it was brilliant – a great place for dinner and drinks in the evening, out of the cold wind. They sell beer and wine, for great prices, and it’s very good. The food was AMAZING! Our chef, nicknamed Chicki-chicko, worked miracles in the cramped tent kitchen he had – far superior food than I get on-site on the best of days. All meals were included on the 3 days we stayed at the Refugio. There are shared bathroom facilities for this Refugio as well as a couple of other small ones nearby, and the random campers. They are well maintained and fit out, and the hot water was total bliss after a long, freezing day of hiking. Our Park guide, whose name I unfortunately forget, was also great – very organised, informative, a good leader for the group and a relaxed, friendly style. Luved this part of the trip.
The next day our guide took us on a much easier, mostly flat trek along one of the winding rivers in the Park and through the grasslands which we hadn’t seen much of the day before. It was a much better day for wildlife spotting as we were on a more remote trail and Jochen, one of the 3 biologists in our group including yours truly, was a wonderful time spotting many species that were on his “hit list”. I actually scored myself a Pisco Sour when we were back in the city by making the “sighting of the day” for Jochen… some kind of rare and endangered duck? I have no idea even now what it was, but man was he excited! And I’m not one to turn down a free Pisco Sour, yumm! That night after the trek a few of us stayed up to have a few drinks and celebrate our junior Park guide, Meghan’s, 22nd birthday. We ended up drinking some brilliant mulled wine that our wonderful chef made for us, salsa dancing, sharing funny travel stories, listening to music (they were streaming Triple J from Aus!) and probably keeping up all the other campers well past midnight. Great night.
On Wednesday 17 November we departed the camp site after breakfast in our little coach bus bound for Puerto Natales where we jumped on another public tourist bus headed for Punta Arenas. On the way we stopped to see some great sights in the National Park, including lakes, waterfalls, wildlife and some simply spectacular views before crossing the Straits of Magellan to Porvenir and into the Tierra del Fuego – the Land of Fire! So called not because of any volcanos or ragin bush fires or other natural source, but because it’s so darn freezing in this place that when Magellan navigated to the region and “discovered” it all he could see for miles was the smoke from all the camp fires that the indigenous people had to keep burning to stay warm. This was followed by the biggest travel day of our itinerary on Thursday, when it took us a whopping 13 hours in a public tourist bus (again, thankfully, very clean and comfortable) to get from Punta Natales in Chile, across the border back into Argentina and down to the southern-most city of the world – Ushuaia (“oos-why-uh”). While this wasn’t the most exciting day of the trip and we were all cramped and cranky by the end of it, it was another good opportunity to catch up on some sleep and get back to reading one of the 3 books I got through on this break. In Ushuaia we were split up into 3 different bnb’s, all quite close together and about a 10 minute walk from the main streets near the port.
Accommodation: Nancy’s. This “bnb” was run by a nice local woman named Nancy and her husband. But rather unlike most bnb’s where there’s at least some separation of the family and guests, there was really none of that with us and we were quite literally just staying in a room in their house – which was quite untidy and undergoing some maintenance. Not the best place we stayed in, and I know that the other two bnb’s that the group stayed at were much better quality. Rihannon and I got locked out of our room for 40 minutes when, quite naturally I think, we locked and closed the bedroom door behind us when we left in the morning only to return and for Nancy to say “oh no, we don’t have a key” and seem confused about why we lock it. But I got the impression that Nancy’s hasn’t been open that long, and I think she’ll get better at the whole bnb thing with a little more time and feedback from people.
On Friday 19th we had a morning cruise through the Beagle Channel which, while freezing as expected, was a great opportunity for wildlife spotting and the sun was shining gloriously so it really was a perfect day for a sail on the pond-still channel. In the afternoon about half of us had elected to go on one of the most exciting optional extra tours – the Penguin tour! This tour was pricey and took quite a bit longer than we’d anticipated (took an hour and half to drive to the reserve from Ushuaia, then 3 hours on the tour before a 1.5 hour return journey) but it was so worth it! This tour is the only one with a licence to take people onto the Penguin Island. There are other tour operators which can cruise around the island, but only Piratour can get you up close and personal with these adorable, suited-up, flippered creatures. There were three types of penguins on the island: Gentoo, Magellanic, and a sole King Penguin – who proceeded to call out in a dreadful booming honk for his mate the whole time we were there. Poor fella, hope she shows up!! The penguin island is located within the famous Estancia Haberton, which was founded by missionary Thomas Bridges in 1886 and is still owned by his family today. The family also run a small museum on the property with information, photos and skeletons of the various wildlife found in the area, but it’s not a particularly impressive museum and I’d skip it if you’re short on time.
The following day was a free day in Ushuaia to explore, shop and unwind before heading back to B.A. I, like most of the others, slept in and then went out to buy a few souvenirs and do some window shopping and chill out with some good coffee, good food and great company. A very enjoyable last day of vacation, which ended in a brilliant final night dinner with the whole group. The next day we were at the airport mid-morning for our 3.5 hour flight back to B.A, which luckily ran to time. The tour actually finished the following morning after breakfast so most of the group had a final night back at the Cyan Hotel in Recoleta and a night out at a Tango show, but because there are so few flights to Suriname and I had to go all the way back up to Panama before hopping most of the way back down again I had to leave Argentina and the tour for a flight to Panama at midnight on Saturday, followed by flights to Curacao, Port of Spain and, finally, Paramaribo late Sunday evening. Luckily the travel Gods were on my side and I had no delayed flights or other issues – in fact the worst part for me was that the Japanese place in Panama airport was closed at 7am so I couldn’t get the sushi I’d wanted – a total drag, but somehow I got through it. :)
And so, it was back out to work the next day, for my last 30-day rotation of 2015… OMG, where has the year gone?! Now looking forward very much to the next vacation – finally, after almost a year away, I’m keeping my promise to my family to go home for Christmas. See you soon guys!!
Overall Tour: Intrepid – Patagonia Wilderness. 14 day tour starting and finishing in Buenos Aires. An original style tour, which meant we stayed in nice bnb’s or boutique hotels, and didn’t have to set up our own tents while camping (sooo, glad of this). Overall this tour was fantastic – one of the best I’ve done. However this is largely due to the fantastic group of people that were in my particular group and the relatively awesome weather that we had, which meant we got the most out of all the outdoor activities. The booking process was quite easy (even doing it at the last minute, as is my style these days) and the staff in the UK office (where Latin-American requests are routed, strangely) were really helpful and communicative, and responded fast. The tour guide, Gabriella, was fantastic – helpful, friendly, enthusiastic, and walked the line between being “one of the gang” and “the leader” very well. As you know the transfers were an issue twice on this tour, but I got a refund on the first one no questions asked. The itinerary of the tour was exactly what I wanted – a lot of included outdoor activities and plenty of time to be outside, doing some exercise and enjoying nature. The main issue that I had (and others more so) was that the recommended budget in the trip notes was very out of date and significantly underestimated the amount of cash we would need for daily expenses and optional activities – in a few cases the actual cost was close to 4 x the amount specified in the trip notes! The key issue for most with this was that for a lot of the activities you have to pay with USD which is really difficult to get anywhere outside of Buenos Aires, so some of the group had to choose between activities when they’d planned on doing them all. Quite a letdown for them. But back to the positives. The pace was great: each day we travelled more than a couple of hours, or had any flights, they budgeted the whole day for travel in case there were delays or other issues. We were lucky and there weren’t, and this meant we had extra “down time” on the travel days to relax, explore the towns we were in, or in my case check in on the work emails a couple of times. Only twice on the whole trip we stayed in a place for a single night, and most places we stayed 2 or 3 nights which minimised the packing / unpacking nightmare and meant we had to lug less gear around on a daily basis. This was also great for washing or even just drying clothes as we could leave them strung up around our rooms while we were out for the day. In a nutshell, I highly recommend this tour to anyone keen to get out into Patagonia, do some day-hiking and camping, see some amazing wildlife and stay in some comfortable places overnight. This tour is a bit more expensive than others but for me the streamlined travel with a couple of flights, the great tour guide and local guides, quality accommodation, and good mix of included activities and optional extras made it worth the money.