Vacation Blog: El Calafate, Argentina

The morning of February 23rd, we woke up and ate breakfast at our hostel in Puerto Natales (which had real coffee, a rare thing in South America) and hopped on our 8:30am bus to El Calafate, Argentina. The bus was 6 hours, which a stops at the Chilean border for leaving Chile and the Argentine border for entering Argentina. Yay passport stamps! The bus stopped for lunch on the Argentine side of the border, but seeing as none of us had Argentine Pesos, we were left very hungry. We arrive in El Calafate at about 2:30pm and walked up a dirt road to our hostel, beginning to slightly question it. However, once we arrived at the hostel we realized it was actually really awesome and definitely worth the walk! At this point we were all starving, having not eaten since breakfast in Puerto Natales, and every one seemed to be getting a little burn out on traveling but we forced ourselves to stay positive and things quickly turned around. We went to the bank to get Argentine money and then ate lunch at a delicious Pizza place with really rude service. Then, we had some of the best ice cream of my life across the street. El Calafate is really small and touristy, so we wandered the streets and researched potential ways to ride horsies, eat asado, and take a bus to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and Glaciar Perito Moreno the next day. We then returned to the hostel and computered, and had a few beers while playing with disney princess cards.

The next day I awoke to literally the worst cramps I have ever had in my life (sorry boys) and felt awful and wasn't even sure I would make it to the glacier that afternoon which was pretty much the whole reason we came to El Calafate. Luckily, after some time of feeling absolutely horrible and taking lots of drugs, I felt tons better and functional and we got ready to head out to lucnh and the glacier. I was definitely a pill popper all day but it worked. We went into town and reserved our horsey rides and asado for the next day and then ate lunch at an incredible restaurant with Argentine Pancakes, which actually hardly involve pancake but rather lots of cheese, spinach, and tons of amazing other foods. Then, we hopped on a bus to Perito Moreno, a glacier bigger than Buenos Aires and the main attraction of El Calafate. We took a 1 hour boat ride up close to the glacier and then walked the cat walks and had a picnic, watched the sunset, and watched and listened as giant pieces of the glacier calved off into Lago Argentina. It was a very somber, relaxing, awesome experience since you get dropped off and basically chill watching a beautiful glacier for 4 hours until the bus picks you up again. It was awesome.


When we returned to El Calafate, we randomly ran into two of our friends from our program (Seth and Eric) on the street in El Calafate and went to a really cool Libro Bar and hung out with them while they waited for their 3am bus to Ushuaia. We ate lots of desserts, hung out, and tried Mate! Mate is a very traditional Argentine tea that is alway dranken out of the thing you see me drinking it out of in the picture and you pass it around and share it. Our waitress taught us how which was really cool, and I acrtually really liked it! After that, we went back to the hostel and hung out with them for a while until their bus left.

The next morning, very much on time, we were picked up from our hostel for our Cabalgata (horse back ride) and Asado (bbq) at an Estancia (estate). We went for a beautiful 2 hour horseback ride up a hill in a vast pampa valley with a lake on one side and towering Chilean peaks on the other side. We saw guanacos, niebres, cows, and huge birds all over. It was really neat! Plus we got to trot a little, something horseback rides in the US never let you do anymore!

Then came the Asado, possibly the real reason we went for this horseback ride. First off, Argentina KILLS Chile when it comes to food. Hands down. We ate so much beef, pork, chicken, and grilled veggies, plus pumpkin soup and dessert. It was INCREDIBLE. Some of the best food I've ever eaten. We also met some really cool and nice Argentinian people and had some great talks with them. Afterwards, we were definitely in food comas and took naps and chilled at the hostel for the afternoon. In the evening, we headed out to buy our bus tickets back to Puerto Natales for the next day, ate some ice cream, bought some awesome llama rings and bracelets and El Calafate Jam for my host mom, had some cereal for breakfast, and played Taboo en español before heading to bed!