As we walked over to the modern art museum, we encountered more dog walker. These guys definitely knew what they were doing as they had a huge pack and were taking up a good part of the street.
Again today we started things off with a subte ride to Plaza de Mayo. Then we walked over to Puerto Madero, a part of the city that has undergone a lot of development recently. It was the original port of the city, but was quickly outgrown. Now it has been renovated and contains lots of restaurants and apartments.
Womens Bridge
We took a tour of an Argentinian naval training ship that has been around the world 40 times.
It definitely didn’t feel like Christmas day today. We took a taxi from the hotel to the El Calafate airport to catch the flight back to Buenos Aires. For the remainder of the trip we arranged for an apartment rental in Palermo. The building looked like it had recently been renovated and the apartment was great. It was like actually living in the city instead of just visiting.
Today we signed up for the Big Ice Glacier Tour with Hielo y Aventura. Their bus picked us up at our hotel and drove us about an hour to see the glacier. The first stop was at an overlook at the front of the glacier.
Then we took the bus down to the edge of the glacial lake and boarded a boat.
Once on the other side, we met up with our guides, got fitted for crampons, and began the hike to the glacier. The Mini Treking groups had only a few minutes walk before getting to the glacier, but since we were on the Big Ice tour we hiked for about an hour along the side of the glacier before stepping onto the ice.
Mid way through the glacier hike, we stopped for lunch next to this beautiful blue pool of glacial melt water.
After we hiked back, turned in our crampons, rode the boat, rode an hour in the bus, we were exhausted. Definitely nap time. At 9:30 our hotel had arranged a Christmas Eve dinner for all the guests. We had lots of food and wine and then champagne at midnight. There were lots of interesting people staying at the hotel – Jorge, the Spanish police officer from Zaragosa, a guy headed to Iraq with the national guard when he got home, Lisa, an Irish girl teaching in Colombia.
Breakfast at El Pilar – ham and cheese.
Augustino from El Pilar gave us a ride back to the Hostel where we caught the bus back to El Calafate.
From the bus station, we walked around a little on the main street of El Calafate before heading to the taxi stand to get a ride to the hotel. We ate dinner at all you can eat meat place.
Just as the sun was setting, the full moon started to rise.
Breakfast at El Pilar was again ham and cheese. This must be the national food.
After the hike yesterday, our legs were feeling a little tired but being in such an amazing place we couldn’t just sit around. From El Pilar, a short hike up the road will put you on the trail to Laguna de los Tres. If you make it all the way to the end, the owner will ask you to pay a fee of 20 pesos per person. We turned around before that point because it started raining.
Another delicious dinner and bottle of wine at El Pilar.
Breakfast at El Pilar was typical Argentinian – bread and butter with rolls of ham and cheese. The hotel packed box lunches for us to take on our hike – more ham and cheese.
At 9:30am we started off on the hike to Fitz Roy. The wind was whipping along the river and we were wearing winter hats and windbreakers. The first part of the hike is along the shore of the river through forest and over rolling hills. The trees provide shelter from the wind and made for a comfortable and much warmer hike. Then the trail crosses a flat plain in the central valley between mountains. Between the plain and the river lies a campground. After crossing the river via a small bridge, we the trail turned up. At the top, we were treated to an amazing view of Fitz Roy, the glacier, and a beautiful glacial lake.
We were very happy when dinner time came at El Pilar. We had a great 3 course meal and bottle of wine.
We got up early to fly from Buenos Aires to El Calafate in Patagonia. The Lan Airlines flight left from the Aeroparque and not the international airport so the taxi ride was a quick one.
After arriving at the El Calafate airport, we arranged for a shuttle bus to take us to the downtown where we purchased our bus tickets to El Chalten (from Chalten Travel). While waiting at the bus station we talked to another couple about their travels. They were English and were traveling for 5 months.
The ride to El Chalten circles a lake. The roads are a mix of paved and gravel. Halfway through the trip, the bus stops at an estancia that offers bathrooms and snacks. It’s also the first opportunity to experience just how windy it is in Patagonia. Just before arriving at the final destination, the bus stopped at the entrance to the national park. Rangers talk to everyone who enters the park and make an appeal to keep the park as it is. The bus arrives at the Rancho Grande Hostel, a lot of peoples’ destination. Our destination is an additional 10 miles outside of El Chalten at Hostería El Pilar. The day was cloudy and rainy and the mountains that make this a popular place were not visible at all.
Outside our hotel, we saw this dog walker with 8 dogs. Some dog walkers have even more dogs than this. Everyone in Buenos Aires seems to have a dog and while they are at work they have the dog walker keep their dogs busy.
We took the subte to Plaza de Mayo and then walked to San Telmo down Defensa St. San Telmo is full of antique stores. We’ll be coming back to San Telmo on the weekend to check out the street fair and tango dancers. Today there were only a few vendors, but we found one who was making cool necklaces. On the way back to Plaza de Mayo we stopped for lunch at a place that ended up not being very good at all. It was busy but the sandwich was horrible. This was the only bad meal of the entire trip.
From the hotel in Palermo, it was just a short walk to Santa Fe street where the D Subte (subway) line heads downtown to Plaza de Mayo. The subway cost 70 pesos per ride – cheap and the trains were good and on-time. Only during the commute hours were the trains really crowded. The Casa Rosada (Pink House) is at one end of the plaza and is where Eva Peron (Evita) once appeared from one of the balconies. Today there were people there protesting some labor issues related to a casino.
On another side of the plaza is a cathedral. Inside was a young boy posing with the guards next to the tomb of a famous general.
We stopped into Cafe Tortoni for a coffee and a rest break. It’s a great old building and their coffee was good too. At night they also have a tango show that is supposed to be good.
Florida Street is jam-packed with people walking past blocks and blocks of shops. There are a mix of boutiques, leather stores, tourist stores, restaurants, and fancy malls. We found the Galleria Pacifico to have a lot of nice stores.
Since a lot of the places we were staying on the trip refused to take credit cards, we had brought lots of travelers checks along instead of cash. It turns out that travelers checks are nearly impossible to use. Very few places were willing to accept them. Even at Citibank changing travelers checks for cash was a lengthy process. The best scenario was just to take cash out of the Citibank ATM – no charge. Using other ATMs incurred a 10% fee.
After reaching the end of Florida Street, we found Plaza de San Martin and decided to continue walking on to the Recoleta Cemetery. Recoleta is a neighborhood filled with beautiful architecture and expensive shops. We toured the cemetery, including seeing the most famous spot – Evita Peron’s tomb. It was blazing hot in the cemetery and we were in desperate need of some water. Luckily there was a street vendor outside the cemetery. We could have walked back to the hotel, but decided to take a taxi instead. The price of a taxi is very reasonable and never seemed to amount to more than a few dollar.
For dinner, we went to Bar Uriarte, a restaurant someone had recommended. As the waiter brought us a bottle of wine, I looked around and noticed that all the locals that were there seemed to be drinking Coke. Some more investigation on this is required.
