Sent on Apr. 10, 2003 from Calafate, Patagonia.
US$ = 2.82 Pesos, also shown as $; US $ shown as U$S.
Airport Exit Tax = US$18 at the airport. Take the bus
operated by Manuel Tienda Leon from airport or bus or ferry
terminals to city-hotel for $15; Taxi = $35 from airport.
Post cards are about 60 cents each; mail to the USA is 5.50
Pesos, so nearly $2, the most expensive rates I know.
Hello from El Calafate (Argentinean Patagonia) & Los
Glaciares National Park
1. Patagonian Landscape. As I had mentioned, Argentinean
Patagonia covers the landscape diagonally south of Rio
Colorado on the east, and the town of Bariloche near the
Chilean border and the Andes on the west, some 780,000
sq.km of area. This vast windy and treeless landscape,
consisting of the provinces of Neuquen, Rio Negro, Chubut,
and Santa Cruz, is framed by the Andes, glaciers and lakes
on the west, the Atlantic Patagonia on the East, and
treeless open spaces, marked by ravines and rugged rock
outcrops, and vast grazing lands in between. There are
less than 1 person per sq.km in large parts of this area.
Some maps show Tierra del Fuego as part of Patagonia,
others leave the Tierra out. (I am inclined for the latter
choice, as the landscape is different.) I think but for the
glaciers the land is a high desert not unlike much of
American West, for example around Reno that has Sierra
Nevadas on the west and high desert all around.
2. El Calafate is a town of about 8,000 people located near
the Chilean border, about 1.5 hours of flight (north) from
Ushuaia. It is in Southwestern Patagonia. There are 2
important landmarks that make this area worth visiting: 1)
The Glacier Park mentioned above, which includes the Perito
Moreno, Onelli, Upsala, and Viedma glaciers, 13 in all, and
2) The Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The latter,
although much closer to Calafate, is in Chile. The name
Calafate comes from "calafatiare" (to caulk or seal). When
the original explorers arrived in this area, their ships
were in dire need of caulking. They explored the local
vegetation and found out that they could use the resin from
the Calafate plant (Latin: Berberis Heterophylla) for this
purpose. So the name transferred to the settlement here.
(Calafate is a bush of about 3 feet, with small thorny
branches, the thorns hidden underneath the profuse rubbery
small leaves. I have a small branch of it, and a jar of
marmalade made from its berries that look like
blueberries.)
3. Torres del Paine. I visited only the Glacier Moreno,
skipped a direct visit to Torres del Paine Nat. Park. I
gambled instead that my flight to Calafate would pass over
Torres del Paine, and that if the weather allowed I would
see the famous Triple Peaks--Torre De Agostini spire the
tallest at 9,400 ft.--from above. So I got a seat on the
left side of the plane, away from the wing, and hoped. I
was lucky and saw this spectacular landscape and its
ornaments.
4. Mt. Fitz Roy. The Torres de Paines National Park in
Chile I mentioned previously as near (4 hour drive
Southwest from Calafate) has its counterpart in Argentina,
about 100 miles north of Calafate. It is called Mt. Fitz Roy.
These are huge, well-defined and steep granite pinnacles that
were pushed upward by volcanic activity. They are
striking, much like our own Yosemite, similar to the Machu
Picchu in Peru, Milford Sound (in Southwest of the South
Island) in New Zealand.
5. Lenga (Latin Class: Nothofagus Pumilio) Trees. Around
the lakes next to the glaciers you will see ghostly grayish
Lenga trees, some of which are entirely leafless (if the
land was inundated by water, for example), some with a
bunch of leaves around the middle, some covered by
parasitic plants like the Spanish Moss, some healthy,
covered profusely by small serrated leaves. The most
striking Lenga forest I have seen is in Milford Sound in
New Zealand. These trees have heavy rugged trunks,
criss-cross branches, and rugged well-defined heavy bark.
When leafless they look like huge ghostly concrete
sculptures.
6. The Moreno glacier is intricate and spectacular. It is
80km from Calafate, directly west towards the Andes. The
area around Calafate is marked by 2 large lakes: 1) Lake
Argentino and 2) Lake Viedma some 100 miles to the north of
the former. Calafate is on the southern shore of Lake
Argentino. Driving west, near the glaciers, you come to
several smaller lakes that are interconnected. The current
carries the water from the southerly Brazo Rico lake thru a
channel right in front of the Moreno Glacier to Lake
Argentino. The observation deck is situated right across
from the front of the glacier, across the narrow channel
that is perhaps 100 yards wide. You can also take a boat
cruise that brings you very close to the glacier. The
glacier flows from and thru the valleys of the Andes. It
is fed by some 13,000 sq.km of ice from the Andes basin;
the Moreno glacier itself occupies about 250 sq.km; it is
huge, 30km long, average width about 4km, and 180m deep.
The front you face is about 5 km of jagged 50-meter ice
cliffs that look like a series of interconnected pinnacles.
The glacier is active and moves 2 meters per DAY up front,
about 4cm on the sides. In 1988 it blocked the channel,
forcing the water to rise some 30 meters, inundating all
the surrounding areas, until the water pressure broke the
ice and reopened the channel. When you watch the front,
every few minutes you hear a sharp cracking sound, nothing
for about a minute, then a thunderous sound and a huge
pinnacle of dropping to the water, some creating 5m waves.
It is really spell-binding, adding the fact that the entire
panorama is spectacular. I had visited several glaciers on
the south island of New Zealand--see my South Pacific
Travel Page--the Glacier Park in USA (see my USA pages),
and elsewhere too, and so I knew what to expect.
Nevertheless, this tour reminded me how awesome a glacier
landscape can be. (I will have fine post cards and photos
of the glacier on my web site after I return. You can see
for yourself.)
COMMENT, Western versus Less-Western Cultures. When you
travel among backpackers almost anywhere, invariably you
will be among as many females as males, almost all from
English and Germanic-speaking countries, the females of any
age above 18 or 19, many traveling with a girlfriend, some
alone. Occasionally you will encounter travelers from
Israel, Brazil, Italy, Spain, males and females, but they
are few enough to be noted. On this trip so far, I am NOT
among backpackers, but among well-to-do Argentinean and
Chilean traveling with their families, many including adult
daughters. I noted a difference immediately. You would
almost never see girls in their 20s from USA, Canada,
Australia, Nordic Europe, and the like traveling with
parents. They would be alone, or with a girl/boy-friend,
surely NOT with parents. In other words, these very
Catholic--thus Christian--cultures go by the norms and
decorum of the Muslim Mid-Eastern world than they do by the
"Independent" Christians I meet more often when I travel.
I chose the word "independent" NOT to attribute some sort
of superiority to such cultures, but to underline it as a
significant variable. To elaborate a bit further, while it
is true that societies with independent citizenry are more
advanced in arts and technology, of course there are also
significant costs, like run-away children, rampart drug
addiction, crime, what have you. So they can argue that
socially they are indeed more advanced, as they are more
coherent. My view is that both sides have points on their
side.