Puerto Madryn & Patagonia
PERITO MORENO GLACIER
After 20 hours and a couple of bus changes we made it into Puerto Madryn around 7am in the morning. We had about 20 minutes to check in to our hostel, smash back a coffee and be out the door for our whale tour.
Puerto Madryn is a small port town on the east coast of Argentina and is known for its natural sanctuary, Peninsula de Valdes, which is a main attraction for tourism because of its marine wildlife.
An hour and a half drive down long straits with a crazy driver to the peninsula we pulled up to the beach and geared up to get on the boat- it was freezing! Extremely glad they provided hideous ponchos to keep the wind off. We got right up close to several southern wright whale and her calf which was an epic thing to see and was worth freezing our butts off for!
Other than the boat tour we spent the next day just chilling at the beach drinking coffee and watching the whales just off the beach, they come in just a stones throw away which is pretty amazing, I have never known anywhere that has such a large amount whales wallowing just off the shore.
After Puerto Madryn it was a lovely 30 hour bus trip to El Calafate and then another 3 on to El Chalten- our final destination. This is a valid reason why after this trip I will happily never ever get on a bus again!
Pulling into El Chalten was classic, just a tiny little town that takes 10 minutes to get from one end to the next which is great as the start of all the amazing hikes are a 10 minute walk away.
We started off just with a small hour hike to check out the condors and the view of the town from a certain peak. The next day we hit up Laguna Torre which was a 6 hour round trip to a glacier lake followed on by an awesome horse back trail through the back of Fitzroy mountain and its rivers.
Our plan was to do the major trek of Laguna de Los Tres the next day, however, due to an excess consumption of red wine and good times we decided to flag it and relax for the day, drink some more alcohol and watch the All Blacks beat Australia!
It was just as well we were hungover (totally planned that one well) as the day we were meant to do Laguna Des Los Tres it was cloudy and Fitzroy was completely covered.
The next day we went and absolutely scored it with the weather and while it was a 7 hour stride and hard hike at the end it was worth it- the best lunch spot you can ask for!
Its surprising how uncrowded it is down there, so many times it was it was only us on the trails. Perhaps because it’s such a mission to get there a lot of people don’t make the journey but it is definitely something I would recommend to do in your lifetime, the scenery is incredible!
After El Chalten we stayed in El Calafate to visit the Perito Moreno glacier which is the worlds third largest reserve of fresh water and is massive it covers 250km2 and 30km in length. From the pictures you can see the expanse of it but it really doesn't do it justice like seeing it in person- makes you feel very small! After two nights here we jumped on a plane (yay no bus!) and headed up to Bariloche.
Jen