A Tour of Argentina

From Buenos Aires to El Calafate

Having landed at the Pistarini airport in Buenos Aires and completed the brief and easy customs procedures, we book in the hall the minibus for the transfer to the Aeroparque Newbery, from where the domestic flights depart. The Pistarini is located about thirty km from the Capital while the Newbery is located not far from the center, on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, and here we have a quick lunch in a self-service with some empanadas (large baked stuffed pasta turnovers). From the Aeroparque we take the Argentina Aerlines flight to El Calafate where we arrive in just over three hours. The airport of the Patagonian town is located on the banks of the famous Lago Argentino, the flight was calm and allowed us to see the Valdes Peninsula from above.

It is an ugly day lashed by wind that welcomes us to Patagonia, in the airport hall we book the minibus transfer to our accommodation in El Calafate which is more than 20 km away. The Marco Polo Hinn that we booked from Italy is located on a hill overlooking the Lago Argentino and to reach the center of the town you have to walk about ten minutes along the road. The Hostel has a large room with tables for breakfast, tv, a small library and a pool table. There is an internet station usable for free. We have two triples available. After leaving our luggage in the room and booking the excursion for the next day at reception, we walk to the center. El Calafate very much recalls the American town of Moab in Utah with the wooden houses facing the main street which you reach by crossing a characteristic covered bridge over a stream.

Like all tourist-oriented locations there are numerous souvenir shops, a craft market, boutiques, restaurants, travel agencies and a well-stocked supermarket. It is too late to find a place in a restaurant so we have dinner in a sort of rotisserie with empanadas filled with cheese and onion. We go back to the hostel for the night hoping that tomorrow the wind and the light drizzle that began to fall a few hours ago will stop.

Cruise on Lake Argentino

We wake up to the surprise of a beautiful sunny day, the ideal weather for the planned excursion. We have breakfast in the hall, a tea, a piece of cake made by the owner and a sandwich with jam. They come to pick us up with a minibus from which we get off, after having collected other tourists from the various hotels in El Calafate, to get on the bus that takes us to Punta Bandera. At the Hostel we bought the takeaway meal that will allow us to have lunch. Having arrived at the small harbor of Punta Bandera we get in line to buy the entrance ticket to the Los Glaciares National Park. We then board a modern catamaran with which, together with numerous tourists of various nationalities, we begin the cruise on the Lago Argentino. After about an hour of sailing we begin to spot the first icebergs, from there on we will see many of them, of all sizes and shapes.

They are so numerous that it will be impossible to get close to the Upsala glacier which we only see from a distance and they will also prevent us from traveling the short arm of the Lago Argentino that leads to the Onelli glacier. We do, however, reach without problems the Spegazzini glacier which we see up close. We retrace the North Arm of the Lago Argentino and at the height of Punta Bandera we turn toward the Iceberg Channel that leads close to the Perito Moreno glacier. While we are in front of the most famous glacier in the world the Perito Moreno gives its best with a spectacular detachment of a column of ice that plunges into the icy waters of the lake causing a series of waves. This glacier is one of the few that, rather than retreating, advances; it is rightly considered also one of the most beautiful thanks to its whiteness and elegance.

During the cruise we consumed the meal contained in our package, took hundreds of photos and satisfied our sight with a wonderful spectacle of nature. One of the most beautiful excursions I have ever done, favored by a beautiful sunny day. We return to Punta Bandera and, having got back on the bus and then on the minibus, we have ourselves dropped off in the center of El Calafate. We take the opportunity to go to a travel agency to book the excursion to El Chalten then we go to the Tablita restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet guide for its asado. We had tried to go there last night too but it was full so for today we made a reservation. The dinner I must say was not up to expectations, the asado was poor although the lamb was exquisite. Overall a disappointing meal consumed in an elegant restaurant.

We go back to the agency because we realized that for tomorrow we have no excursions, unfortunately it's late and it is no longer possible to book the mini-trekking on the Perito Moreno so we will have to settle for a walk on the walkways. There are no more means available to reach the refuge near the glacier but the agency gets us a taxi for the next morning that will come to pick us up directly at the Hostel. With a walk we go to our accommodation and after using the computer in the hall we go to sleep at the end of a memorable day. The cruise on the Lago Argentino alone is worth the trip.

Perito Moreno

After breakfast, punctually the taxi driver provided for us comes to pick us up at the Hostel. We make a stop at a bank in the center then continue to the Perito Moreno refuge. Along the road we spot a condor, we stop to take a few photos from a particularly privileged position and to take the mini-cruise that plows the waters of the Rico Arm, another branch of the Lago Argentino. This sailing allows the viewing of the Perito Moreno from another angle and the observation of further detachments of enormous blocks of ice from its main body. We return to the pier and continue to the refuge where we refresh ourselves with some empanadas. From here we begin the long walk (about 5 km) on the modern walkways that allow us to observe the glacier from various angles.

The Rico Arm is separated into two sections by an ice barrier, the silence is frequently broken by the noise of the collapse of portions of ice into the icy waters of the lake, numerous small icebergs drift in the Canal of the Témpanos. We easily walk the walkways up to the parking lot below the refuge where our taxi is waiting for us. We return to the center of El Calafate where, after saying goodbye to the friendly taxi driver, we stroll along the main street browsing among shops. In the evening we have dinner in a good restaurant where we finally eat an asado worthy of the name. In fact they serve us an excellent assortment of meat, sausages and blood sausage. Satisfied we return to the Hostel lying down quickly since tomorrow morning we will leave at 5 for Chile.

Today was a relaxing day, the weather graced us since in the morning it was raining but as the hours passed it turned out for the best. At the crucial moment, during the walk on the walkways, the sun was shining. We hope that tomorrow too the weather will favor us.

Day trip in Chile

At 4 in the morning we are already awake, unfortunately given the hour we won't be able to have breakfast in the hall, at 5 a bus comes to pick us up, we are among the first to get on. Knowing we are unable to have breakfast at the hostel, last night we bought some cookies at the supermarket in El Calafate that we eat during the trip. The bus, however, after loading the other tourists participating in the excursion at the various hotels, stops at a kind of "service station" where we buy something to drink. We are headed to Chile, as the crow flies it would be a few km but the Chileans have closed the border closest to El Calafate and so we are forced to endure more than three hours of road to reach the Torres del Paine Park. The road is monotonous, flat and devoid of significant vegetation, you walk for kilometers without meeting anyone.

Between El Calafate and the border with Chile we encounter only a gas station with the aforementioned rest stop. Even the border seems like a place out of this world and in fact it is far from everything and everyone. The customs formalities are simple and quick, then you travel a short stretch of no man's land and then you reach the Chilean customs (for the rest of the excursion see the itinerary under the CHILE entry)...In the late afternoon we return to Argentina and, having completed the brief customs formalities at the border, we travel the road back stopping at the usual "service station". Toward 22:00 we reach El Calafate where we have dinner in an elegant bar-restaurant with empanadas and four-cheese pizza. We return to the Hostel satisfied with the beautiful excursion we made.

El Chalten

This morning after breakfast a microbus from the Criollo agency comes to pick us up at the Hostel, and after collecting tourists of various nationalities from the hotels of El Calafate, today's excursion begins. We're going to El Chalten, the Argentine trekking capital. Along the road we stop to take a few photos of Lake Argentino and the historic Estancia "La Leona". It's a beautiful sunny day and we take advantage of it for a bit of relaxation. In the rooms of the estancia there is a tiny museum with a few display cases holding nineteenth-century documents, old faded photos, a few fossils and a stuffed armadillo. We arrive at the small and remote village of El Chalten, near which we do a short trek through a wood to reach the beautiful waterfall formed by a stream plunging from a cliff. Back in El Chalten we go to a restaurant for an excellent lunch.

Everything is delicious: filled cannelloni, a main course, a side dish and a pleasant crème caramel garnished with dulce de leche. We have half an hour of free time; outside it's cold so we prefer to hole up in a café where my travel companion and I drink a hot tea while my friend ventures to try the famous mate, the typical drink of Latin America. I just watch him; it seems very complicated to get down that infusion for which special utensils have been devised. There's a metal straw that's supposed to keep you from swallowing the leaves, but you have to know how to position it, otherwise you just suck air. One way or another my friend manages to gulp something down, though it seems to me decidedly more of the liquid ends up on the table. The waitress even steps in to facilitate this painstaking operation.

I prefer to go into the other room, which offers a fine assortment of baked treats. I can't resist the temptation and taste both some filled biscuits and a cake, both made with dulce de leche, a spreadable cream obtained from sweetened milk after a long boiling. We hoped in vain that the blanket of clouds covering the Fitz Roy massif would disperse, but no such luck. We go to Lake Viedma, where we take a cruise to the glacier of the same name. The lake isn't as beautiful as the Argentino and the glacier has nothing to do with the Perito Moreno, but standing on the ship's deck is a feat for the few daring ones who manage to stay on their feet despite a whipping wind. This is probably the strongest wind that has ever come up against me.

We return to the little harbor and set off again; the wind, so annoying during the cruise, has cleared the clouds and now the Fitz Roy shows itself in all its beauty. In the evening we return to El Calafate, stroll through the center, buy a few souvenirs and have dinner at the same place as the previous evening. This time I order only the four-cheese pizza with some big olives on top, so large that I won't manage to finish it. We go back to the Hostel for our last night in El Calafate.

From El Calafate to Puerto Madryn

Having already purchased the transfer upon our arrival at the airport in connection with the flight, a microbus comes to pick us up at the hostel right after breakfast. We have to wait a bit before boarding and only at the moment of getting on the plane do we learn that we have to pay a small boarding tax. We are therefore forced to run to take our seats on the Aerolineas Argentinas aircraft bound for Trelew. The route takes a couple of hours but we are at the mercy of strong turbulence, certainly my most turbulent flight, complete with a sudden air pocket that makes us jolt. Having landed in Trelew, in the airport hall we book a microbus that in an hour takes us in front of our hostel in Puerto Madryn, La Casa dei Tounens. The entrance gate is rusty but the accommodations are nice.

Among other things, my friend and I are assigned a kind of annex set apart on a first floor reached by an external iron staircase. It's worse for our travel companion who will have to settle for a room overlooking the balcony where the young guests of the hostel talk until late at night. At the reception we book tomorrow's tour to the Valdés Peninsula branch office. The owner is French and speaks a not easily understandable Spanish. We nevertheless manage to understand that the nearby Western Union is closed for two days and therefore we will still have to contribute to the expenses of our friend who has now run out of money. We take a walk down to the seafront; it's Sunday afternoon and the town is very lively, the cafés are full and children play on the rides on the seafront. We too enter a Bar-Gelateria to enjoy a biscuit made with Dulce de Leche and have something to drink.

On the way back to the hostel we make a stop at a large supermarket where we buy a few packets of biscuits for tomorrow's tour. In the evening we go out again to the seafront where we have dinner in a nice restaurant. The wait is long but the fish-based food is good and abundant. Curiously, they serve me a delicious paella inside a roof-tile dish. Satisfied with this "finger-licking" dinner, we return to the hostel for the night.

Valdes Peninsula

On waking, a wholesome breakfast awaits us based on bread made by the owners, on which to spread the dulce de leche of which I'm fond. The hall, if you can call it that, is a narrow but cozy space. They come to pick us up with the microbus for the start of the tour; accompanying us are the driver and a guide afflicted with Alzheimer's. With us are some Spanish tourists. In about an hour we reach the Valdés Peninsula, connected by an isthmus to the rest of Argentina. On a hill near Punta Pirámides, the only inhabited center of the Peninsula, we admire a colony of sea lions lounging on a rock battered by the waves near a high cliff. Arrived at the village's small port, we board a barge placed on the beach. A tractor pushes the boat into the sea, with a strange wheeled harness. Here there's no pier and this original system is the only way to set out to sea.

The barge is crowded and the sea rough and after a little while many of the passengers, myself included, feel sick. Despite the strong urge to vomit and the nausea, I somehow manage to enjoy one of the most beautiful spectacles I have ever witnessed. We spot first in the distance, then ever closer, some southern right whales, an endangered species that comes here to breed. When they come close to the boat, so close that they launch their water spout over us like a shower, I realize I'm in the climactic moment of the trip, one of those moments you'll never forget. They are so close that you could even touch these cetaceans that without fear pass under the hull of the boat. After this beautiful experience we return to shore, hand back the life jackets we had been given and continue with the microbus.

We cross the Valdés Peninsula as far as the homonymous Caleta ​​and the Estancia Elvira to see first another colony of sea lions, then a group of Magellanic penguins. After a long transfer we enter a protected area owned by the Argentine Navy, a remote and beautiful place where we tackle a path made almost entirely of moraines that leads us to the top of a hill from which we enjoy a spectacular panoramic view of the beach below. On the road to Puerto Madryn we stop at the museum located on the isthmus where the most interesting thing to see is the complete skeleton of a southern right whale. It was a truly beautiful excursion; the judgments found online about the Valdés Peninsula are conflicting but getting there in the right season when the whales roam the sea is thrilling. Praise goes to the guide who, despite obvious advanced Alzheimer's, was impeccable.

After a short rest at the hostel we go to dinner at the same restaurant on the seafront as the previous day and on this occasion too we eat very well. We then return to the hostel for the night.

Isla Escondida, Punta Tombo and Trelew

This morning our travel companion finally manages to get money at the Western Union and reimburse us for the loans. We breathe a sigh of relief because to help her we were running dry too. We have breakfast at the hostel and then from the nearby bus station we set off for Trelew. In an hour we're in this city of Welsh origins and in front of the station we immediately make an arrangement with a taxi driver to take us to Punta Tombo. Along the way we detour onto a dirt road to reach Isla Escondida. The name is misleading because this is not an island but a beach where sea lions bask in the sun. Unlike those seen from the walkways of the Valdés Peninsula yesterday, these can be approached and even touched even though they don't seem to appreciate contact with humans too much. They are all females with their pups.

We continue to the Punta Tombo Nature Reserve which hosts the largest colony of penguins after those present in Antarctica. Indeed there are about 500 scattered over a fairly contained area so there are numerous observation points. Tourists can't leave the marked paths but the Magellanic penguins often cross beyond the area reserved for them, approaching humans. It is absolutely forbidden to touch them even though we find them among our feet. The landscape is beautiful; there are two small coves that represent their access to the sea which we observe from a panoramic platform. When they're tired of swimming they climb back up the beach and reach the small burrows where they live as a family. We also visit a small museum that explains life in the oceans of Patagonia with maps and dioramas. Near the museum there's a restaurant where we have lunch before setting off again for Trelew.

Arrived in the city, we have ourselves dropped off at the Hotel Galizia where we will stay. Compared to the hostels we've used up to today, this is a real hotel. We have dinner downtown at a pizzeria, nothing compared to the meals in Puerto Madryn. We retire to our rooms for the night; we have two doubles available, one of which will be occupied by our friend. We booked this hotel from Italy because it's not very far from the airport and tomorrow we have to get up early for the flight.

We get up quite early and set off, with the same taxi we used yesterday, for Trelew airport. After the usual wait and paying the boarding tax, we board the Aerolineas Argentinas aircraft for Buenos Aires. We land about an hour later at Pistarini Airport, where domestic and short-haul international flights land. With a taxi booked in the airport hall, we have ourselves taken to the hostel we booked from Italy. This establishment is in the center, near Avenida 9 de Junio, the widest in the world. It's evident that it was once a luxury hotel, but little remains of its glorious past and it has now converted to backpacker tourists. Here too we have two rooms, spacious but absolutely spartan, the wooden window frames seem to be numbered in their days and the bathroom doesn't seem to be in good health.

The hall is very youthful with red walls, the billiard table, a large reception with young people ready to help you. The location is enviable too, so we take the opportunity to go exploring Buenos Aires. On the advice of the guy at the reception, we take a tram from the nearby stop to the Caminito. We are in the famous Boca neighborhood whose first inhabitants were the Genoese dockworkers who covered their houses with sheet metal which they then painted with leftover paints from the shipyards. Those houses still overlook the Caminito but have become merely tourist attractions. From one of these we gladly let ourselves be lured in too to watch a tango performed by two young people accompanied by a guitarist and an accordionist performing a famous aria by Piazzolla. On the streets of the Caminito there is never any lack of references to the two porteno passions: tango and football.

That's why papier-mâché reproductions of Maradona alternate with signs recalling Gardel. With a long walk we set off from the Caminito, cross all of La Boca and reach the genteel neighborhood of Sant'Elmo where we stop in Piazza Dorrego, famous for its weekend market and for the outdoor cafes where tango is danced. Today, however, we are not on the weekend, so we continue along the long street that from here arrives near the Casa Rosada. This is the residence of the President of the Republic, from its balconies Evita Peron harangued the crowds and in the square in front, the Plaza de Majo, the mothers demanded their desaparesidos children. Even today some signs recall the thousands of disappeared young people. We then walk along Avenida de Majo, stopping at the famous Caffè Tortoni. This establishment is so famous that we have to queue to get in.

You enter a little at a time and when our turn comes we sit at a table for a tea or a coffee. The atmosphere is that of a belle epoque cafe with fine wooden furnishings and soft lights. Having left here we continue along Avenida de Majo which at a certain point, near our hotel, crosses Avenida 9 de Junio and its numerous lanes. When you are in the middle of this Avenida, turning to the left you observe a skyscraper on whose facade is placed the iron silhouette of Evita Peron, turning instead to the opposite side the tall marble obelisk appears to us. Having crossed the Avenida we are at our hotel, near which we have dinner in a modern restaurant. We return to the hotel but before turning in for the night, using the computers in the hall, I book the ferry to Colonia do Sacramento in Uruguay.

On the Rio de la Plata

This morning we separate, just as we had arrived in South America, the return journey too we will have to make separately. We say goodbye to our travel companion who in a few hours will begin her flight to return home. My friend and I have a whole day and we have decided to make a quick trip to Uruguay. We manage to leave our luggage in a room, also because yesterday afternoon they finally returned to me my backpack which I hadn't seen since Rome. I must admit it wasn't a big inconvenience, my friend lent me some clothing and I washed often. Unfortunately I had to sleep dressed. As soon as we leave the hotel we get into the first taxi and have ourselves taken to the river port of Buenos Aires. We clarify at the offices of the shipping company the situation of our tickets booked last night from the hotel, then we board the large ferry headed for the other side of the Rio de la Plata.

During the crossing of this river that seems like an arm of the sea because the two opposite banks are not visible, I take advantage of it to sleep on a comfortable padded armchair. After three hours we are in Colonia do Sacramento in Uruguay (see the relevant itinerary). After spending a few hours in Uruguay we return to Buenos Aires in an hour thanks to a fast hydrofoil. Having left the port we take a taxi that, passing in front of the Casa Rosada, takes us to the hotel. We collect our luggage then with a taxi booked through the reception we go to the Newbery International Airport in Buenos Aires. Here we have time to check in and eat something in a fast food place while waiting for the departure of the flight operated by Iberia. Shortly after we depart with the plane headed for Madrid in Spain where we changed aircraft for Rome.