Perito Moreno – Trouspinet travels

Wow, what a journey that was! Argentina jumps effortlessly into the list of my top 5 destinations of all time, and for scenery, it would be No. 1. However, this trip required lots of planning, and I also learnt a lot as I was travelling. In this post I list my personal highlights and give some tips for planning (valid as of November 2022).

TROUSPINET’S HIGHLIGHTS

To help you plan your trip, here is my ranking of the places I visited on this trip:

Quebrada de Humahuaca (northwest Argentina)
Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia
Foz Iguazu
Mount Fitzroy, Patagonia
Torres del Paine, Chilean Patagonia
The drive from Mendoza to Aconcagua
The drive from Salta to Cachi
Puerto Varas and the Chilean Lake District
Buenos Aires
Mendoza’s vineyards
Bariloche and the Argentine Lake District
Salta

I put Bariloche and Salta bottom because there are places in Europe a bit like them, whilst the other places are unique in the world. But I really enjoyed even my lower-ranked locations on this trip – I simply didn’t have a single bad travelling day.

TROUSPINET’S TOP TIPS

Be Selective – Distances are huge, as is the choice of places to visit.

Unless you have the time (and endurance) for 12-36 hour bus rides, you will need to fly if you want to see many of the country’s highlights. I went for nearly one month, usually flew between destinations, but still did not have time to see everything I wanted to. After much thought, I regretfully excluded Ushuaia and some of the national parks from my list. You will also have to make some hard choices.

Check which Internal Flights operate

The main flight operators in Argentina are Aerolineas Argentinas, JetSmart and FlyBondi. Argentine airlines have a bad reputation for reliability and punctuality, but I had no major delays in any of my seven internal flights.

Check when flights go direct from one regional destination to another (eg Salta to Mendoza), without having to go back to Buenos Aires and out again. These flights will save you a lot of time and money, but they don’t operate every day. The popular and very convenient Bariloche-El Calafate flight only operates in the peak tourist season – late November to February. If you do have to fly back to Buenos Aires, remember it has two airports – the very convenient Aeroparque Newberry (AEP) located in the city, and Ezeiza (EZE), which is a long way out of town. Book ahead for anything In, To or From Patagonia over November – February. The region is hugely and justifiably popular in the southern summer. I went in November – not the peak season – and even then, I heard that the buses from El Calafate to Bariloche were fully booked for several days.

Accommodation – Check the Exchange Rate when you book

I used Booking.com to book hotels. You get quoted a price in US$. Once you have made a booking, contact the hotel to ask if they apply the official exchange rate if you choose to pay in pesos. Most of my hotels agreed to this; only one asked for the blue rate (so I cancelled and booked somewhere else). If you pay like this, you save 50%! More expensive hotels add 20% VAT to their bills, which can you avoid by paying with a foreign credit (but then you get the official exchange rate, so it is still better to pay with cash).

AirBnB is not recommended, because you pay in advance in your own currency. It may have been bad luck, but the one place I booked with them was of very poor quality and seemed more aimed at local tourists.

Don’t Rely too much on Guidebooks

Things change quickly in Argentina. Our guidebook claimed to have been reprinted in January 2022, but was hopelessly out of date.

Packing

Check average weather conditions and pack accordingly. Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego are cold even in the southern summer and need very warm clothing and waterproofs. Aerolineas Argentinas (but not the other airlines) has a limit of 15kg for checked baggage, so you may also need to pack light and fully use the allowances of 8kg for carry-on baggage and 3kg for a personal item. The 15kg rule is not strictly enforced – we were usually a couple of kilos over, but the check-in staff ignored this.

Learn some (Argentine) Spanish

In touristy areas like Patagonia and parts of Buenos Aires, you can get by with English. But in most other places, few people other than hotel staff spoke a second language. If you already speak some Castilian Spanish, be aware that there are big differences in the pronunciation of “y” and “ll”, and that the second person singular “tu” is replaced by “vos” – with different verb endings. I didn’t find any good books on Argentine Spanish, but I found this website (for intermediate speakers) to be very good- https://argentalk.com

That’s all for now. I could write a lot more, but I am worried I will bore my readers. If anyone has a question, please leave a reply at the bottom of this page. Happy Travelling!

Today, I had originally planned to do a short hike and then drive back to El Calafate. But the weather forecast was poor, and every trail had a minimum distance of 16km. Instead, I left early, reached El Calafate at noon, and after checking into my hotel drove to see one of Patagonia’s other highlights – the Perito Moreno Glacier. It was located 80km west of the town and I got there in the early afternoon. From the car park, there was the option of a shuttle bus to the main glacier or a path running along the side of a lake.

I chose the path and was very lucky – the weather had been cloudy and dull, but as soon as I set off, the sun came out. I turned a corner to be greeted with an amazing view of a blue wall of ice gleaming in the afternoon sun.

First glimpse of Perito Moreno Glacier – a wall of blue ice

The path – on a raised walkway made of metal – brought me closer and closer to this incredible sight. There were frequent viewing platforms, each giving a slightly different perspective.

As you get closer, Perito Moreno is more and more impressive

The park has several trails, all on walkways. Most visitors seemed to stay on the “yellow” path, where the shuttle bus drops them off. This left the more remote blue and red paths nearly empty, and I spent several hours exploring and taking photographs.

From time to time there was a cracking sound as the ice blocks in the glacier moved. The ice advances about 2 metres per day. Fresh ice from the mountains pushes the older ice further down the valley, until it reaches the lake where the warmth of the sun and the water causes it to fracture and break off (“calving”) as small icebergs. I saw – but was too slow to film – some smaller pieces of ice break off and crash into the lake below, with an impressively loud splash.

After a few hours, the clouds returned, and it started to rain lightly – although the Patagonian winds always mean that even light rain always turns into something much more unpleasant. The temperature dropped abruptly. It is hard to dress properly for the weather in Patagonia. When the sun is out, with no wind, it is hot. When it is windy and sunny, it is cold. When it is cloudy and windy, it is very cold. And when it is windy and raining, it is unpleasantly freezing.

It was time to leave for today, but I returned on the following day to see the glacier in the morning light. The views were even better…….

More stunning views of the glacier…the morning this time

I noticed that all the ice formations I had noticed the day before had disappeared, to be replaced by new ones. A couple of large icebergs floated in the lake – calving events that must have happened after I had left the day before.

I found a platform on the “red” trail in front of some rickety-looking ice structures and sat and waited, hoping for a big chunk of ice to fall for me. But my ice remained annoyingly solid, and my patience eventually ran out. I headed back to my car, having spent a total of six hours looking and filming the ice over two half-days. Back in my hotel I admired the hundreds of photos I had taken and started the difficult job of sorting them, before strolling around El Calafate. It was a very pleasant small town, fully dedicated to serving the many tourists that come to visit Patagonia. I had dinner in a craft beer brewery with more excellent Argentine beer and a burger.

My stay in Patagonia had two last twists. On the way to the airport the next morning I was greeted by a very unexpected sight.

Yes! Flamingos on Lake Argentina in Calafate

I reached the airport, boarded my plane, and was treated to one last view of Mount Fitz Roy as we took off….

I left Patagonia with a heavy heart. It was incredibly beautiful, with three world-class sights within close proximity of each other – Torres del Paine, Mount Fitz Roy and Perito Moreno. The town of Calafate is named after a blue berry found in the area. Legend has it that if you taste the calafate berry, you will return to Patagonia. I had tried a “Pisco Calafate” cocktail one night. I think the legend might be right.

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Tag: Perito Moreno

Trouspinet’s Top Tips and Highlights for Argentina

El Calafate and Glacier Perito Moreno