Eating the calafate
by TheWanderingCamel
You'll be told again and again tha if you eat the calafate berry you will return to Patagonia. Don't worry if you're not there when the bush is fruiting - you'll find plent of opportunities to eat the fruit of this member of the Berberis (barberry) family before you leave El Calafate - jams and preserves, icecreams, syrups, liqueurs, calafate-cream-filled chocolate, just about anything you can think of to do with a small blue berry, they'll do it!
You might think the story is something thought up around the table at a local Chamber of Commerce meeting to push a local resource ... not so at all. The story is much older than the arrival of tourism in the area.
A Tehuelche legend tells the tale of when the old woman, Koonex, was too ill and frail to make the annual trek north as winter approached, she knew she would have to stay behind in her tent where she would die before the winter was over. She asked the birds to stay with her but there was nothing for them to eat in the winter snow so Koonex turned herself into a calafate bush - thick with berries for their food and with sharp thorns to protect them from animals that might try to eat them. In Spring, when the tribe returned, she covered herself in golden flowers to welcome them and, as the fruits ripened on the bush, the Tehuelche found the berries to be delicious, and so began the custom to return each year to the place where the calafate grew.
There are several hundred varieties of Berberis - the calafate is just one. Not all are edible but those that are a good source of vitamin C so they must have been a valuable addition to the restricted diet of the Tehuelche
Pack Layers
by dtimoske
Have a backpack handy Bring layers especially when you make your trip to view the glacier. When you go on the boat, the chill from the glacier is quite cold. Other than that the temperature is fairly comfortable. Batteries are available at the National Park in case you run out, however they are expensive. Bring a video camera if you have one.
El Chalten
by julese
El Chalten is a must if you've just flown 3 hours from Buenos Aires. There's a stunning array of activities here from easy-to-get-to Waterfalls (Chorizo del Salto) to horse trekking, to cruising on Lago Viedma and ice climbing, not to mention the breathtaking Cerro Torre and Fitzroy Peaks.
There's enough to recommend here that it really should be added as a separate location.
Porito Moreno Glacier
by danielgrimes
Obvious must see, as that's what everyone goes for. If you are in this is wel worth the visit. We saw loads of glaciers down there, but Perito Moreno is alive - hug chunks keep falling off and the thing groans constantly.
One thing to bear in mind, if the weather is 20 degrees in Calafate, it will be around 5 degrees at the Glacier - the altitude is the same, but a cold wind comes down off the ice sheet.
Boat trip to Perito Moreno
by vtveen
After almost two hours of driving we were just in time to catch the last boat at a part of Lago Argentino called Canal de los Témpanos. This boat trip - with a company called Fernandez Campbell - was not included in our half day (afternoon) trip to the glacier and we had to pay 38 pesos per person (2011: already 50 pesos).
The boat brought us rather close to one part of the Perito Moreno Glacier. Although we kept wishing getting much closer to the ice and icebergs floating in the water.
And in spite of the temperature we were standing outside to watch this scenic beauty. It was just overwhelming to see this 60 metres high and 1500 long wall of ice full of crevasses, clefts, peaks with sometimes deep turquoise colours.
We (only) heard a couple times some icebergs breaking from the glacier, falling into the water and causing waves. Every time we were just too late to make a picture.
The boat ride takes about one hour and it was just a great start of our visit to the Perito Moreno. A breathtaking experience !!
Be aware it can be very cold aboard of the catamaran (see also my ‘packing list’ tip).
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Falmingos in Laguna Nimez
Streaks of moraine debris
Black-necked swans on the lagoon
