The town of Puerto Natales is centered around tourism, but doesn’t have the plastic feel of Puerto Varas. We ate a very nice late lunch in a restaurant near the square. The meal was expensive, but tasty. Then we walked down to the waterfront and gazed at the boats anchored on the other side of the channel. It looked like a cold place to be with snowy mountains in the distance. The latitude was nearly 52 degrees south. We were at sea level and the snow line was very low.
 |
| Our House in Puerto Natales |
It stays light very late during the summer in Puerto Natales. It was nearly warm by 19:00 and people were outside doing chores as we wandered around, looking for a grocery store. We wanted a loaf of bread to make toast and had to go to four or five stores before we found one selling bread. People must buy bread at bakeries, but bakeries close early. It did not get dark until after 22:00. It was hard to go to bed while it was still light and we stayed up longer than normal.
January 28,2026
Magic House
Puerto Natales, Chile
We had booked a tour to take us to Torres del Paine, but they weren’t due to pick us up until 10:30, so we spent a lovely relaxing morning in our cozy house. While the house was decidedly funky, it was comfortable and warm. We reveled in the comfortable mattresses and soft couch cushions. My right buttock was still very bruised and sore, so I was exceptionally appreciative of soft cushions.
 |
| Prehistoric Animal Silhouettes |
Our tour picked us up at the house. Our first stop was the Mylodon Cave. A mylodon was a giant sloth that lived in the area of Puerto Varas 14,000 to 10,000 years ago. No one really knows why they became extinct but possibilities include climate change, volcanic activity, and over-hunting by early humans. Remains of mylodons were first discovered by Charles Darwin in a different part of Chile in 1832. In the late 19th Century, remains were discovered in a huge cave near Puerto Natales. Subsequent excavations haven’t discovered much and most of what was discovered is housed in the British Museum.
 |
| The Mylodon Cave |
The real interest in the Mylodon Cave is the cave itself. Two hundred meters deep and thirty meters high, the cave was formed by wave action from an ancient lake. It is essentially a sea cave. We clambored around, inside and climbed up to take pictures with the replica of a mylodon. A recent rockslide had temporarily closed the rear of the cave, but we could see holes from earlier excavations.
 |
| Excavations in the Mylodon Cave |
 |
| Sally with the Mylodon |
Torres del Paine is made up of a single massif of igneous rock separate and newer than the Andes. Day hikes are limited to out and back trails threading between glacial lakes or up and down valleys. Even the "W" trek is only a series of these hikes strung together. The catamaran that takes people to the Grey Glacier, is unreliable because it is often cancelled due to wind, requiring those in a hurry to walk 21 kilometers back out. We met a veteran of the "W" who had nearly been stranded at a completely full refuge because the wind was too strong to take the catamaran to the next leg. Maps of the park never seem to include the surrounding area, which makes orienting oneself difficult.
 |
| View from Mirador Grey |
Our tour entered via the Serrano Ranger Station, where we checked into the park. I am good with maps, but I found every map of Torres del Paine completely baffling. As near as I could tell, we went up the road to Lago Grey to a lookout called the Mirador Grey, although it was not the one shown on the map because that one is accessed only by a trail.
 |
| The Grey Glacier in the Distance |
 |
| Paine Grande in the Cloud |
From there, we had a view of the summits of Paine Grande, the westernmost peak in the massif. We backtracked and then headed up the road to Lago Pehoé. There, we saw the catamaran that goes to Paine Grande, struggling a bit with the waves. The lake was impossibly blue. From there, we had a good view of the “horns”, the middle peaks. We could see the waterfall of Salto Grande in the distance.
 |
| Lago Pehoé |
 |
| Salto Grande & the Catamaran |
 |
| The Horms |
Somehow, which remains a complete mystery to me, we ate lunch at a restaurant near Lago Grey. We were forbidden to walk down to the lake because of high winds. After driving a long way and finally getting to see some guanacos, we arrived at the Administrative Center for the park and stopped to use the restrooms. Then we headed north to Salto Chico and the Condor Lookout, although we didn’t see any condors. We did see some geese and a couple of rheas in the distance.
 |
| Herd of Guanacos |
We stopped again to take pictures at Salto Chico.
 |
| Salto Chico |
Beyond Salto Chico, we started to see the towers. Lago Sarmiento was impossibly blue. We also stopped at Lago Amargo to see some stromatolites. You know you are in a windy place when viewpoints offer glassed in shelters.
 |
| The Towers |
 |
| Viewpoint Shelter |
 |
| Sentinel Guanaco |
 |
| Family of Rheas |
Our drive back to Puerto Natales was actually a highlight, as we stopped to photograph herds of guanacos and family groups of rheas. Guanacos appoint a sentinel who stands in a place with a good view and watches for predators. Consequently, they often seem to be posing for pictures. Rheas are an ostrich-like bird native to South America. The females lay the eggs and then they are done. Males incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. We saw a few different families, scratching for food in the grass. It was difficult to capture a picture of one with his head up.
 |
| Lago Sarmiento |
We passed the border of Argentina where we would cross to go to El Calafate on our way back to Puerto Natales. We were returned to our house by 20:30. It might not have seemed so from my description, but it had been a full day and we felt like we had been afforded a thorough overview of Torres del Paine. Between the wind and the long bus journey to a park where we could only do a short hike, we agreed that we would rather spend the next day in our cozy house in Puerto Natales. Sally had travel arrangements to make for her onward journey and the rest of our travels together were dependent on those plans. We needed a day to catch up on administrative tasks and I needed to work on my blog.
January 28,2026
Magic House
Puerto Natales, Chile
 |
| The Artisan Market in Puerto Natales |
Having decided to have a lazy day, I slept until 8:00. I goofed off for most of the morning and finally finished a blog post in the early afternoon. Then we walked downtown, stopping for Chinese food along the way. The food at Polo Sur was nothing to write home about, but it didn’t taste bad. We both wondered at the absence of onions from everything we ordered. Still, there was more than enough to provide us each with lunch and, later, dinner.
 |
| Board Game Café Cat |
After lunch, we continued into town and had coffee and dessert in a board game café. We spent a couple of hours drinking coffee, playing Rumikub, and watching the resident cat make himself comfortable. It was a surprisingly warm afternoon and everyone was outside, enjoying the weather. Groups of teenagers roamed the streets, eating ice cream. On a Wednesday evening, the square was crowded. Children played in the fountain and a band blasted cumbia music. In the long evening, 18:00 seemed like mid-afternoon. I felt like I was in Alaska.
 |
| Party in the Plaza |
We strolled home and stopped at the grocery store for snacks for the next day’s bus journey. Then we went home to pass the evening making travel arrangements and working on my blog. I had been quite behind due to trouble uploading photos. It was nice to reduce the backlog a bit. At dusk, it suddenly started to rain. The weather had been very unpredictable.
January 29, 2026
Departamentos Mawer
El Calafate, Argentina
We slipped out of our cozy house in Puerto Natales about 7:15 and trundled my suitcase to the bus station. We got there quite early, but there were double-decker buses leaving for El Calafate at 7:30, 8:00, and 8:10. This meant that there were over 200 people trying to check in at one window. We were on the 8:10 bus, but didn’t leave until about 8:30.
 |
| Waiting to Check Out of Chile |
We headed out across the Patagonian steppe for half an hour until we reached the border between Chile and Argentina. There was already another bus ahead of us and we waited for an hour or so before we could check out of Chile. Apparently, we had received what looked like a receipt when we entered Chile and we were supposed to have saved it, although no one mentioned this at the time. Neither of us were able to produce the document, but they stamped us out, anyway. They did tell me to hold onto the next one I received when we reentered Chile. I figured I might have to pay another visa fee, although I didn’t remember having paid one to begin with.
 |
| The Border of Argentina |
After a short drive across the no-man’s land, we came to Argentinian customs and had to wait, again, while the other bus was processed. This went more smoothly and I don’t think they even stamped our passports. It was 11:00 by the time we cleared the border. We were supposed to have arrived in El Calafate before 14:00, but didn’t get there until after 15:30. This was alright, since we couldn’t check into our apartment until after 15:00, anyway.
 |
| Our Apartment in El Calafate |
We took a cab to our apartment and our landlady, Lily, was waiting for us. The weather was very warm. We soon changed into summer clothes. Then we walked into the center of town and got some lunch. I had the strangest Caesar salad I had ever seen and Sally had shoestring potatoes. After lunch, we went to the grocery store and then tried to walk down to the lake, but couldn’t get close enough to see it. We finally gave up and went back to our apartment, not wanting to drag our groceries on a journey of exploration.
January 30, 2026
Departamentos Mawer
El Calafate, Argentina
 |
| Cafetería Don Luis |
Our ride to the Perito Moreno Glacier wasn’t due until 10:10, so I had time to stroll over to a neighborhood coffee shop for a cappuccino. Sally had suddenly received word that she needed to be in Panama earlier than expected, which meant that she would have to leave me at Ushuaia. I would miss her, but this finally allowed me to make plans for the rest of my journey. I spent my time in the coffee shop planning the next leg of my trip as far as Rio Gallegos.
 |
| Lago Argentino |
Our van arrived before 10:30 and we took a beautiful drive along the shore of the impossibly blue Lago Argentino, past large flocks of rheas, to the entrance to Parque Nacional Glaciares. While it was easy to pay for our park passes with a credit card, this park was even more expensive than the ones in Chile. The bus fare cost 38,000 pesos per person and the park entrance another 45,000. If we had taken the boat trip to the face of the glacier, that would have been an additional 72,000 each.
 |
| Icebergs in the Lake |
The drive through the park was spectacular. Fantastically shaped icebergs floated in the surreal blue water of the lake. While the color of the lake was gorgeous, it was the sediment in the water that gave it that color and the water was not especially clear. We could not see any of the icebergs below the waterline.
 |
| The Perito Moreno Glacier |
 |
| The Canal de los Tempanos |
 |
| High Water Mark on the Left |
Until four years ago, the Perito Moreno glacier was the only one in the world not retreating. It has since begun to retreat a bit, although it still terminates quite close to the viewing platforms in the park. It calves into a narrow part of Lago Argentino called the Canal de los Tempanos (Iceberg Canal.) Further to the left, there is the Brazo Rico, another arm of the lake. In the past, the ice would sometimes reach all the way to the peninsula housing the park facilities, creating an ice dam that would raise the level of the water in the blocked arm as much as 30 meters. The high-water mark is quite visible along the shore of that arm. Eventually, the water would rise to the point where it would melt the dam and the water would come bursting out. The last such rupture was in 2019. The glacier has now receded to the point where this no longer occurs regularly.
 |
| Sally on the Gangway |
Our driver dropped us off at the lower parking lot and we then took a free shuttle up to the “pasarelas.” We wondered at this name, since “pasarela” means “gangway” and that wasn’t where the boats landed. The park has built a wonderful network of raised metal pathways from which to view the glacier. We explored the central loop and then took the coastal pathway which led along the lake shore back to the lower parking lot. There, we stopped for coffee and soda and shared an apple tart. The views of the glacier and the icebergs it had spawned were spectacular. Ice regularly split off of the glacier and crashed into the water with a sound like thunder. Sally and I had elected not to take the boat ride, as we had both been close to the faces of glaciers in Alaska. Still, we found the scenery impressive, perhaps more so because the day was quite warm and pleasant, although the Patagonian wind kicked in now and then and the temperature would drop precipitously. We found the park facilities all that we could have asked and felt better about having paid so much to enter.
 |
| Shark Fin Iceberg |
 |
| Face of the Glacier |
Our driver collected us at 15:40 and returned us to the center of town, dropping us off in front of a bank. Sally wanted to check out the ATM fees and, there, we learned that foreign ATM cards are basically not accepted in Argentina. Credit cards are widely accepted and U.S. dollars are easy to exchange (if they are in good condition.) We had dollars and some Chilean pesos to exchange, so it was not a crisis for us, but I would have to be careful about where I decided to stay because I would not be able to pay for my accommodation in cash and had already learned that none of my banks would allow me to make a transfer to an account not denominated in dollars. This was curious, as Argentina was swarming with foreign tourists.
We shared a small pizza for dinner and took advantage of the happy hour two for one gin and tonics. After dinner, we wandered around and stopped for ice cream. It was still quite warm out. On our way home, we had passed a large crowd enjoying a beach along the lake. The previous day had been the hottest day recorded in El Calafate during the 21st Century. Of course, we packed all kinds of warm clothing in anticipation of visiting glaciers. Our driver remarked that the locals were out enjoying the hot weather because tomorrow could bring sudden cold temperatures.
January 31, 2026
Departamentos Mawer
El Calafate, Argentina
 |
| Ibis on His Way to the Coffee Shop |
Our goal for the day was to visit the Glaciarium outside of El Calafate. They didn’t open until noon, so there was no rush. We spent a couple of hours at the very pleasant cafetería Don Luis. About 11:00, we set off to walk the 8.5 kilometers to the museum.
First, we stopped by the currency exchange, hoping to exchange dollars or Chilean pesos for Argentinian pesos because we couldn’t get any cash out of the ATMs in Argentina. Unfortunately, our apartment in Usuaia would accept only cash. Of course, the currency exchange was once again closed.
 |
| Horse/Goose Staring Contest |
We walked through town, past the golf course and eventually reached the shore of the Humedal Calafateño or Calafate Wetlands. We walked for about three miles along the shore of the wetland. Horses were staked out to graze and some of them were running loose in the road. We saw all kinds of birds. Earlier, we had seen several black-faced ibis strutting around our neighborhood and ignoring us completely.
 |
| Common Tagua |
We saw common taguas, both black-necked and coscoroba swans, and upland geese.
 |
| Path to the Museum |
The museum was a modern building designed to look like a jumbled glacier. It had clearly seen sited there because, while it was still in El Calafate (sort of) it had a view of the snow-capped mountains on the other side of Lago Argentino.
 |
| The Glaciarium |
It was a good museum, teaching visitors about the formation and behavior of glaciers, as well as describing the local glaciers and those who had first explored them.
When we had been at the Perito Moreno Glacier, we had heard how it used to form ice dams that would raise the level in the Brazo Rico Sur until the damn collapsed explosively. I had really wanted to see that, but the glacier had receded far enough to make that unlikely in the near future. The museum showed a film of the last collapse, which was very interesting. We also got to try out virtual reality goggles that allowed us to experience walking through an ice cave. The weirdest part was not being able to see each other. It made us hesitant to move much. Still, it was a cool experience. It turned out that there was a free shuttle between the museum and town. We took that back.
 |
| The Collapse of the Ice Dam |
 |
| View from the Glaciarium |
In town, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner. Sally had spinach ravioli and I had a guanaco burger with carmelized onions and pancetta. Honestly, the guanaco was dry, but onions and pancetta make anything tasty. We wondered why it was easy to pay for restaurants and attractions with credit cards, but lodging providers would take only cash or bank transfers. I came to the conclusion that Bookings.com was charging Argentines outrageous fees to accept credit cards. This was problematic because we were unable to get cash anywhere. We resolved to try to send ourselves money via Western Union once we reached Ushuaia.
We went home and I tried to plan my further travels. It was nearly impossible to get out of Rio Gallegos with luggage. I determined I would have to return to El Calafate and travel north along the Andes by bus as far as Bariloche before I could get a flight to Buenos Aires. I was starting to understand why no tour operators offered tours of Patagonia. It was just too hard to get around.
No comments:
Post a Comment