Sunday, February 26, 2023

This morning, we woke up at Criollo B&B still completely stuffed from the 4-course dinner we enjoyed last night. Alas, it was time to eat again. Oof.

Chef Ariel prepared a big Argentine breakfast for us before we headed off to the airport — toast with homemade marmalade, ham & cheese, French toast, alfajores, fruit, coffee, orange juice, and hot chocolate. Everything was so tasty, and because we’re Midwest Nice, we found a little portion left in our stomachs to fill up.

We really enjoyed staying at Criollo Lodge, and found Ariel and his wife Liz to be warm and gracious.

Around 10:00am, we began the two-hour drive north to Bariloche. The drive took closer to 2 1/2 hours due to busier weekend traffic, but luckily it was a fairly simple process to drop off our rental car at the airport and we made it through airport security in plenty of time.

All four of us were surprised when we heard English being spoken around us at the gate. In fact, it was the first time in three weeks we were in a place with other Americans. It turned out that there were several groups of US citizens boarding the same flight as we were to El Calafate. Andi and I started to wonder what this next town would be like — it definitely seemed like it would be more touristy based on who was boarding the plane.

Our flight to El Calafate was an easy two-hour journey. We landed around 5:00pm and spent an hour at the airport renting another car from Hertz, then buying airline tickets for our next flight to Buenas Aires. Andi tried his best to reserve any other vehicle besides a Cronos, but he didn’t have any luck. We nicknamed the last car “Barry” for Bariloche, so Tory and Aden decided to name this car “Callie” in honor of El Calafate. Despite how powerless these rental cars have been, we’ve been really pleased with the level of service from Hertz in Argentina. Every employee Andi has worked with has been as accommodating as possible.

While Andi worked to arrange the car and airline tickets, I took the kids to the one restaurant in the airport to get some food. We went from being stuffed to the gills at breakfast to being hungry again by dinner. The airport food options were terrible, but we ate them anyway — Tory and Aden got burgers & Andi and I split a steak sandwich with chips.

I knew where El Calafate was on a map, but the kids and I were still surprised to look at the big world map in the airport and see where we are in the world right now. We are closer to Antarctica and Cape Town, South Africa than we are to our home in Wisconsin.

Before we took off in our rental car, the Hertz employee gave us a few warnings about driving a car in El Calafate. Warning #1 — Hang onto the car doors when exiting the vehicle and never open two doors at one time for danger that the wind will grab hold of the door and snap it right off the car. Warning #2 — Watch for guanacos on the road. Guanacos are the Argentinian cousin of the American llama and apparently they’re all over this area of Patagonia. The Hertz employee said guanacos blend right in with the landscape, so it’s the passenger’s job to be on the lookout helping the driver spot them. Finally, he warned us that there are no stop signs or stop lights in El Calafate, so be aware of other cars and people coming from all directions.

The wind is no joke in Southern Patagonia! I’m not sure how our plane landed on the runway given how windy it was when we walked outside the airport. Yesterday, we heard that wind speeds exceeded 120 km per hour (75 mph) making it so that the airplanes couldn’t use their jet bridges. It seems like locals around here have learned to live with the wind because it never stops blowing.

Andi and I’s first reaction when we pulled away from the airport in El Calafate was “where are we?!” The landscape outside looked like we were on the moon. The southern part of Patagonia is a completely different geography than the central lakes region. Outside our car window, we saw miles of rolling brown hills and sage brush in stark contrast to gigantic turquoise-blue glacial lakes. It reminds me a lot of the Black Hills except for the striking-blue water part.

Andi booked our family a room at the Calafate Parque Hotel for two nights. Our hotel room is laid out very conveniently for a family of four; it has one queen bed, a bathroom, and a lofted upper level with two twin beds. The best part of the room is the nice mattress and soft sheets! That’s one luxury that doesn’t seem to be commonplace in Argentina.

Andi wanted to walk around downtown El Calafate, but Tory and Aden were grumbling about it. It’d been a long travel day and they were both itching to call their friends back home. Andi and I decided to leave the kids in the hotel room and go walk around by ourselves. We couldn’t believe how busy it was in downtown El Calafate! Every restaurant was packed with a line waiting out the door. We also saw a few restaurants with Patagonia cordero asado on display in their front windows (slow-roasted lamb).

The main reason people travel to El Calafate is to see Perito Moreno Glacier. Playing on the glacier shtick, we saw several “ice bars” downtown where people can bundle up in parkas and drink at a bar literally made of ice. Andi and I said ‘no thanks’ to that; we can walk outside our house in Wisconsin and drink on the ice anytime we want.

The other thing we noticed in town was that everyone was coughing — ack! Maybe it’s because of the abundance of travelers coming from around the world who carried sicknesses with them. Andi and I wanted no part of that business. We decided to order room service at our hotel and eat away from other people. We’ve dealt with enough stomach sicknesses on this trip; we don’t need to catch a cold, too.

Tory and Aden were thrilled when we returned to the hotel and announced we’d ordered room service. They both think ordering food to your room is such a novelty. Andi ordered spaghetti, a chicken and rice dish, warm quinoa salad, and pork egg rolls. It was more than enough food for all of us to share.