El Chalten to El Calafate

The weather seemed good for cycling so we pressed on from El Chalten at about three in the afternoon. It was great to be back on good pavement. Once out of town and headed down the 90 kilometre long Lago Viedma we had a modest tail wind and made it to the other end of the lake in about four hours. Nothing like good pavement and a tailwind to make you feel like superman. We kept having to turn around to look at the view as Monte Fitz Roy and all its neighbours were visible almost the whole way. Assuming you didn’t have a head wind riding into El Chalten from the east would have to be one of the most scenic easy rides in the world.  All the hills around the lake except the west end are barren and treeless. The entire west end is nothing but snow caped peaks with the huge glacier Viedma flowing in to the lake. It is one of those glaciers that looks like a river of ice which I think there is a geologic name for but I don’t remember it. The traffic was pretty light but it was astounding the number of tour busses headed in and out of El  Chalten. That place has to be a money making machine.

We talked to a fit French woman in her sixties trying to compare the mountains in the area to other mountain ranges we both had seen. I said we had the granite towers of Yosemite in the US but it lacked the glaciers. She said there were a few places in Europe that were close like the dolomites but they were much smaller in scale. She could not really think of anything quite as grand in her travels around the world. She spent three hours at the top of the knoll taking it in. This is the hike we did that you had to climb thirty five hundred feet to get to.

About half way down Lago Viedma there was a little shallow lake on the opposite side of the road and we noticed what looked like pink flamingos. It turns out they were.  I happened to be listening to cowboy themed pedal steel guitar jazz music which made the pink flamingos in this little desert lake seem very bizarre.

After a good night sleep by the side of the road on the leeward side of a little hill, we got an early start hoping to avoid likely windy conditions on the outlet end of Lago Viedma. Not long into the ride when stopping for some reason or other I saw an odd round bush silhouette on a ridge only it had a snake like limb sticking out that went up in the air and then down to the ground.  It was a Nandu. Nandu are a type of a wild ostrich about a meter and a half tall according to a trekking book of Laurie’s. Earlier in the trip we kept thinking we were in the animated movie UP where they go to the mythical “Paradise Falls” were the falls come impossibly off the top of lush flat toped crags.  Now we have seen large flightless birds like in the movie as well. Imagine wild ostriches running around in south eastern Oregon.

The only commercial activity on the 230 kilometers of road between El Chalten and El Calafate is a historic lodge and restaurant at the outlet of Lago Viedma. The reason it is historic is that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hung out there and had tea and banana bread for several months just like all the tourist buses in route to El Chalten.  It is sort of ironic that the restaurant owners here have to be legally hauling money away by the bag full without having to be on the lam.

Not too much longer after that we saw our first Guanaco.  They are a wild lama of sorts and used to number in the millions. They look to be almost as tall as an elk and they ran up a steep hill away from us like the wind. They appear to have keen long range vision like an antelope and make noises like high pitched horses.

We could have pressed on to El Calafate which would have been a 130 k ride for the day but found a very nice camp where the large Rio La Leona from Lago Viedma dumps into Lago Argentino the next huge natural lake to the south. Lago Argentino is yet another glacial fed lake looks fake blue like a backlit computer monitor. Where we camped some sheep herder went to a lot of trouble to plant willows in rows for wind breaks and a corral. There were the remains of the floor of a shack. It currently appears to be used as a place to slaughter sheep now and then as there are hides around here and there. But it could be just a place where they get together and traditionally roast a whole sheep which we have only heard about. We seem to sleep better “primitive” camping so no hurry to get to the next town with a location like this one. We will hopefully have a pleasant short 40 k ride into El Calafate in the morning. At least out here in the desert your odds of getting rained on are slim. Camping in the rain or even the occasional drizzle gets old. That said there are not many waterfalls and glaciers to look at out here in the desert. But it is a different kind of beauty that I have learned to appreciate after living many years on the plains east of the Rockies and in Central Oregon.

The ride into El Calafate turned out to be not so pleasant. We had a head wind and the traffic as soon as we turned off of route 40 got very heavy even by US standards. That was a long stressful thirty k.  Many of the little cars now, although of dubious performance pedigree, are sporting loud mufflers and dark enough tinted windows to be certified for drug dealing. It is a bit hard to tell the difference between the cars with the “performance” sound and the junkers. Maybe if I was in the know it would be obvious. Speaking of the side effects of el testosterono the road signs now in Argentina have bullet holes unlike Chile.

The roads in both Chile and Argentina have frequent Christian shrines. The one just outside El Calafate was made of an old front loading washing machine painted bright red with a little doll inside the glass door that kind of looked like Ken of Ken and Barbie only with a little moustache. We were guessing it may have been Saint Kenmore. Laurie noticed that the towns in Chile and Argentina have few churches. It appears that instead they do all their praying out on the highway.

The reason for all the traffic into El Calafate is that it is very touristy. It is bigger and more touristy than El Chalten although there is far less to do here out doors anyway. The main tourist activity seems to be driving out to look at a big glacier that dumps into the lake. As far as I can tell there is not much hiking compared to El Chalten. The tourism appears to be more about the town. There are far more light skinned people here than just about anywhere outside of Santiago. There are even Asians here which were practically non-existent in Chile.  There are some nice arts and crafts for sale, many made by local artists but I am having an allergic reaction to the place and am eager to move on. The main street is packed with cars and people. To get out to view the glacier in the National Park it costs twenty dollars US per person. The bus ride is another twenty and there is no camping in that part of the park. El Calafate has an airport big enough for fairly large passenger jets. There is a decent bike shop which is one of the main reasons we made the side trip in off route 40. Some other bike tourists we know are taking the bus out the sixty k to the glacier so I suppose we should too but I am more hopeful for a big tail wind out of here. I hope Torres del Paine will not be so touristy. It probably will be but, at least there will be hiking and camping.

The nice restaurant downstairs in the hostel was totally empty at nine pm. I felt sorry for the guy waiting to seat people because they had such a nice looking salad bar that was going to go to waste. The restaurant was packed at ten pm with people streaming in.  It is a Monday. Maybe the reason so many people in Chile and Argentina look morose and tired is the lack of sleep. It may have something to do with stores closing for two or three hours in the middle of the afternoon as well.

Here are some more pictures. I added a picture page to put them in one place hopefully in order. You may not think so but these are a subset of all the pictures taken.