El Calafate, Argentina

El Calafate has one main street and it’s very commercialized. Prices are high in town. Everything is geared towards tourism. I was asking around town regarding pricing to go visit the Perito Moreno glacier. Turned out that there’s only one price since only one company runs the tour there. And the price is high. For the 2-hour “Mini Trek”, it costs ARS540 (USD 103). For the 4-hour “Big Ice”, ARS 770 (USD 176). These fees do not include the national park entrance fee, which is another ARS100 (USD 23). Looks like Argentina is gonna be as expensive as Chile.

After sorting out the excursion for the next day, I went to visit Glaciarium (the Glacier Museum). I didn’t know it existed. Found out about it from a flyer in a tour agency. The building looks cool and from I could see from the website, I thought I’d like it.

The Glaciarium is located about 15 mins ride away from the city. It took the shuttle bus to reach it. This brand new museum was really thoroughly put together: its building design, logo, store, interactive exhibition etc. If only all museums are this cool. There had been so many which I visited that were just plain depressing (as in hardly have anything to boast). If anybody plans to visit El Calafate. I highly suggest visiting the Glaciarium prior to the Perito Moreno trek. It’ll give you much insights on glacier so you’ll appreciate and understand the view in Perito Moreno more.

Photography wasn’t allowed in the museum, but was okay in their “Glaciar Bar.” An extra ARS80 will grant you 20 minutes in subzero bar plus a free drink. I wasn’t keen on neither but I wanted to take some photos. So I shelled out the extra buck.

After being dropped off in town by the shuttle bus, I took a long walk to another attraction “Laguna Nimez.” It was definitely a good time to visit later in the afternoon nearing the evening. Sun wasn’t as harsh and it’s perfect for photography. I was too cheap to pay up to enter the lagoon though. I ended up just walking outside the barb wire.

While I was sitting on the sidewalk shooting video of the view, two guys and a girl came to the same spot and started setting up tripod and shooting with Canon 5D. It sparked my interest so I started chatting with them. The two guys are Spaniards, Jesus and German, travelling around South America. They busk on the street with bagpipes and they hitchhike. All the while, bringing their Canon 5D shooting video of the scenery and interviewing locals. The girl Marisita is Argentinian. A chef. She met these two guys while they busked the day before and ended up hanging out with them. The three amigos became four today. I spent two hours with them shooting stuffs, walking back into town, having mates on the street while Jesus and German got ready to busk.

Unfortunately the weather turned bad. I had to do some souvenir shopping and by the time I got back to the busking spot, the group had moved somewhere else to avoid the rain. Too tired to look around for them, I headed back to my hostel in preparation for an early rise the next day for the glacier trekking.