As an American, buying airline tickets for Argentina’s internal flights is more complicated than we are used to in the customer-comes-first culture of the United States. There are a few snags along the way that you should know about ahead of time, and I’m here to let you know about them.
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As the plane descended towards the runway at the El Calafate International Airport, I looked past my girlfriend and out the window to see a beautiful, electric blue-green lake spanning out for hundreds of meters. Set behind the lake was a stunning background of rust-colored mountains lining the cloudless sky. Needless to say, my first impression of El Calafate was a great one. After exiting the airport, we took a 15 minute ride down the one road that leads into town. We quickly turned off onto one of the dirt roads that lines part of the upper portion of the city, and after the shuttle bus pulled over, we grabbed our bags and entered our hostel.
My visit to the Perito Moreno glacier a couple of hours away from El Calafate, Argentina, was an escape to a landscape of jagged white and blue ice. It stretched past the mountains in the distance and clouds clung to the far reaches of the glacier. A milky blue-gray lake lapped at one end of the glacier and transported thick pieces of ice away from it.
The heavy silence that hung over us like the clouds on Perito Moreno was only broken by camera clicks and the thunder-like sound whenever a piece of ice – no matter how small – broke off the glacier and collided with the lake water.
Our flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate, Argentina, was like crossing over into another world, another culture altogether. The land was barren and desolate compared to the wild backdrop of Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. The lakes were turquoise milk, cloudy with glacial sediment, but they were surrounded by dry gray and mustard-colored bushes that huddled close to the ground to get out of the wind.
As we drove by taxi from the small airport into El Calafate, passing the fields of parched grass contrasted against the clear cool blue of the sky, my friend Ellen commented that it looked more like the end of the world than Ushuaia did and I agreed. Unlike Ushuaia, I couldn’t imagine anyone living in the distance between the mountains or at the shore of the lake. This was the end of the world with no Antarctica on the other side. Although there were roads and houses scattered across the hillside in the distance, there were no signs of life and the narrow highway was completely empty. Every few miles a shrine with a picture of the Virgin Mary surrounded by rocks stood out against the sand-colored mountains, but each seemed to represent someone who once cared but had long forgotten.
Any Patagonian traveler will tell you, Perito Moreno Glacier is the must see destination. Following the advice of fellow travelers I met along the road, I rolled into town on a cozy full cama bus at 2am (a bus with full beds). I was thrilled to see the Albergue and Hostal del Glaciar van patiently awaiting our arrival at the bus station, and after grabbing my human size backpack I jumped in the van and was escorted to the hostel. I was impressed with the hostel and would definitely recommend it – clean, well organized, and friendly. Within the first 15 minutes of arriving I had booked a tour to the National Glacier Park and was comfortably settled in my room.
