Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
I flew 1600 miles from Buenos Aires to El Calafate in Southern Patagonia to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It's the only glacier in the world that’s not retreating. The glacier surface is larger than the entire city of Buenos Aires and more than 500 ft high. It was spectacular.
Note: Argentinians drink an herbal “tea” called Mate that they drink from a gourd with a special straw. Mate is life in Argentina. People carry around a Thermos with hot water so they can have Mate any time. I saw people at the glacier pull out their Thermos to make a Mate.
Patagonia Argentina Accommodations:
About $250 per night
4 ratings on Trip Advisor.
Rooms were okay but the best part was the Mate sessions every evening.
Torres Del Paine, Chile
The normal border crossing from Argentina and Chile was closed. Chile didn’t open it as promised so, the normal 50 km(30 miles) drive to the border required a 369 km (230 miles) detour to the only open border crossing in southern Patagonia: Paseo Integracion Austral.
Several hundred dollars later and after many conversations about Covid protocol, immigration requirements, a Plan B, etc., I find myself getting in a truck before dawn to get to the southern border crossing, three hours away, when it opens. The driver Ariel is a jovial man who offers me a caramel as we set off. It’s zero degrees Celsius and dark as we leave El Calafate and head into the Patagonian desert.
About 30 minutes into the journey, I notice that Ariel is driving faster than the speed limit, so I ask in my nonexistent Spanish,“La policia esta aqui?”/ “Is the police around here?” Ariel looks at me quizzically and says “Estoy La Policia.” / “I am the police.”👀. We both laugh out loud because essentially I have a police escort to the border. As my nerves calmed, I notice that he’s playing Bon Jovi on the radio, I chuckle to myself- Bon Jovi? In the middle of nowhere, Patagonia? I ask him to turn it up. As we hurtle along the open road, I sing along with the music-- “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I’m wanted, dead or alive.”
We blew through all the police checkpoints along the way because although Ariel is off duty, his mask has some recognizable police symbol. We get to the border crossing, he helps with my luggage and gives me a placard with my name to identify myself to the driver waiting on the other side because he can’t cross into Chile. I get through immigration in Argentina, and now I have to walk 1 km to the Chilean border, dragging my luggage behind me. After multiple checks of vaccine card, 72-hr PCR test, travel affadavit, a mobility pass, etc. I’m directed to take an antigen test. I’m anxious because I’m literally in the middle of nowhere. For reference, in that moment I was about 320 miles from Ushuaia, a town called “the end of the world”. It’s a port for ships that go to Antarctica because there’s no inhabited place in the world closer to Antarctica.
After taking a final antigen test and clearing Chilean customs, a driver from the camp drove four hours to Patagonia Camp, Torres del Paine.The angels and ancestors were working overtime on that part of the journey.
Patagonia Camp was magical- gourmet meals, excellent service, highly-trained guides for the trekking excursions. It was challenging to get there, but so worth it. The hiking excursions were rated from green to red. One day I did a 10-mile mountain hike that took six hours. The camp considered it a flat hike. Our definitions of flat were not aligned. I needed some serious jacuzzi time to recover.
Patagonia, Argentina Accommodations Specs:
$695 per night for a yurt with a jacuzzi, during shoulder season
Includes transportation to/from the camp, most excursions, food and beverages.
Note: It did cost extra to pick me up from the remote border crossing.
Patagonia Camp is an all-inclusive camp with 20 yurts at the edge of Lake Toro, set in 26,000 acres of private reserve
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