The software I use to publish this blog has an AI powered SEO headline analyser. This suggests that my usually pithy and occasionally cryptic titles are no good for attracting visitors. Now, I am not entirely sure that I want to attract more viewers. This blog is written mostly for the benefit of my baby sister, Helen, and incidentally for anyone else that has an interest in what Diane and I are up to. However, as some sort of experiment, I have been trying to write headlines that the AI SEO analyser approves of. You may have noticed.
El Calafate is a tourist hub on the south side of Lago Argentino. When I was here in 1991 it had a population of 3,000. There were a couple of bars, a restaurant and a grocery shop. Today, with a population of over 22,000 it is not recognisable as the same place. The main street is packed with tour agents, restaurants, gear shops and late-night theme bars. The sleepy little town is now a bustling, colourful place heaving with a great mix of different people. The old airport has been overtaken by the conurbation. The runways have been turned into streets. This is why El Calafate has two concrete roads each six lanes wide. The new, international airport is several kilometres away. The most recent World Altitude Gliding record, over 22,000 m, 2018, was set close to El Calafate in a glider with pressurised cabin.
People come to El Calafate for the bird watching, 4×4 tours, trekking and particularly because of El Calafate’s proximity to the Perito Moreno National Park. Tourists flock to see the Perito Moreno glacier which supports many tourist activities such as sightseeing, hiking, walking on top of the glacier, sailing and kayaking. We joined in with the flocking and took an early morning drive to the park where we joined a small boat. It was just a short trip. About an hour. We went out to the glacier, hung around a while and came back. The views were spectacular. The glacier is 30 km long. The snout, some 5 km wide, calves into Lago Agentino. Its origin was part of, yet another, border dispute. Argentina has a rich history of border disputes. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field dispute was resolved in 1998 leaving a small part in Chile and all the rest in Argentina.
The glacier pushes across a narrow part of the lake and occasionally dams it. Water builds up on the Brazo Rico side of the lake. Sometimes as much as 30 m before the dam breaks and there is a massive outrush of water. This happens irregularly, every few years. The rupture of this glacier is considered one of the most impressive natural spectacles in the world. It did not happen while we were there. There was no rupture rapture. Although we did see some minor calving events.
Back on shore, we went to the visitors centre and the walkways. An immense chain of steel walkways have been constructed on the hillside opposite the glacier. These extend for several kilometres with hundreds of steps. We wandered around for a while. It was remarkably crowded. I was quite surprised that so many people would turn out to see a glacier. Fortunately, the weather was almost perfect. Clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Eventually we had done enough walking and glacier gazing, so we headed back to El Calafate.
Next day was very relaxed. We had a walk along the shore of Lago Argentino and I photographed a few ducks and some upside-down flamingos. That was it for the whole day. We stopped at a coffee shop and had cheese toastados. Next day we woke early and relaxed to set off for El Chalten.
