Surprisingly, our Aerolíneas Argentinas flight took off relatively on schedule - probably helped by the fact it was one of the first flights of the day. We have heard nothing but bad reports about this company which make our Air Iberia flight seem luxurious – this is extremely hard to do. The only annoying thing was that our boarding time according to the ticket was at 4.55am (not sure why it was an hour before take off), yet security wouldn’t let us thought to the departure lounge until 5.30am. Naturally (at least naturally for me) I was freaking out that we would miss our flight. I hate airports.
At El Calafate we boarded a mini van which took us to our hostel America del Sur. This place is the best hostel we have stayed in so far, I highly recommend it. The hostel also happened to be where Fiona (from Peru’s Challenge) was staying and we had arranged to meet up with her.
After dumping our bags, sorting out mountain loads of dirty washing and showering, we walked down to the main street. After refueling we embarked on a price checking excursion. It turns out there is a monopoly on each type of tour you can do here. Only one company runs the boat tour, another, the ice trekking tour and yet another, the bus trip to El Chalten. All tour offices in town have formed a syndicate and consequently they all offer the tours at the exact same price as the next company a few doors down. I don’t understand how so many tour offices can survive this way. Every forth shop is one, the three in between are a chocolate shop, souvenir store and a restaurant.
The town is not that exciting but it is situated on a lake with a backdrop of beautiful mountains. I cant believe we have made it to Patagonia. I didn’t think we could fit it in but here we are and it was well worth the expense. Snow capped peaks all around, shimmering lakes and amazing glaciers. What more could you ask for?
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