Geography
The park, which contains the glacier, defies logical comprehension due to its incredible size. It is the second largest in Argentina, extending some 170 km along the Chilean frontier and covering some 660,000 hectares. Some 40% of the park is covered by giant ice fields, with 47 major glaciers of which 13 flow east descending into the park to feed the two big lakes, Lake Viedma in the north and Lago Argentino in the south. There are also about 190 smaller glaciers that are not connected to the ice fields.

Just east of the ice fields are areas of southern beech forest and further east still the Patagonia steppe with shrub vegetation. There are over a hundred species of birds inhabiting the forest and steppe.

The best time to visit the park is between October and March. While the visiting season is being extended each year by tourist demand, September still represents a sleepy opening and Easter seems to be the magical date for closing up. Outside of these times it may still be possible to visit the park but there may not be any tours running and only a mad man would want to risk hiring a car and driving on the terrible gravel roads which lead into the park.

Weather
The nearest large town which apparently has any weather, is Rio Gallegos (from personal experience this is always rain - of the torrential type). Check weather here.

Activities
The only real reason for making the long and somewhat arduous trek to El Calafate is to visit the stupendously stunning (insert more of your own superlatives here) Moreno Glacier (of course I think its perfectly justifiable to visit for a meal at Rick's, but that's just my stomach talking).

Most people sensibly take a tour (about US$25) which most of the accommodations mentioned below can organise for you at half a day's notice. Being a card-carrying, tourist bashing, independent traveller I would normally fly TAP than take a group tour. However, I am pleased to report that almost all of the tours to the Glacier were professionally run by friendly bilingual guides who were both informative and entertaining - a rare combination in my humble opinion.

The tours generally picked people up from their hotels around about 8.30am - 9am and returned around about 5pm. Our guide entertained us with a wealth of facts on the longish drive (about 2 hours) to the glacier, "and on your left you can see some condor and did you know that each albatross can produce its own weight in excrement every twenty minutes", or "this farm on the left is run by Sr. Bloggs, he has an outside toilet and last year we had to cut his frozen buttocks from the toilet seat when the temperature dropped to minus 20", yet had the sense to keep quiet on the return leg and let everyone sleep.

Once at the park the groups are guided to the first balcony and the guides sensibly retire to the coach to drink, mate, and sleep. There is more than sufficient time to wander around the walkways and gasp in wonder at the glacier.

The first stop on the tour to view the glacier is about 7km away and even at that distance it is mind blowingly staggering - (readers may need to remember that I am a simple country boy who grew up in London where even a hint of snow drives the populous into orgasmic excitement). Do not make the mistake that everyone else does and shoot off all your film at this stage as the views from closer up are even better and take more film than you could possibly need.

The next stop for most of the tours is the small harbour where anyone wanting to take a boat trip out to the glacier can part with about US$30 for an hour long cruise on the water. I didn't do this as it didn't seem like terribly good value to me but most people who did it were mildly enthusiastic. You don't actually get that close to the glacier as it has a nasty habit of calving every few minutes and dropping skyscraper blocks of ice into the water which can make navigation a bit tricky. However, you do get a different prospective of the glacier, which is in fact as tall as the monolith in central Buenos Aires.

The tours groups are dropped near the first walkway and are given plenty of time to wander around the catwalks - which are spread over three levels - take photos and peruse the small snack bar. There are lots of little information plaques in English for those who have an insatiable thirst for glaciered trivia.

Accommodation
Good accommodation can be a bit difficult to find (it doesn't help that many buses arrive at midnight either) and most of the places recommended in the LP guide book were pretty expensive for my US$25 a day accommodation budget.

The Hostal del Glaciar got good reviews from the other travellers I talked to. Like most hostels and hotels in the area they are also available to help with booking tours, arranging onward travel and looking after bags for a few days. Their 'alternative glacier tours' got rave reviews whilst I was in town.

The Kauyatan Hotel was a more exclusive hotel that will probably be a little pricey for most backpackers (rates start about US$120 for a double). It did look rather swanky from the outside. Its information brochure invites you: "To know Perito Moreno glacier and cheer up to walk on it." Now who could resist that?

More hotels and accommodations can be found at:
www.sectur.gov.ar/e/reg3/lsthote.htm
www.hotelroomsplus.com/argentina/elcalafate.htm

I stayed in the Hospedaje Buenos Aires (Ciudad De Buenos Aires, 296), which was excellent value (US$25 for a double room without breakfast). The genial owner arranged our tour and gave us some good advice on onward travel. Highly recommended. There were also a number of other hostels in this general area many of which operate on a seasonal nature.

There are also a number of campsites in town:
Camping Municipal: Ubicación: José Pantín - A orillas del Arroyo Calafate. Tel. 491829.

Los Dos Pinos: Ubicación: 9 de julio 358 Teléfono 491271.

Camping Río Mitre: Ubicación: 53 Km. de El Calafate and 27 km from the glacier - cold water showers.

These places charge a maximum of about 4 dollars a night per person and 6 dollars per car.

Places to Eat
There are quite a few decent places to partake in the cholesterol inducing Argentinean bar-be-que. I had a stunning "eat until you full over and die" type meal at Rick's restaurant which is situated on the main street in El Calafate. For US$11 you can eat as much meat, including incredible steaks the likes of which I have never seen, tender barbequed Patagonian mutton, chicken, sausages, salad, fries and bread until your explode - and then, and only then, do they bring out the deserts. Wine was extremely reasonably priced as well. One of the best places to eat in Patagonia.

Opposite this restaurant is a small anonymous looking empanada shop (empanadas are small parcels of pastry stuffed with everything from eggs to meat to fish and form the staple diet of most Patagonian backpackers) that produces the world's best empanadas. It's easy to spot as it's always packed with locals and had quaint lacy curtains and heaving trays of empanadas in the window. For my trip up to Puerto Madryn I bought a bag of empanadas for a few dollars and had the most magnificent picnic on the bus. Their pies aren't too bad either. I shall be sending this shop the bill for the alterations on my clothes after I put on about 5kgs whilst in town.

Banks
O.k. El Calafate - I suppose you think it's funny running a town with two small banks that keep ridiculous opening hours? I arrived late at night and booked a tour for the following morning expecting (like almost everywhere else in civilised South America) to find a bank in the morning. However, neither of them opened till after 10am and as most morning tours leave at 9am I found myself in the unenviable situation of running around town trying to cash travellers cheques (quite impossible) and eventually having to borrow the money for the trip from the wonderful owner of our hotel. The moral of this story is that you should change money before you arrive in town.

Getting There
The town is accessible by bus or by plane, although plane availability is dependent upon demand - but should pick up now the new airport if finished. From Puerto Natales, bus trips are available once or twice daily

The funky modern bus station has links to many places in Argentina - especially useful are the links to Rio Gallegos (for Chilean destinations) and Buenos Aires. Of all the companies, I found El Pingüino most helpful and comfortable.

El Pingüino: Terminal ómnibus Local 4. Tel. 491273
Interlagos: Terminal ómnibus Local 5. Tel. 491018
Quebek Tour: Terminal Local 3. Telefax 491843
Cal Tur: Terminal Local 1. Telefax 491842
Los Glaciares: Terminal ómnibus Local 6. Tel. 491158
Chaltén Travel: Terminal local 2. Tel. 491833
Cootra: Terminal ómnibus Local 7. Telefax 491444

Internet Café
There is a call centre which has four internet connections on the main street. It is reasonable priced.

10 Reasons for Going to El Calafate
1. The glacier is stunning.
2. Being able to impress people by having seen a glacier 'calf'.
3. Impressing people even more by knowing that icebergs from glacial flows are deep blue in colour.
4. It's in Patagonia and you can pretend you are Bruce Chatwin.
5. The food there is reasonably priced and stunning.
6. There are more chocolate shops than residents.
7. You can see condors.
8. The glacier is very photogenic and the changing light gives a new perspective every few minutes.
9. It's a convenient stop off for those heading south to Ushuia or north to Bs. As.
10. Few foreigners have been there - it's mainly full of Argentineans.

About the Author
The author has lived and travelled extensively in both hemispheres. He is co-founder of the "Let's travel in Chile and Uruguay" society. When not travelling or contributing to numerous travel magazines he can be found in Cambridge, UK. He lists his favourite activites as: writing complaining letters to Air Portugal, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hanging around airports. He may be contacted via: nihon_news@yahoo.com

Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our South America Insiders page.