Birds, Lamas, Cattle, Horses, El Calafate, Argentina

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Laguna Nimez, WRTD 25

Our first full day in El Calafate was laid back.  We slept late, ate breakfast in the South BNB resto downstairs from our room, tied up our hiking boots and set out for the downtown area to explore and then towards Lake Argentino and the Laguna Nimez a bird preserve where numerous species of birds nest and summer here, including flocks of pink flamingos.

Ibis

We have been to numerous bird preserves, and this was by far the most beautiful and active. El Calafate is the recipient of federal funds from oil drilling and love by one of Argentinas presidents to build a beautiful infrastructure for tourists, broad streets, underground utilities, parks, malacon (waterfront walk way), and investment in environmental protection and an encouragement for international investors. Tourism here has increased from 35,000 to over 400,000 people per year.  Glacier viewing and exploration is of course the primary reason people come here.

Night Falls on El Calafate

Wednesday, February 3, 2016, Gauchos We are Not, WRTD 26

We decided to exercise the rental car today and headed  toward the Pietro Moreno Glacier, not to go all the way today, but to visit a cattle/sheep ranch and to go horseback riding on the Pampas.  Gauchos we are not, but we had  a spectacular morning riding along the Moreno Glacier melt lake.

Along the way to the Rio Mitre Ranch, we found a geocache at Elephant Rocks, a large formation that looked like a stand of facing elephants. 

The turn off from the main road was washboard gravel for a couple of miles until we reached the ranch. 

We were greeted by the owner Estephan and the many pet animals. Estephan's family have lived here for 150 years and hold 2000 hectares of land.  Lamas, a blind calf, and lots of long horned shaggy goats introduced themselves to us by rubbing noses, nibbling on our clothing, and untying and chewing on our boot laces.

Today, Estephan's brother operates the cattle ranch.  Estephan operates the restaurant and horseback riding. Martin and Tally were our guides. They are students working at the ranch for the summer.  

We were introduced to our horses, both old and slow by our request.  

Tally helps me mount

The saddles were not western with saddle horns and were covered with thick lambs wool.  It seemed to me they had very short stirups that were chest height for me. Even when lowered, the stirups were above my belly button and while my foot may have reached that high, without the saddle horn to hang on and pull my self up and over, I needed some assistance!  Fortunately, a large flat boulder was a great platform.

Once we were mounted, we were on our way for an hour ride.  The cattle  stood up, and moved out the way often running ahead of us as we followed in their dust and their mooing.

It was challenging to take photos while riding, but we did our best to capture the ride. The air was cool and fresh. We enjoyed the birds, 

ranch horses, 

and meandering around the edges of the glacier melt. 

Wonderful.

When we returned from our ride, the Patagonia lamb was on the grill,

and we feasted our stomachs and our eyes on the lunch and view.  

After lunch, we tried the Argentine drink of matea, like tea, but quite bitter.  It looks like pond scum floating in the water (tastes like it too), and one must drink it through a filtered straw. We are not fans of this drink.

While we visited with Estephan, he shared with us his family history, and the artifacts his family had collected from their land over the years, including a fossilized dinosaur egg, 

and a dinosaur bone fashioned as a bola by early indigenous people.  We couldn't have had a better morning!

On our return to El Calafate, we spent a couple of interesting hours at the Glaciarium, a museum dedicated to glaciology, and once again walked along the lake ponds fronting the lake enjoying the bird life.  

Tomorrow, we are taking a desert tour to the "Bad Lands" by the Rio Leona.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel Rs in El Calafate, Argentina

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Goodbye Ushuaia, Hello El Calafate WTRD 24

Monday, February 1, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 24 

Checkout time at our AirBnB is 10:00 a.m.  We are also to meet the Rental Car Agent at the airport at 10:00 a.m. and return the car.  Russ and I pack up the car, leave the key on the table and the door unlocked of the apartment we have been renting, and are on the way to the airport which is 15 minutes away by 9:40.  It has been drizzling overnight.  The roads are wet.

The airport is small, like Sacramento was in the 1980's.  We are to meet Herman at Departures.  We pull up right in front the airport and park.  There are no guards or police making you move along.  Russ runs into the the airport building, finds Herman at the cafeteria; he comes outside, looks over the car; we unload, say goodbye, and walk into the terminal.  So easy and convenient!  Security is easy too.  No separation of liquids and gels.  Shoes on, belts on, laptop out only.

The good news, no rush.  The bad news, our plane is delayed until 3:00 pm.  No worries.  We read, play cards, watch people, have lunch, and finally board the plane.  

I don't know what I expected about El Calafate (named after a desert bush with yellow flowers and blue berries), other than it is a town on the lake at the base of a glacial lake in Patagonia.  I may have been expecting something more like Lake Louise.  As we clear through the light layer of clouds, we fly low over a vast high desert.  It looks like Nevada.  There is a lake flanked by desert on one side, foothills, and Andes on the other.  The ground is brown.  The temperature is warm and we are very warm in our End of the World clothing.

We arrive around 4:30 and collect our bags.  Again, a sigh of relief to be reunited with our stuff.  The Avis agent meets us at the gate with a sign; we find a place to sit down and complete the paperwork, he takes us out to the car, a very basic chevy (manual locks and roll up windows) that has been around for awhile with multiple windshield dings and cracks.  We crank up the engine and we're gone.

Our AirBnB sits on hill above the touristy little town, a 10 minute walk, overlooking the lake. We check in with the very friendly owners, brother and sister team Javiar and Andrea, unpack, and head out for dinner.  

Upon recommendation of Andrea, we eat at La Cocina.  Wow!  We shared a warm broccoli salad with a whipped garlic cheese (marscapone and cream).  I had baked eggplant ravioli with cheese, and Russ had lamb filled ravioli in an almond cream.  Incredibly delicious and fattening!  Good thing we will be hiking here.

We will be staying in El Calafate for 5 nights before meeting up with our Australian World Adventure group to do some light trekking through Patagoina for 10 days.

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Cheers!

All is Well With the Worrall Travel Rs in Patagonia