As close to the South Pole as I’ve ever been

Today we left the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, and headed further south to the small community of El Calafate in the province of Santa Cruz. It is the major supply community for those travelling to Los Glaciares National Park.

Our domestic flight flew out of the municipal airport today. The airport was quite chaotic, but everything was on time and all went well. As we were approaching the town we could see the snow capped Andes in the not too far distance. We arrived into El Calafate by 12:30 pm and were bussed to our hotel which is a 20 minute or so walk to the centre of town. 

More than 30,000 people live in Calafate, all supported by tourism as its only industry. They run tours year round with the height of the season being their summer, December and January, when it warms to mid-20s C. In their summer, it is light in the day from 4:30 am – 11 pm and in winter it is only light from 10 am – 4:30 pm. When we arrived I said it felt like we were in Canada’s north, like White Horse and I suppose it is pretty similar distance from the equator. The architecture ranges widely from tiny ramshackle bungalows, to lodge or cottage style and a few high end brick homes.    

After dumping our bags we meandered into town to grab lunch and see what we could see.  The town is bigger than I expected with many restaurants and stores supplying equipment and guides for those hiking in the park. One can also book an excursion to do a full day hike on the glacier, but we’ve given that a pass.  

We found a really cute, brightly painted and adorned cafe with an outdoor patio, and it was warm enough in the sun and out of the wind to sit outside. 

As we had our lunch at about 3 pm we started seeing little trick or treaters walking down the sidewalks and coming in to the restaurant to get treats.  Many were dressed as skeletons, and some as quite gory corpses.  But there some other inventive and cute costumes on the kids and on their parents accompanying them.  Made me a little homesick for my little humans in Ottawa but I know they had a hoot.  

We picked up some snacks and water from the grocery store on the main drag and headed back to our hotel, stopping at a bakery on our way home to pick up sandwiches for dinner. Our hotel is really nice and we’re well looked after, but they don’t have a restaurant.