Rain Hike In El Calafate
Lago Argentino. ISO80, 35mm, f/11, 1/320sec, handheld
When I planned logistics for our 2-month South America trip, I set the guiding principle to stay one week in each place. The goal was to set an acceptable pace for ourselves, our 4 year old and 2 year old.
Well, that was the principle.
The reality was, uh hum, a bit different.
Call me greedy. I want to see too many places. Check out my 7 blog posts about our 2 weeks in Peru, we moved 6 times. The list below didn’t include our one full day stay in Lima.
15 Minutes Of Fame In Cusco Peru
Inca Walk At Saqsaywaman
Unique Landscape At Maras And Moray
Rain Clouds In Machu Picchu
Indigenous Dance In Sacred Valley
Sunset In Arequipa
Volcanoes And Andrean Condors In Colca Canyon
El Calafate, for example. I originally planned for 6 days. Then I realized, when in Patagonia, how could we skip El Chaltén? That resulted in splitting 6 days into 3 and 3 in El Calafate and El Chaltén.
Out of the 3 days, we literally only had two full days in El Calafate, as day 0 and day 3 would be travel days.
Given this pace, we didn’t have much room to research and plan. On the day we landed in El Calafate, we had a nice chat with our Airbnb host, who gave us great suggestions on what to do in El Calafate and El Chaltén. That evening, we walked to a tour agency and arranged our boat trip to Perito Moreno Glacier for day 1. We also arranged a private driver for a Los Glaciares National Park back road tour on day 2, and to El Chaltén and Lago del Desierto on Day 3.
Our day 1 Perito Moreno Glacier boat tour turned out to be a blast! Click my previous blog “Perito Moreno Glacier - a must see!” for more details.
Day 2 was spent on a dirt road. It was pretty easy to identify on the map. There were two major roads leading from the town center westward to the Los Glaciares National Park entrance. One is paved, the other is unpaved. We went on the unpaved road.
It was heavily clouded. We could see the massive and beautiful Lago Argentina all the way along the drive.
We made many small stops here and there. I found beauty in layers of different landscape from close to far distance, and the simple shades of colors.
We even saw 3 Andes condors, a big highlight in our Colca Canyon trip in Peru. Before we arrived at the trailhead of a smaller lake, Lago Roca, our planned hiking destination, we already spent more than 2 hours on the road.
We did many hikes on the trip over the past 1.5 months. This one was actually not that hard given it was only 300 meters, with only the last 100 meters in upward slope.
However, it wasn't easy for our kids. We arrived at the trailhead in a drizzle. But the wind - I'm talking about the Patagonia wind - was slapping the rain onto our faces constantly. Plus, three of us didn't wear rain jackets.
I had to be extremely careful using my camera, only clicking a few shots at a time and tucking it away immediately after.
As we were approaching the top of the hill, the rain intensified. The lake was barely visible in the heavy mist. We had to rush back to the car before the trail became too muddy. Apollo unfortunately slipped his shoes in a little stream we had to cross. Given the winter temperature, it certainly wasn't enjoyable for a 4 year old.
Nevertheless, it was small moments like this that made our trip special, and memorable.
On our way back, our private driver took us to a spot where I could photograph Lago Argentina up and close. It was raining when we arrived by the lake shore, and I wasn’t sure if I could shoot a planned day-time long exposure (see equipment, tips and tricks).
I must be lucky again. The rain suddenly stopped when I started to take pictures. I was fascinated by the color of this glacier lake, and was so glad that I could bring a piece of memory home.
See more posts about our family trip in Argentina.
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If you want to know where we’ve traveled during our 9 weeks in South America, find your table of contents here. Also featuring my favorite family travel video in Galapagos.