El Calafate
Saturday, April 6
At the end of our year-long trip around the world, we took another vacation from our jobs and fulfilled a big dream: We booked flights to Patagonia!
Even after nine months in Latin America, we still hadn't gotten used to the size and vastness of most of the countries there. At that point we were staying in Buenos Aires, which meant we found ourselves further south in the world than we had ever been before. However, because Argentina is such a large country, the distance between Buenos Aires and El Calafate (the city we wanted to visit in Patagonia) was still 2,000 kilometers as the crow flies. Taking the bus there wasn't an option, so we looked for a domestic flight. We were incredibly lucky and found a flight one day that was much cheaper than the usual flights on that route, so we booked it immediately.
A few weeks later, the time had finally come, and we actually flew to Patagonia! After just over three hours, we landed at the airport in El Calafate, a small town on the Argentinian side of Patagonia. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel and were amazed by the barren, vast landscape around us. When we arrived at the hotel, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were, as we were given a room with a beautiful view of the surrounding nature. We had never seen such expanse before. Looking out the window we saw one of the many beautiful lakes that was home to wild flamingos and we could see endless meadows covered with various colorful bushes and shrubs. There were almost no trees here, and even the small bushes were wind-marked due to the strong Patagonian winds. Only one small road led past the hotel and along the lake.
It was incredibly quiet all day, and apart from the other hotel guests at breakfast, we didn't meet many other people outside. In Patagonia, we sometimes felt like we were on another planet because the landscape and nature were so special, yet there were so few other tourists. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet and often had the entire nature/trail to ourselves. The nature in Patagonia was incredibly beautiful, and we were very lucky with the weather, which was sunny and mild every day.
