Calafate and Ushuaia Trip Report

Old Sep 26th, 2007, 05:11 AM
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Calafate and Ushuaia Trip Report

I have been to a lot of places around the world but the Glaciers in Calafate has to be one of the most beautiful things to see in this world. I thought I’d take the time to share my experience and post a trip report.

I live in Buenos Aires and I have for almost 4 years now. I have traveled quite a bit around Argentina and I’ve hit almost every country in South America but I’ve never been to Calafate before (although I’ve always wanted to visit but just never made time for it until now).

I’ve been extremely crazy busy this year and traveling quite a bit so I didn’t have time to research any details of the trip. I trusted the concierge at the company that I own and she made all the arrangements for me. I heard from several clients that the Los Nostros Hotel with a direct view of the Perito Moreno Glacier was the best hotel in town. It was unique that it had a view to the Glaciers. It is VERY pricey at u$s 1,000 per night.

I have some employees that did internships there and also other hotels in the area and they all recommended to me they didn’t think it was worth it to pay that kind of money, especially if you were going to do excursions there. I took their advice. They recommended a hotel called Los Alamos Hotel which was right in the downtown area.

I had my concierge take care of everything for me. She booked tickets for my girlfriend and I on Aerolineas Argentina that left directly from the domestic airport in Buenos Aires.

It was a bit of a bummer that the flight left so early in the morning. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 AM and of course it left an hour late (85% of all domestic flights in Argentina are late). The flight was uneventful and we had a quick stop to let some passengers off in some city on the way (I’m not actually sure which) and then let some on but it was efficient and we were on our way within 40 minutes to the airport in Calafate.

The airport in Calafate is clean and modern. They have a good system of making sure that they check all bag tags with passengers which I always appreciate. My concierge had arranged a private transportation for us in a van so he was waiting with a sign. She also had booked 2 excursion trips for us ahead of time. One was the mini-trekking tour and the other was the “All Glaciers” tour by boat.

We arrived at the hotel and the lobby is nice. We got in the morning but we were told ahead of time we could check in early which was appreciated as it was around 10:30 am. I booked a bigger suite. It was about u$s 300 per night. The room was very big and spacious. The only complaint I have is that although the bathroom is VERY big the architect should have his license taken away! The bathroom had a Jacuzzi big enough for 4 people yet it had a small cheap shower stall literally made of plastic that even a skinny supermodel would have problems taking a shower in. It looked like the shower was an afterthought after they designed the bathroom and forgot about it. A shower like that with cheap plastic doors is not appropriate for a room for $300/night. I’m not sure if the other rooms were like this. I hope not.

The staff was great. The rate included breakfast every day and the breakfast spread was pretty good. They have a restaurant across the street so you can hit breakfast from 6 AM to 11 AM. There is also a HUGE swimming pool and a spa and gym across the street in the big complex which looks to be fairly new. It overlooks the hotels golf course.

Most of the excursions leave very early and we arrived after they started so we decided to take the first day and unwind. We walked around downtown and really it’s extremely tiny. There isn’t much to do there so don’t just book a room near downtown to be near it.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Casimiro downtown on the strip. It was nice and looked to be fairly new. The food was ok. Nothing special. I found it a bit funny to see that this restaurant (and the others we went to during our trip) charged the same amount for Lake Trout that they claim are from the local Lake than a steak. I couldn’t really figure out why Lake Trout caught in the local streams would be the same price as a big steak other than the fact that tourism is strong so they can get it so why not charge it? I did order the trout and it was good.


We walked around a bit and then came back to the hotel and we booked 80 minute full body massages at the spa at the hotel. It was VERY relaxing. We wanted to relax and try to get to bed early as the mini-trekking excursion started early and they picked us up at the hotel at 8 AM. We were told to order a lunch basket and bring water and drinks as there were NO restaurants or stores on the trip and they were right. We had the hotel make these little lunch baskets of sandwiches and fruit. Sadly to say the sandwiches were horrible and the food was almost inedible which was surprising since the breakfast buffet was pretty good.

Our concierge booked our trips with a travel agency called Aventura Andina. They were very good and efficient and everything was on time the entire time. Our driver was at the airport and was very courteous and on time. I read about a poster on TripAdvisor that posted a report that said he recommended the VIP section on the All Glaciers boat ride. I didn’t know a VIP section existed. He posted it was u$s 15 but at the travel agency when I inquired to upgrade it was 145 pesos (u$s 46) each so I think he took a different boat. I’ll post about that later but it was well worth it.
For the mini-trekking tour it was amazing!!!


As I posted, I travel around the world quite a bit and travel more than anyone I know. This was one of the most glorious things I have seen. On the mini-trekking tour they pick you up at your hotel and then you take a 1.5 hour trip on a private bus. They take you to the National Park. At the entrance you must pay an entrance fee.
Foreigners pay 30 pesos (u$s 9.50) and residents of Argentina pay only 10 pesos. (u$s 3.17). My girlfriend and I are both residents of Argentina so we paid the 10 pesos each. They don’t ask for any ID or anything so there is no way they will know if you are a foreigner but it’s good to stay honest. One couple once they heard us saying we were “nationals” also wanted to say that and the tour guide was laughing and saying anyone that got caught the fine was 5 times penalty (she was joking) the cost. Everyone was laughing on the bus. It’s a small price to pay for such an amazing visit!


So you take a ride to the dock and then you board a boat to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It’s incredible. It was cloudy but fortunately it wasn’t raining. When we arrived from the airport it was sprinkling out and I was worried we would have rain so I was happy it wasn’t raining.


You get to the other side after you get off the boat and there is a small cabin where you can put your lunch, bags or backpacks. I had a small backpack and we opted to just bring it with us rather than leave it behind. You walk through the forest a bit and then you get to the Glacier.

One thing I’ll point out is to make sure you bring gloves as its cold and it’s required to have gloves for the trip as the ice is sharp and if you fall you can cut your hand. Make sure to have a good jacket. We both wore our ski jackets and glad we did as it was chilly. We were fortunate that there was almost no wind that day. Some people were unprepared and they had neither gloves nor good jackets. There was a bin of used cheap gloves for people if they forgot their gloves and several people had to go to the bin.


Definitely bring your cameras or video cameras. It was incredible! I never had been to a Glacier before. I guess I expected something a bit different but literally the entire thing is solid ice. It was surreal going to the base of the Glacier and then actually climbing on it. Before we started climbing you walk by the base of the Glacier and you can take photos by the sign. We got VERY lucky as a big chunk of the Glacier fell off while we were there. It’s amazing as there is an incredibly loud sound as the ice breaks off. Almost as if a shotgun is going off and it echoes around the mountain. Then you see the waves of the normally still lake force a wave from the force of the huge ice falling into the water.


At the base of the Glacier they give you these steel cleats with “teeth” that they tie on to your shoes. It gives you traction so you can dig your feet into the ice. Again, it’s common sense that a Glacier is made of ice but I expected that parts of it would have snow on it. That isn’t the case. It’s just a huge mass of ice and it was surreal climbing up the ice mountain! It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve gone through and I would recommend this to anyone coming to Argentina.


We climbed the South side of the Glacier. It was several hours. The actual excursion from start to finish was 10 hours. You get a bit tired as you are walking and it’s cold. There were several senior citizens in our group that had problems or bad knees so keep this in mind if you are in this situation.


After we got to the bottom they had a table set up at the base and it was funny as they had whisky for people to drink. We had our bottled water so we skipped the whisky but I thought that was an odd choice of a drink once you hit the bottom but hey, to each his own. There were plenty of people drinking the whisky and eating the chocolate they also offered.

Then we had our packed lunches. As I mentioned earlier, the food was bad that we ordered from our hotel. We were starving so we still ate it. They said that they were going to take us on another vantage point of the excursion called “Passarella” which I thought was pointless. I asked my girlfriend how anything could top what we just experienced? She agreed and we were laughing. How wrong we were!

So the bus takes you up to the mountain directly across and on top of the Glacier. The view was amazing!!! You could see the entire Petito Moreno Glacer! It went on and seemed to last forever. The photos we took were amazing! Definitely it was worth it and a very necessary vantage point. It was interesting as they are building what looks to be a huge restaurant on top of the hill with a direct view to the Glacier. It said it was a 14 million peso ($4.5 million project). I’m a real estate developer in Argentina and in my developer mind I was saying to myself, these guys are going to make a fortune. The view was incredible.
In fact you pass the Los Nostros Hotel and you could see the view from the hotel. These owners are making a fortune. This was the hotel I was originally going to stay at that was $1,000 per night. Looking bad, I’d say I’d stay here vs. the other hotel so if you aren’t on a budget, I’d recommend it for the view alone.


When we got back from the excursion we were both really tired but super hungry as we didn’t eat much. We went to go walk to the restaurant – La Tablita which was supposed to be the best restaurant in town. It was only 8:30 PM when we got there and it was packed! We were lucky we made it without reservations.

By the end of our dinner at 10 PM it was packed and there was a line of people waiting so I recommend you make reservations if you are coming after 9 PM. It was a quaint little restaurant. There isn’t much to choose from in town. We ordered a salad and chorizo to start and it was very good. My girlfriend ordered the lamb which was good and I ordered an Asado but they were out so I ordered a Bife de Chorizo. It was pretty good….Nothing outstanding but it was good. This restaurant was great value. The trout at the first restaurant I mentioned they were charging 50 pesos for a Lake Trout and here it was 30 pesos but again, it was the same price as the steak which I still find funny.


I told my girlfriend that we needed to prepare our own lunches for the next day. We went to the supermarket and we bought fresh bread and smoked turkey along with some cheese and we made our own lunches that night and put them in some zip lock bags we bought. It was delicious!!! I’d probably recommend doing the same thing as it’s easy to do and the quality of the food was much better doing that.

The next day we went on the All Glaciers boat excursion. It was AMAZING! It was totally worth it to pay the 145 pesos @ extra and getting the VIP section. I’m not sure about other boats as some looked to be smaller but on this boat called Upsala Connection, it was totally worth it. Their VIP section was called Captain’s Room and it has these bigger oversized leather seats that reclined. There were only 16 seats and you had your own hostess for this section. It was very quiet and literally the captain was sailing the ship from this room. The other upstairs and downstairs areas were loud and had kids crying and yelling. It was a great investment. Also, all the drinks were included free. Bottled water, sodas, hot chocolate, coffee, teas, etc. Its several hours. It was great and so was the service.


Unfortunately we couldn’t dock on land and walk around as last week a HUGE chunk of ice broke and the lake was flooded with big chunks of ice. That cut the trip short but it was still worth it. It was incredible and I have never seen anything with such pristine tranquility in my life.


During the end of the trip there was this old Argentine lady that was yelling at the captain. She came up from the cheap seats and told the captain that the trip was ending 2 hours early and she didn’t get her money’s worth. The captain who was great and calm explained to her that he can’t control Mother Nature and it wasn’t safe to navigate and dock. She kept yelling. Everyone in the VIP section couldn’t believe it. Immediately after she left I told everyone, “how can this lady complain… it’s a perfectly sunny day, perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky and no one in their right mind could complain after seeing this perfection”. Everyone agreed with me. After all, this wasn’t like going to a boxing match and seeing one boxer knock out the other after only 1 round and feeling cheated. This was spectacular and there really was no price you could put on having a picture perfect day like this.

We just got back to the hotel and my girlfriend is so happy that the internet isn’t working here. I haven’t been able to work the entire trip so far which is rare for me. The hotel has wi-fi but it’s not working most of the time so I decided to quickly type this and maybe I’ll get lucky and it will work. We were supposed to go get 80 minute massages at 8 PM but since we got back early we are going now (it’s 5 PM now). Then we’ll go for a swim and then shower and go eat.


The trip couldn’t be more perfect and I’d recommend everyone coming to Argentina to come to Calafate and see the Glaciers. It’s truly incredible! Tomorrow we are off to Ushuaia. Cheers all.

Ushuaia Trip Report

So I left Calafate (see my Calafate trip report) and we left late in the afternoon. The Posades Los Alamos was kind enough to give us a complimentary late check-out (normal check-out time is 10 am) since they didn’t have another booking and we booked a Junior Suite which was pricey so we checked out at 2 PM and then the transfer picked us up at 3:30 PM. The flight to Ushuaia was on Aerolineas Argentina and they were running late.

The transfer driver was on time and brought us to the airport. A really nice guy and I asked him the question about why lake trout here is so expensive in comparison to steak or other food. He laughed and said it was because of tourism. He said really food here is expensive compared to other areas of Argentina and he is right. He said he didn’t mind as the tourism was so vital for the area.

We had an effortless check-in and as always they didn’t charge us for having a VERY heavy bag. My girlfriend packed everything under the sun in the suitcase so it was heavy but I’ve never been charged an excessive baggage fee. We paid an exit tax at the airport that was about 18 pesos each. The airport is small.

We had a one hour flight from Calafate to Ushuaia. It was amazing that shortly into the trip the pilot flew over the Glaciers and it was amazing to see the entire thing from the air above. The flight was very easy and half empty. Most of the tourists the entire trip seemed to be from Spain or Europe which was interesting to see. LOTS of Spanish tourists. The rest seemed to be from around Argentina. Some Brazilians as well.


I would recommend that if you do come to Ushuaia and Calafate you go to Ushuaia first as after Calafate everything is hard to compare to. We got to the airport and the bags arrived very quickly. None of the transfers were there for the passengers. I guess with the late flight the transfer companies don’t check with the airline? Anyway, ours was late as well. After about 10 minutes a guy shows up with my name on a sign but then he says that the truck will arrive in a bit. I paid for a private transfer and told him that I didn’t want to ride in a small van with a ton of people. I told him I could just take a taxi as there was a taxi stand. He was kind and said that he would send a remise (private driver). I didn’t want to wait so I told him to just arrange with the taxi stand and they could bill them. He agreed and it was all settled within 5 minutes quickly and easily. They didn’t speak English so keep this in mind.

The taxi to the city is very quick. The city is very close to the airport. About 10 minutes by taxi. We arrived to the hotel which was called Fueguino Hotel. It was a 4 star hotel that my concierge set up. It’s a new hotel that has only been around since February 2007. It is in the heart of the city. I booked a Junior Suite. The website is www.fueguinohotel.com The room was very big. I’d say probably about 450 sq. feet or so. It had a new renovated bathroom, HUGE California king size bed (2 meters X 2 meters), guest bathroom, 2 TV’s and also a huge closet and electronic safe. Wi-fi @ was free. Mini-bar and it also had DirecTV. It was great and comfortable and we had no problems at all. The staff was very nice and it also included a breakfast buffet. I think they have about 53 rooms but only 4 of them are suites I believe. It was a great recommendation from my concierge and I’m glad we booked it. Everything is within walking distance.

We unpacked and walked around a good bit. It is very close to everything. There are some beautiful backgrounds as you can see the snow capped mountains in the distance. There is a small harbor called Beagle Canal where there are some ships as well as the docking point for the excursions via boat.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s better if you come here to come BEFORE Calafate as it’s a bit anti-climatic to come to Ushuaia afterwards although I think my concierge booked it this way as I don’t think there is a flight direct from Calafate back to Buenos Aires. I believe you have to fly from Ushuaia anyway.

So we decided to eat and we went to this restaurant. (I won’t name the actual name as I had problems and I will describe what happened and I’m not 100% sure so I don’t want to accuse them of doing something they might not have done --- nor could I prove). We went to this restaurant that overlooked the Harbor area and the waterfront. It wasn’t open yet and the bartender (a French guy) asked us to come back. There was a bar as well off the restaurant area. It was great….we had the entire restaurant to ourselves and something strange was that the entire time we were there, there was NO ONE in the restaurant and we were there from 8 PM to 10 PM.

The bartender brought over a “welcome drink” that we didn’t order. Which we thought was nice. It was delicious and refreshing. Then within 30 minutes after drinking it I started feeling sick. I had sharp pains in my stomach. It was strange. My girlfriend didn’t have any problems. I joked to her that maybe the bartender put something in my drink like in the comedy Wedding Crashers. After all, he kept walking by our table even though he was a bartender and kept starring at my girlfriend. At first I was joking but then we are actually convinced he might have put something in it but I’m not naming the restaurant as I’m not sure and I can’t prove it.

We ordered appetizers which was delicious. I started getting the sharp pain in my stomach about 30 minutes after drinking the welcome drink. Really, it was exactly like the comedy as I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. By the time the main course came out I was really feeling ill and I couldn’t eat my main course. I went to the bathroom and the strange thing is I could see the bartender follow me in there and I could see him through the bathroom stall and he was peering in on me and then faked washing his hands and left. I saw him. Then he walked over to my girlfriend’s table so this is why we were suspicious of this. Something tells me that this has probably happened before so if another tourist had this happen to them it would be interesting to hear posts.

So we left after dinner (I couldn’t finish mine) and we came back to the hotel. It was a shame as the food was really great. We ordered “Centolla” which is the equivalent of King Crab. It is delicious and a specialty here down in the South. My best friend is from Rio Gallagos and his father brings it up when he comes so I tasted it a few years ago and it is great. It’s not available in Buenos Aires. My girlfriend ordered the trout which was also great. I went to bed that night holding my stomach and running to the bathroom every now and then. Thankfully it passed the next day.

The following morning we went on an all day trip. My concierge booked everything with a local travel agency called Travel Lab and they were great. They picked us up at 8 AM at our hotel in a small van with about 8 other people. First we went on “Tren del fin del mundo” (Train to the end of the world). It’s not exactly as spectacular as it sounds. It’s basically a steam train ride that runs through the mountain. Nothing too spectacular. Although Ushuaia in and of itself has some beautiful backgrounds, I didn’t find the city all that spectacular and there is this sense that all the excursions are really manufactured. The train ride went through the mountains and it lasted around 30 minutes or so.

Then we went to the National Park and it was beautiful but I found places like Bariloche much more beautiful. I’m not complaining at all but I’d say it’s definitely not a “must” to come to Ushuaia. We walked on a trail and it was very cold. Fortunately we dressed appropriately.

Then we finished and they dropped us off at the hotel at around 1 PM. We immediately walked to go eat lunch as the other excursion was at 3 PM. So we went to this restaurant called Tia Elvira which was right in front of the Harbor area and it was a small restaurant. It was full of people. The food was DELICIOUS!!! The local specialties were seafood based. During the trip we decided not to eat so much meat as in Buenos Aires we eat steaks and meat a lot as most of the restaurants there specialize in that. We both decided we would eat more seafood and fish as in Buenos Aires it’s not that great. Also, another disappointing thing about living in Buenos Aires is almost no restaurants have soups and I love soup! That is one of the things I really miss about the USA. Having soups in almost every restaurant. In Argentina soup is rare. They don’t even have the Campbell soup types in a can that we can buy in any supermarket in the USA, believe it or not.

We weren’t disappointed at Tia Elvira (Aunt Elvira). The vegetable soup was delicious. They offered some other soups as well. Then we ordered the Centolla Parmesan. Again, Centolla is like a King Crab and it tastes just about the same. We ordered it for the main course and it was in a fried cheese with asparagus. It was amazingly good! I would highly recommend this restaurant. There service was efficient as well. The only thing strange about it was this lady next to us ordered trout and she was given salmon. It was very clear it was salmon and she called the waiter over and said in Spanish “this is salmon not trout like I ordered” and the waiter said, “no, this is our version of trout from our lake”. It wasn’t trout. She didn’t seem to happy but it must not have been too bad because she ate all of it! Ha, ha.

We rushed off to our next excursion which was just across the street. We booked an excursion on a boat. We went on one called Canoero Catamaranes. It was a 2 hour trip and we went out and saw some penguins and also some lion seals. It had some good scenery. The penguins were a variety that was smaller. I think they were called Magellan Penguins.

That finished around 5 PM and then we walked back to the hotel. We were exhausted. We tried going to another restaurant near our hotel called Bodega Fueguina that looked nice and was recommended by our hotel but it was always closed every time we went. I think it’s closed on Sundays and Mondays. We were so tired we decided to order room service. The hotel has a restaurant called Komenk and surprisingly it was very good! We ordered a salad as well as a grilled chicken with orange sauce and grilled vegetables and a chicken sandwich and French fries. For dessert a raspberry jello type dessert and all of it was incredible and the food was very affordable. The hotel does an amazing job and again, I would recommend it.

Today is our last day here. We slept in and woke up late. The rooms have a great black out curtain that does a good job and the hotel is very quiet with no outside noise. I worked for a bit this morning answering some emails. I literally get about 500+ emails per day so I’m totally lost after vacations if I don’t answer some each day. Blackberry service works in Ushuaia for you workaholics so that is something that may/may not be important to you. We showered and then decided to head to the “aerosillas” which is a chairlift that goes into the mountain. It is about 10 minutes from the city. A taxi ride is only around 12 pesos from downtown. It was about 15 pesos for each person. It was VERY cold in the mountains. Nothing too spectacular but there is a great view of the lake and the mountains so I’d recommend it.

After the chairlift we hit the Casa de Te at the bottom of the mountain and had a hot chocolate and tea. I saw a sign on the front door that proudly said “as featured in Frommers 2007 guide”. The tea was very good. A nice blend of orange/apple/cinnamon that was great. They called us a taxi and we went to go eat. At first we wanted to try a restaurant we heard was great. It was called Kaupe. The hotel said it was rated as one of the best restaurants in Argentina. It wasn’t open (unfortunately). So we decided to try another.
We went to a restaurant called “Volver” that was also on the waterfront strip on Maipu street. It was a charming restaurant. We were the only ones in there and only 1 person came the entire time we were there. Tourism doesn’t seem to be too strong here now. I know busy season starts in October but I thought it would be busier but it wasn’t which I wasn’t complaining about. The restaurant was reminiscent of a San Telmo type restaurant that had an old fashioned décor. There was tango music playing in the background. We ordered an appetizer of soup and also fried Scrimp. The soup was not good and the shrimp that was supposed to be fried wasn’t. It was lacking any real flavor. I ordered the Centolla Parmesana (King Crab with Parmesan cheese). I assumed it would be like yesterday. It was so delicious I ordered it again. My girlfriend ordered the Centolla Italiana which was King Crab with tomato based sauce. It came out and again we were unimpressed as it was all in a water based type sauce so it tasted more like a soup. I would much prefer Tia Elvira instead. The Centolla is typically the most expensive thing on the menu at most places. Each of these places we went to was about 60 pesos (u$s 19) for a Centolla dish which for local standards is pricey but for us Americans/British/European it is cheap for a Crab dish. Again, I wouldn’t say the food was bad at all…just in comparison to yesterday it wasn’t as good.

After lunch we walked around and decided to hit the Museum near the water front of the old jail. You see, back at the start of the city they originally brought prisoners here to inhabit the city. So we went and it wasn’t anything too spectacular but interesting to see. The entrance was 20 pesos for residents that hold a DNI or 35 pesos for foreigners/tourists.

It’s comical as they say the pass is good for 48 hours but not too much to see there. We walked through, snapped some photos and then walked around downtown. We bought some homemade chocolates for the girls in my office that are chocoholics. We bought about 3 pounds worth. 1 Kilogram of a box of chocolate was 90 pesos. The name of the store is called Laguna Negra. All types of different flavors. Then we came back to the hotel.


Check out is normally at 10 AM but we asked for a late check-out. I saw a sign that says 50% fee to check-out up to 6 PM which is nice as the flight leaves at night to Buenos Aires. The nice guy at the front desk told us we can check out at 5 PM and he wouldn’t charge us anything. He almost apologized by saying he would have to charge us if we left later than that. Our transfer is coming at 7 PM. I’m typing this from the downstairs restaurant as we decided to wait downstairs, drink some juice and maybe get something to eat. Wi-Fi works very well free throughout the hotel and they don’t charge anything. So, while I’m typing this my girlfriend is drinking a freshly squeezed orange juice. I type very fast so just typing everything I could remember but I think that includes everything. All in all Ushuaia is a nice city but as I mentioned, the excursions all feel a bit manufactured. It was a relaxing trip.

Good luck all.






Apartmentsba is offline  
Old Sep 26th, 2007, 05:22 AM
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Thanks for the report. We were in Ushuaia at the end of December 2007 for our Antarctic adventure. Had hoped to visit Calafate as well, but time did not permit. Definitely a place we want to visit on another trip to Argentina.
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Old Sep 26th, 2007, 07:27 AM
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Thanks for the great trip report, we haven't made it to Calafate yet, (next trip), but went to Ushuaia on our first one. It was March, so maybe a bit more lively. We ate at Kaupe one night, it was very good (if I'm remembering the right one). Too bad you didn't make it to the French restaurant up by the Glacier Hotel, the food was fabulous (can't remember the name of this one either). And, yes I agree, the Centolla was great, once we discovered what it was, it's all we ate!

We flew from Ushuaia to Puenta Arenas and saw the Torres del Paine, that was not too shabby either.

Once again a great trip report, makes me want to go back to AR even more!
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Old Sep 26th, 2007, 08:10 AM
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dear michael, thanks for the very detailed trip report. if you weren't so busy renting apartments you'd probably make a great travel agent!
After we leave one of your apts on Jan 8 we are headed to Calafate (Kau Autun Hotel) we'llhave time to do the mini trekking and then pick up to head to Los Cerros in Chalten where we'll have an opportunity to see more glaciers.

cheers
AndrewDavid
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Old Sep 26th, 2007, 08:18 PM
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Hi Andrew,

Great. I'm sure you'll have a good trip. Actually I would like the side of helping people travel but wouldn't like dealing with their trips.

Truth be told, I want to semi-retire within 2 years, travel more of the world and write a book on all my adventures around the world and my life changing situation of moving to Argentina. I once had a Hollywood agent after reading me several things I wrote on various message board try to convince me to write a screen play based on all my experiences. I do plan to do it but it will be when I have more time.

I'm glad you enjoyed the posts. Safe travels.
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Old Nov 26th, 2007, 06:14 PM
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Great report! Can you provide any info regarding the day excursions you booked in El Calafate? (i.e. company name, price, email or phone number)

Thank you,
Ginny
 
Old May 21st, 2008, 04:15 AM
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bookmarking - thanks for the report
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Old Oct 15th, 2008, 04:24 AM
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bookmarking
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Old Oct 15th, 2008, 05:59 AM
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bookmarking. Great report. Thanks for posting.
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Old Jan 5th, 2009, 09:21 AM
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Old Jan 6th, 2009, 06:39 AM
  #11  
 
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What's the best time of the year to do this trip? thanks
yestravel is offline  
Old Jan 6th, 2009, 07:21 AM
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Yestravel: the OP seldom posts in this forum, so maybe you'll get an answer from someone else.

I'm not sure about the answer to your question. I would do it during our summer, but, again, I'm not sure.
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Old Jan 6th, 2009, 09:04 AM
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We were in Ushuaiain early March a few years ago, like Sept. here, kids are back in school, weather was variable, but then it always is in Patagonia.

We're heading to Calafate in late March this year, will let you know how we did when we get back.
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