2023 Nov/Dec-17 days trip in the beautiful land of Argentina



We were blessed by the weather God with beautiful weather for the whole journey.



Itineraries:



Day1 Buenos Aires

Day 2 and 3 Puerto Iguazu

Day 4 Buenos Aires

Day 5 and 6 El Calafate

Day 7, 8 and 9 El Chalten

Day 10 El Calafate

Day 11, 12, 13 and 14 Bariloche

Day 15, 16 and 17 Buenos Aires

1. Arriving Buenos Aires in the morning-taxi (19000 pesos)) to Palermo Bridge hotel, US$37 Mep rate. We went to Cambio Baires recommended by the hotel staff for money exchange-US100 to 90000 pesos. We also got a Sube card from the subway station. We walked to Alto Palermo shopping mall on Santa Fe ave to get our Claro SIM cards~US$8. After an early dinner, we went to bed early as we had an early flight to Puerto Iguazú. We only had carry-on bags since we were staying for two nights to visit both sides (Argentina and Brazil) of the falls. We left our luggages for storage at the hotel.
2. Our flight was on time. Even at 6am in the morning, EZE airport was packed with people and the lines were long and confusing. We were glad that we went early to the airport as it took quite some time for us to clear the security. We arrived Puerto Iguazu on time and we had WhatsApped the Iguazu Jungle Hotel to arrange a taxi to pick us up from the airport, costed 7500 pesos. Since everything was on time, we had half a day to spare for the visit to the Brazilian side of the falls. We asked the hotel's concierge to arrange the transport for us, 30000 pesos for the round trip and the driver waited for us outside the park. We were happy with the service as he helped us with the passport controls on both sides of the countries and everything was smooth and fast through the immigration. He also helped us to get the park’s entrance tickets. We had a good time walking around the park and half a day was sufficient to see the park. We were glad that we could visit the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls.

3. We also had the hotel concierge arrange a taxi for us to visit the Argentina side of the Iguazu falls on the following day. We paid 15000 pesos for the round trip. We really enjoyed the Argentina Iguacu Falls National Park. The Devil’s Throat trail was closed due to flood damaged but the Upper and Lower trails were opened. After the two trails, we opted to go on the Gran Aventura boat ride and thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Our hotel was US149 for two nights.

3. We flew back to Buenos Aires and stayed at the
same hotel for another night before flying off to El Calafate. We walked to Palermo Plaza Serrano for dinner in the evening. Palermo Bridge hotel for 2 nights~US $80
4. We had an early flight from AEP to El Calafate. The Folk Hostel arranged the taxi pick-up for us from the airport, which costed 12500 pesos. The driver spoke English and offered 70000 pesos to drive us to Perito Moreno Glaciar National Park. Since we had half a day on hand with no legitimate plans, we accepted the offer. We had a good walk on all the major boardwalk trails and were glad that the weather was good for the whole evening. On the way back to El Calafate, we stopped at the town center and had a very good dinner with roasted lamb.

4. We flew back to Buenos Aires and stayed at the same hotel for another night before flying off to El Calafate. We walked to Palermo Plaza Serrano for dinner in the evening. Palermo Bridge hotel for 2 nights~US $80.

5. Next morning, we had an early flight from AEP to El Calafate. The Folk Hostel arranged the taxi pick-up for us from the airport, which costed 12500 pesos. The driver spoke English and offered 70000 pesos to drive us to Perito Moreno Glaciar National Park. Since we had half a day on hand with no legitimate plans, we accepted the offer. We had a good walk on all the major boardwalk trails and were glad that the weather was good for the whole evening. On the way back to El Calafate, we stopped at the town center and had a very good dinner with roasted lamb.


On the flight to El Calafate









View from the boardwalk

6. We had pre booked the Glacial mini trek online with Hielo&Aventura for the next day which costed US$354 for two. The age cutoff of this trek is 65 and we were lucky to just made the age limits. It was a nice day for us to trek on the glacier and we thoroughly enjoyed the minitrekking on ice. It was a whole day event and we were back to the town for dinner in the evening. The Folk Hostel required us to pay cash for the stay~68000 pesos for two nights(double room), it is situated very near to the bus terminal, less than 10 minutes walk.




Short boat ride


Short trek to the glacier




Ice trek trail head

People trekking on the ice












Crevices



Whisky on the rock after the trek

• The next 4 days forecast for El Chalten were sunny. We were happy and anxious to get on the bus to El Chalten. We pre booked the Caltur bus which coasted-US25 round trip per person. We were able to get the second row seats on the upper level. The scenery on the way was gorgeous and the Andes backdrop with the lakes were so beautiful. Cerro Fitz Roy came into view when we passed the half way rest stop. It was stunningly beautiful! After traveling for more than 3 hours, we arrived at El Chalten. We had booked Grande Rancho hostel for 3 nights. It was situated near the trailhead for our planned hikes. We had a double room which cost US$158 for the 3 nights. After checking in and having lunch at the hostel’s restaurant, we set out for our first day warm up hike with a 4.5 mile round trip to the waterfalls-Chorrillo del Salto. It was an easy and popular trail for sure.

On the bus to El Chalten

History of route 40


Half way rest stop


Fritz Roy coming in to view

Dramatic scene with the Fritz Roy range

Park entrance


Very nice Hostel in town

On the trek to the waterfalls



Very pleasant trail


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• We started early at 6:30am for our big hike of the day-Laguna de Los Tres trail. The hostel was nice to provide early breakfast for hikers and we also bought the packed lunch for our day. It is absolutely a very scenic and beautiful trail, challenging at the end but worth the effort for this long trek. It took us 10 hours for this trek of 15 miles. We also did the Laguna Capri trail on our way back. We thoroughly enjoyed this trek.

We're planning a trip that includes El Calafate and El Chalten and finding this more than interesting. Sounds like it was relatively easy to do without a car, was that true?

• We also did the 12 mile trek to Laguna Torre the next day as the weather was good. It was a hard trail as we were already sore from the day beforehand. It was dull compared to the Fitz Roy trail but still a beautiful hike.

• We were glad to have the resting day as we took the bus back to El Calafate for the night before flying into our next destination-Bariloche. We stayed at the Folk Hostel again, 34000 pesos per night.
• We took the taxi to the airport in the morning at 9:30am. The flight was on time and we arrived Bariloche in the early afternoon. We took the taxi from the airport and I forgot how much We paid for the ride but I knew it was a reasonable fare under 10000 pesos. We stayed four nights at Hotel Panamericano. Our initial plans were to visit the town on the first day, second day to the short circuit, then the third day to do a day trip to the seven lakes,and the forth day to do some short hikes in the area. We stopped by the visitor center in town on the first day, the lady convinced us to drop the day tour to the seven lakes as it would be a long day sitting on the bus viewing lakes and lakes. She suggested that it would be better to get on the boat and tour the Nahuel Huapi National park. Since we had the Sube card, we decided to take the bus to visit Cerro Campania and the villa Llao Llao the next day.
• We took the public bus with our Sube card to the Cerro Campania chair lift station. It was absolutely a beautiful day and the views of the area from the top are amazingly beautiful. It has a 360 degree view from the top to the surrounding areas. We went to the Llao Llao area and did a short track to the Cerro Llao Llao but did not went all the way up the mountain. The forest walk was delightful. We came back to Bariloche town to have dinner and also bought the tour tickets for the Boat tour to Blest and Frías for the next day. Cost of the tour was US$130 for two.
  
  Leaving the national park
  
  
  Half way rest area
  
  
  Taking the flight to Bariloche
  
  View from the flight
  
  
  
  
  Bariloche city center
  
  Bariloche
  
  Lots of chocolate!
  
  Cerro Campania Chair lifts entrance
  
  Cerro Campania Chair lifts
  
  Cerro Campania-beautiful!
  
  Cerro Campania
  
  Cerro Campania
  
  
  
  
  

Hi,
It is pretty easy to get around El Calafate to El Chalten by bus. I did go online to rebook my bus tickets. The bus company I booked was Caltur bus, https://elchalten.com/v4/en/busses-to-el-chalten.phpYou also can ask your hotel to prearrange the taxi to pick you up from the airport to your hotel. The hostel that we stayed had a private bath and a double bed. It was clean, quiet, and very near to the bus terminal that have a number of counters that sells tickets to different locations.
The address of Terminal de Ómnibus de El Calafate is Antoine de Saint Exsupery 87, Z9405 El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina.

Continuing…..

• We were picked up at the hotel’s lobby around 8:00am and after a few more pickups along the way, we were at Panuelo port marina for the catamaran ride to Blest. We sailed past Centinels Island where Perito Moreno’s remains was buried. We disembarked at Port Blest and were free to explore the area for an hour before being picked by a bus for another short ride to a port to take another boat to lake Frías. The water by Lake Frias was emerald green in color. We disembarked and a group of people continued on another boat to Chile. After Lake Frias, we took the boat and bus back to Blest. We continued sailing to the other side of the lake, disembarked and hiked a wooden trail buried deep in the lush rainforest with numerous waterfalls on the way. The end of the trail is the beautiful Los Cantaros Lake. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the beautiful sails and hikes. We were back to the hotel before 6pm.
  
  Boat cruise
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• We decided not doing the seven lakes day trip the following day. We just wandered around the Bariloche town for the day. It is a very walkable town with a lot of chocolate shops and other tourist shopping shops. The walk along the Nahuel Huapi Lake was beautiful and pleasant, but windy. We had a good late lunch in one of the downtown restaurants and it was good.

• We had a 9am flight back to AEP, Buenos Aires, arriving around 11:30am. We called an Uber to the Bariloche airport and it costed around US$6. When we arrived at AEP, we also took UBER to the Marriott Hotel in the city. Uber fares were cheaper than taxi fares. We spent two and a half days exploring Buenos Aires before flying back home.
• It was a very good trip and we enjoyed the Iguazu Falls, the Patagonia region, and the lake region.​​

Hi Cherthor, thank you so much for doing this amazing trip report of Argentina! You deserve an award for that 10-hour hike. I am much too old to do something like that. Not even sure I could do that hike in my younger years. We hope to visit South America next year, but it will be a whirlwind trip to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. I realize we will only get a taste but at our ages, I don't know how many years we have left for international travel. I don't think we have the time to devote several weeks to just one country.