Around El Calafate
More than just a land of glaciers Home to the famous Perito Moreno Glacier, El Calafate, in Argentina’s Patagonia, also offers a fascinating mix of steppes, lakes, cave paintings, ranches, unforgettable landscapes and impressive, unyielding masses of ice
Alrededor de El Calafate
Far down the spine of Argentine Patagonia, about 2000 miles (3000 km) south of Buenos Aires, a combination of steppes, glaciers, lakes, and ranches enchants thousands of travelers from around the world.
It is at El Calafate, a small town in Santa Cruz province located on the southern shore of Lake Argentino. In the far south of Patagonia, it is popularly known as the gateway to Los Glaciares National Park, and to one of nature’s masterpieces: the Perito Moreno Glacier. In large part because of that enormous mass of ice, almost half a million people visited in 2019 and the future only bodes for greater numbers of tourists.
But El Calafate offers more than the charm of a glacier that,
despite the climatic emergency that the planet is experiencing, has managed to maintain its physiognomy and still refuses to retreat as most of the planet’s other glaciers have done.
In this part of Patagonia, the options for activities multiply: walks along the pasarelas, or walkways that lead to the glacier, sailing around the lake, kayaking, climbing ice walls, countless trekking trails and ogling other glaciers, such as the Upsala, Spegazzini, Onelli and Seco.
The caves of Punta Walichu
The young man, nervous, watched as the shaman blew hard. The reddish paint was cold. When he withdrew his hand, he could see the perfect hollow of palm and fingers in the
rock. In that moment, he knew it was someone. That he existed. All those who would come after him would know that he had been there; that his trace would remain through the winters and moons. Was it so? Maybe so,” says journalist José Jiménez.
This narrative might describe what could hypothetically have occurred around 4,000 years ago, less than 6 miles (10 km) from the city center. Hidden among the eaves, passages, and sandstone caves on the shores of Lake Argentino, lie the cave paintings of Punta Walichu, revealing traces of our predecessors who walked these Patagonian lands and left their legacy immortalized in the steep vertical walls of sedimentary rock.
These paintings are the work of men and women during the “South American Paleolithic period,” made using distinct techniques, such as finger dragging, and blowing through hollowed out guanaco bones, the tools with which they created their fascinating pictorial universe.
One grey day in February of 1877, Francisco Pascasio Moreno, the surveyor who only a few days earlier had completed his expedition of the Santa Cruz River and reached the shores of Lake Argentino, discovered the paintings. Inside a large cave and along stone passages, Moreno found abstract images, geometric, anthropomorphic, and anthropo-zoomorphic figures, animal footprints, hands in positive and negative, and labyrinth designs. All were painted in red, yellow, black, white, and ochre colors all created with natural materials from the area and mixed with guanaco fats, plant resin, gypsum, egg whites and even human saliva.
“Walking through this ‘open-air museum’ is a true journey into the past that invites a moment of deep reflection and connection with the surrounding natural environment.”
In his travel journal, Moreno wrote: “19 February, bad weather... I set out to walk toward the promontory and after a long time of browsing among the landslides that fall almost to the bottom of the lake, I make an interesting discovery. The vertical cliffs are covered with signs traced by the hand of man... The painted hands, at this last point, are different from those found on the other side of the promontory. There it seems that the hand of the native, generally the left hand, placed on the rock, has been outlined with paint following its shape, leaving it stamped in clear, here on the contrary it seems that the hand has been rubbed with paint and then stamped on the stone where it has left its shape in red.”
In addition to these findings, Moreno also discovered stone knives, scrapers, hollowed-out bones used for painting, a stone hatchet, arrowheads, millenniaold animal fat stains on the cave’s eaves, and a mummy wrapped in ostrich hides, which he took to his Museum of Natural Sciences in La Plata.
Moreno was also the person who named the place “Punta Walichu.” He remembered that when he was a prisoner of the cacique, or chief, known as Sayhueque, that this was the term used to name a place with caves, a place he was told not to go to because, they told him, there resides the “El Walichu” spirit.
Punta Walichu was the first site where cave paintings were found in the province of Santa Cruz, but unlike other places discovered later, such as the famous Cueva de la Manos del Río Pinturas, this site suffered different effects and deterioration with the passing of time. Fortunately, things are different today, and Punta Walichu has been officially considered an Archaeological Site of Provincial and National Interest since 2009, guaranteeing it much greater protection and care.
Along the journey through Walichu it is possible to find
replicas of paintings from other areas of the province, such as those in the Estancia Chorrillo Malo, located 25 miles (40 kms) from El Calafate and closed to visitors. There you might see guanacos, stylizations of the human body, and other representations that demonstrate the richness of the rock art that developed here.
Walking through this “openair museum” is a true journey into the past that invites a moment of deep reflection and connection with the surrounding natural environment between the rocky hollows and turquoise blue of Lake Argentino.
Route 15 and Lake Roca
Another destination off-thebeaten track around El Calafate is Lake Roca, some 31 miles (50 km) away, which can be reached via Route 15. A gravelly road that takes you into the Patagonian steppe, with its vegetation changing along the way because of the higher humidity levels close to the mountains. Route 15 is an almost straight line that keeps Argentina’s cattle and agricultural history alive, as it crosses centennial ranches such as Huyliche, Anita, Alta Vista, Chorrillo Malo, Lago Roca and Nibepo Aike.
Along this same route also lies the mass grave of workers shot in the 1921 strikes, who were the protagonists of the four volumes of the book Los vengadores de la Patagonia tragica (“The Avengers of Tragic Patagonia”) by Argentine journalist and historian Osvaldo Bayer, which was later made into the movie La Patagonia rebelde (“The Patagonia Rebellion”).
With infrastructure both for spending the day, or camping in the campsites, the route is dominated by the peak of Cerro
Cristal, which stands out in the landscape, at a height of 4,206 feet (1,282 meters). Reaching the summit affords a breathtaking view of Lake Argentino, the Perito Moreno glacier, the granite peaks of Torres del Paine, and an endless steppe. The ascent can be done in about 4 hours, and even though it’s not technically demanding, and travelers may climb there on their own, it’s wise to acquire the services of one of the specialized guides that can be hired in El Calafate.
On the way back to Route 15, the road offers still more activities for the traveler, like fly fishing for brown trout, rainbow trout
and salmon (particularly from November to April), observing aquatic and migratory birds, and photographing or simply admiring the amazing landscapes of incomparable beauty.
One recommendation is to continue down the road, until it turns on to the winding route leading to Nibepo Aike ranch. Located mere steps away from the southern arm of Lake Argentino, the 30,000acre (12,000 hectare) property was once an inhospitable place where Yugoslavian immigrant
“In these Patagonian latitudes, it is inevitable to contemplate the infinite horizons, those distant and blue vistas.”
Santiago Peso landed in 1914. The name was composed from the initials of his three daughters: Niní, Bebé and Porota. Today, the ranch has been converted into a charming country hotel where you can enjoy a spectacular day horseback riding like the locals among the stunning scenery.
The trance of the steppe
In these Patagonian latitudes, it is simply inevitable to contemplate the infinite horizons, those distant and blue vistas the writer Rebecca Solnit refers to in her book A Field Guide to Getting Lost. She writes of the blue in the distance: “the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away.”
The steppe around El Calafate also serves up so many outdoor options for mountain biking, hiking or off-road activities.
One of the most impressive excursions near the town is hiking at the Huyliche mountain range. In addition to the panoramic view of El Calafate and Lake Argentino, one can visit the “sombrero rocks,” an extraordinary rock formation shaped like a traditional Mexican hat where you can observe the almost spherical rocks that emerged from the bottom of the sea.
From the Huyliche you can also access the “Balconies of Calafate,” where you can observe erratic blocks and take in another postcard setting from a height of almost 3,200 feet (1,000 meters). Ascending to the upper balcony, all the
branches of Lake Argentino come into view, and on clear days you can see the distant deep blue of Mount Fitz Roy in the south. For the more daring, the descent can be done by flying over a five- line zipline circuit.
Another worthwhile visit in the zone is Laguna Nimez Ecological Reserve. Just a half mile from the center of El Calafate, and next to Lake Argentino, the site is ideal for birdwatching enthusiasts, as there are at least 80 species on hand including flamingos, cauquén geese, black-necked swans, bandurrias, and varieties of ducks.
The arrival of autumn frames the city in a pre-winter charm. It is precisely during this season that the southern Patagonian wind, el innombrable (“the unmentionable one”), takes a rest. It is just a short period during the year when the steppe grasslands stop swaying and the waters of Lake Argentino reflect the surrounding mountains like mirrors. It is a time of sunrises and sunsets the colors of flame and roses, of leaves turning yellow, of frosty dawns, of haze over the Bahía Redonda, of short days and longer nights, until the winter equinox in June.
Surely, when leaving this part of Argentine Patagonia, the lucky traveler will know that according to tradition, if they have been fortunate enough to taste calafate ( a yellow- flowered, caespitose shrub whose dark blue berries are edible, and from which a delicious sweet is made), they will return.
With or without tasting that sweet berry, El Calafate is well worth the trip.