Parque Perito Moreno
Something To See Alongside The Road
Friday February 15, 2008
When we left El Calafate Wednesday morning, we firmly believed it would be for the last time (at least during this particular visit to Argentina), as we would finally be making a significant push northward towards new territory and even a new province. The thing about driving in Santa Cruz Province is that there is a vast amount of uninhabited and virtually barren terrain, and all this open space is traversed by very few roads. Along the coast, Ruta 3 provides a paved option for travelers heading north or south. Closer to the western border and flirting with the edge of the Andean scarp, the rugged unpaved Ruta 40 tortures tires, rattles chassis (and nerves), and inundates vehicles with dust and mud, while providing a more direct north-south route between inland destinations. And with regard to "inland" places deserving of a dot and name on a political map of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina - other than El Calafate and El Chaltén, there are precious few.
Now that I think about it for a moment, there aren't very many dots on the map along the coast either, but we'd been down that road once already (and in a couple of places twice). This fact, coupled with the chance to see one other national park and a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site, were enough of a reason for us to decide to brave Ruta 40 ("La Cuarenta") and whatever ruts and rocks she could throw at us. So Tuesday when we headed northward on Ruta 40, we continued on past the left-turn which leads to El Chaltén, and headed onward towards the next possible thing we might come to.
After a mere half hour, a sign told us we could drive off to the right a few kilometers to reach a tiny dot on the map where gas and perhaps even food were sold, but we still had a very full tank and sandwiches and water in tow. There were no other dots on the map until a town called Gobernador Gregores.
Gobernador Gregores is about three hundred kilometers north of El Calafate, but an annoying 70 kilometer detour to the east of La Cuarenta. The guidebooks all reference the place because many travelers along Ruta 40 have to make the annoying detour in order to buy gas. I was under the impression that we were in this category, so we made the annoying little side-trip and got our gas. Two hundred and twenty not-so-short kilometers northwest of Gobernador Gregores and three hundred and ten kilometers south of the town of Perito Moreno (where we slept on our first night in Argentina), there is another map feature reachable by road - Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. This was about as far as we could make it in one day, and where we planned to spend the next three nights.
So why pick Parque Nacional Perito Moreno over Gobernador Gregores as a place to stay for a night or three? Well...
Comprising 115,000 hectares of Patagonian steppe, sub-Antarctic forest, glacial lakes and fjords, and high Andean pastures, Parque Perito Moreno is one of the largest, remotest (see above), and infrequently visited (see above) national parks in Argentina. But if you happen to be passing through, you might as well drive the 90 kilometers northwest off of the main route 40 in order to spend the night at one of the two small tourist estancias and spend a night or three in order to take in some of the park. This was our plan, at least, and we pulled up to a small collection of buildings at the end of a several kilometer driveway signed as "Estancia Menelik" shortly after 7pm. The day had proceeded without incident (such as flat tire or mechanical breakdown) as hoped and as tediously as had been expected.
We figured that we had safely beaten the dinner bell, but we didn't think it would be by, as it turned out, three full hours. The estancia was filled to capacity with ourselves and 3 other couples (four Alaskans and two Argentineans), and had decided to simplify the dinner situation with a parilla (lamb cooked over open fire barbecue) - which always takes a little time if done right and the guests are not to be given food poisoning. The end result was fine, but to put it delicately, at least one tired teenager was over-hungry and seriously overwrought by the time she/he could put some solid food in her/his stomach.
These maps show Argentina and Santa Cruz Province.
The "red" text in the Santa Cruz map shows the location of Perito Moreno Park (and you can trace the roads back to Gobernador Gregores or even all the way back down to El Calafate, if you care to...)
Estancia Menelik,
and our 10-to-midnight evening meal.
The next two days are better described by pictures than by words. Just to clarify and explain a little bit - the general itinerary was as follows: Thursday we drove into the park (about a half-hour drive further west of Estancia Menelik), took a short hike near the information center to see the rock paintings made by paleo-indians, and then visited two large lakes. We hoped to do more hiking than we ended up doing because it was incredibly WINDY! This morning we drove into the park again and headed towards a more northern part in order to see something new. The weather was the same as yesterday, with fierce gusts preventing us from leaving the car for anything much more than a short little picture-taking jaunt now and then. In the afternoon, in blustery but not unbearable wind, we rode horses for four hours through the estancia along with one other British couple and one laconic, disinterested gaucho.
The road to the park.
A river leaving one of the large lakes of the park and heading slowly down towards the Atlantic ocean through the gradual descent of the Patagonian steppe.
Views from the short hike near the information center: Looking westward towards the buildings of an old (non-tourist) estancia. Rock paintings made by Neolithic "pre-Tehuelche" (Tehuelche are the native people encountered by the first Europeans to come to Patagonia). A lichen-covered rock.
Almost directly west of the entrance to the park, Lago Belgrano is a donut shaped ring that almost completely surrounds an interior island. This small isthmus is all that keeps the "peninsula" from being an island.
We were able to walk along the peninsula for awhile under only "pretty windy" conditions, and these are some of the views from that walk.
Marching along, looking for ripe calafate berries,
of which Anna ate quite a few. I guess she's going to have to return to El Calafate even one more time. I just hope it isn't this trip!
After finishing up with the peninsula walk, we headed southward towards another large lake, and passed a shallow, bird-filled pond along the way.
We were hoping to hike along the north shore of this lake, Lago Burmeister, but as the picture hopefully shows, it was extremely windy here. We sat in the shuddering car with sort of collective "well, now what" air about us, until one-by-one, we straggled out to snap a few photos. Keeping the car doors from being ripped off, and simply being able to re-close them were both quite significant challenges.
The interesting and impressive rocky wall of a "small" hummocky mountain (or huge hill) along the southern edge of the river basin leading east out of Lago Burgemeister.
On our way back north towards the park entrance, we stopped to enjoy this north-looking view taken from the south of Lago Belgrano.
These pictures (and following) were taken this morning on our excursion to a further-north section of the park.
At the end of our drive, the road discontinued itself at a steep embankment (and we stopped before we went over it) looking over the braided Rio Volcan, which, to our surprise, runs into and not out of the Lago Belgrano.
Today we had views of Lago Belgrano from the north side.
And lastly, the afternoon cabalgata.
Tomorrow we get to traverse "stage two" of our unpaved route 40 adventure, stopping at another tourist estancia* a mere 30 kilometers shy of the full 310 kilometer drive to Perito Moreno town. We'll take it slow, try to stay on the road, and with any luck, keep the tires and our wits intact.
-Rolf
* Both Estancia Menelik and the estancia where we are headed tomorrow are working ranches that still produce wool, lamb meat, and other agricultural products for profit, in addition to housing and feeding tourists during two or three months of the summer. For that reason, to call them simply a "tourist estancia" is a little misleading.