Destination guide: El Calafate, Argentina
El Calafate is the gateway to Antarctica’s fascinating world of glaciers and ice, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In fact, this tourist town offers its visitors the chance to go on several different trips and excursions in the Los Glaciares National Park, as well as to the Argentine Lake (the most southern of the Patagonian lakes) and Mount Fitz Roy (considered by the ancestral tribes of this part of Argentina a sacred mountain).
Don’t put it off any longer, fly with LAN and enjoy your vacation in El Calafate.
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El Calafate - Things to do
Sights
Laguna Nimez
Alongside the lakeshore, north of town, Laguna Nimez is prime avian habitat – and a great place to spot flamingos – but watching birds from El Calafate’s shoreline on Lago Argentino can be just as good.
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Latitude: -50.3263406210687 / Longitude: -72.2727870941162 |
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
The centerpiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is, without a doubt, the breathtaking Glaciar Perito Moreno, one of earth's most dynamic and accessible ice fields. A low gap in the Andes allows moisture-laden Pacific storms to drop their loads east of the divide, where they accumulate as snow.
Over millennia, under tremendous weight, this snow has recrystallized into ice and flowed slowly eastward. Visiting the Moreno Glacier is no less an auditory experience than a visual one, as huge icebergs on the glacier's face cave and collapse into the Canal de los Témpanos (Iceberg Channel). From a series of catwalks and vantage points on the Península de Magallanes, visitors can safely see, hear and photograph the glacier as the enormous chunks crash into the water.
The glacier changes appearance as the day progresses (sun hits its face in the morning). Tour companies offering boat or trekking packages have offices in El Calafate.
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Sub-Type: Glacier |
Eat
La Cocina
This classic pasta factory makes satisfying noodles with savory sauces and serves up a whopping lomo a la pobre (steak and eggs) for the carb-adverse.
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Latitude: -50.3384523111017 / Longitude: -72.2672885656357 |
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