Day 10: San Martín de los Andes – El Calafate
Today in the morning, you will be taken to the airport for your flight to El Calafate, located in Santa Cruz province. Upon arrival you’ll be transferred to your lodge, Eolo, with your personal guide.
Estimated flying time from San Martin de los Andes to El Calafate: 2 hours 35 minutes.
El Calafate is the entrance to the national park, where part of the continental ices are protected, declared World Heritage by Unesco.
El Calafate is situated by Lake Argentino, a green water surface covering 1,600 km2 and has great mysterious depths, like all lakes originated from glaciers. It receives its name from the small bush calafate, indigenous of Patagonia. Its fruit is a delicious berry very good for the elaboration of jam. According to tradition, whoever eats calafate will return for more. But reality indicates that whoever visits Calafate wants to stay there forever. It is an oasis of poplars, willows and pines at the border of the steppe.
The near Glaciers National Park covers a surface of some 600,000 hectares with 47 glaciers, such as the Viedma, the Moyano, the Marconi, the Upsala, the Agassiz, the Bolado, the Onelli, the Peineta, the Spegazzini, the Mayo, the Ameghino, the Moreno and the Frías, all of them located within the Atlantic basin.