Feb 12th, 13th and 14th.
We have 5 days in Patagonia on the way to our Antarctic departure from Ushuaia at the bottom of Argentina. This is from the plane coming into El Calafate, our base for the Patagonia stay.
We had flown to Buenos Aires, arriving at 4pm on the 12th Feb. We had left NZ at 8pm that day, and flown for 12 hours. When we got to our Buenos Aires airport hotel, we both went to the gym, then a delicious dinner and an early night.
This trip had been organised by Bill and Grace Mitchell. Grace is the eldest daughter of our good friends Diny and James. We had done a cycling trip with her, Diny and James a few years ago, and she now works for a South American expedition organising company. She and Bill have worked closely to get our next trip of a life time organised. This was the first leg from Auckland to Buenos Aires with Air NZ.
The next morning was the flight to El Calafate in Patagonia, with Aerolineas Argentina. The flight was 3 hours and 15 minutes.
From Wikipedia: "El Calafate is a city in Patagonia, Argentina. It is situated on the southern border of Lake Argentino, in the southwest part of the Santa Cruz Province. The name of the city is derived from a little bush with yellow flowers and dark blue berries that is very common in Patagonia: the calafate (Berberis buxifolia). El Calafate is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciares National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre." This is another photo I took out of the window coming into El Calafate.
This is our hotel, just out of El Calafate. (I must have clicked the blue photo button.)
After a good night's sleep we are picked up in a goat like vehicle which carries our mountain bikes plus our bike guide Rubin, plus three others coming to the top of Mt Huyliche just to look and walk round the top. We are going to cycle down Mt Huyliche with Rubin. It is a 13 km descent which lasts three hours. We stop for nourishing snacks and explanations of what we see along the way.
Rubin is a guide five out of six days of a week. He used to race. Now fifty, with a seven year old, he is taking it a bit easier. They say mountain biking experience is not required but knowing your way around a bike is. These are pictures going up in the mountain goat truck. The goat carried our bikes and three others plus guide plus driver. I must be still pressing the blue button.
The mountain goat truck.
Some of the animals our guide said we might see.
We stopped to get a view of El Calafate. We are at 800m above sea level.
The panoramic video.
Then up to 1000m above sea level. It was like being on the moon - and windy and cold.
Bill is looking at calafate, which is the berry used widely in cooking for jam, in muffins etc..
This building was built when they set up a ski line here. It only lasted for four years. Here we got our bikes.
A little bit of up before going down. At altitude Bill and I felt even this in the lungs for sure.
At the top of the slight slope, ready to go down.
And then it was down. You couldn't go too slowly as you would fall, nor could you go too fast as you would fall. You had to find the middle chair, like Goldilocks, which was perfect. Not easy after this being the first time on a mountain bike since I punctured my lungs, and Bill had had an operation for a torn retina four weeks ago and his sight was all different. Off we go with Rubin leading us. This was an easy bit.
This was a bit harder.
Not going too fast or too slow. Going just right.
Views, including of the township of El Calafate.
We stopped for lunch on the way. Me with Bill, and me with Rubin. (Robin and Rubin :) . . . Ed.)
Then on your bike again.
The only animal or birds we saw were the Liebre europea and the Condor.
Then it was down into El Calafate. The track got a bit thin and I had a wee bit of a fall, but was able to get back up quickly. It had been challenging for reasons said earlier. We were both so pleased we had done it, and got through it.
