| CALAFATE:
located in the south coast of the Argentino lake 320 kilometers
to the northwest of Río Gallegos in the Santa Cruz
province. If
the tourist comes traveling north-south by the national route
#3 passing Piedra Buena by 40 kilometers (approx.) he can take
the provincial route #9 toward the west (no asphalt), to cross
the steppe and to be saved several kilometers to arrive to El
Calafate. It is a village with 3,500 inhabitants divided in
two by the stream of the same name. It was a place frequented
by the villagers that transported the wool from the estancias
(ranchs) of the area and in December 7 1927 El Calafate commune
was created. Today the main activity is the benefit of tourist
services and there are hotels and hostels of very good level,
diverse types of nautical trips that takes the tourist to the
base of the glaciers, cavalcades by spectacular paths, estancias
visits, fishing in the rivers and lakes of the surroundings,
etc..
El Calafate is called the capital of the glaciers given its
vicinity to the National park Los Glaciares that was created
in 1937 and declared by the United Nations in 1981 ‘World
Patrimony of the Humanity’. This Glaciers National Park
embraces 450,000 hectares where 13 glaciers descend in the
lakes
Viedma and Argentino.
All are beautiful but that of an extraordinary and imposing
beauty is without doubts the glacier Perito Moreno located
in
the arm Rico of the Argentino lake wich presents a wall of
ice 60 meters high. Traveling the North arm of the same lake
you
can visit one another the glaciers Upsala, Onelli and Spegazzini,
going by the lagoon of the floes. El Calafate, Patagonia Argentina. |
