Cabalgatas del glaciers is located inside the Los Glaciars national park and is reached after an hour on gravel roads which didn’t deter our “talking a million miles an hour” remise driver. The multi-lingual fellow passenger, Sonya from Spain (who I am convinced is Dee’s doppelgänger), translated a few things for me which made the trip enjoyable. The driver told us about the estancia owner who quelled a worker rebellion by shooting them all in 1922. I gather they were barely more than slaves and wanted better conditions and to be paid. We drove past the memorial on the way.
We also passed the Chorrillo Malo estancia which was built quite recently but since its establishment the owner has vanished and they don’t know what to do with it now.
We met our riding guide Carlos and his gaucho sidekick who had the horses ready to go but as the second carload suffered not one, but two, flat tyres on the way, it took a while to get going. It did give me time to use the interesting toilet – a thunderbox over a stream. Complete with paper and sanitizer gel. It swayed a little in the wind too.
I was given a very sweet beast, Manuel, to ride for the day and he pretty much drove himself – it was a mission to get him to colour outside the lines, so to speak, and try to get a view of something more than the leading horse’s tail.
We rode for over an hour and barely scratched a corner of the vast property hosting cattle and sheep. I saw my first zorro – fox – and he was huge. Everything in Patagonia is huge!
The sounds today were quieter than the glacier – the wind is ever present so it’s eerily quiet when it isn’t breezy. The hollow thok-thok of the hooves and the occasional cow moo was all that broke the soundtrack…oh, and the horses are obviously getting all their fibre needs…talk about wind! They’re bilingual too – they can cough and flatulate at the same time.
Gaucho guide, lead on… 
I’m on a horse 
Doesn’t everyone take their tablet rather than camera when horse riding 
Perito Moreno glacier in the distance 
Perro! 
Manuel on lunch break 
Lunch had been raised on the land we rode through, makes sense that’s where it was eaten. Don’t they say fresh is best? 
Gaucho’s kitchen 
Following the leader
We headed towards the river and found the estancia owner, Luciano, grilling onions and tender minute steaks over an open fire pit for our lunch. They were so good with the giant bottles of Malbec that I had 3 mini steak sandwiches. I had a great conversation with two sisters from Quebec, Martine and Anni who are traveling for 3 weeks to avoid the winter. They mentioned that they found my accent easy to understand – they usually have a hard time understanding Australians but said I spoke very clearly. Another trip to another interesting loo – open air this time, like the loos on the side of Mt Yasur in Vanuatu that Renae and I visited.
We got back in the saddle and you can always tell a horse knows the way home – they definitely had a spring in their step for the return journey. We saw several carcasses of sheep and cows and even a lesser rhea, there are pumas in the area but the dogs can’t keep up with all of them so there’s always some losses. Then there’s the “human puma” – its accepted that the poorer residents are allowed to take a lamb to feed their family every once in a blue moon, so long as they leave the skin and fleece on the fence for the owner and the owner has to let it go. If it starts happening too often, it’s supposed the sheep stealer is on-selling, in which case the owner can send the law after them. Is this where the term “honor amongst thieves” comes from I wonder?
Back in the yard we dismounted and said our goodbyes. Luciano drove us back to town, Martine and Anni flaked out in the back seat and since Luciano doesn’t speak a lick of English it was a quiet trip.
I had just enough time to repack my bags when I was picked up by Marcus and Gonzales from Enjoy! Calafate – a zipline, rapel/abseil, rock climbing and cable ladder up a mountainside adrenalin rush. I was the only person in the group so it was great to have two guides looking out for me and have a good chat as their English was muy bueno.
The zipline went across a canyon, twice and from the top gave great views over the town and out to the lago.
The next part had us abseil down a sheer drop of about 5 mtrs, probably more but I’m shocking at guesstimating distances. It seemed a lot further up when we got to the rock climbing – I’ve never done it before and I think I should practice a bit more on some indoor walls before next time – it beats me how people can make that look easy, or do it without ropes – that’s immense strength right there! I got to within a metre from the top before the grip left my fingers and the adrenalin ticked over into flight mode so Marcus let me come down. I’ve got a nice bruise coming up on my right shin to show for it, one of my proudest bruises 🙂
The next part was a cable and pipe ladder, attached to the rock face wall to climb out. A few steps and then adjust the carabiner and the main line, a few more steps and adjust again and so on. Two-thirds of the way up the ladder runs out and it’s just a cable fixed horizontally to a ridge in the rock face. We rested here and took photos of us doing our best “look mum, no hands!” impressions, leaning back over the side and letting the harness dig in around the delicates as our weight was held by the cable. Continuing up the next ladder and we were back where we started.
Marcus hamming it up 
My hands haven’t had to hold such a vice grip for such a time that they took a while to work properly again, and I felt like a gaucho coming in from a long ride even after we took the harnesses off 😉 This was all forgotten in the brilliant views across the town and lake, with the sun still high in the west even at 7.30pm. We shared a shot of Estepvka, a triple-distilled vodka made with the paramella, shrub native to the Patagonian steppe and used medicinally by native people. It was strong and latched onto every inch of my throat on the way down. Salud! This was followed by discussion about the various drinking habits of winter-dwelling people – it’s becoming customary to celebrate each adventure in Patagonia that doesn’t end in death with a shot! Marcus and Gonzales are fantastic people who seem to love their job, know how to put you at ease and help you have fun. They also gave out dark chocolate from a local artisan chocolatier Casa Guerrero, the first chocolate shop in Calafate, and shared some mate tea with me, I think that’s very special.
Dropped back at the hostel I regrouped for my next destination tomorrow, El Chalten, and had dinner with Kenny from Sweden who I’ve been sharing the room with, at about 10.30 – this many hours of daylight thing is messing with my routine – it does let you fit a lot of adventure into one day thought and for that I am muchas apreciada 😉