There are lots of things you can do from El Calafate apart from the Perito Merino Glacier. And given we had left ourselves a few more days in town to be able to do the Big Ice tour, we decided to check out some other options. The second day we were in town it rained. I mean the sort of rain that tells you to stay in bed because no good will come of getting up at that point. It eventually it eased off later in the day though and we went out for a walk around town. When we arrived back at the hostel, we had our Bid Ice tour confirmed for our 4th day and with some potential sun coming through for day 3, we booked a trip to go horse riding in the backcountry of El Chalten.
Picking us up early we had a 2 hours bus ride to Estancia Santa Teresa on the southern side of Lago Viedma, which is feed by Viedma glacier. On the way we came across a whole bunch of Andean Condors flying not far off the road. These birds are massive, with a wing span of 3m, and they glide effortlessly along warm currents. Our guides had never seen so many in one spot.
After a few photos we kept heading to the Estancia for a little breakfast and tea before getting on the horses. And then we were off. Heading out across the country side on a 5 hr ride (eekk).
It was difficult to take a steady photo whilst riding but the landscape was gorgeous. Riding along these vast planes with sheep, and Guanaco (a type of deer), and Choike (a small Ostrich) roaming around the place. We headed towards these peaking mountains and the Viedma glacier until we arrived at a small hut used by the Estancia's Gauchos for decades.
Lunch Hut
Here one of guides treated us to an amazing lunch of potatoes and onion and fresh cooked rack of lamb on an old school wood fired oven, topped with a little wine. Whilst we were waiting for lunch to cook, our horses decided to get out of there paddock and our primary guide had to go for a run to catch them. Thankfully they didn't go to far and their autopilot had them heading straight back to the Estancia. When the guide returned we ate till we were stuffed, and then ate a little more.
We then loaded back up on the horses for the ride home. The weather had started to turn though so we tried to make the return trip a little quicker than on the way there.
View from lunch
Clouds coming in
Almost home
Back just in time
Just under 5 hours of riding, 18 Km later, we had arrived back. Knees and bottoms a little more sore than when we left, we had had a great day out riding to see a part of the country so many people don't come out to see. But it was time to keep moving. The following day was the Big Ice tour and then we were heading back to Puerto Natales to board the Navimag.
22 346 Km (14011Km Flights, 6000Km Sailing, 2292 Km Bus, 77km Hiking, 18Km Horse riding)