Hi all! We are Sergio and Vani from Free Travelers and Adventurers. A few months ago we are traveling in our Toyota 4x4 with a homemade camper that we put together ourselves!
We left from Córdoba, we arrived in Ushuaia and now we find ourselves touring Route 40!
From this first section we got to know Cabo Vírgenes, Río Gallegos, Río Turbio, El Calafate and now we are in El Chaltén where we decided to stay for a few weeks.
📌 Now we want to talk to you about our experience in El Calafate. Because travel is our way of life, when we arrive at a place we always look for activities according to our interests that we can do alone.
As soon as we arrived in the city in tourism they told us the prices of all the excursions but nothing free.
However, we ourselves reach places that we believe are unmissable and are not spread.
🔸To start the Cerro Cristal that remains inside the National Park entering from a route with a lot of saw. This hill has the best panoramic view of lakes, snow-capped mountains, glaciers including Perito Moreno, and from the back you can see the mountains of Chile!
In this place is the Huala campsite, it is wild and free, in front of Lake Roca where you can fish with permission.
In tourism, we were only informed of the Lago Roca campsite, which in November had a value of $900 per person to camp or $450 per person to spend the day, and $200 per vehicle. This campsite has all the services as we were told.
🔸 Another place we went to is on the shores of Lake Argentino, in tourism they said that you couldn't see it but at one of the ends of the waterfront you can touch it. Many people go to spend the day and go windsurfing.
🔸Very close to this place is the Nimez lagoon, this is a lagoon that preserves native plants and also migratory birds. The value of the ticket is $400 per person.
🔸An activity that we did not do but may be of interest to several, is rock art. Admission is $1400 per person. We did not go but we mention it since there is a wide variety of things that can be done, not only the glacier, the mini trekking or the navigations.
🔸We really like to walk, so we went to Cerro Calafate from where you have a panoramic view of the city, very nice!
👉For riders you can park on the waterfront and spend the night, but you can't camp. For this we found a place at the other end of the waterfront where only the locals go. If anyone is interested we pass the location. In tourism they only recommended us to go to the campsite.
👉In the YPF at the entrance you can also spend the night, there is free WiFi, electricity, water, showers and washing machines!
We recommend that when you go you find out what else to do according to your interests. There are many activities that are not widely known since most of them do excursions with agencies.