In Patagonia – around and about Puerto Natales

Liz Penn on 22 April 2013
As I mention in the Torres Del Paine entry, Puerto Natales is a fantastic base for a number of wonderful sights in Patagonia. Having completed the trek and celebrated with Patagonia’s very own Baguales beer, we thought it was high time to detour over to Argentina to take a look at one of their own biggest Patagonian draws – Perito Moreno Glacier.

It’s really difficult to do it justice in photos but here are a few facts – it’s one of the only glaciers that is still growing, the face is between 50 and 60 metres high and, in the main photo shown here, the rocks showing at the back are about 10 miles away. It’s a truly impressive sight and the sound when ice drops off is also pretty incredible!

We found the easiest way to get to the glacier was on a day trip out of El Calafate, a lovely little town with wooden buildings giving it an almost alpine feel. It was totally geared up for a broad selection of tours ranging from day trips to the glacier, visits to local estancias and the more adventurous heli-skiing. If you stayed in town there were some great restaurants and shops, plus a small wildlife reserve where we saw our first South American flamingos.

Back into Puerto Natales we just had time for another Baguales before starting our journey north. And what better way than by boat through the Chilean fjords? You spend the first night of the four-night journey in the harbour at Puerto Natales, ready for an early start next day. We booked ourselves into the most expensive cabin because it's a long trip and we didn't fancy having to share! By the way, don't get the idea that this was some sort of luxury liner - until about ten years ago this was (and still is) a cargo ship....

We had a good time but the weather wasn't too kind to us, which meant there aren't many photos. It also meant that when we reached the section that is open to the Pacific (known as the Golfo de Penas) we hit 50 knot winds or, to the less nautical among us, 100kph. This in turn resulted in incredibly rough seas and a delayed arrival time as the wind was against us – something to bear in mind for those with tight onward connections.