Travel With Phie

Buenos días!

Today we had two plans, 1) go to the Perito Merano glacier & 2) travel from El Calafate to El Chalten.

Neither Ashley or I’s alarm went off the morning, so we started later then expected. Our goal was to get up at 7:45 and go for a quick 2/3 mile run prior to heading to breakfast at the hotel. This did not happen as our alarms never went off and I happened to wake up right when we told Katherine we would meet her for breakfast, 8:30am.

Ashely & I quickly changed and headed down to start our morning. We grabbed some breakfast and hungout until our driver for the day came. There was a driver along with a guide for the park. They picked us up around 9:15am and we headed to Perito Moreno glacier. This drive was roughly 1.5 hours. It was a gorgeous drive and our guide was very helpful to share great details of the area and glacier on the way over.

Once we arrived, the guide walked us to the main central pier and than let us on our merry way to explore ourselves. We spent around 2 hours exploring, taking in the views and taking pictures of the beauty that surrounded us. The total distance of the walkways were around 1.9 miles (check my Strava if you wanted to confirm). The walkway had multiple view points and benches to take in the sites.

At this point in the trip, we all agreed (with a little convincing from Ashley) that we needed to take more group photos/selfies. This is exactly what we did throughout the course of the journey around the Glacier 🙂

After exploring the glacier and taking the much needed group pics, we ended about an hour earlier than anticipated. We used Ashley’s AirTag that was in her bag in the car to find our driver/car to take a us back. We drove back through El Calafate to drop off the guide as well as grab some gas/food before continuing our journey.

The gas station was a sight to see, it was very clean and had great snack/food options. We loved it and we knew it had to make the blog. Katherine & I got the grilled ham & cheese, while Ashley got a vegetarian sandwich. All were great!

We continued on our car journey for another 1.5 or so hours talking to the driver and hanging out. At this moment, we headed to a super cool rest stop, Le Leona. They had a little cafe was well as a restroom.

Ashley & I starred at the menu for a good 10 minutes and then decided to order a Fanta & Lemon tea. This made the man working laugh and that is all that matters at the end of the day – comedic relief.

We finished our drinks and got back in the car to head on our marry way to the lodge in El Chalten.

It was only about 1-1.5 hours from the last Road stop to ask Chalten, however, all three of us fell asleep on this drive. When we woke up were amongst the mountains in the beautiful village of El Chalten.

Once we arrived at the lodge, around 5:30pm. We checked-in, changed, and then went ready to continue the day/night.

The town was super small, so made our way through a few shops and then stopped at one of the restaurants for dinner. We went in and they had no openings for the just, so we simply made a reservation for tomorrow night (Yippee!).

We asked them for a rec and they said the cabin across the way was great. Man was this place great! Not only was the food great, but the vibes were so high. We walked in and got a table (they later moved us to the table upstairs). Our waiter came over to take our order and Ashley & I just starred waiting for Katherine to start the conversation. Katherine said the waiter speak English *us rambles our order in English* waiter – umm… I do not speak English.

Katherine then ordered for us in Spanish and we continued on our night. We ordered a bottle of white wine (Sauvignon Blanc), the waiter brought over a bottle of red wine – we let him know we ordered a bottle of white and he nodded and went to grab the bottle we ordered. He then came back with a different red wine & we all felt too bad to send it back to agreed it was the correct bottle. Honestly it may have been for the best as this bottle was delicious!

Katherine and I also ordered the local animal of town (the Guanaco – looks kind of like a llama). We were excited to adventure out and try this new type of meat as it was only offered in Restaurants and not in any stores around town. It turns out the way we ordered it was completely raw (not great for the program). I personally did end up trying it and was not a huge fan. We felt bad leaving most of it there, so took half and crumbled it into a napkin to throw away. (Oops!)

After those two vibes of dinner we were set (at least we thought). Our meals came out, Ashley’s and I’s as perfect as can be and Katherine’s as raw (lol I guess the waiter thought we liked raw meat). She sent it back to get cooked a bit longer and we ended up having th best meal of the trip and rating the beef a solid 9 maybe even 10 out of 10.

At the end of the meal the waiter felt terrible and brought us free dessert which was TO DIE FOR! It was such a great experience and I am beyond happy it all happened the way it did.

After dinner we headed to the Super Market and man was there a long line! It took us around 25 minutes to check-out. We got an 8 liter gallon of water as well as a couple snacks to share. Once we checked out we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the hardest hike of El Chalten for the next day!

Buenos Noche!!