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“Whoever eats calafate shall always come back”. This is a legend told by and old Tehuelche lady, who lived under an awning and waited for the winter cold to come with no shelter or food. She was all alone and abandoned; however, she managed to survive and waited for the animals that began to come back with the first signs of heat. It was then when she promised that they would never lack of shelter and food during winter. And after a gust of wind, she vanished leaving behind an overgrown bush of yellow flowers that after ripening gave life to a sweet and juicy fruit: the calafate. |
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Located on the edge of the Argentino lake, El Calafate locality is a white paradise, a place where the circuit of Argentine glaciers begin with a landscape full of poplars, pines and willows inhabited by more than 8,000 people within a surface area of 150,000 hectares. |
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El Calafate is a magical place and visiting it is a delight. It is the paradise of glaciers, most tours and interest places dress up in white.
And if we talk about glaciers, you have to visit the Perito Moreno glacier, where you can enjoy the most astonishing spectacle of lights and colors over noisy ice due to sea water roaring. Located only 85 km. from the heart of El Calafate inside Los Glaciares National Park, the glacier, declared Natural World Patrimony by the UNESCO, covers 14,000 square kilometers and it is the third biggest glacier of its kind in the world, after the Antarctic and Greenland.
Also located in Los Glaciares National Park is the Upsala glacier, where the white of its ice merges with the horizon along its more than 50 kilometers of length, 10 kilometers of height and various kilometers of thickness, where you arrive and discover the lake tours travelling across. |
Discovering the city constitutes another adventure. Very interesting is the historic center of the city, where you can visit the buildings raised by pioneers of this small village. An interesting tour from the city is to Nimes lagoon, only 1,000 meters from the center, where you can enjoy watching the countless species of birds of the region. Another interesting visit is the Walichu caves, an important archeological site 8 km. from El Calafate, where the first cave paintings of the area were discovered.
The tourism to estancias (ranches) is also well developed in El Calafate. There you can visit some old ranches that back in the fifties were devoted to sheep breeding. The most important ranches are Alice, on the way to Perito Moreno glacier, and El Galpón del Glaciar, where you can enjoy sheep shearing, sheep herd driving and bird watching activities. |
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| Activities |
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El Calafate stands out for being an area full of activities to be carried out.
Highlights are horseback rides. The most famous are those taken along the edge of Redonda bay, in the urban area of this locality, where you can enjoy bird watching and an astonishing landscape. Likewise, you can take a horseback ride to climb Frías mountain, from where you can see the Fitz Roy mountain and the Paine massif.
For those who love tourism on a 4 x 4, there are also interesting alternatives. You can travel across the Frías mountain, close to the Magallanes peninsula, from where you can enjoy the sight of the Fitz Roy mountain and Torres del Paine massif. Another option is to climb through the Huilliche mountain range up to a place from where you’ll be able to see the whole city.
If you are into sport fishing, then El Calafate provides for a very good opportunity to catch rainbow trouts. Likewise, fly fishing can be practiced at Roca lake and Rico river close to Perito Moreno glacier, where you can get fishes up to four kilograms. |
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| Tours |
 Comapa offers a comprehensive 8-day and 7-night tour through the Patagonia: |
The first stop is Torres del Paine National Park, making the first mandatory visit to the millenary Milodon Cave.
The second segment goes from Puerto Natales to El Calafate to arrive to the breathtaking Perito Moreno glacier with spectacular and noisy ice detachments.
Then, a flight is made from El Calafate to Ushuaia, where the Mare Australis cruise will be boarded. The tour finishes after two days of sailing. You may be lodged in 4- or 3-star hotels. |
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