The Patagonian Airport Cat

On Sunday morning we get just a short lie-in before heading to Jorge Newbery airport for our flight to El Calafate in Patagonia. The Irishman is here to stay for 10 days and we figure we should make the most of it and go to Patagonia since neither of us has ever been. I've planned it all down to the last detail.

On arrival 3 1/2 hours later in the tiny airport of El Calafate (I say tiny, but it's like Heathrow compared with Santa Fé airport), we are greeted by a black cat, to whom the airport is evidently home. The cat is on duty surveying the arrivals, though I don't think he has any drug-sniffing capabilities, sadly. I love cats, so El Calafate immediately enters my good books.

The Calafate airport cat

We have pre-booked and paid 190 pesos each for the return bus from El Calafate to El Chaltén, where we're planning to spend the next two days hiking. However, our pre-booked bus isn't due to depart until 18:30, and it is only 15:40. I feel a bit scammed by the tour operator I used in Buenos Aires because there are buses leaving from the airport immediately and we only need to pay an extra 50 pesos each. Not ones to dwell (well, not usually), we say 'sod it' and pay the extra money to arrive earlier. We still don't end up leaving until about 16:30, but hey ho.

A few hours of beautiful scenic driving later (ok, ok, I slept through it...) we pull up outside Estancia La Quinta, a smallish one-storey converted ranch hotel with lots of land, nestled behind a mountain. A big white dog comes bounding up to meet us and soon after we're greeted by its owner, Alfredo, a warm, friendly man with good English, who is expecting us. We're planning to go hiking tomorrow so he talks us through the best walking routes and asks if we want a packed lunch. We do. 

We dump our stuff in our basic, cosy, heated rooms and accept a free lift from Alfredo into the town. You can walk the half-hour or so trip into El Chaltén but we're tired and pretty hungry and the drive is only five minutes.

We have a delicious meal at La Tapera, a wooden-lodge style restaurant that seems to be the main restaurant in town. I've heard lamb stew is the Patagonian thing so I fill myself with hot liquid and meat for the day of hiking ahead of us. It's cold outside and we're wrapped up in ski jackets and hiking boots, so the open smoky fire in La Tapera is more than welcome. 

The view of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torres from El Chaltén at sundown