PATAGONIA Tour on Motorcycle-01/02 February 2018 Days 11-12

SOUTH AMERICA / PATAGONIA TOUR with MOTORCYCLE
Riding to EL FIN DEL MUNDO between 21 January - 10 February 2018.

Day-11 (01 February 2018) :  El Chalten>>>El Calafate (225 km)

The weather is very nice today. The wind has calmed down. It  happened a  strange thing last night. A wild rabbit came to the parking lot and died under my motorcycle. It was laying just under the engine of the bike.  After the breakfast, at 09:20 we departed from the Hotel .  

After a few kilometer we stopped at the fuel station at the exit of El Chalten and filled up our tanks. We departed again and we stopped after 2-3 kms at a place where we had got the view of El Chalten and the Fitz Roy mountains. 

Fitz Roy in the darkness

El Chalten and Fitz Roy

Sadik and I , Fitz Roy is behind us.

Fitz Roy and El Chalten in the backround.

We took  a group picture, too. Then we departed from the view point -Mirador- around 10:20. The Route 23 took us to the junction with Route 40. It is 94 km distance with a very good quality asphalt. I enjoyed the ride very much. 

At the junction point we waited for Philippe about 20 minutes. When he reached to us, he said that there was some nice birds of which he took pictures. We left the Lake Lago Viedma on our right hand side and we arrived at the Parador La Leona.

Parador La Leona is a coffee house and restaurant at the East side of the lake just after the bridge over the river La Leona. We sat there and I ate empanada and bought a coffee. After a quarter an hour the other part of the group arrived at the La Leona. There is also a corner in the restaurant where they have shown some old hand tools or pictures from the old times discoverers of the glaciers. After this break we continued our ride on the asphalt road.
Soon we arrived at the East coast of the lake Lago Argentino. We stopped there for a while and took some pictures.

We were on the East side of the lake but we had a view to the city El Calafate far away on the other side of the lake. We moved further and took the right turn in the direction to 
El Calafate. It is the Route 11 and was still nice to ride. We left the airport on our right hand side and arrived at the city. Since we were early for the Hotel we had been taken further to the Glaciers Museum (Glaciarium). The museum is located about 5-6 kms on the west of the city. There was a strong wind on the hill of the Glaciarium. I visited the Museum and then I sat for coffee. 

Glaciers Museum of El Calafate:- Glaciarium

Then we took the road to our Hotel which is located at the East entrance of the city. Meanwhile we bought fuel for our motorcycles. We checked in the Hotel Park Plaza Patagonia Kempinsky. We are sharing Room 3019 with Sadik. The Hotel is on a hill at the rim of the city. It is a big and modern hotel with a nice view over the lake and the city. 

We went out at 17:00 and walked down to the down town. There is a main street through the city and there are a lot of shops, Pubs, restaurants at both sides. We looked for a change office. After 18:00 all the change offices are closing. Luckily we found a Western Union office where I changed 200.-USD and bought 3,800.-A$. Then we sat at the Pub Wanaco and tried their IPA beer. 

Then we walked to the Restaurant La Tablita. This one is a nice and big restaurant adjacent to the fuel station. We had a reservation for 19:30. The whole group came together and ate there with fun. I ordered a portion of Patagonian lamb as I did last night in El Chalten. This is a special lamb grill at the open fire. The furnace was set in the middle of the entrance hall. It is tasty together with a red Malbec wine. The portions are big. I suggest to order one portion for two persons. 

After the dinner we walked back to our Hotel. After having a Scotch whiskey and a coffee I went to bed.

Day-12 (02 February 2018) :  Extra day in El Calafate (190 km)

Today is the second day for us in El Calafate. After the breakfast we departed altogether to the Glaciers Perito Moreno.It is located within the National Park about 70-75 km on the West of El Calafate. The roads are very nice. The sky is blue and the temperature is good for having a comfortable ride. After approx. one hour we reached to the entrance of te National Park Perito Moreno. One of our guides, Thomas bought the entrance ticket for the whole group and after half an hour waiting at the entry we continued our ride within the N.P. The roads are nicely curving and the view is beautiful everywhere. In some place there are parking/resting areas for visitors. Coming closer to the end point which means the glaciers watching area we stopped and we took a couple of pictures.

When we came to the end point we stopped our bikes in the big parking lot. I changed my motorcycle boots with the relaxed shoes and I put on my outdoor jacket which I had brought with me. There we had to walk on the steel/wooden staircases and platform in order to watch the glaciers. There are shuttles from the parking lot which transports the visitors free of charge to the glaciers' view point. There is a ten minute drive from the parking lot.
Together with Sadik we came to the glaciers' entry and we walked down on the wooden platforms in order to have a closer view.

Even the glaciers of the world are getting smaller and smaller because of the global warming, this one (Perito Moreno) is not loosing the size. The scientists should give a reasoning for this ? It is cold there but is very interesting and peculiar view. Ice is broken and some parts of the glacier are getting apart and falling into the water with noise.

After a couple of hours we climbed up to the area where there is the building for restaurant, souvenir shops and other facilities. This is also the place where the shuttles are picking the people downstairs to the parking lots. We went into the restaurant and bought something to eat. After that we looked for some souvenirs in the museum shop and then we took the shuttle to come down. 

We put on our motorcycle gear. At that minute I remarked that the lens cap of my camera is not in my pocket. While Sadik was waiting for me I looked around to the walking way to the shuttles station. I saw our shuttle and I went in in order to check my seat. Suddenly, the driver recognized me searching something in the midi-bus he gave the lens cap which he had found after our trip. Around 13:30 we departed with Sadik in the direction to the city.

When we came to the city we filled up our tanks and then went to the Hotel and had rest a little bit. We agreed with Sadik to meet in downtown at the corner-café which is called 
La Zorra. I walked down alone and I stopped in the beer garden just after the fuel station at the bridge. I took an Indian Pale Ale for 100.-A$. I looked around and bought some souvenirs for my son and friends. Then we met with Sadik at La Zorra. It is an attractive Pub just at the side of the main road in the city and has good view to the street. We sat a little bit and then we moved to the beer garden where I sat before. We sat there outside and shared a long table with two girls. 

These two girls were from UK and they were travelling together South America. We chat a lot and bought  beer and took some pictures. They were funny and very positive girls. Louisa C'Connell is also writing her travel experiences  on ecolouisa.wordpress.com

We ate at the same restaurant as we did last night. La Tablita is a very nice and fine restaurant. Then these two ladies took us to La Zorra and bought a wine for the friendship.