A second excursion in the Calafate area took us across the Lago Argentino in a quite different direction, to the site of a farm founded in the early 1900s called Estancia Cristina. The trip entails a several hour boat crossing along a different arm of the Lago Argentino, first through the narrowest strait, called Garganta del Diablo(Devil’s Throat), and then eventually to an inlet which is generally heavily populated with icebergs of all sizes—all originally part of the gigantic Uppsala Glacier, one of the three largest in the Andean ice fields. If you’ve seen the photos of Perito Moreno, this one is exponentially larger, and less accessible.
An Englishman and his wife working their way south on various farms, eventually found their way to this land, which is still called Estancia Cristina—after their daughter, who died as a young woman of pneumonia—. At the time working and living on such a parcel of land for at least 30 years made it officially your property. The homestead lies on a fertile plain surrounded by snow topped and solid rock mountains, and served as a sheep station—wool was “white gold”. Today it is a pricey hotel with horse-riding and fishing excursions. Our day included a small historical/museum tour of what the old sheep station was like and how it was slowly and arduously built up. The striking, wind-bent elm trees that were planted to break the tireless winds of Patagonia still stand, as do some of the fruit trees, and the sheep shearing shed(now the museum). Present day accommodations are new but built to blend in with the few old buildings that remain. The farm remains accessible only via the water, and the whole tract now is part of the National Park systems, as no heirs lived sufficiently long to ever claim the land as their own.
After our picnic lunch, we piled into a 4 wheel drive and bumped our way over a track for about an hour to find our way up to a viewpoint of the immense and breathtaking Uppsala Glacier. Along the way, stunning views of glacial lakes, mountainsides of felled trees as the original homesteaders knocked down trees in (misguided) hopes of creating more pastureland for their thousands of sheep, as well as panoramas reminiscent of times when dinosaurs roamed the area.
Enjoy the photos of another exhilarating day.
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