Sights in Patagonia
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Laguna Torre
If the weather is good and the wind is down, make a hike to Laguna Torre a priority. The trail is accessed from El Chaltén, either from behind Hostería Los Ñires or from the artisans' market north of the town. After a gentle initial climb, it's a fairly level walk through tranquil beech forests and along the Río Fitz Roy until a final steep climb up the lateral moraine left by the receding Glaciar del Torre.
The Mirador Laguna Torre offers a breathtaking view of the majestic spire of 3128m Cerro Torre, rising out of the valley in the background. Look for the 'mushroom' of snow and ice that caps the peak. This precarious formation is the final obstacle for hard-core cl…
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Laguna de los Tres
Follow the main trail from Laguna Capri, which continues gently to Río Blanco, base camp for the Cerro Fitz Roy experience. From here it's a very steep climb to Laguna de los Tres (four hours one way). Bring loads of water and supplies - it's a toughie. But the extraordinary close view of Cerro Fitz Roy, as well as the eerily still glacial lake itself, make the effort worthwhile.
Be prepared for high, potentially hazardous winds and allow time for contemplation and recovery. Then scurry down 200m to the left of the lookout for an exceptional view of the emerald green Laguna Sucia.
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Parque El Desafío
Don’t miss Parque El Desafío, the perfect remedy to long-distance travel fatigue. Its octogenarian owner Joaquín Alonso, the ‘Dali of Recycling, ’ spent 30,000 hours fashioning some 80,000 bottles, cans and soda containers into whimsical folk art. Though he created the park to entertain his grandchildren, adults can appreciate it just as well. Plaques (some translated into English) with folk sayings and quotes from Seneca and Plato offer wit and reflection for all amid this symphony of junk. As one proclaims: Si quieres vivir mejor, mezcla a tu sensatez unos gramos de locura (‘If you want to live better, mix up your sensibility with a few grams of craziness’). The…
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Monumento Natural Bosques Petrificados
During Jurassic times, 150 million years ago, this area enjoyed a humid, temperate climate with flourishing forests, but intense volcanic activity buried them in ash. Erosion later exposed the mineralized Proaraucaria trees (ancestors of the modern Araucaria, unique to the southern hemisphere), up to 3m in diameter and 35m in length. Today, the 150-sq-km Monumento Natural Bosques Petrificados has a small visitor center, English-language brochure and short interpretive trail, leading from park headquarters to the largest concentration of petrified trees. Until its legal protection in 1954, the area was plundered for some of its finest specimens; please don’t perpetuate thi…
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Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio
Showcasing the most important fossil finds in Patagonia, this natural-history museum offers outstanding life-sized dinosaur exhibits and more than 1700 fossil remains of plant and marine life. Nature sounds and a video accent the informative plaques, and tours are available in a number of languages. The collection includes local dinosaurs, such as the tehuelchesaurus, patagosaurus and titanosaurus. Museum researchers were part of an international team that discovered a new and unusual species called Brachytrachelopan mesai, a short-necked sauropod. Feruglio was an Italian paleontologist who came to Argentina in 1925 as a petroleum geologist for YPF.
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Ecocentro
Celebrating the area’s marine treasures, Ecocentro is a masterpiece of interactive displays that combine artistic sensitivity with extensive scientific research. Exhibits explore the area’s unique marine ecosystem, including the breeding habits of right whales, stories about dolphin sounds and southern elephant-seal harems, a touch-friendly tide pool and more. The building itself is equally impressive. The three-story tower acts as a library, with the top story – all glass and comfy couches – a great place to read, write or contemplate the fragile ocean community. Bring your binoculars: whales may be spotted from here.
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Bosque Petrificado Sarmiento
Fallen giants are scattered in a pale sandstone landscape at this petrified forest, 30km southeast of Sarmiento. From the visitor center, a trail leads through ethereal grounds with the appearance of a lumberyard gone mad: ‘wood’ chips cover the ground and huge petrified logs, up to 100m in length and 1m wide, are strewn about. Unlike the petrified forest in Santa Cruz, these trunks were brought here by strong river currents from the mountainous regions about 65 million years ago. The most impressive area of the park has a handful of large trunks set against the red and orange striated bluffs.
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Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
Among Earth’s most dynamic and accessible ice fields, Glaciar Perito Moreno is the stunning centerpiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Locally referred to as Glaciar Moreno, it measures 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high, but what makes it exceptional in the world of ice is its constant advance – it creeps forward up to 2m per day, causing building-sized icebergs to calve from its face. In some ways, watching the glacier is a very sedentary park experience, but it manages to nonetheless be thrilling.
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Canal de los Témpanos
Visiting Glaciar Moreno is no less an auditory than a visual experience, as huge icebergs on the glacier's face calve and collapse into the Canal de los Témpanos. This natural-born tourist attraction is ideally located at Península de Magallanes - close enough to guarantee great views, but far enough away to be safe. A series of recently improved catwalks and vantage points allow visitors to see, hear and photograph the glacier.
Sun hits its face in the morning and the glacier's appearance changes as the day progresses and shadows shift.
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Estancia La María
Some 150km northwest of Puerto San Julián on the Patagonia steppe, Estancia La María is an important area of archaeological research, studied for clues of life in the Pleistocene epoch. It has 84 caves with excellently preserved rock paintings dating back 12,600 years. Three different cultures, predating the Tehuelche, created the arte rupestre (cave paintings), today seen as Patagonia’s most important discovery of this kind. The only way to see these treasures is by guided tour (AR$130) with the estancia owners.
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Glaciar Perito Moreno
Among the Earth's most dynamic and accessible ice fields, Glaciar Perito Moreno is the stunning centerpiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Locally referred to as Glaciar Moreno, it measures 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high, but what makes it exceptional in the world of ice is its constant advance - up to 2m per day, causing building-sized icebergs to calve from its face.
In some ways, watching the glacier is a very sedentary park experience, but it manages to nonetheless be thrilling.
reviewed
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Museo Nacional del Petróleo
Intransigent petroleum fans should head to Museo Nacional del Petróleo for an insider look at the social and historical aspects of petroleum development. Don’t expect balanced treatment of oil issues – the museum was built by the former state oil agency YPF (it is now managed by the Universidad Nacional de Patagonia). While its historical photos are interesting, the detailed models of tankers, refineries and the entire zone of exploitation are best left to the die hard. Guided tours are available.
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Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográfico
Feeling up strands of seaweed and ogling a preserved octopus are part of the hands-on approach of this museum in the 1917 Chalet Pujol. A winding staircase leads into nine small rooms of marine and land mammal exhibits and preserved specimens, plus collections of Welsh wares. The explanations are in Spanish and geared to youth science classes, but it’s visually informative and creatively presented. Twist up to the cupola for views of the port.
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Estancia Río Verde
Ranch life spills from the pores of Estancia Río Verde, an interesting stop on the shores of Seno Skyring. English-speaking hosts Josefina and Sergio keep a relaxed atmosphere and manage to be gracious hosts while also running the ranch. A ride around the property affords a close look at operations on this sheep estancia, which also breeds fine Chilean horses. Sailing, fishing and sightseeing trips are also arranged.
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Reserva Faunística Punta Loma
Home to a permanent sea-lion colony and cormorant rookery, the Reserva Faunística Punta Loma is 17km southwest of Puerto Madryn via a good but winding gravel road. The overlook is about 15m from the animals, best seen during low tides. Many travel agencies organize two-hour tours (AR$80) according to the tide schedules; otherwise, check tide tables and hire a car or taxi, or make the trek via bicycle.
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Tumba de Malacara
Horse lovers can pay their respects at Tumba de Malacara, the monument holding the remains of a brave horse whose swift retreat saved its owner’s hide. As the story goes, town founder John Evans escaped with Malacara from murder-bent Araucanians, who were retaliating for an attack by the Argentine army during the Conquista del Desierto. It’s two blocks northeast of Plaza Coronel Fontana.
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Cabo Dos Bahías
Thirty rough kilometers southeast of Camarones, the isolated Cabo Dos Bahías rookery attracts far fewer visitors than Punta Tombo, making it an excellent alternative. You’ll be rewarded with orcas, a huge colony of nesting penguins in spring and summer, whales in winter and a large concentration of guanacos and rheas. Sea birds, sea lions, foxes and fur seals are year-round residents.
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Geoparque Paleontológico Bryn Gwyn
The Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio sponsors interesting group tours to Geoparque Paleontológico Bryn Gwyn, in the badlands along the Río Chubut (25km from Trelew, or 8km south of Gaiman via RP 5). The three-hour guided visits are a walk through time, along a well-designed nature trail past a wealth of exposed fossils dating as far back as the Tertiary, some 40 million years ago.
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Centro de Interpretación
The Centro de Interpretación, 22km beyond the entrance of Reserva Faunística Península Valdés, focuses on natural history, displays a full right whale skeleton and has material on the peninsula’s colonization, from the area’s first Spanish settlement at Fuerte San José to later mineral exploration. Don’t miss the stunning panoramic view from the observation tower.
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Parque Nacional Pali Aike
The park has several hiking trails, including a 1.7km path through the rugged lava beds of the Escorial del Diablo to the impressive Crater Morada del Diablo; wear sturdy shoes or your feet could be shredded. There are hundreds of craters, some as high as a four-story building.
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Museo Nao Victoria
Relive Magellan’s landing at Museo Nao Victoria, a museum-cum-theme-park with life-sized figures cloaked in armor and shown celebrating Mass and battling mutiny. Reproductions of everyday items provide some interest. You can’t miss it – it’s at the port on a boat, a reproduction of the Nao Victoria.
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Museo Cardenal Cagliero
The Salesian Museo Cardenal Cagliero features incredible ceiling paintings and a neat fish-vertebrae cane (check out the cardinal’s office). It is housed in the Centro Histórico Cultural Salesiano, the former Vicariato de la Patagonia, a massive 1890 brick structure on the corner of Colón.
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Museo Regional Molino Viejo
The Museo Regional Molino Viejo occupies the restored remains of a 1922 grain mill and is stuffed with interesting historic artifacts. Look for the antique bridal gown and the Welsh coffee cup designed for men who have mustaches. It’s a couple of blocks east of the plaza, at the end of 25 de Mayo.
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Laguna Capri
One of the many spectacular hikes near El Chaltén climbs from Camping Madsen to a signed junction, where a side trail leads to backcountry campsites at the lovely Laguna Capri. From here, you can explore dramatic windswept forests and small lakes, or use it as a base for more adventurous treks up the slopes.
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Punta Tombo
Continental South America’s largest penguin nesting ground, Punta Tombo has a colony of more than half a million Magellanic penguins and attracts many other birds, most notably king and rock cormorants, giant petrels, kelp gulls, flightless steamer ducks and black oystercatchers.
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