Patagonia – Up The East Coast
We left Rio Gallegos with a big decision to make. Do we go to Laguna Azul without a lot of information on what to expect other than a little fresh air and a nice view? Or do we save ourselves a couple hours of driving and head straight to our next destination, Puerto Santa Cruz? After the success of our previous day, we decided to roll the dice again.
The road to get there was not great, but compared to the day before it felt like we were cruising. As soon as we arrived the kids jumped out of the car and got to climbing. Next to the car park, there were large, easy to climb volcanic rocks that had lots of interesting nooks and crannies. When we finally caught up with the kids, we were blown away by the view.
Laguna Azul is a lake at the bottom of a crater formed by an extinct volcano. The lagoon stays full of water year round and is spring fed. The source of the spring is not known and some websites rumored that the headwaters came from as far as the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the Andes mountains!
To our surprise, we were actually able to hike down into the crater. There was lots of wildlife to see down below, in particular birds, rabbits, and lizards. The waters were crystal clear and cold, and within steps of the shoreline the bottom of the lagoon dropped off into a dark abyss.
The grassy area on the edge of the water was spongy and you could feel it move under you when someone walked even ten feet away. It was like walking on a waterbed, which was unsettling because it felt as though the whole floor could sink into the bottom of the lagoon.
As our planned half hour stop approached 2 hours, there was one other area the kids insisted on exploring before we could leave, the smaller crater next to the lake. We could not see the bottom from our other vantage points and they needed to know what was there. On our trek to the other side, the sky turned gray and we realized too late that a storm was brewing. We reached the small crater to realize it was nothing but a hole of rocks. Large drops of rain started to fall and soon tiny hail pelted down as we all hurried up the steep slope. We arrived back at the car winded, cold, and soaked at the same time that the sun reemerged. While Louise thought the turn of weather was the worst thing in the world, the rest of us felt invigorated and were appreciative that we had our luggage full of dry clothes in the trunk.
From Laguna Azul, we drove north through the Patagonian steppe to Puerto Santa Cruz. The drive was stressful as the winds ripped across the plains. Our Chevy Joy, that we creatively named, “Joy”, obligingly pushed forward as the winds tugged us back and forth on the highway. Herds of guanacos also slowed our progress, but we did not mind.
Despite the turbulent highway, we got to enjoy endless sky and the picturesque landscape just beyond the edge of the pavement.
Puerto Santa Cruz, being the provincial capital of Santa Cruz province, was surprisingly tiny, but our accommodations were comfortable and for the first time in weeks, the kids had a yard to play in. They enjoyed running free outside while we prepared dinner.
Monté Léon National Park is located on the eastern coast of Argentina. We felt déjà vu as we entered the park and drove 15 km of rough gravel road through the park to get to the sites. The namesake of the park, the Monté de Cabeza Léon (Lion’s Head Mountain) is a sandstone mountain that looks like a lion reclining and looking out towards the ocean. As Louise pointed out, it looked very similar to the Sphinx. A boardwalk took us to the top of the mountain where we could see miles of coastline and turquoise waters beating against the sandstone cliffs. It was another windy day and at the top of the lookout we held on tighter to Colette’s hand as we were worried the wind would pick her up and carry her out to sea. While at the Lion’s Head, in the distance, we could see a pack of sea lions resting at the base of the mountain along the water’s edge. The nearby placard said that this was a popular rest stop for only females and sub-adult males to rest on their way to other shores. The fourth largest penguin colony in Argentina was just a few kilometers away to the south, a nice meal for a transient sea lion.
At Monté Léon National Park we visited the penguin colony with 60,000 penguin adult pairs calling it home. While the number of penguins were not as impressive as what we saw in Cabo Virgenes, the National Park provided placards to better explain the penguins habits and annual migration. As we got closer to the nesting area for the penguins, things were macabre with carcasses of the unlucky penguins that lived on the edges of the nesting areas strewn about the steppe. While Monté Léon is a popular nesting area for the penguins, they are also more vulnerable to predators at this location by land: pumas, fox, and Patagonian weasel; by air: caracara, kestrels, and other birds of prey; and by sea: sea lions and marine birds of prey. The evidence of danger from predators was all around us, yet these penguins choose to return to this spot in large numbers every year.
On our drive down to Monté Léon, the kids asked whether we would get to see a beach. The answer was immediately followed by the question of whether we would have time to play in the sand and build sand castles. It was fun explaining to them that beaches were not necessarily comprised of fine sand like they knew from our beach vacations. At Monté Léon, they discovered a pebble beach with rounded stones of all different colors and sizes. Studying the rocks, you could tell that they came from far away places, rounded by their long trip to the Patagonian coast.
While on the beach, we also found what we can only gather was a whale rib bone! It looked like Maui’s hook from the Disney movie, Moana. We were enamored by the find and propping it up on the pebble beach. We laid on the rocks to catch the sun, feel the Patagonian breeze, and take on the view of the Argentine Sea.
Our cabin in Puerto Santa Cruz came with a very nice parilla (grill). Jon had been missing his hobby of grilling, so we located the local carneceria (butcher shop) where Jon quickly befriended the local butchers and received a lesson on the common cuts of beef in Argentina. He selected 1.5 kgs of thick, hand-cut ojo de bife (ribeyes) and a bag of charcoal for about 2400 pesos (~ $12 USD). As always, he overdid it on the grilled meats, but we feasted on our meal and left not a single morsel behind. It was a rejuvenating meal after our long days in Patagonia.
The eastern coast of Patagonia exceeded our expectations in beauty and diversity of landscape. In our next post, we return to El Calafate and our most anticipated visit to one of the largest glaciers in the world, the Perito Moreno Glacier.