El Calafate Glacarium and flamingos

We had great views of the glacier from the cruise yesterday, so we decide not to go back to the Glacier walkways of Perito Moreno. Instead we will rest a little more and see the Glacarium museum that our friends recommended and there are bird reserve along the waterfront of El Calafate with some walkways. And indeed, there are flamingo in Patagonia !

The museum opens only in the afternoon and there are free shuttles every hours from the tourism center. Perfect, we spend the morning catching up on emails and admin matters ( it seems neverending !) as well as continue planning and booking the rest next few weeks until Buenos Aires.

We find a nice little bakery on the way to the tourism center with a small garden at the back – and the weather in warm. We enjoy lunch outside. 

The Glacarium is a good 15min drive outside of town, completely isolated. It’s a small museum, in about 45min to 1h, the visit is finished and it’s indeed extremely interesting. We had guides on the cruise yesterday – many of what they said can be seen at the museum. But if you just did the walkways by yourselves, the museum is an excellent addition to learn about glaciers worldwide. 

Plus they have an ice bar. You can stay 20min into a 100% made of ice bar. Each entrance gives you two cocktails served in ice glasses. The place is super cold, - 15 degree Celsius.

They provide some extra layers for you to wear before you enter. 

It might be a little kitsch – but I really found it fun and enjoyed these little 20min. I took a lot of pictures. Alexis was a little bored. 

We caught the shuttle back to town and continued to the lake from towards Laguna Nimez. It’s from this point that you have a walkway through the swamps. There are miradors to see the birds and it seems quite well done. The entrance was ARS 10,000. And we found it a little too expensive just to see flamingos.

We continued to walk the long loop along the waterfront, and we saw a lot of flamingo, geese and ducks easily. 

We went back to the hotel and relaxed in the common area. Diner was just next door again and was ok.