I used to call it “the end of the world,” but I was corrected by the locals who rightfully refer to it as “the beginning of the world.” After spending a few weeks in Patagonia, I now understand why. This faraway land straddling Chile and Argentina is larger than life, raw and multifaceted. Despite the long journey to get there, everyone who gets to visit this land leaves it feeling lucky, like they were made privy to a well-kept secret.
Flying to the southern tip of the American continent to join our Argentina Walking and Hiking trip in El Calafate involves not only conquering miles but also traveling back in time. And if El Calafate doesn’t feel remote enough, Backroads brings you to a hidden corner of Argentinian Patagonia, on the shores of Lago Argentino—the largest lake in Argentina—to a cozy 20-room hotel that feels like it was frozen in time: Estancia Cristina.
There are only two ways to reach the hotel: by foot (a four-day trek) or by boat (up to three hours, depending on the boat). Fortunately, Backroads has selected the latter, which can often afford sightings of icebergs calved from the Upsala Glacier. As you set foot on this property, you will naturally feel the urge to disconnect from the world you left behind. In fact, there is no cell phone coverage in most of Patagonia and there is very limited Wi-Fi at this hotel. Your best connections will be with the surrounding nature and with your travel companions. You won’t have access to a spa nor to high-end boutiques. In exchange, you get to spend some down time watching horses graze just outside your bedroom window with the majestic Cerro Norte (North Mountain) in the background. These horses roam wild for half of the year, to be recalled in the summertime to work at the Estancia Cristina—similar to your Backroads leaders!
Estancia means to stay, which is exactly what you’ll want to do once you’ve experienced this place. Christina is the name of the daughter of the English family that first settled on this land in 1904. They came as part of an incentivization program by the Argentinian government to increase wool production in the country. Years later, the land was integrated in the newly created Parque Nacional de los Glaciares—the national park at the heart of our hiking trip. Eventually, Estancia Cristina stopped its farming activities to focus solely on tourism to adapt to the new park regulations and the growing number of climbers and hikers interested in the area. Their museum and the vestiges of the sheep farming days allows you to learn about this touching story and get a sense of the passing time. While the infrastructure on the property continues to slowly develop, such as the recently added hotel rooms, the mountains surrounding the property are there to remind you how ancient and majestic this land is.
Of course, you’ll also get the opportunity to explore the property by foot on one of our multiple hikes. My personal favorite is called Fossil Canyon and begins at a breathtaking viewpoint of the Upsala Glacier before hiking down into a small canyon filled with belemnite and ammonite fossils, left over from when the sea covered the whole area. Talk about time traveling! From the blue of the lake, the white of the glacier, the green of the bushes and the orange of the canyon, the colors will imprint in your mind like the fossils did on the land.
Nowadays, the Estancia Cristina caters to “wild souls,” wherever they come from. Therefore, I invite you to consider a trip to the beginning of the world, a rare piece of our planet where every landscape will make you feel like you are looking at our planet for the very first time.
