Patagonia: The Blue Lagoon

This is the fourth in a series of posts about our trip to Patagonia. This was a pre-pandemic adventure when toilet paper was plentiful, nobody had converted their basement into a face mask factory, and people could hug each other without the fear of dying. Ah, the good old days of January.

In our last post we were waving goodbye to Terry The Mystery Dog and the Fitz Roy Massif. We were sad to be leaving El Pilar, our home for the previous four nights, until our guide Carlos announced that our next hosts had a “VERY special lunch” planned for us. Sometimes I am ashamed at how easy and transparent we are.

So we left this part of Los Glaciares National Park and headed south to explore a different part of the park and enjoy a different view of Fitz Roy from a distance. Getting anywhere in the vast Patagonia steppes is never linear and nearly always requires circumnavigating a lake. So it was traveling from El Pilar to Estancia Helsingfors, home of the now highly anticipated lunch, for a four-hour drive that took us nearly all of the way around the fifty-mile long Lake Viedma, Argentina’s second largest lake, an elongated trough formed from melting glacial ice.

Along the way we stopped on the roadside and ascended a small hill to a lookout where somebody had made a hand-painted sign that read “El Balcón de los Suspiros”. The literal translation is “The Balcony of Sighs” although our guides also loosely translated it as the “Whispering Balcony”. Either was appropriate as we quietly took in the panoramic view of mountains and Lake Viedma with its glacier and icebergs in the distance. This photo doesn’t provide perspective but the sign says it all.

At this point I should mention La Leona. Technically, this is a hotel but it’s more of a coffee shop, limited restaurant, and souvenir store catering to tourists. To say that it’s in the middle of nowhere is a huge understatement. There is NOTHING within a two-hour drive in any direction. Not a gas station. Not a public bathroom. Not a cell signal to be found.  Yet, this oasis is on Argentina’s famous Route 40 (think of Route 66 in the United States) about midway between the El Calafate airport and El Chalten/Fitz Roy. Of all of the amenities that this island of civilization offered, the most important, most highly valued, and the one thing that made people go batshit crazy was… wifi. On this day, La Leona was exactly half-way to our destination and, keeping in mind that we had just spent four nights at El Pilar with no internet service (gasp!), imagine how exciting it was to send “we’re still alive” texts to loved ones and, for some (ahem), look up the outcome of the San Francisco 49ers conference championship game. Priorities, y’all. Priorities.

Bladders emptied and digital needs met, we re-boarded our bus for the last two hours of the drive (all on a dirt road, of course), at the end of which we were rewarded with the much acclaimed Estancia Helsingfors lunch. It did not disappoint. Appetizers of baked cheese and empanadas, followed by roasted lamb, fresh vegetables, and more empanadas, all prepared over an open fire and served with wine at picnic tables overlooking Lake Viedma.

The next day’s hike, an out-and-back nine-miler, included an option of doing a portion of it on horseback. We chose to do all of it on foot; however, if I had packed my cowboy hat I just might have saddled up.

Estancia Helsingfors has its origins in the 19th century when Alfred Ramström, a Finnish rancher, established a sheep farm on approximately 50,000 acres. Today the sheep farm is history but the ranch remains for guests and sits within a remote part of Los Glaciares National Park. Although he is long gone, Mr. Ramström made sure that he would not be forgotten. Our local guide, Gabby, explained that our hike would follow the Alfred River, going up the Alfred Valley, where we would have views of the Alfred Glacier. He wasn’t exactly the most creative fellow.

We hiked the first 3.5 miles through Alfred Valley, enjoying beautiful views of Lake Viedma receding behind us as we headed into the forest and, eventually, up into the mountains where we reached a very steep and narrow one-mile ascent, summiting at Laguna Azul… the Blue Lagoon. 

The weather cooperated for the “out” portion of the hike but just as we sat down for a quick lunch break at Laguna Azul, the rain began. By now everyone had become experts at throwing on their rain gear quickly and eating under tree cover. Of course, what had been a steep dry ascent for the last mile up from the forest to the lagoon was now a steep, slippery descent. Everyone made it down to the flatter portion of the trail with only a little slipping and sliding before slogging through the final 3.5 miles back to the ranch. Hot showers, followed by a cocktail hour with empanadas, cheese, roasted potatoes, and wine lifted everyone’s spirits as we looked ahead to the next day, when we would experience the immense Perito Moreno glacier up close.