El Calafate

The southern shore of Lago Argentino was Tehuelche country, and rock paintings at Punta Walichu, east of the town, record the people who hunted guanaco on the steppe. Francisco Moreno explored the lakes in the 19th century, and his work defending Argentina's case in the 1902 border arbitration with Chile gave the glacier its name. The town's own name comes from the calafate, a thorny bush with yellow flowers and dark-blue berries common in the region.

In the early 20th century the site was little more than a sheltering place for the wagons that carried wool from the sheep estancias. The Argentine government founded the town officially on 7 December 1927 to consolidate settlement in the region. Growth began with the creation of the national park in 1937, which brought better roads, and the first visitors came to see the glacier and its occasional ice-dam ruptures, the earliest recorded in 1917.

Tourism transformed the town in the late 20th century. The population more than doubled between 1991 and 2001 and has kept rising since. In 2000 a new international airport replaced the old Lago Argentino airport. The winds over the Andes have also made the area a centre for high-altitude gliding: in 2018 the Perlan 2 glider set a world altitude record of 22,657 metres from the airport.

El Calafate is a town of newcomers. Most residents arrived from other parts of Argentina, and from abroad, to work in hotels, restaurants, tour companies and public services, and the town's culture mixes the country's habits — late dinners, asado, football and mate — with the rhythm of the tourist season.

The older sheep-country culture survives around it. Sheep estancias still work the steppe around the lake, some of them open to visitors, and lamb roasted on the iron cross remains the dish of celebration. The Club Andino Lago Argentino, facing Bahía Redonda, teaches mountain skills and runs a climbing wall, and in winter, when the bay freezes, residents skate on it.

The glaciers shape local identity. The Glaciarium, the Patagonian Ice Museum, presents current research on the ice field, and residents follow each rupture of the Perito Moreno's ice dam as a public event. The town's name and the calafate berry are a point of pride, and the saying that whoever eats the berry will come back to Patagonia is repeated to nearly every visitor.

The 2022 census counted about 23,000 people, up from about 16,700 in 2010 and about 6,400 in 2001, and the town holds nearly nine-tenths of the population of the Lago Argentino Department, of which it is the seat. The growth has been driven almost entirely by tourism.

The year divides into a long, busy season from spring to early autumn and a quiet winter. In summer the town fills with visitors from early morning, when buses leave for the glacier, until late in the evening on the main avenue. Many jobs are seasonal. Most goods travel thousands of kilometres by road, so prices are high.

Daily life is shaped by distance and weather. Río Gallegos, the provincial capital, is about 320 km away, Buenos Aires more than 2,700 km. The wind blows hard for much of the year, and Chilean flamingos gather in the shallows of the lake within sight of the town.

Cordero patagónico, Patagonian lamb, is the town's signature dish. Whole lambs are split and roasted slowly on an iron cross, al asador, beside an open fire, and several restaurants on the main avenue roast the lamb in their front windows. The asado of beef, with chorizo and morcilla, is also everywhere. Like the rest of Patagonia's food, almost everything else arrives by road from far to the north.

The calafate berry, the town's namesake, is turned into jams, liqueurs, sauces and ice cream, and is sold in shops along Avenida del Libertador. Chocolate shops and bakeries line the same street, and apple or chocolate tart appears on dessert menus.

The Glaciarium's basement holds a bar made entirely of glacier ice, down to the glasses and counter. Hot chocolate and mate are the drinks of cold, windy days. Empanadas, pizza and the everyday Argentine milanesa keep the town's large working population fed.