Month: December 2019
El Calafate
The name of the town has nothing to do with Islam – it’s the name of a Patagonian thornbush (a barberry), which was once used by Magellan’s fleet as a source of oakum for ship caulking (from the verb calafatear).
Travelers compare El Calafate to Iceland – it’s got a similar windswept aspect. Even the stray dogs spent much of their time hunkered behind whatever windbreak they can find. The outlying houses don’t blend with the landscape; they seem to have landed, as if from space.
Our first stop was a bird sanctuary on the lake shore.
upland goose 
rose-beak pochard 
long-tailed meadowlark 
sierra-finch 
ruddy duck 
red-gartered coot 
spectacled tyrant 
chilean flamingos 
lapwing 
red shoveler 
calafate bush 
chimango 
upland goose (female) 
rufous-collared sparrow