If I could give you one piece of advice about going to Patagoinia in January, it would be, LOCK YOUR TRIP DOWN BEFORE YOU GO.
Across the board in Argentina, if you plan in advance, there's a 10-15% chance your plans won't work out. But if you fly by the seat of your pants, there's a 75% chance you're gonna miss out--a lot. This seems particularly true during high season in Patagonia.
The first 3-4 days in Patagonia, Dan and I found ourselves paying the "stupid tax" a lot, because we were trying to do things last minute. What we learned is, this isn't Europe, where tourism is extremely developed, so if you don't book that one flight or one tour early, you might not get it at all.
As an example, I'll share our story of attempting to get to El Perrito Moreno (the main reason anyone comes to El Calafate.)
High demand makes Perrito Moreno a non-starter
Before arriving, we had emailed our hostel about seeing Glacier Perrito Moreno. We heard there was an extremely cool trek that allows you to walk on the glacier, eat lunch on the ice, etc. etc.
We were told that there was no space left on the tour bus, but for $960 pesos (about $100USD if you get the blue market rates of exchange) we could take a taxi to the glacier, have the taxi wait all day for us, then ride back. So at least we'd get to do the tour.
Our hostel told us we could discuss it when we arrived, so we decided not to book until we got more information, because it seemed expensive, but we really wanted to do the tour. By the time we arrived, we were told there was no space available on the tour, and there wouldn't be till January 8th.
So, essentially, the main reason we came to El Calafate--to hike on the glacier--was out of our reach.
We miss the bus to Perrito Moreno by a hair
We were EXTREMELY disappointed about missing the glacier hike, but thought that we would at least take either the 8am or 1pm bus to get to Los Glacieres National Park.
We specifically wanted the 8am bus, because this means you can catch a ride out at 5pm, and get dropped off at the Glaciarium Museum, where you can have a glacier-ice infused drink in a sub-zero bar. Sounded touristy, but fun.
Since the bus left at 8am, we dragged ourselves out of bed around 6:30 for toast with dulce de leche--THE most popular, accessible breakfast spread in Argentina. Just 2 nights ago, we were going to bed at 3am and eating dinner at midnight, so this was pretty tough.
At 7:45, we went to the bus station--just like we were told--waiting in the slow-moving line. Of course, the two people in front of us scored the last two tickets to the 8am bus. So, unless we found another way, we were stuck in El Calafate till mid-afternoon, and wouldn't be able to see the museum.
No es possible to go to Perrito Moreno by car
Our next thought was to rent a car, which we heard was about 400 pesos, and not a bad option. Just a little bit more risk.
We walked around town for about 30 minutes looking for a place to rent, which we discovered opened at 9:30am. Right at 9:30, we were ready to get our car. One couple had beat us there, and we waited for them to finish their paperwork. When we got to the attendant, we asked, "Podemos alquilar un coche hoy!?"
Not surprisingly, the answer was, "Lo siento, no hay coches hoy."
Are you f*cking kidding me......
We pay the "stupid tax" to make it to the glacier
After having an internal mini-meltdown, we were told there was one place in town with one car. It was a suburban, and it would cost 1100 AR pesos. So, almost triple the rate we expected.
We were leaving for El Chalten the very next day, so if we wanted to see the glacier at all, this was the only option. We found our way to the other rental place, where we paid the "you got screwed" fee. An hour+ wait, lots of paperwork, and we were finally on our way, a little after 12pm.
We finally make it to Perrito Moreno, and it's a pretty incredible view.