December 20, 2025
Calafate to Luz Devina-riverside wildcamping
Generally it is as cheap to eat out than buying all the ingredients and cooking it yourself. But the few days in Calafate I found out the hard way that many restaurents are overpriced and poor value for money. However, after a lot of shopping around on my last evening, I landed upon perhaps the best restaurant anywhere.
When I entered every table except the one that I took was occupied, a good sign, and bossa nova jazz oozed from the soundsystem. The staff were genuinely friendly and didn't insist on speakung English to you. And when I ordered and was waiting, the patron who had been busy discussing with a Brazilian family at the next table the different wines on offer and allowing them a tasting, came and put a complimentary starter in front of me which she called a "mushroom rocket" a round ball made of muchroom and avocado that was yummy. The main coarse came: steak with a nice stack of chips and roast veg, all included in the standard price.
On leaving the restaurant it was still only 21.26 on my phone, so I went on to the Oveja Negra craft beer bar where half way through a delicious hoppy IPA, a keyboardist and vocalist began his set with the Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand, followed by Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, then A Day In The Life with dramatic sounds coming from the keyboard during the wurlitzer insturmental middle section of the latter. He then moved on to Queen hits with a very early 80s synthesizer sound on Radio Gaga, before moving on to Argentinian rock hits. With entertainment such as this I was soon on my second IPA.
Despite alcohol consumed and lateness of turning in, I was out of the bivouac at the usual early before 06 and my panniers were full of food for a few days on the road, but as yet I'm still not sure where to next. I stop at a bakery for enough bread for two days. Opposite is an old house completely built from corrugated iron sheets. On an interpetation board in front the text reads that it was once a trading post built by the pass (crossing) of the Santa Cruz river. Until 1932 when it was transported by wagons to its present spot in Calafate.
It was quite a climb out of town and thankfully it was early; not too warm and traffic light that mainly all turn off for the airport 18 kilometres on. I descend all the hills I climbed Monday and I've a light tailwind. I reach the turn off for the northbound route 40 in no time, when in an instance decide against going further south, so go left.
As I get used to crosswind another touring cyclist is coming the other way and I cross over to say hello. Blond curls descend from under a helmet, a young woman who speaks with an English ascent and on an expensive gravel bike, she wasn't looking forward to the headwind on turning right towards Calafate a kilometre ahead.
Up over a rise and descent, about 5 kilometres on, the turquoise serpentine of the Santa Cruz river comes into view with a rightward chicane to crossover the bridge, the earlier site of the old house I saw in Calafate back in the days when there was no bridge and a raft was in operation.
Once I've tackled the steep climb up from the bridge and the mesmerising turquoise streak in the otherwise dull landscape passes from view, ahead another cyclists is approaching. A whitened beard neatly trimmed. Must've been to the barber recently. We exchange names and nationalities. He Murrat from Turkey.
Fortunately the wind remained nothing more than a brisk breeze and I was able to keep up a fair pace; stopping for lunch down in the shelter of willows by the bridge over the La Leone river where it was warm in the sunshine out of the windchill.
On the ride on upon the long straight road that climbs and descends much, I mull over my options. I started the day deciding against going further south and instead ride north on route 40 and cross over to Chile at Los Antiguos and then ride the northern section of the Carratera Austral. But then look at the chances of getting delayed by the wind for many days, so consider returning to Chalten and crossing back to Chile via O Higgins. Then have a lightbulb moment, think why not stop in Chalten for about a month and fly out of Calafate in late January. A few weeks of hiking when the weather permits instead of returning north pass places I passed only a few weeks earlier.
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I ride until 17 hrs arriving at Luz Devina. Murrat told me he camped here too. Today I lift the Kona over the fence and push it down to the riverbank to the same sheltered spot I camped in Sunday evening, where it had flattened grass showing signs of recent tenting. For supper: pasta, peas, a creamy soft cheese from here and tuna. While eating I spot a patagonian fox at the river's edge looking up at me before scurring off. I also saw an armadilla cross the road during the day.
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