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EL CALAFATE
(not to be confused with Cafayate in Salta Province) is the centre of the tourist network in the deep south of mainland Argentinian Patagonia, and is one of the country's most-visited tourist destinations, though this is due more to the town's outlying tourist attractions than the place itself. These offshoot attractions cluster around the tremendous bloated tuber of
Lago Argentino
, the greatest of all exclusively Argentinian lakes, and the third biggest in all South America, with a surface area of 1600 square kilometres - it's so deep that its temperature remains almost constant at 8A°C year round. Catch it on a cloudy day and you could be looking at a tarnished expanse of molten lead, while when the weather is brighter the lake soaks up the light of the Patagonian sky to reflect a glorious hue of polarized blue. Most of the lake is surrounded by harsh, rolling steppe, but the scenery becomes more interesting around its western tendrils: transitional scrub and southern beech woodland press up on its shores, and the snow-capped mountains that fringe the Southern Patagonian Icecap rear up behind.
By any standards, the town isn't cheap, although it does offer some decent budget hostel accommodation and a couple of well-stocked, reasonably priced supermarkets. The best
months to visit
are those in spring and autumn (Nov to mid-Dec, and March to Easter/early April), when there's a nice balance between having enough visitors to keep services running but not too many for the place to seem overcrowded. High season's advantage is that you're sure to meet up with many friendly and exuberant Argentinian holidaymakers, but you're advised to book accommodation, and especially flights or car rental, well in advance.
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