El Calafate:
El Calafate was created in 1927 and was named after the thorny shrub with strongly tinted fruits that extends over the whole South Andean Patagonia.
This picturesque village located on the Argentino lakeside, constitutes the tourist centre of higher hierarchy in Santa Cruz.
Leaning on the hillsides that surround it, El Calafate offers a benign microclimate that turns the place into an oasis that marvels the tourist who reaches it after travelling across the arid landscape of the Patagonic plateaux. The Calafate stream ,which divides the village in two, is a placid retreat with a rocky bed surrounded by willows leaning over its banks.
It is the nearest city to visit The Glaciers National Park and its famous Perito Moreno Glacier, which was declared Natural Patrimony of the Humanity by the UNESCO.
The buildings in El Calafate are gabled roofs to avoid the effects of the heavy snows. Its flora is characteristic of the Andean Patagonic woods, with a clear predominance of lengas and sour cherry woods.
It offers a good lodging and gastronomic infrastructure, agencies and tourist guides that organize several terrestrial and lacustrine excursions, restaurants, discotheques and very good means of transport.