Estancia Helsingfors, Patagonia, Argentina - Trip Report January 20-24, 2004 (also Michelangelo Hotel, El Calafate)
Helsingfors web site Photos from our trip
The trip to Helsingfors usually starts with an arrival to the the El Calafate airport. This is a brand new airport with two gates. That is probably 1.5 more gates than they have a use for at present. Landing at El Calafate is like descending into the twilight zone. We didn't see any signs of life from the air until you see the terminal. They say that nowhere is a place in Argentina. We knew we had arrived there when we landed at El Calafate. The terminal is very nice and welcoming and the bags came fast. Most people landing with us piled onto tour busses and were gone before we had our bags and taxi.
The taxi sped us to the Michelangelo hotel. This was very adequate. It is a ranch style hotel with great looking wood everywhere. The twin beds were the usual small for overseas travel and the bathroom had a shower only. We had an excellent dinner in the dining room. We had Lomo as was usual for us up to this point in Argentina. (Filet Mingon) It was a fantastic $35 dinner for two, including wine, appetizers, and one desert.
El Calafate is a thriving tourist town, complete with shopping, restaurants, and several busy internet cafes. It's a jumping off point for glacier sightseeing in Patagonia. You wouldn't think so from the air! I got my hair cut here at 10:30pm and the town was still busy at midnight.
The included breakfast the next morning was what became the usual disappointing Argentinean breakfast. Some toast, orange punch, granola, and maybe some ham and/or cheese. We tried to find a pastry at the bakery in town but these two were dry and disappointing. I guess they eat so late at night in Argentina that they don't have an appetite for breakfast. Anyhow lunch is never far away when you start your day at 9 or 10am.
Our car from Helsingfors, a recent Ford Explorer, arrived promptly at 10am to take us to the estancia. They packed two more people in from the Los Alamos Hotel, a much finer looking establishment than the Michelangelo, at least given the view from the Ford. The five of us, including the driver, set off for the 4hr drive to Helsingfors.
The road starts out paved but quickly turns into washboard gravel. The dust permeated everything, even the turned off ventilation system in the quickly stuffy Ford. The scenery quickly reverts to twilight zone emptiness after passing the El Calafate airport. Halfway through the trip we stopped at La Leona, a small house/shack serving empanadas (pastry stuffed with meat), pies, and drinks. This place seems set up to cater to the busses that pass by despite appearing completely isolated in the world. They people were very friendly and the fare was inexpensive as usual despite the rarified location.
We turned off the main dirt road and onto the small dirt road to Helsingfors, slowly approaching the distant mountains. Helsingfors is at the end of the road at the foot of the mountains. It's a spectacular setting with views of many peaks and glaciers. They've created an artificial oasis of trees at Helsingfors in the otherwise now barren from overgrazing plains. The eight room lodge appears to be all that is expected of a first rate guest ranch. The lobby has a welcoming fireplace always kept stoked and plenty of couches around the fire for all the guests to enjoy at once. There is a small bar and appropriately sized dining room completing the indoors common areas. They handed us a key to our room which we never touched again, choosing instead to leave our room unlocked for the duration. Being an hour's drive from the nearest anything, we didn't worry about thieves. Our room had two twin beds and a bathroom with shower, no bath. It is very respectable given that you don't expect to spend much time in your room at a place like this. The setting is stunningly beautiful for the views. The isolation is truly peaceful.
Full capacity at Helsingfors is 16 guests in 8 rooms, plus room for up to two additional tour guides as needed. The complete staff consists of 9 people plus the manager: Facundo and Augustina on activities, Luis and Manuel are the gauchos in charge of the horses and other ranch hand duties, two women who lurked unintroduced in various cleaning and kitchen support duties, two pleasant but non-talkative waiters, and one cook who appeared occasionally to ask how dinner was. The manager made an appearance on our last day to operate the boat to the glacier but was otherwise absent.
We were notified immediately after arriving that lunch would be served in 10 minutes. We quickly unpacked and went to the dining room. My review of meals at Helsingfors is mixed to negative, partly from the meals having been so built up in other reviews. Had the other reviews said that the food was great given the place is 4 hours from a store, I would have been a lot more understanding. Instead it was imho falsely advertised as gourmet. See more about the specifics and my opinions of the meals under the food section.
After lunch, Facundo explained what he had planned for us the rest of our stay: a short walk the arrival afternoon, another short walk the first morning, a horseback ride the first afternoon, a long hike to the blue lagoon (blue lake) the second day, and a boat ride to the glacier on the third day. Facundo, officially the activities guide, functioned as host for our entire stay. His English was very good and the best of all the nine staff members at Helsingfors.
Our hike on the first afternoon was easy, perhaps as a way for Facundo to take measure of his new guests. We hiked up to a wind blown ridge with a great view up the finger of the lake. All along the hike Facundo would point out interesting facts about the land and flora in both English and Spanish. He was very good about answering questions and appeared very knowledgable. He was very diplomatic when needed and an overall great host. Thank you Facundo!
The hike on the second morning was a bit tougher than the first but still easy. More facts about the place and some new vistas. Guests were split on what to do in the afternoon with some wanting to hike and other wanting to ride the horses. Helsingfors was always accommodating and everyone got their way. Augustina took us on the afternoon horse ride and Facundo led another hike for the others. When we wanted to go a different direction than Augustina had planned, Manuel, who had been holding up the rear up to that point, led us a new direction where Augustina had never gone. You ask for it, you got it seemed to prevail at Helsingfors.
The next day was our big hike to the blue lagoon. It took about two hours of steady climbing to walk up the valley, past the long waterfall, to the lake. The lake is really spectacular. The color is glacier blue-green and the glacier descends to just above the lake. Jagged peaks surround it. We refilled our water bottles in the lake after Facundo's multiple assurances of its safety. Don't miss this trip if you go to Helsingfors. If you're unable to make the walk, they'll take you up on horseback.
We loaded up onto their boat on our last full day and sped off towards the Viedma glacier. This glacier descends right into lake Viedma and floats many icebergs down the lake. A small piece of glacier fell into the water while we were there, making a thunderous cracking sound. Many much larger pieces had fallen in recently and floated nearby. One piece was crystal clear blue. They pulled the boat to shore and let us climb the rocks to another part of the glacier to see it up close. This was yet another amazing trip from Helsingfors.
The guests had another set of diverging interests that afternoon. Each got their way. We chose to take the horses back up to a high plain on the way to the blue lagoon to gallop with the horses. Another set rode to the nearby estancia "to see the building where they sometime shear sheep" and a third went for a walk. I think a fourth set also drove to the nearby estancia.
We had a great time at Helsingfors. The staff was great, the scenery amazing, and the isolation refreshing. I recommend it as a fun trip for people wanting to get away, see some scenery, and do some not too challenging activities.
Repeating my generally very positive feelings for Helsingfors, I also need to offer some criticism around the mostly disappointing food. Disappointment is always related to expectations. At Helsingfors I expected gourmet ranch food, and by ranch food I expected lots of locally grown meats and vegetables. It turns out that Helsingfors is not technically an estancia since it is no longer a working farm but really just a hotel. It was once an estancia but the commercial farming side was shut down in the late 60's by the park authorities due to its location just inside the national park. Although a technicality, I believe that a working farm would have had more in the way of fresh meats and home grown vegetables.
Helsingfors serves food "take-it-and-like-it" style, meaning they have no menus, offer no choices, and just bring you what they've got each meal. They do a good job of serving common denominator food; most people seemed willing to eat most things served. The presentation of the food was always superb, the quality of the food presented was variable. They did make special meals for vegetarians which the vegetarians appreciated but complained lightly that it was the same few vegetables mixed different ways each meal.
To give you some calibration on me, I think of Argentina as a great place to go for the food. I love Argentinian beef and lamb and usually gorge myself on the delightful meats. I made a trip to Argentina last year where all I did was go to different restaurants in Buenos Aires. My favorite is a tiny and humble place called Cafe Dada near the Marriott Plaza hotel, one or two blocks towards the water from Ave. Florida. I always order the Lomo Dada. Mmmm! Delight for $5. I am generally easy enough to please.
Here's what they served us at Helsingfors:
Breakfasts (all the same) Ham, cheese, granola, yogurt, corn flakes, milk, tea, coffee, bread, preserves, mini-scones, orange punch. The orange punch was not orange juice but something a bit better than Tang. There were no hot food choices for breakfast, no pastries or croissants, and no fruit. The breakfast table was set the night before and open until 10am. You could go any time and help yourself.
Lunch, arrival afternoon: Caesar salad, fried chicken fingers served cool with rice, crepes with store bought caramel spread filling. This meal set the pattern of great looking food tasting only average. In my opinion, fried chicken fingers are better off on the children's menu at Denny's than served at a place claiming to be gourmet. I scraped aside as much of the canned caramel filling as I could.
Dinner, arrival day: Brushetta, lamb lasagna, pineapple ice cream. The brushetta was very tasty if ordinary, the lamb lasagna was very original but served disappointingly cool and had some bits of grisly meat, and the pineapple ice cream was good.
Lunch 1st full day: Deep fried ham & cheese blintzes, rump steak & mashed potatoes, flan. This meal was so bad I couldn't believe it. The fried ham & cheese was probably extras from breakfast. The rump steak was the lowest quality meat I've seen in Argentina and unacceptably poor. Most guests left it on their plates uneaten. I left some partly chewed pieces on my plate. While it was presented very nicely, this was third rate food.
Dinner 1st full day: Onion soup, baked chicken breast with bland white sauce, apple pie. All were OK but very ordinary.
Box lunch for hike: roast beef sandwich, proscuitto sandwich, apple, chocolate bar, brownie. Decent for a box lunch, although it left a few of us wanting more after the climb.
Dinner 2nd full day: Vegetables on puff pastry, ham & cheese ravioli, tiramisu. This meal reminded me of cafeteria food in college, especially the ravioli. The tiramisu was quite good, especially given our adjusted down expectations by this point.
Lunch, 3rd day: served outside on park benches by the fire pit; lamb barbecue, carrot salad, green salad, potato salad, rice pudding. I was thrilled with the lamb. It was the best lamb I've ever had, cooked to perfection. They cooked the entire lamb at once on the rack over fire Argentinian style. They carved it up in front of us. There was great pieces from every cut, including some especially deliscious crispy pieces. Mmm yum. I will remember this meal and hope to forget the others.
Dinner, 3rd day: Deep fried cheese sticks, ribeye steak with fried potatoes, chocolate ice cream. The waiters asked the Spanish speakers how they wanted the steak cooked but not the English speakers. I guess they though we didn't care. Ours came out well done even though I prefer my steak rare. It was an OK but below average for Argentina piece of meat. The chocolate ice cream was good. The fried cheese sticks would have fit in better at TGI Fridays despite the cute twirly sauce trying to dress them up as gourmet.
I've written all of this to say: go to Helsingfors and enjoy the scenery, people, activities, and isolation. Don't go for the food. If you have low expectations for the food, you might be pleasantly surprised. If you go expecting gourmet, you'll be let down.