El Calafate
Avenida del Libertador, the town's main street
El Calafate is a little village in Patagonia, Argentina. It is situated in the southern border of Lake Argentino, in the southwest part of the Santa Cruz Province, about 320 km Northwest from Río Gallegos. Its name comes from a little bush with yellow flowers very common in Patagonia, with dark blue berries: the calafate (Berberis buxifolia); the word comes from the word "calafate", which is Spanish for "caulk".
El Calafate is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciares National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world) and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre.
The history of El Calafate began in the first decades of the twentieth century. Originally, it was just a place of shelter for wool traders. It was officially founded in 1927 by the government of Argentina to promote an increase in its population. But it was not until the creation of the national park that the little village, already with electrical power, started to grow slowly, and better roads were built to reach it.
The 220 kilometers separating Calafate from El Chaltén on the other side of the Lake Argentino in the national park are paved, as well as the 315 kilometres to Río Gallegos. Other distances are: to Esquel 1108 km (mostly dirt road); Comodoro Rivadavia 959 km; Puerto Madryn 1388 km; Buenos Aires 2727 km; Ushuaia 863 km and in Chile Puerto Natales 362 km and Punta Arenas 605 km.
In the last census 6,143 permanent residents were counted (2001 census). This represents a 20.1% increase compared with the 1991 census. However, due to the expansion of tourism, the population was estimated at 8,000 people in 2005. (The population was estimated at 20,000 people in 2007.)