Patagonia in Argentina

From Puerto Natales we continue on to El Calafate. Actually, we didn't really want to come here, but if you want to go to El Chaltén, you have to go to El Calafate. A quick look on the internet to see what you can do here and we have decided to stay one more day. From El Calafate you can visit the Perito Moreno Glacier and, if you want, go ice hiking on the glacier. And apparently, the ice cream in the Argentine part of Patagonia is very delicious. Well, if those aren't two convincing arguments!

We have decided to book an ice hiking tour to get as close to the glacier as possible. In the morning we will be picked up and taken to the 'Los Glaciares' National Park. This national park is the largest in Argentina and includes an enormous ice cap, the fourth largest in the world, right after Antarctica, Greenland, and Iceland. There we will have time to admire the Perito Moreno Glacier from all possible positions. Directly opposite the glacier, various terraced viewing platforms have been built, offering the best views of the glacier's breaking edge. From there, you can also observe the calving of the glacier - when large blocks of ice break off and fall into the water - and listen to the huge ice cap pushing forward. And it cracks loudly, as the Perito Moreno moves about 2 meters downhill every day!

The walkways lead close to the edge of the glacier

The glacier ice is dark blue and forms bizarre shapes

Next, we will take a boat that will take us to the starting point for the ice trekking. After a short lunch break and some instructions, we will put on our ice shoes and off we go.

We are expertly laced up!

On the glacier, we can admire the bright blue color of the ice up close. We also pass by so-called sinkholes, deep and dark holes that are created by meltwater and serve as outlets for the glacier. Finally, we will have a whiskey on the rocks with ice that is 400 years old - quite bitter when the ice is older than the whiskey.

Speaking of ice: We can confirm that the ice cream in Patagonia is excellent! Almost as good or even as good as Italian ice cream! Markus especially likes the fact that the people of Patagonia have a fondness for chocolate ice cream. So every ice cream parlor has at least three to four different types of chocolate ice cream. From regular chocolate ice cream to dark chocolate, to chocolate with nuts or dulce de leche (a type of caramel cream), everything is available.

The next day we continue to El Chaltén, the hiking and climbing mecca of Argentina. Here we find two mountains, Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, which are among the most difficult peaks to climb for mountaineers. We stay in a very nice hostel run by a very friendly family. They always address us and we try to answer in our few words of Spanish. Jorge, the father, cannot understand that Markus is not a huge football fan, considering that Germany has already been World Champion four times! On the first day, we take the afternoon to go to the Condor viewpoint. Unfortunately, we are not lucky and don't see any condors. However, we have a nice panoramic view of Lake Argentino, Argentina's largest lake. On the descent from the Mirador, we finally see three condors circling above us.

View of El Chaltén with Fitz Roy in the background

The Lago Argentino runs in the background - we feel very small!

The next two days, we plan to hike to the base of Cerro Torre (Laguna Torre) and Fitz Roy (Laguna de los tres). However, we face a similar fate as at the Torres del Paine: both times the mountains were shrouded in clouds. At Laguna Torre, the wind was so strong that we only took one photo before the camera lens got wet and we froze. Therefore, we quickly retreat!

Only the sign indicates what you could see here in good weather

Storm at Laguna Torre

The Fitz Roy in the clouds

Nevertheless, both hiking trails are very beautiful and we have some nice views and see some of the local wildlife along the way.

View of Rio Fitz Roy with its many branches

This caracara steals trash from a bag from a campsite, which it had previously skillfully dismantled

We are in El Chaltén for Christmas. On the 24th, we stay in the hostel and call our loved ones at home. In the afternoon, we take a short walk with a quick stop at the waffle house - after all, it's Christmas. For the evening, we have reserved a table at a steakhouse - where else should we have a better Christmas feast in Argentina? Our hostel owners grill a whole lamb over an open fire; cordero (lamb) is a specialty here. They invite us to try a piece later. We gladly accept the invitation, but we are also not sad when everyone is already in their rooms when we come back after dinner. As the French say so nicely: Rien ne vas plus! This applies perfectly to our stomachs, and so we fall into bed tired, after all, we have planned a long hike for the next day!

Waffles with hot chocolate - we start Christmas well

Our hosts' lamb

Best Argentine steak - a perfect evening with much thanks to the generous contributors at home! <3

On the 25th, we get up early. The weather is supposed to be very good today, so we have decided to visit Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre in one day, in order to see both Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre up close and without clouds. In the evening, we will have covered about 34km, but it should be worth it! In the morning when we start the tour, we are still skeptical: clouds cover Fitz Roy. We think to ourselves: "Yesterday morning it was the same and around 10 a.m. it cleared up." So we hope that this day will develop similarly and walk on. A couple of hours later, during our breakfast break, the clouds have already cleared a bit, but we still don't have the hoped-for view of Fitz Roy. However, we still have about two hours ahead of us and continue walking. After about half an hour, the sky clears up and all the clouds disappear. The weather is perfect to carry out our plan for today!

Breakfast break at Laguna Capri

When we arrive at the foot of the mountain, there are hardly any clouds left at Fitz Roy. A stroke of luck, because Fitz Roy means 'El Chaltén' in the language of the Tehuelche Indians, which means 'the smoking one'. However, Fitz Roy is not a volcano. The name refers to the clouds that almost constantly swirl around the summit.

Today it's worth taking a proof photo^^

We have completed the first part, now we continue happily to Laguna Torre! The connecting route between both hiking trails leads past two more lagoons, Laguna Madre and Hija (Mother and Daughter). Unfortunately, we don't have time to linger on the shores of these clear and shimmering blue and green lagoons.

About 4 hours later, we are rewarded again with a cloud-free view of our destination, this time Cerro Torre.

No clouds to be seen here either - beautiful!

We happily make our way back - after all, we have reached our goal for the day and have been lucky with the weather. The last three kilometers feel a bit longer, despite a little red wine and chocolate (after all, it is Christmas)! We arrive at our hostel satisfied and exhausted at 10:30 p.m. There is still - luckily pre-cooked - chili con carne and then it's off to bed! On our last day in El Chaltén, we are in the mood for a more relaxed and leg-friendly activity, so we take a 45-minute walk to a waterfall nearby.

Not only tourists gather at the waterfall

This little night heron is on the hunt

In the evening, we head to Bariloche, a small town in the Rio Negro region in the northern part of Argentine Patagonia. Actually, we didn't want to go here either, but it is the cheapest and fastest way to get back to Chile or Puerto Varas, our next destination. The 24-hour bus ride passes much faster than expected, and so we arrive in Bariloche at 10 p.m. one day later. Here we want to do a hike and a small day trip to a viewpoint with a panoramic view. However, the weather spoils our plans, as it rains heavily on the second day and the hike falls through. We do the excursion to the viewpoint on the first day.