Coming off of the highs of TdP we crossed back into Argentina making our way to El Calafate. After five days of carrying all our gear, which meant one outfit to hike in and one outfit to sleep in, we did not smell good. We probably smelled terrible but neither of us was in any position to assess the other. So, with the windows down we booked it to the town in search of a hostel/hotel. Luckily, we were still ahead of the main tourist season (Jan. - Feb.) so we quickly found a nice and quiet place (with laundry service!) for the next few days on the outskirts of town.
El Calafate sits at the edge of Parque Nacional Los Glaciers, which is home to the Perito Moreno Glacier (not to be confused with Parque Nacional Perito Moreno, which we visited later on). Although there are other glaciers in the area, Perito Moreno is definitely the main attraction. The park has numerous walkways that allow you to get pretty close to the wall of ice, which is 60 meters tall! We also took a quick boat ride to see what is basically "The Wall" from Game of Thrones from even closer. While there we saw large ice chunks break off and fall into the lake as well as very large groans and cracks that never ceased to make us stop in our tracks. And one fun fact, the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the few glaciers in the world that is not receding (cue the hopeful music?!?!).
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| Perito Moreno Glacier and the network of pathways for optimal viewing |
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| It was really bright |
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| Game of Thrones right? |
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| Misadventures Magazine get at me |
After two days in Calafate we headed a little further north to El Chalten. This pueblito is within the northern section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciers, which meant all the trailheads begin from town. The main attraction here is Fitz Roy Mountain, which seems to be Argentina's answer to the Torres in TdP. In our minds both these places are incredible and worth your time.
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| Driving into El Chalten with Fitz Roy looming over the town |
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| Our campsite, one of the softest grounds we encountered while camping (thanks to sleeping on a bed of dandelions) |
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| Not a sailor hat, the condor lookout was just really windy |
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| Views hiking up to Laguna Torre |
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| Huemul spotting, a rare deer species along the trail |
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| Laguna Torre |
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| It did clear up on the way back |
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| On the way to Fitz Roy |
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| Laguna de los Tres still mostly frozen over |
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| This was along the entire final steep ascent to get up to the lake |
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| Glaciar Piedras Blancas |
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| You can drink directly from the streams! |
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| Until next time... |
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| Valley heading towards Lago del Desierto |
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| Lago del Desierto (you can ferry across to Chile, but only for people/bikes) |
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| Quick breakfast spot (sadly that thermos didn't make it much longer after this) |
In really big news, other than some incredible hiking, A managed to stitch together the unbelievably soft baby alpaca cardigan she has been knitting Z! For context, the yarn for this sweater was purchased back in Cusco, Peru. After many many...many months of working on each piece individually you can now see just how amazing this thing is going to be.
Leaving El Chalten and continuing north on Argentina's famous Ruta 40 we spent a quick night in Gobernador Gregores mainly because they had a decent sized supermarket and we needed to restock before heading to Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. We went back and forth for awhile on whether or not we would go to this park because it was 100 km detour (each way) on gravel roads, but in the end we were extremely happy we did! Most of our time was spent on a spit of land jutting out into Lago Belgrano. There is a trail that loops around and along the way are two cabins that we stayed at. And before we left we made we had lunch at Lago Burmeister taking in some spectacular mountain views and bird watching.
Not only is this park unbelievably beautiful, but we also had the place pretty much to ourselves. This was the complete opposite of TdP, which overflowed with people. It was hard not to compare the two parks in terms of feel:
1. TdP has the most expensive park entrance fee in South America and you have to pay for campsites that are not well maintained and offer little services whatsoever. Perito Moreno is completely free and new free-to-use cabins (with wood burning stoves and sleeping platforms) have been built throughout the Park along the various trails.
2. Because of all the visitors TdP feels more like an amusement park in nature complete with overpriced food and drink for sale around every corner. We frequently ended our days hiking at campsites where it felt like we were at a bar. Perito Moreno sold only solitude.
We now looked westward back towards Chile deciding to cross the border at Paso Roballos. This is a very small crossing and we later found out that although they stamped our passports they never actually input us into the system that we left Argentina (luckily this was retroactively fixed by a very helpful border agent a few weeks later). Beforehand we spent a night Lago Posados where we toured more glacial lakes!
This leg of the trip was 12 days, 1350 km (~ 840 mi) and here is our map:
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| A sneak beak of blocking one of the front panels |
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| Back panel...knitting in the wild |
Leaving El Chalten and continuing north on Argentina's famous Ruta 40 we spent a quick night in Gobernador Gregores mainly because they had a decent sized supermarket and we needed to restock before heading to Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. We went back and forth for awhile on whether or not we would go to this park because it was 100 km detour (each way) on gravel roads, but in the end we were extremely happy we did! Most of our time was spent on a spit of land jutting out into Lago Belgrano. There is a trail that loops around and along the way are two cabins that we stayed at. And before we left we made we had lunch at Lago Burmeister taking in some spectacular mountain views and bird watching.
Not only is this park unbelievably beautiful, but we also had the place pretty much to ourselves. This was the complete opposite of TdP, which overflowed with people. It was hard not to compare the two parks in terms of feel:
1. TdP has the most expensive park entrance fee in South America and you have to pay for campsites that are not well maintained and offer little services whatsoever. Perito Moreno is completely free and new free-to-use cabins (with wood burning stoves and sleeping platforms) have been built throughout the Park along the various trails.
2. Because of all the visitors TdP feels more like an amusement park in nature complete with overpriced food and drink for sale around every corner. We frequently ended our days hiking at campsites where it felt like we were at a bar. Perito Moreno sold only solitude.
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| Making our way to the first cabin along Lago Belgrano |
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| Hard to get tired of glacial lakes (PSA - many more to come) |
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| Thank you Butler Conservation Fund for providing these amazing shelters! |
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| View from the porch of our cabin |
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| Cabin #2 on towards the southern edge of Lago Belgrano |
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| Bed platforms, wood storage, wood stove, and table and chairs (do not need much else) |
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| "big" pot of stove top curry |
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| When in the Argentine wilderness always chill your Fernet and Coke in glacial lakes |
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| Looking across towards Chile from Lago Burmeister |
We now looked westward back towards Chile deciding to cross the border at Paso Roballos. This is a very small crossing and we later found out that although they stamped our passports they never actually input us into the system that we left Argentina (luckily this was retroactively fixed by a very helpful border agent a few weeks later). Beforehand we spent a night Lago Posados where we toured more glacial lakes!
This leg of the trip was 12 days, 1350 km (~ 840 mi) and here is our map:
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