Parque Nacional Los Glaciares - Argentina

El Calafate

I arrived on a sunny day in el Calafate and booked immediatly a minitrekking on the glacier Perito Moreno. I was still feeling a bit cold and sick, so I took a good rest after a pizza in the sun. The next morning I had to get up very early, the bus of Hielo y Aventura would pick me up at 7:30. After 2 hours I arrived at the viewpoint at the north side of the glacier. Meanwhile I met Jenny from Holand on the bus and because of her I met Tally a few moments later at the viewpoint. We enjoyed the magnificant view of the massive glacier. While standing there, I heard the ice cracking as if there was a war inside the glacier! And if a part of the ice falls, it sounds like an airplane high in the sky. After taking photos of the incredible view the bus took us to the small port to cross the Argentine Lake, during this boat trip we had a view on the southern side of the glacier. After a lunch with a view on the lake, the mountains and the glacier, we went for a hike on the ice. Walking on ice with crampons asks a lot of energy, but it was worth the hike. I had a total different view of the glacier, in the beginning it felt scary to walk down on the ice, but the crampons make it easier. Soon I was hiking 'normal'! At the end of the day, we received a wiskey on the Perito Moreno Rocks :) Nice.

In the evening Tally, Jenny and I went out for dinner and decided to go to El Chaltén together. We booked the bus for the next morning.

El Chaltén

A 3 hours drive in a minibus brought us in the town with the most beautiful scenary I have seen. The famous mountain Fitz Roy in the north of the park rices up from kilometers before arriving the town. The town is the last one before crossing the border to Chile. You can take a bus to a boat in order to walk to the O'higgens lake in Chile, where you catch a ferry to Villa O'Higgens. I planned to do so, but due to a roadblock on the Carretera Austral no fuel nor food reaches that area. So I have to come back to Patagonia in a few years. ;)
So El Chaltén is so small that the internet depends on the amount of clouds and the mobile phone does work at all! You can find restaurants, hiking shop and a supermarket...the rest you get in El Calafate. The hostel Patagonia was very clean and cosy. All people staying in this town come here to hike, no party animals in this place! Although I enjoyed drinking beer at the microbrewery...

One of the hikes goes to the Fitz Roy and the nicest thing about this town is that you start your hike at your hostel. The hike goes up hill in a forest to arrive in a beautiful valley with delicious water! Since I tasted the water here I deslike the bottled water :)))
After enjoying a lunch in this valley surrounded by summits, the heavy part of the hike starts: 2 hours going steep upwards. The view was fantastic! But it was a long day of 9 hours hiking. Now I know why there is a camping in the valley... haha This was the viewpoint where you see the Fitz Roy summit with glaciers and three lakes.