El Chalten - 2

After the first day where we did over 42,000 steps we decided to do a modest 18 km hike to Laguna Torre. This is another beautiful glacial fed lake area. We had an absolute perfect day for this hike.

El Chalten

This is the place to go trekking in Argentina. After a short bus ride from El Calafate we arrived in this very small town that is contained in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. What is so special about the hiking here is that it starts right from the towns main roads. Hikes are each about 8 hours for the long ones and can  be very easy walking to down right difficult sections. We chose to do the most difficult the first day. A roughly 20 km hike that has a killer 2 hour section in the middle. The payoff is seeing Laguna de los Tres with the snow capped Fitz Roy in the background. It was quite a hike but well worth it.

 One side note is that the water is so pure in the park that you can just pull it from the stream and drink it direct. No filtering.

El Calafate

Leaving Ushuaia we flew to El Calafate a small city that is the jumping off point for many areas to hike. The only thing to see in El Calafate itself is the incredible Glaciar Perito Moreno. This is a glacier that is moving all the time with chunks of ice falling off of it breaking what could be an otherwise quiet moment. The glacier also seems to come out of nowhere as the landscape is very barren in this area. It measures 5 km wide, 35 km long and 70 m high.