El Chalten

El Chalten is a small town conveniently located inside Argentina's Glaciers National Park. It's built around the seasonal influx of hikers and backpackers, so it's chockfull of hostels, restaurants, and little markets selling easy-to-carry sandwiches. The trails start right where the town ends, making it very easy to get out and enjoy the world-class views.

Mount Fitzroy:

Our first hike took us towards the iconic Mt Fitzroy, which appears right on the Welcome to Chalten sign and is visible from most of the town.

Welcome to Chalten

About 20 minutes of hiking took us up the side of a small ridge and out of the town- giving us an excellent view of the rest of the valley. An hour more and we reached the official Mt Fitzroy Viewpoint.

The view of the valley at the start of the Mount Fitzroy trail

During the hike, Maya practiced rolling her "r's" with admirable dedication.  We tried having her repeat sounds that got her to touch her tongue to the roof of her mouth repeatedly, like "duh-duh-duh," "boo-di-dee-toe" etc.  No luck today, but we considered it substantial practice- by the end of the trip we got a true rolled "r" out of her twice!

After another 1.5 hours of hiking, we reached the first Mount Fitzroy lookout.  The mountain is tall enough that it generates clouds, so it always looks it is juuuust about to clear. In reality we probably did get pretty lucky that the view was this clear.

The first Mount Fitzroy Lookout Point- a big victory for Karen!

A distant glacier nestled in the mountains

Maya and Matt continued hiking another few hours, down into an adjacent valley, and then up a steep incline. During the ascent a tall, athletic man passed them quickly, without looking back.  A few seconds later, a couple small kids (7ish years old?) scrambled up the mountain-side behind him.  They weren't even dressed for hiking, but were passing everyone in sight!

On the other side of the climb, they had an excellent view of the base of Mt Fitzroy and the mountain lakes that surround it.

Matt hiking up the steepest stretch of trail.

The water looked incredibly blue from a distance, but up close it was completely transparent.

Karen liked this moss growing on a tree- they remind her of Dr. Seuss 

The Laguna Torre Trail:

Another major day hike takes you all the way to  Laguna Torre but we only went as far as the viewpoint. We had less luck with the weather on this one: once we got there it began to rain. We waited for a while hoping the fog would clear, but it only got thicker.

We could see this mountain-top glacier shrouded in mist from the viewpoint.

Mirador los Condores:

Maya got up early on our last day to watch the sun rise from a lookout point just outside the town. On her advice, Matt and Karen went to check out the meadow that leads to the lookout- apparently the view from the meadow is just as good as the view from the top! Just a few steps out of town made a huge difference- by walking around a small hill we had a panoramic view of all the iconic peaks of El Chalten.

Maya's sunrise climb

A view of the town of Chalten

The Torre Peak was almost constantly shrouded in clouds. Karen kept stepping outside to see it. When it cleared, she went inside and sent Matt out, but by the time he got there, it was cloudy again! Matt stood outside for a full 15  minutes and finally caught a glimpse when it cleared for about 20 seconds.

Food:

On Brian and Blake's recommendation, we got a beer at La Cerveceria.  They also had pretty tasty empanadas!

We ate a LOT of lamb (when in Patagonia)

We had an excellent wine- and revolutionized Maya's opinions on wine!

For dessert, we indulged in Dulce de Leche-themed treats, like this "Margotita."  When Maya went to order her's she asked for a "Margarita."  The staff got exactly what she wanted and didn't even blink twice- they're pretty used to tourists.

A chocolate-covered, dulce de leche mountain.

Later, Maya ordered a salad that turned out to be mostly fried cheese and very few vegetables. Karen jokingly called it a trap- but we don't think the waiter was very amused. He became a little defensive and assured us that in Argentina what we ordered was definitely a "salad".

Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier

Domestic flights within Chile are very affordable, but crossing the Andes by air can easily double to price of airfare. So although the Argentinian town of Calafate has its own airport, we flew to Puerto Natales in southern Chile and crossed the border by bus. All in all, including the time it took for us all to go through customs, the bus journey took about 6 hours. 

We're looking surprisingly chipper in this photo even though we had to get up early after a night of almost-no sleep in a loud, over-heated hostel :0

Dinner

Maya's favorite meal of the trip! Lamb is a specialty in Patagonia (we saw sheep grazing over hours of long bus rides), and this place's lamb did not disappoint!

Perito Moreno Glacier

Pretty much everyone goes to Calafate for one reason- the Perito Moreno glacier. Tours leave every day to give you any kind of glacier experience you can imagine: glacier lookouts, glacier views from a boat, walks on a glacier, 6 hour long treks on a glacier, and whiskey cooled with a piece of glacial ice.

We chose to do a tour of the glacier with Hielo y Aventura. We originally planned to go with a different tour company, but they tried to raise the price of the trip when it was time to pay. We told them we were only interested in the original price, and then ghosted them. Over the next 48 hours they sent us a series of messages lowering the price all the way down to the original price- but that seemed sketchy so we went with Hielo y Aventura who had demonstrated the ability to pick a price and stick to it.

They picked us up and brought us to a boat. On the road there, we got intermittent glimpses of the glacier, but we didn't get a great view until the boat pulled out and rounded a small peninsula. Observing glaciers is a strange experience. The first time Matt saw one, he distinctly remembers thinking it was about 10 feet high and maybe 100 feet away. He now realizes it was probably hundreds of feet high and a mile away. Perito Moreno is about 250 feet high, and 3 miles across.  Our guide said he had hike to the point where the glacier is growing in the mountain- it was a multi-day backpacking trip!  Considering how easily he leaped and bounded around the glacier, we imagine it would take your average person considerably longer. 

Waiting for our boat ride to the Perito Moreno Glacier

We got off the boat at the foot of the glacier, donned helmets and crampons, and began a tour of a small corner of the glacier that is constantly surveyed and monitored for crevasses and holes. The path changes as the glacier changes to ensure safety.

Lookout glacier- here we come!

Putting on Cramp-Ons before heading onto the ice- note other tour groups in the background.

The people showed here are constantly working with ice picks to maintain the trek trail.

The surface of the glacier has no snow- only ice! It's a solid sheet of ice that honestly looks like chunks of ice from a freezer fused together.

From a distance the glacier looks like it's covered in ridges a few feet high. In reality each ridge is a sizable hill, with deep valleys in between.

Water drains through deep holes that appear intensely blue. We were warned to stay away from any holes large enough to fall into. 

The water is safe to drink- but due to a lack of minerals it will pass into cells through osmosis and can cause them to lyse. Drinking only pure glacial meltwater can apparently kill you :/

Lots of pictures of us on Perito Moreno- it was hard to resist all the photo opportunities.

You'll notice the ice looks "bluer" in this photo- Maya edited to "match her memory." 

The glacier naturally advances and recedes with the seasons, and occasionally butts up against a peninsula in front of it. This has two effects. First, the peninsula provides an incredible view out over the glacier. And second, the contact between the glacier and the land cuts the lake in two. On one side there is no drainage and the water level can vary by many meters. Eventually as the glacier recedes, water will burst explosively through and begin a long process of draining from one side to the other until the water levels equalize. Our next stop was a lookout on the point of the peninsula where there are a series of walking paths with different views of the glacier. Every so often, the glacier calved- the sound and the size of the splash helped but into perspective the enormity of the ice.

Walking on the glacier was a neat experience, but I think we all agreed that seeing the glacier from above is more impressive.  While walking on the glacier it's hard to truly sense how large and expansive it is since your view is blocked by the closest ice walls.

Another one of Maya's photos edited to "match her memory"

Matt (standing) and Maya (sitting)

Karen particularly liked the way this bright blue chunk of ice looked.  You can notice how much bluer it was by comparing it to the rest of the glacier in the photo above.

After our 10-hour tour, we had a couple hours of downtime at our hostel before catching a 3-hour bus ride to our next stop: Chalten.  The view from the bus was pretty neat- check out the shadow of the cloud below.  It looks like it's zooming by!

Penguins of Chiloe

This post is part of series all about Chiloe - Chile's second largest island! It's located in Chile's southern Lakes Region and known for seafood and a unique, spooky mythology.

Puñihuil Penguin Colony

Just an hour drive from Ancud, there are daily penguin tours... we had to check it out!  

Humbolt and Magellanic Penguins

We were instructed to drive along the beach to get to the launch point for the tour.  Little did we know the penguins were within a 5-minute boat ride on the 4 islands in sight!  On all other penguin tours we've done, we've had to ride out at least 15 minutes off the coast. 

To get to the 40-person tour boat, we boarded rolling platforms and allowed the tour staff (suited up with long rubber boots) to push us out into the water for dry access to the boat.

It was fun to watch the penguins awkwardly wobble from the upper level of the islands (where they nest) down to the water (where they fish).

Why is Karen making that face!?

A note for future penguin-seekers: Some of the best food we ate on Chiloe was right here! We got a milcao and a seafood empanada from a small stand on the beach that were very delicious.