Argentina III – Hiking, glaciers & the end of the world…

Back in Argentina for the second time, although now much further south, we woke up on the overnight bus to an incredible sunrise over the dry pampa (plains) with towering mountains in the distance. We were reaching the much anticipated hiking capital of Argentina!!

Our first views of Argentinan Patagonia

We used El Chaltén as the base to visit Fitzroy Mountain otherwise known as Cerro Chaltén (Chaltén Hill) which comes from an indigenous word that meant smoking mountain, which is quite fitting as it’s almost always covered with cloud and they thought it was a volcano. It’s situated in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and interestingly while it is considered part of Argentina, in the surrounding area of the map there are at least 50kms of border that is still to this day undetermined because Chile & Argentina can’t agree with each other. In fact, El Chaltén the town, was created in 1985 to help secure the disputed border with Chile and the government were practically paying people to move and set up there. Now it’s worth a fortune thanks to the tourist dollar, but luckily for the National Park its extension has been capped so it can’t get any bigger.

El Chaltén Town

On our first day apart from stocking up on a camp stove and gas, which we wish we had bought earlier in the trip (so handy!!), we did a bit of a warm up walk out to El Chorillo del Salto. It’s a pretty, but crowded with tour-bus tourists, waterfall a few kilometres out of town – and was worthwhile to get the legs moving again. When we got home however, I made the most disgusting discovery of the trip…somewhere along the Carretera Austral in Chile…I had managed to pick up headlice! After a very quick trip to the only Pharmacy in town and enduring the incredulous looks from the discreet Pharmacist (…in front of the whole queue of customers in Spanish…What?! the lice treatment is for YOU?!) I rushed home to cure it!!

El Chorillo del Salto

Lice free and all stocked up with porridge, sandwiches and pasta for dinner, we set off for a two-day hike to Laguna de los Tres. About 8kms in, we set up the tent at Poincenot Camp, leaving our big bag inside before continuing for the steep part up towards the lake and mountains. Glacier feeds the bright blue lake and Mount Fitzroy towers behind. With a little more walking up a small mound to the side, we got to the viewpoint for Laguna Sucia (dirty lake) and huddled behind a big rock out of the wind for lunch while being mesmerised by the beauty of the surroundings.

Best tasting water ever!!

 

Icefall from the glacier

On the way back to the campsite, we took detour down the riverbank another 3kms to the Glacier Piedras Blancas. To get to the actual glacier, we had to climb, crawl and jump over and inbetween big white boulders which was heaps of fun!

The following day, we woke up to rain, no magical sunrise and mysterious noises and whistling which came from some scary looking predatory birds that were hanging out around the camp. We packed up the tent in the rain and set off towards Laguna Torre, passing tight trails through scrub, Madre & Hija (Mother & Daughter) lagoons, more beautiful rivers and streams and forest on the way. There were lots of rainbows around, and the weather sort of cleared up as we went on, but clouds stayed around the big mountain peaks.

Upon arriving to Laguna Torre, another lake backed by striking mountains and fed by a glacier, we attemped to hike further along a ridge to another viewpoint. However, howling, gusting winds were trying to push us off the ridge and after few hundred metres with frequent stops to crouch or hold onto rocks to stop from being blown away, we abandoned the attempt.

We enjoyed the area so much, that after arriving back in town we went straight to the bus stop to change our reservation and stay another day. With that sorted out, we hit the local Parrilla tenedor libre (free fork = all you can eat) for a celebration!

On our last day in el Chaltén we hiked to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, a 20km round trip with a 1km elevation gain, to get our last chance for a different view of Fitzroy Mountain and to enjoy the area.

There’s rarely a lack of clouds around these mountains!

Next stop on the way down Argentina was El Calafate, a very touristy town and not a place we would recommend to visit, however to its credit, it does have an excellent icecream shop!! We didn’t go there for the town though, it’s the closest big town to the Perito Moreno Glacier.

Spot the Rhea (South American version of the Emu) in the middle – best camouflage ever!

Perito Moreno Glacier

Perito Moreno is spectacular! It’s a massive (250km² in size and 30kms long) arrow-shaped wall of ice coming down from the mountains, pushing into the turquoise Lake Argentina. It is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that is actually advancing – the pointy part of the arrow moves 2m a day while the sides move 40cms. Despite this, the most impressive part was seeing and hearing sections falling off into the lake, the cracking noise is impressive and the resulting wave also.

Small chunks are constantly falling off

This little owl had a prime glacier viewing spot

With only 3 days and 870kms to go to get to Ushuaia for the boat to Antarctica, we were in for the killer bus journey to the end of the world! Starting at 3am, one bus change, a ferry ride across the Magellan Strait, two border crossings and 18hrs later we arrived in Ushuaia. From the outskirts it looks a very industrial area with docks and shipping containers, but once in the city it has a certain isolated beauty.

Commerson’s Dolphins played in the ferry’s bow waves.

Argentina likes to claim that Ushuaia is the end of the world…

English Pirate Boats are prohibited from mooring in Ushuaia! The Falklands/Malvinas Conflict is still a controversial topic – no agreements reached as yet!

Apart from borrowing gear and preparing for Antarctica, we fit in a visit to the Glaciar Marcial with a Dutch couple from the hostel. After Perito Moreno it wasn’t impressive, but the views of Ushuaia were great.

Glaciar Marcial

Ushuaia & the Beagle Channel from the Martial Glacier

Packing for Antarctica was pretty simple in the end because we had no option but to take all of our stuff as it was another one way ticket flying into Punta Arenas, Chile after the trip. So after helping pack the Icebird (our sailboat) with supplies and getting another passenger’s motorbike onboard for the trip down to Antarctica we were set for the biggest adventure yet!!

Preparations on the dock

Kayaks check, food check … motorbike check

Stay tuned for more from the icy waters of Antarctica!!

Love Xavi & Sal