South America’s coolest playground

---

As we dug deep into our backpacks to pull out our barely used winter clothes, the first thing I noticed about being in Patagonia was the noise…the sweet sound of silence. And how incredibly beautiful it was. Not a honking car horn in earshot. And after being in an overpopulated city for almost 3 weeks, where you couldn’t walk outside the hostel without fear of being mowed down by pedestrians, it was such a nice feeling to be out in the country. Patagonia is one of the least populated areas in the entire world, partly due to its harsh climate, so there were no playing dodgem cars with people on the sidewalks. But with some of the most amazing scenery and wildlife, coupled with endless opportunities of hiking, climbing, mountain biking, kayaking and every adventure activity you can think of, Patagonia is South America’s coolest playground for an active traveller.

So along with fellow traveller Mary, we flew south to a small town on the Argentinean coast and after a few hours sleep on the floor of a bus station we headed straight to El Calafate, a town made famous for its close location to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (The Glacier National Park). The next day we set off to visit the most famous glacier in the park, Glacier Perito Moreno, not really sure what to expect. Now this is no ordinary big chunk of ice! The closest thing Zack and I had ever seen to something like this was on David Attenborough’s Planet Earth DVD’s, so to be standing in front of such a thing was a thrill in itself. The pure size was just jaw dropping. The glacier itself measures 35kms long, 5km wide and 60 metres high, and then is surrounded by impressive jaggered mountains. The even more spectacular thing about this particular glacier is that its one of the only left in the world which is actually still protruding. It grows about 2 metres ever day, but at the same time, huge chunks of ice fall from it regularly causing avalanche like spectaculars. We were lucky enough to be on a boat right in front of the glacier, when one of these huge chunks decided to fall. The sound was louder than thunder and the aftermath of the fall created waves big enough to significantly rock our boat. Absolutely incredible! After the boat ride, we spent about 3 hours wondering the pathways around the glacier and staring intensely waiting for more ice to fall.

That night, we celebrate such an awesome day with more Argentinean steak and local lamb (which the Patagonia region is quite famous for doing so well) and a few bottles of red. The next day we headed a few hours north to El Chalten, Argentina’s trekking capital and the land of gortex clad travellers. Now here is where we planned to do a few ‘warm up’ day treks in preparation for our upcoming week long hike in Chile. So the idea was that we introduced ourselves slowly, warmed up our muscles and wore our hiking shoes in. But after arriving on such a beautiful day and being amazed by the stunning peaks of the Fitz Roy mountain range behind the town, we got a little too excited and jumped in head first with a 10 hour return day hike to the summit. OPPS! In the end, it only took us 9 and ½ hours including stops for lunch and was a fairly steady walk for the first 4 hours, and a scramble up a cliff face for the last hour, but it was worth every bit of effort. The views were absolutely stunning! I was amazed to be standing in shorts and t-shirt, dipping with sweat on a beautifully sunny day whilst staring at snow capped peaks…bizarre. So the next day we woke up incredibly sore, with various blister, but luckily the weather had taken a bad turn and it was windy and rainy…the perfect excuse for a rest day. We finished off our ‘warm up’ with one last hike the following day, only 7 hours this time, and then bussed it back to El Calafate in preparation for the trip over to Chile…

Farewell Argentina…thanks for all the memories!

---