Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 6

That, in case you were wondering, was the sound our jaws kept making as they repeatedly hit the ground as we hiked around the - I suppose that would be jaw-droppingly - beautiful mountain scenery around the tiny village of El Chaltén, a few hours north of El Calafate and barely a few miles from the Chilean border, perched right on the edge of the Campo de Hielo Sur or Southern Patagonian Ice Field. This mesmerising scenery occupies the northern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and is dominated by two exceptionally beautiful mountains, Cerro Fitzroy and Cerro Torre, around which most of the day hikes in the area are located. Until now Argentina has been wowing us with ever wilder and more stunning views. I will eat my words if we see anything more awe-inspiring ... read more

Day 42 - Monday 21st November Up and had breakfast which is one of the bad points of this hotel. The breakfast is delivered the night before which means you can have it anytime you like the next morning, but the milk was on the turn the first 2 mornings and the bread etc. was always stale. After 3 days of this breakfast we were glad this is the last, we finished the final pack and went to reception to check out about 7.00am. This is where another problem with the hotel was, you could never find staff. The other mornings about 5 minutes after you arrived they would turn up as people were going on organised tours, but not this morning. We rang the bell, tried to call the hotel, rang the outside doorbell and ... read more

We took the bus to a town called El Chalten, it’s about three hours from El Calafate and it’s the jumping off point for treks to two mountains, Cerro Torre and Mount Fitz Roy. These mountains are massive and daunting and only two or three people are able to summit them every year. We arrived at our hostel, Condor del los Andes and got ourselves settled in. we met an Aussie guy at breakfast named Jeremy, or Jez as his friends call him. He was a hell of a cool guy. We also went with our roommate Farhan, a guy from London. The weather was beautiful and everyone there said how lucky we were to have such lovely weather because this time of year it isn’t certain what it will be like. We got our stuff ... read more

"Skysurfer - Here Comes The Sun" El Chalten, home of the famous Fitzroy! Move over Fitzroy, someone just informed me of a floor hockey tourney! I arrived in El Chalten after a short three hour bus ride from El Calafate. Along the way I met some pretty cool backpackers and I managed to team up with Zuzana! I like her, she is from Slovakia and is crazy for Ice Hockey! AND she is the first Slovak that I have ever met! El Chalten is a small town nestled into a beautiful valley. Most people come here for the Fitzroy! Monte Fitz Roy is a mountain located near El Chaltén village, in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile. The mountain is also known as Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, ... read more

El Chalten--Drama Central The infamous Patagonian winds whipped around at a velocity I didn't know possible, shape-shifting the clouds into castles and dragons and preventing me from standing upright. Sun turned to wind turned to rain, and then to hail all in a few hours--the famous Patagonian four seasons in a day. Here in late March in the southern Patagonia Andes, chilly autumn was already here even though the rest of Argentina was basking in late summer. It would be a long time before I'd wear anything less than three pairs of pants, two jackets and an absurd number of thermal layers. Dramatically sited, the tiny town of El Chalten is ringed with snow- and glacier-capped mountains, located at the confluence of two turquoise, glacier-fed rivers and watched over by the granite sentinels of Fitz Roy, ... read more