Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 9

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South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén November 24th 2010

mala horska vesnicka vybudovana nedavno jako zakladna pro vylety do nedalekych hor. Klidne bych to prekrtila na Vetrnou hurku. ... read more
El Chalten-1
El Chalten-2
El Chalten-3

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén November 16th 2010

Nous avons fait une bien longue route pour nous rendre à El Chalten, en Patagonie. Pour s'y rendre, 2 trajets d'autobus s'offraient à nous. Le premier durait environ 30 heures en tout, sur 2 jours, où la 2e journée se passait dans un chemin de terre troué (la fameuse route 40). Celui-ci s'effectuait dans un autobus voyageur normal. Le 2e trajet contournait cette route, en se rendant sur la côte est du pays. Sur une route complèment plate (la route 3), et dans un autobus plus luxueux, donc, bien plus confortable que le 1er trajet. En faisant un tel détour, on devait ajouter 4h au 2e trajet. Étant donné la longévité des trajets, on a choisi la 2e option, et ça s'est avéré être une bonne décision! On était tellement confortable dans ce bus, et on ... read more
Jour 1 - Début du sentier
Sentier Laguna Torre
Sentier Laguna Torre

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén November 14th 2010

After a fun and busy couple of days in Buenos Aires, we were both ready to leave the city grime behind and head to the beautifully pristine and "tranquilo" region of Patagonia (in both Argentina and Chile). I (Erin) will write about Patagonia in Argentina and Eli (I promise he is about to start blogging too) will write about our time spent in Chilean Patagonia, mainly the incredible and impressive Torres del Paine. 12 days amongst our favorite thing - big mountains and small towns (or even no towns) - we were in paradise... We flew into El Calafate to begin our Patagonian adventures, mainly because we found reasonable airline tickets (something that is surprisingly hard to come by in South America), and because it's a good and convenient starting point to southern Patagonia. Flying into ... read more
Los Caballos
Flying Flamencos
Las Ovejitas

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén October 15th 2010

El Chalten and Los Glaciares National Park is a place that is difficult to describe through words or pictures. Its really just a place that needs to be experienced. I'm not trying to sound dramatic, its just that the place constantly reminded me how far in the middle of nowhere we are. It first hit me when we took off from El Calafate and didn't see another building until we got to El Chalten, which was 220 km away. Then once at El Chalten, you realize there aren't really many people here either which just seems so crazy given the huge moutain ranges, pristine lakes and rivers, and massive glaciers that surround the city. The city of El Chalten in itself is an interesting story since it is the newest town in Argentina that was first ... read more
Rio Blanco
Piedras Blancas Glacier
Rio De las Vueltas Valley

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén April 13th 2010

An uneventful driving day, other than Chris forcing me to attempt a Waltz in the hostel foyer in front of everyone and their luggage, when Frank Sinatra came on - to my utter embarrassment! Chris's Corner She loved it really!... read more
...bit of swing!

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén April 12th 2010

We were meant to spend two days in this town, but our extra night in Ushuaia (due to the 2nd of 5 truck breakdowns so far) resulted in the tour leader cutting a day from here (with no real input from ourselves... I'm beginning to expect nothing less from her these days, pretty sure I could do a better job... but I'll get to that later maybe. The entirety of the group (apart from Carrie, who has arthritis) had been looking forward to a day of ice trekking and climbing on the biggest Glacier in South America, (Viedma, 900km2), however, the previous day we were informed that the climbing was off as it is low season and there is not enough demand, however ice trekking was still an option, so our guide booked it. Little frustrating ... read more
El Chalten
El Chalten - our hostel
El Chalten

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén April 9th 2010

We've come to the conclusion that Argentina is our favourite European country not in Europe. It has it all, good wine, olives, chocolate, sunshine and siestas. Crossing the border from Bolivia was like landing on a different planet. We headed south first to Salta where Stu discovered the Lomito Completo, steak sandwich with everything! It was a turning point for his waistline! We didn't stay long in Salta because the wine region was calling us. We got to Mendoza and hired a tandem bike to tour the vineyards. It was a little hairy at first, but with a bit of practice we were flying through the countryside. We were a bit worried when we got a little lost and saw a police motorcycle pulling up, however the friendly policeman decided to give us an escort to ... read more
Speed demons
The Evangelista
Dolphins..

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén March 31st 2010

Day 1 I am not sure how I have been so lucky weather-wise since I got to the southern extremity of Argentina. Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia are known for their sometimes extreme weather. Snow in the summer, rain that comes pelting out of nowhere, winds that can flatten you. But I have seen little of this. I am almost beginning to think the bad weather is a myth (except see Day 2). On Monday, almost on a whim, I decided to take the bus from El Calafate up to El Chaltén, a small town on the other end of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (the same one with the Perito Moreno Glacier) - a three hour trip through the dry, barren steppe of this part of Patagonia. You don’t know what nothingness, albeit a beautiful nothingness, ... read more
Getting Closer
Closer...
Are we there yet?

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén March 16th 2010

The city of El Clafate, Argentina attracts tourists of all kinds for its famous Perito Moreno glaciar nearby in the Glaciar Natianal park. The park is home to over 300 glaciers. The Perito Moreno glaciar is very accesable with look out paths and platforms with great close up viewings of the active glaciar. It is one of the only glaciars in the park that is stable or even growing. While the rest are suffering from warmer temperatures in the last several decades which is increasing their melting rate. Perito Moreno glaciar dramatically has house size pieces of ice break off, and fall into the lake below. The scene is very interesting displaying large splashes and the unique colors of different sides of the fallen iceburg as it slowly surfaces. I found most interesting the sound ... read more
Glaciar Natianal Park
Glaciar Natianal Park
Glaciar Natianal Park

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén March 14th 2010

We are in El Chalten now, which Simone's Lonely Planet claimed had no banks or internet, but that information, two years old now, is outdated. It's now one of the most touristed places I've ever visited. There are certainly more tourists than locals and the number of hostels and restaurants is astounding for such a small town. However, it's very well justified. El Chalten is nestled in the foothills of the mountains in a bowl shaped valley. Above the surrounding hills snow covered mountains peek into the valley. The most famous is Fitzroy, an intimidating peak that looks like a multi-faceted black crystal. The sheer cliffs that make up the mountain lead to a summit at over 3400m and most of the mountain is free of snow, its sides being too sheer for the snow to ... read more
Mt. Fitzroy
Israelis everywhere...
Laguna de los Tres




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