Reaching Patagonia (Chile & Argentina)

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Wowwwwwwwwwwwww...what an amazing part of the world this is! After visiting Buenos Aired for a few days we flew from there to El Calafate (if you do not want to spend 2-3 days on buses to get there this is your faster option I would say). Situated on the edge of Lago Argentino - this milky white blue lake, I think the largest in Argentina if not mistaken - this town is your gate to the Parque National Los Glaciares and the famous Perito Moreno glacier.
The glacier is awesome, ever since the beginning of the 6-month traveling I was wispering the name "Perito Moreno...Perito Moreno..". We did this mini trekking on the glacier for 1.5 hours and it was spectacular...the blue colours of the glacier and the ice are mind blowing...how about a 'blue lagoon' on the top of the glacier...well this is what we saw...and those crevaces, I will tell I do not want to fall down one of those.
After the unique experience of glacial walking we crossed the borders into Chile to visit the famous national park 'Torres del Paine'. Javier and Ximena (our Chilean friends from Santiago) had strongly recommended to spend as much time in this park and bless them, they were absolutely right about it...after the Orakei Korako geothermal park in New Zealand where I loved it, this place was really something. We walked the 'W Circuit' (following Ximena's advice) for 4 days and it was the best walking experience I have done in my life! Walking past icebergs in milky blue lakes, watching the Glaciar Frances breaking up as we trekked up the valley, being blown off the ground from the strong winds and viewing icy lakes at the foot of Torres del Paine...the beauty of this place is just too much for the mind to take in at once. Definitely a must for every mountain lover & trekker.
From Chile we returned to Argentina only to visit the equivalent mecca of mountains and trekking, El Chalten. Here we spent 2 days but the 2nd day it was raining (thank God because I was dying after our 1st day's activity) but the first day it was just gorgeous and sunny. The people at the hostel they recommended that on a day like this we should go and see Cerro Fitzroy, the famous and most gorgeous mountain of the region. And so we did...the mountain peaks just shoot up as pillars, and at the bottom of the mountain the lake had frozen...I just had to walk a bit on it even though it is a stupid thing to do and Sara was shouting as well to come back! And the other lake at the bottom of the valley, well the frozen ice was floating on the lake just to give you the view.
Our next destination was the famous and most visited Lake District area, which is still included in the much larger Patagonia region. Here the forests continue endlessly over the Andes mountains and the lakes are everywhere. This is where the young Che Guevara with his friend Alberto had taken a boat and crossed into Chile on the legenday trip of Latin America. Here the weather was a bit more nasty to us and we had rain every other day...at least we had one good day at each place for a bit of trekking. We visited El Bolson, Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes and they are all must see destinations. Particularly for the party-goers and chocolate lovers Bariloche is your place. This city is officially the party city for any high school graduates (every 'proper' Argentinian must come here for their high school graduation partying!) and is the chocolate capital of Argentina. The chocolate shops rival the ones in Brussels, you can go mad looking at them I tell you that!

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