Small, but Stunning

Trip Start Jan 30, 2010

Trip End Sep 08, 2010

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Where I stayed

Nothofagus Bed & Breakfast El Chalten

Flag of Argentina El Chalten, Patagonia, Argentina
Thursday, February 18, 2010

We arrived in El Calafate Airport from Ushuaia, using Argentina's main airline, Aerolinas Argentinas. There would have been more great Patagonian scenery from the plane, but there was a thick blanket of clouds that blocked our view. Once we arrived in El Calafate, we took a small bus(micro) to El Chalten, about a 3 hour ride. We saw guanacos, a relative of llama walking near the road in the amazingly barren landscape. Very different from Ushuaia.
El Chalten is a village of 1,000 inhabitants existing just because of Fitz Roy National Park. Fitz Roy is stunning, with almost vertical stone spikes towering 400 meters(about 1200 feet) above the village and the surrounding snow covered mountains.
The town itself isn't very much, as I said before it only has 1,000 inhabitants, but the town seems to be built for 5-10,000 people. The roads have four lanes across and the buildings are way too large for the amount of people using them. It seems that Argentina is trying to make this town a large tourist destination, like Torres del Paine in Chile, another place we are visiting with similar stone spires.
On Friday we hiked out of the village into the National Park to Lago Torre,(Spire Lake) situated right in front of Cerro Torre, the most spectacular of the spires. To the left of Cerro Torre is Glacier Grande, which creates a lake and river of its own. The water from the ice of the glacier is a very different color, almost a turquoise. We also saw a good amount of wildlife, including the Andean Condor(even larger than the California Condor), hawks, a frog, and many smaller birds. When the Andean Condor flies, it is almost like a board, completely flat. It also has a bright white head.

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El Chalten

Cerro Torre(Spire Hill)

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Cerro Torre

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Monte Fitz Roy(Fitz Roy Mountain)

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ginnylaibl on

When I was there the town was full of hikers and backpackers, especially from Europe. Very few Americans. Were you able to do some hiking? Hope you're having some good weather.

Grampa on

Now you're in the rural area of Chile! It's exciting for me to hear about. Have a good time. Love from here to there...

Leah on

Hope you are having a fantsatic time! The landscape looks beautiful. We have just been skiing but none of the mountains we saw were quite as tall (and pointy) as that! What has been your favourite part of your travels so far? Looking forward to hearing about the next place you visit!

Granny on

We are all following your wonderful journey.
much love to all.

Izobel M. on

Those mountains look amazing; if you climbed one, you would really have your head in the clouds!

David Z. on

those mountains look so awsome i mean they are SO tall and you can see lots of clouds