Argentina- Patagonia- El Chalten

To get to El Chaltén you can either walk, bike or drive from El Calafate- we hired a cab for the 3 hour ride, but did see a number of cycle tourists along the way peddling hard against the gusting winds of the wide open landscape.

Nell made sure Teddy was safely buckled.

We were fortunate to be able to spend an entire week in the beautiful mountain town of El Chaltén. A small village that apparently was created to lay stake to the territory as part of Argentina (and not Chile). The village is now primarily a tourist hub for activities in the surrounding Glacier National Park, the largest national park in Argentina. , This northern portion of the park is home to the spectacular Mount Chaltén-its original name given by the nomadic indigenous Tehuelche -which means "smoking mountain" as the clouds that often covered its top were (incorrectly) thought to be smoke of a volcano. It is now more commonly referred to as "Mount Fitz Roy", renamed in 1877 by the Argentinian scientist and explorer Pascasio Moreno (for whom the Perito Moreno glacier is named) for an earlier English naval captain, colonist and explorer.

The town, though pretty tiny and made up of basically 2 roads with a few side streets, had many eateries, a bus station, and tourist shops to schedule guides as needed. We did our own research and went hiking without any groups or guides nearly every day.

I (Eric) was able to take multiple long runs into the mountains. The beauty of the mountain ranges is spectacular here. Running for hours felt easy (or easier) while being distracted by the jagged teeth of Fitz Roy.

Kate was happy that she was able to lure the girls into the spectacular landscapes with jelly beans, and eventually they would start to engage in the landscape and play and have fun on their own. Their first big hike was to Mirador de los Condores- where we were in fact able to see condors gracefully gliding in the distance (but not able to capture on camera). Here they are showing of their special rocks they found on their hike- this would be a common theme for hikes!

We were also glad that there was at least one playground in town- also with a view of Cerro Chaltén (which pretty much towers in the distance from most points in town. Beautiful.

We were proud of how far the girls hiked most days and it was fun to see them enjoying themselves!

Nevertheless, their pace was somewhat "glacial" (a new word we have taught the girls since visiting the glacier!), so Kate appreciated having a day of hiking on her own too.

Kate: I took full advantage of my hiking day with an early 6am start and ended up combining two trails that are usually done separately on different days- Laguna del Torre and Laguna de los Tres, connected by a trail called Laguna Madre e Hija. I wasn't anticipating hiking 20+ miles in one day, but after getting an early start to Laguna del Torre, and feeling good and having a glorious time, I decided to just keep on going. The surroundings were beautiful, it felt good to be in my body hiking, and - let's be real- to have a full day away on my own was precious!

Laguna Torre, even with some icebergs:

Laguna de los Tres- just below Cerro Chaltén:

Because I hadn't let Eric know in advance that I decided en route to extend my hike, I felt compelled to keep my pace quick so as not to arrive after dark (when I knew he would start to worry). By about mile 16 and about 5,000 feet of elevation gain (up, down, and back up again), I was so exhausted and overwhelmed by the beauty of my surroundings that I burst into tears while dipping my toes in the beautiful hanging valley river below Mount Fitz Roy. The best kind of tears. This is still one of my favorite memories from our trip so far.

During our time in and around El Chaltén we were also graced with some cool wildlife sitings. On our drive there we were surprised to see and learn about the ñandú a South American bird similar to a small ostrich. And were also able to see guanacos- the wild animal ancestor of the larger and domesticated llama (here's a cool tutorial on the various common camalid species native to South America). Unfortunately, we were not able to capture photos of these cool animals.

A fox trotted nearby on our return from our Chorillo de Salto waterfall hike for quite some way, staying at a safe distance, but shockingly close.

We had 2 condors swoop over our heads as we stood at the top of Mirador el Paredón overlooking the town- the zipping swoosh of their wings through the air was really cool to hear!

Kate saw a tiny, colorful frog, and an interesting eagle-like chicken bird walking on the ground (she learned later it was a bird of prey called a Carancho) on her long day hike.

We watched the bumblebees enjoying the nectar of the abundant lavender that seems to grow easily in the valley (though I'm not sure that it is native) near the playground.