El Calafate y El Chalten de Argentina, 4-8 Octubre.

From Puerto Natales we decided to forego Punta Arenas and Ushuaia and begin our journey north. This takes us to back into Argentina to the small towns of El Calafate and El Chalten - which will be the final week of Southern Patagonia for us.

This region of Argentina is where all of the mammoth glaciers live (Parque Nacional Los Glaciares). We intended to get a boat up to the largest glacier (Glacier Upsala - 65km long) but because so much ice had broken off it recently, the lake’s arm entrance is completely blocked by icebergs.

You apparently can see it from the arms entrance 12km away but we decided to save the pinger’s and go to a different one.

Glaciar Perito Merino

Glaciar Perito Merino is the star of El Calafate. This is because it is very active and you basically take a picnic and spend the day wandering the 3.5km of board walk right up next to it.

You spend all day there because the glacier is constantly active with numerous icebergs up to the size of small houses falling off it. We also took a boat ride right up next to it which was awesome, very dwarfing!

North face

I can’t help but leak some facts here as this was a truelly amazing experience and one of the most incredible things we have seen.

This is one of the only glaciers in the world to not be receding. The front wall has been in the same position since 1970 and it moves up to 2m per day.

The photos don’t give any sort of scale so to give you an idea of size, here goes - The front wall is 5km wide, the ice face is 50-65m high and the glacier is 30km long.

House size iceberg, moments after fracturing off.

Just to try and give some perspective, this is the 120 person boat we were on earlier in the day and infront of it is the massive iceberg that broke off a few hours before this pic was taken. The sound is deafening and the splash is awesome.

Lago Argentino is 60 km long and the drive to the glacier is 80km from El Calafate. These icebergs fall off and because of the 0.6 degree average water temp in winter, these bergs don't melt so fast. Instead they use the prevailing winds and sail into town.
As you drive around the region, Lago Argentino and all of the surrounding lakes are dotted with giant icebergs just cruising along, eventually breaching themselves on the shore. Pretty surreal to see!

That evening we packed up the tent and tramping packs again as we were leaving early the next morning for El Chalten (3 hours drive North) to spend another 3 days tramping - still in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.

This is where another group of the ‘big gun’ Andes lie, Cerro Torre and Monte Fitzroy.

We only ended up spending 2 days there as weather forced us out but we had a beautiful walk in and atleast managed to see both peaks. 

Cerro Torre 3102m (L) y Monte Fitzroy, 3375m (R).

Cerro Torre y Glaciar Grande.

Cerro Torre, difficult to believe people climb that!!

Do not poo under the lollipop tree next to the water!

Patagonia has to be one of the most incredible places on earth!

Most valuable items in Patagonia have been our snowboarding pants and puffer jackets - which I (C) have literally lived in (day and night).

From here we say goodbye to the snow capped Andes, glaciers and lakes and head north up the east coast of Argentina towards Buenos Aires. We have two 19 hour bus trips ahead of us to get to BA so will spend a couple of days in Puerto Madryn on the way.