Above: Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy rise behind a silhouette of a lenga tree, in Los Glaciares National Park, ARGENTINA. (Panorama stitched from 2 images.)

February 3 - March 11, 2005: My wife and I left Seattle's winter to join my father and two friends for a spectacular summer trip hiking in Argentina (see Patagonia trip map further below), plus trekking in Chilean Patagonia and cruising Antarctica. The astounding scenery and great trekking in Patagonia rivals any that I have experienced elsewhere in the world!
    We enjoyed several outstanding day hikes in the Mount Fitz Roy Range (see Chalten hiking map). (Another great option: multi-night backpacking trips, with optional horse support.) As of 2005, reaching the frontier town of El Chalten takes 5 hours via gravel road from El Calafate, but the road is currently being upgraded and paved, which should hasten the tourist influx to this world-class trekking and climbing area. Seeing the awesome (and deservedly popular) Moreno Glacier takes a half-day trip from El Calafate, which has a good airport with frequent flights from Buenos Aires.

Left: Entrance to Los Glaciares National Park at the southern end of the little frontier village of El Chalten, which as of 2005 has all-gravel streets, but offers good accomodation, restaurants, a microbrewery, and three small grocery stores.

Left: Cerro Poincenot (9,850 feet or 3,002 meters), part of the Fitz Roy Range.
 
 

Left: Late afternoon sunshine over Mount Fitz Roy.

Left: Ibis bird in the Fitz Roy Range of the Andes.

Left: Nothofagus (southern beech) trees beneath Mount Fitz Roy.

The following three panoramas, taken minutes apart on the same morning, are stitched from 3 images each:



Above: The Yamana natives called this mountain "Chalten", or "Peak of Fire," probably because of the frequent smoke-like clouds which surround the mountain. But I think the fiery sunrise light could also have influenced the name. Now we call it Cerro (or Monte) Fitz Roy (named after Captain Fitzroy of the ship Beagle, which carried Charles Darwin). The Mount Fitz Roy Range catches beautiful light at sunrise, most conveniently seen here from the southern end of El Chalten at the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park. Several hiking trails in the park offer more stunning views.

El Chalten Hiking Map
Below: Our day hikes are shown as purple lines radiating from the frontier village of El Chalten. On our longest and best day, we hiked 15 miles round trip to Laguna de los Tres (one of my favorite hikes of the world). Another 8 to 12-mile hike to the southwest gave great views of Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre.

Moreno Glacier, Los Glaciares National Park:

Above: Moreno Glacier (panorama stitched from 2 images.)

The bare blue ice face in the photo on the left is a fresh break where a large serac sheared off (or calved) into Lake Argentina with a sound like a freight train, creating the outlow of ice shown in the photo below right.
 
 

Below: Panorama of the Moreno Glacier stitched from multiple images (scroll right to view entire image). A river cuts across the face of the glacier between two arms of Lake Argentina, destabilizing the ice. In some years, the glacier pushes all the way to the land here (left), creating an ice bridge which eventually collapses spectacularly.

Buenos Aires:

Left and below right: Puerto (Port) Madero lies in a central section of Buenos Aires, which is capitol and largest city of Argentina (3 million people in the Capital Federal, or 13 million in Gran Buenos Aires).

Left: Rooftop lounge in San Telmo, the heart of old Buenos Aires.

Left: Cathedral in Buenos Aires.

Left: Market in Lezama Park, San Telmo.

Left: Tango demonstration in Dorrego Square.

Left: Gaucho bolas for sale at the Sunday market in Dorrego Square.

Below right: shopping at the Sunday market in Dorrego Square.

Below right: Gourds for drinking maté (a natural bitter herb), the Argentine national drink.

Left: Light-blue door in San Telmo, Buenos Aires.

Below right: Colorful buildings in La Boca, Buenos Aires.

Colorful shutters in La Boca.

Colorful buildings in La Boca.

Left: Blue and yellow door in La Boca, Buenos Aires.

Below right: brown and red doors in La Boca.

Among others, Eva Peron is laid to rest in Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires (although this image doesn't show her tomb).

Patagonia Trip Maps

February 3 - March 11, 2005: In these three maps, flights are light-green, and ground transport is a purple line.
Above left: We flew from Seattle 7000 miles (through Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas) to Buenos Aires, taking 15 hours in the air. Argentina is +5 hours jet lag from Pacific Standard Time (on the West Coast, USA). Above right: trip overview in order of visitation: 1. Buenos Aires, 2. Ushuaia, 3. Vernadsky Base (run by Ukraine), Antarctica, 4. Torres del Paine NP, CHILE, 5. Mount Fitz Roy, ARGENTINA.
Below: We flew 1500 miles from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Argentina, on Tierra del Fuego Island, where we cruised 12 days round trip through the Beagle Channel and across the rough 400-mile Drake Straight to explore the frozen Antarctica Peninsula. We then flew a short hop from Ushuaia to working-class Punta Arenas, Chile, and took vans and buses in Patagonia to visit the nice tourist town of Puerto Natales and the astounding scenery of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Then we bused into Argentina to see the bustling tourist town of El Calafate, spectacular Moreno Glacier, fun frontier village of El Chalten, and awesome Mount Fitz Roy. To return, we flew from El Calafate to Buenos Aires, then to Seattle.


Left: Sunrise on Chalten, "Peak of Fire"