patagonia - el chalten y el calafate

WOW. I have just returned from four days in Argentina´s Patagonia and still cannot get over the experience and the views (get ready for a lot of photos!). A few weeks ago my friend Emily (who I met at Hillel´s conversation club) had mentioned that she was taking a trip to El Calafate and El Chalten in a few weeks and asked if I wanted to come along. When I realized they were going during an Argentine feriado (holiday), I said to myself "YOLO" (you only live once) and booked the ticket.

After a 4am alarm and 4:30am cab ride, I arrived at the airport, met the rest of the girls I was traveling with (four Americans studying abroad in Buenos Aires for the semester), took a much needed three hour nap on the plane, and awoke to my first (of many) beautiful views. We had planned to head first to El Chalten, three hours north of El Calafate, so after buying our bus tickets and walking around El Calafate a bit, we were on our way to El Chalten. 

I did not realize how far south we had traveled. If you take a look at this handy dandy map (sorry its hard to read but its a huge country!), I am spending the majority of the year in Buenos Aires which is located in the central eastern part of the country and we had traveled over 1700 miles to El Calafate and El Chalten (can you find them on the map?). The size of this country continues to amaze me!

After checking into our hostel, Cóndor de los Andes, we exlored El Chalten and set out for our first hike. El Chalten is a small pueblo (town), so small that you can pretty much walk from one side to the other in about ten minutes. It is part of a national park so pretty much exists for the hikers and campers that come to indulge in the incredible views including views of the famous mountains Fitz Roy and Torre. We had two days in El Chalten so decided to devote one hike to Torre and the other to Fitz Roy. Every time we hiked around a corner, up over a hill, or into a clearing, you could hear a collective "woah" from our group. The views were breathtaking, the common group sentiment was "sin palabras" (without words). 

Channeling one of my favorite movies
by frolicking and singing
"The hills are alive with the Sound of Music"

I left my two days in El Chalten quite sore from the hiking and remember thinking, "I could go back to Buenos Aires a very happy person right now". I didn´t think it could get much better but then remembered I was on my way to a glacier!

El Calafate truly lived up to its name, "La Ciudad de Viento" (Argentina´s windy city). We arrived and walked/were blown by the wind to our hostel, America del Sur. That afternoon we walked around the city, the artesanal markets, ate a delicious dinner of the infamous Patgaonia lamb, and had an early night since we had a 6am wake-up the next morning.

The next day we headed out on our quest to walk on a glacier. We got picked up at our hostel early in the morning for our Big Ice excursion and headed to one of many glaciers in Patagonia, Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is one of few glaciers still growing and holds the world´s third largest reserve of fresh water. Another thing that amazed me was that we could only see 10% of the glacier as 90% is underwater. We first stopped at the "mirador" (lookout point) to see the glacier from a panaromic view, INCREIBLE!  

We then boarded a boat as it was time to get up close and personal with the glacier! After the boat ride and an hour long hike to the point where we put on our harnesses (just in case) and got fitted for our crampons, we started glacier walking!

In my mind I had thought the glaciers would be pretty flat to walk on, boy was I surprised! The five hour glacier walk took us through many different "terrains" including the glacier hills and mountains, glacier rivers, glacier lakes, glacier holes...it was truly a glacier hike! Everytime I thought I was getting the hang of what view to expect, a whole new "terrain" would emerge over a hill, a new view to take in, another opportunity to drop my jaw in awe.  I miraculously only fell once and besides my crampon following off within the first few minutes, I was a pretty successful glacier walker. Our guide Luis (bottom right photo) came up with a nickname for me, "bebe" (baby), due to the size of my feet and stature in general. I think he thought I was going to have trouble with the glacier hike because there were lots of large steps, leaps, and jumps but to his surprise, my ex-gymnast skills came in handy and at the end, he told me that even though I was still a baby, I jumped around the glacier like a princess (I´d that call "éxito", successs). We even got to stop and have a glacier picnic for lunch next to a glacier lake!

Our twelve-hour excursion was a major success. We headed back to our hostel exhausted but with smiles all around, walking on Perito Moreno is truly an experience I will never forget. If you are headed to El Calafate, I 100% recommend doing the Big Ice excursion. They also offer a mini-trekking option which is an hour and a half walk on the glacier but I have been told that in comparison, it is so worth spending the extra money and time for the full day adventure. My other biggest suggestion is re-apply sunscreen throughout the day even if it feels like you do not need it. I applied sunscreen twice and still came back quite burnt with beautiful "racoon eyes" because I wore sunglasses the whole time. I might have tender skin and a peeling nose while writing this post, but this experience was truly "vale la pena", worthwhile.