After visiting carneval in Rio and Iguazu falls we moved to the south of Argentina. Our plane landed in Calafate, which is quite big town close to the Perito Morreno glacier, we rented a car, the guy at the office begged us not to roll the car over, which as we discovered happens quite often hear, mainly due to the strong wind and unpaved roads on which the speed limit is 110 kph. We did some grocery shopping and headed to our destination, small town of El Chalten. The road there was amazing, we passed along huge lakes and the views of Fitz Roy were breathtaking. In El Chalten we got accommodation in a small guest house, we had the whole floor for ourselves and it was more then enough. The town itself was really pleasant with few restaurants around and not many people.
Our first great hike was to the Cerro Torre, the weather was not great, it rained from time to time, the clouds were rolling in and the wind was strong, but we did not mind and enjoyed the whole hike as we hiked almost all the time alone. The hardest parts of the hike were the beginning climb and the final climb to the lake, the middle part was beautiful and easy, most of the time we followed the stream making its way down the hill. Since we did not want to spend on the hike more than one day we followed the same way in and out. The lake itself was really nice with small icebergs floating on the water, but due to the clouds we could not see the mountains around.
After nice hike we took a boat ride to a Viedma glacier, on which we made a short hike with our guide. The whole experience was really great, the glacier was fabulous, weather was nice and there were only few people on the glacier with us so it did not feel crowded (as if you would visit the Perito Morreno glacier). After great few hours on the glacier we still had a lot of time till sunset so we drove our car on the dirt road all the way up to the end of road 23 and stopped close to the big lake. Where we decided to take a small uphill hike to yet another smaller lake which was really nice. The hike itself took us through forest and close to the top we were awarded with great view of the lake and nearby Fitz Roy.
Since we really enjoyed our first hike we kept on exploring this beautiful part of Patagonia and we were headed on another hike, this time to Laguna de los tres. We did not want to hike up there and back on the same trail so we decided to take a taxi to a small farm about 20 minutes ride from El Chalten and from there we started. The trail was following river from the beginning and it was at places quite difficult to follow, as usually not many people were around and during our hike, up to the final climb, we probably met only handful of people. After about 4 km into the hike the trail was well visible and easy to follow with great views. Final climb up to the lake was quite strenous but the views both on the way and at the top were trully worth it. On the way back we followed a different trail which was flat at most parts but we kept looking back to admire the beautiful Fitz Roy mountain. When we got back to El Chalten we had a great dinner in a local restaurant and spend the rest of the evening relaxing and watching the wind play with the trees outside.
