January 31, 2023 - Mirador de las Condores, El Chalten, Argentina

What do you do when you are exhausted? Sleep in! There are lots of hikes to do in the area and while we both thought we wanted to hike to Mount Fitz Roy, we knew that we were not in condition to do the hike. It is 16+ miles and rated difficult with much of it scrambling up rocks. Fast trekkers can do the hike in 8-10 hours. Why Mount Fitz Roy? Well, it is 11,170 feet tall, but because it is so steep and remote, Fitz Roy wasn't scaled until 1952! The hike goes to the Laguna de los Tres, which is a bright blue lake at the base of the mountain. The view of the lake would have been amazing, but ... we are realistic, so we decided to take an easy hike today to Mirador de las Condores.

From our hotel at one end of the town to the ranger station where the hike actually begins is about a mile. This is the sign going into El Chalten - with a beautiful view of Mount Fitz Roy in the background.
Our first panaramic views!

The trail today was much easier on our feet. It was mostly dirt as it wound its way up to the top the hill in the picture below.


We climbed about 450 feet to reach the summit where we had beautiful views of El Chalten and watch for condors.


You can see where the Fitz Roy River on the left and the De Las Vueltas Rivers come together just outside of the town. The De Las Vueltas was very blue compared to the glacial Fitz Roy.
After sitting and enjoying the view for a while we noticed several large groups climbing up the hill. The tour buses had arrived!

We were rewarded by seeing several Andean condors flying overhead. Condors mate for life and can live up to 70 years! They only have chicks every 2-3 years and share in raising them. They can go several days without eating and have a pouch on their neck which allows them to store lots of food which is good since they may fly up to 120 miles in one day!

It is hard to take a video of them because they are so high, (over 16,000 feet is possible!) but I did catch a little of their flight. VIDEO https://youtu.be/nmLD-7QyoSw
We had our last good panaramic views as we headed back to town for lunch.
Tobey spotted an Argentinian weather station.

If the rock is wet - it's raining.
If the rock is dry - weather is dry.
If there is a shadowon the ground - it's sunny.
If there is no shadow - it's cloudy.
If the stone is dropping - earthquake!
If the rock is oscilating - it's a little windy.
If the rock isn't here - it's a strong wind.
If you can't see the rock - it's night.
If you can see the rock - it's day!

We could see the rock, we could see the shadow, and it wasn't oscilating, so it was a good morning!

Before dinner tonight we took a walk around town and down to the river. There were several people out enjoying the warm weather and some were wading in the river.

Looking downstream we noticed some climbers up on the rocks.

Call me crazy, but there is NO WAY you would find me doing that!

Tomorrow we are going to get up EARLY hoping to see the sunrise over Mount Fitz Roy before we check out of our hotel and head to Calafete so goodnight!

January 30, 2023 - Laguna Torre Trail, El Chalten, Argentina

Tobey said we are "trekkers" now since we completed the Sendero Laguna Torre, 20.777 km round trip. (13.91 miles with 1580 foot elevation gain.

We left our hotel and followed one of the trails up the mountain and connected to the "official trail" at the 2km mark even though we had walked about 3km to get there! The trail is rated moderate and it has lots of ups and downs, rock scree, boulders, and paths cut through brush, and some beautiful spots going through the forest. The sky was blue and winds were light as we started out this morning about 9am.
There are mileage markers along the trail - according to the one we just went by, we had gone four km.

We were seeing the Torre Glacier which is to the right of the snow-capped mountain as we went along the trail.
We also followed along the Fitz Roy River part of the time. https://youtu.be/kXIYecX-oY0
This part of the trail was beautiful! It had a nice easy trail through the forest.



As we got closer to the glacier and lagoon, the path continued to get more difficult to climb.
Tobey was still smiling!
Down the hill we scrambled and ended up at the glacier and lagoon.


We dipped our hands in the water but watched as one guy waded out barefoot, then dove under the water. Some people's kids ... a bit crazy!

We debated continuing on to Mirador Maestri and started up the steep - and narrow - trail next to the glacier.

It's about 2km further and the trail was narrow and steep and I told Tobey he could go ahead, I would wait. He went about five minutes and came back because he didn't want to leave me. We could see the lagoon JUST FINE from where we were!

We found a spot sheltered from the wind and had lunch before heading back down the trail. We followed the same trail until we got to the 2km marker, then took the "official" trail back to town. It wasn't any easier than the one we went up and we scrambled down many rocky areas.
In one section of forest, I told Tobey to use his imagination and see if he thought this tree reminded him of a donkey's head. Maybe it was delirium setting in, what do you think?

We stopped to get some last views of the glacier.

Almost done - about 2km to go - and I spotted a tortoise sticking his head out of the ground.

We also spotted some parrots today and a red-headed woodpecker.

We heard the woodpecker before we could spot him. Woodpecker video: https://youtu.be/uMMIxhwltlQ

Just short of eight hours later, we were back to the hotel. A long soak in the bathtub helped, along with a nap for Tobey, but my feet are still sore! Dinner tonight was at Maffia, a nice Italian restaurant in town. The portions were huge so we have lunch for tomorrow!

January 29, 2023 - Ushuaia to El Chalten, Argentina

Today we traveled from Ushuaia to El Calafete to El Chalten. It was fun looking out the window at the airport and see the plane painted with the "football" team stars from the World Cup.

We could see the Santa Cruz River as we approached Calafete and were rewarded with this beautiful sight of Lago Argentino next to the runway! It is a freshwater lake that is directly at the base of Perito Moreno Glacier, the largest glacier in South America and is the largest lake in Argentina.

Just outside the airport were HUGE lavendar plants.

We were a little nervous when we arrived because our bags were the VERY LAST two to coming out of the plane! Once they arrived we were transferred a shuttle van and made a three hour drive to El Chalten.

Halfway along Route 40 we stopped at Parador La Leona next to La Leona River for a quick sandwich. The road house boasts it is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid for almost a month after robbing a bank. We didn't see them, but there was a mini-museum with dinosaur fossils and other artifacts from the area. You can see the red arrows on the map pointing to where we were.

Back on the road were finally approached El Chalten, and passed into Los Glaciares National Park.

The clouds were hanging in the mountains as we made our final drive into town.

Once we checked into our hotel, we donned our hiking boots and headed to Chorrillo del Salto, a waterfall about 2 miles from the hotel.

And just a public service announcement as we started our way up the trail ...
The weather bounced between cloudy to sunny to sprinkles, but the wind NEVER stopped! Fortunately, it was fairly warm so we didn't need our windbreakers until the rain started.

The trail weaved it way in and out of the forest and onto the road in different spots as it climbed to the waterfall.

At last, we were rewarded with the beautiful view of Chorrillo del Santo (waterfalls). There were lots of people who drive most of the way up and hike less than 1/4 mile to see them. 

Tobey liked the way these bushes seemed to grow in nice mounds and didn't look like they needed pruning!
We saw a few shore birds on our way back to town.Even better, a parrot swooped past us and landed in a small tree right next to us. We watched as it moved along the branches eating seeds or berries. Then we noticed a second one in the tree next to it!


By the time we got back to town, we were ready for dinner, having hiked over 4-1/2 miles. We headed to a restaurant recommended by the hotel, but found they were full so we made a reservation for tomorrow. We didn't go hungry - we stopped at Hostel Rancho Grande and had a HUGE dinner which we split and were both stuffed!
I am enjoying the wildlife and spotted this bird on our walk back. Tomorrow we are planning a hike to Laguna Torre at the base of Glaciar Grande so we are off to bed.