Condor de los Andes El Chalten

... llt in Sichtweite. Eine wunderschöne, auf den ersten Blick karge patagonische Landschaft verzaubert, die bei genauem Hinsehen eine verblüffende Vielfältigkeit offenbart. Das Klima ist äusserst rau und der patagonische Wind ist hier sprichwörtlich. Was gibt es gediegeneres als zu Fuss oder hoch zu Ross durch diese Gegend zu trekken und die Vielfältigkeit der Pflanzen- und Tierwelt zu bestaunen.
Apropos reiten, zum ersten Mal bin ich per Pferd unterwegs. Erst ...

Here are a few collected thoughts now that we have reached a small mountain town with about 700 permanent residents-100 restaurants and pizza houses and shops and walking tour agencies-and big Toyota 4x4 Wagons- a bit like Alaska and the Wild West. No elected Parish Council- so not much infrastructure to write home about.

Clothing:-
am I glad I brought a goose down RAB jacket AND a fleece and 2 pairs of lambmerino vests and thermal long johns. To ...

... and hiked west out of town, ambling for a few hours up and down hills alongside a river winding its way through a canyon until I reached the first campsite, De Agostini. Right next to the campsite sat Laguna Torre, an icy lagoon of greyish green, at the mouth of the Glaciar Torre, on which Andreas was somewhere doing his ice adventure. From this vantage point, on a clear day, one would be able to see Cerro Torre and its two brother peaks; because Sunday was ...

... 2 hrs landed us back in El Chalten where we decided to stay an extra night and plan for our next destination, Ancud, Chile on the Chiloe Penninsula. Unfortunatly a strike with the bus company that was to take us further north along Ruta 40 forced us to re-think our plan. FORTUNATELY our new plan involved a 2 night stop in one of our favorite towns...Bariloche. It sure will be nice to be somewhere familiar for a change!

... a meter a day! Better come down and see these glaciers soon or they'll be gone!!! Haha!

Tonight is a quick dinner (the empanadas here are fantastic – and cheap!) and then we’re back on the bus back to El Calafate where we spend another couple of days.

PS. Congrats to Molly (Dave’s sister) and Jim who just had their second baby – Patrick Kelly! We look forward to meeting him in a few weeks!

... glacier and crashes into the lake. Sat in a tiny catamaran only 300m away, this was a real site to behold (and annoyingly difficult to catch on film). Taking the four hour bus journey to the tiny town of El Chalten allows you to explore the park with a bit more freedom (and for the first time, there is no extortionate ´foreign visitor´ park entry fee). Form here you can explore the area around Monte Fitz Roy (named ...

... trek to Laguna Torres, were Toby was busy building a wind breaker for us to have lunch which was tasty and crunchy as it had plenty of grit in it! Managed to camp back to the free campsite in El Chalten for that night. Booked the 36hour bus to Bariloche via Ruta 40, as decided hitch hiking might be too much of a challenge with distances to cover and lack of the spanish lingo! But as result needed to hike and camp another night in Park. Went on 8 hour hike ...

... Patagonia - a new small town within the Glacier National Park in the shadow of the magnificent peak Fitz Roy. The route was a five hour drive in a luxury coach through barren countryside. It was green, windswept and had no sign of cultivation or population. In the five hours the only life I saw was at the Leona Tavern where we stopped for lunch. This had been the hang out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they had to flee the United ...