March 21 - 24
Picture Links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lotanc/Fitzroyandperitomorenoglacier
From Puerto Natales we took a bus to El Calafate (several hours) and then changed to another bus to continue to El Chalten (another 3 hours).
El Chalten is a small city located in Los Glaciares National Park. Next to it is the tallest mountain in the area - Mt. Fitzroy.
Trying to avoid the major crowds (that do either a 1 or 2 day trek to the bottom of the mountain) we decided on a 3 day trek that goes also to the north side of the mountain, and goes up to a climbers base camp which has great views of the mountain:
At night we slept in a great camp-site (though this camp-site costs money, causing this area not to be visited as much by tourists in general and specifically Israelis). There were others in the camp site, but not many.. The next day we went to the area which is more popular for hikers and went up to the lagoon underneath the Fitzroy (it was a beautiful day and we had great views). We camped not far from the lagoon (about 45 minutes).
In the Fitzroy as in the Torres, they say it is great to see it during sunrise. This time (after learning the lesson in the Torres) we decided not to hike up to the lagoon in sunrise (also since we saw it the day before), but to see the mountain from our camp site (in this case, which is not so in the Torres, it is possible to see the mountain from the camp site). Getting up early it was cloudy and we did not see much. We were content with our decision not to hike up..
The third day we did not have such luck with the weather, and it was pretty cloudy.
p.s. When we were up in the climbers base camp, we decided to climb up to the Fitzroy. Due to problems with the camera, there are not pictures from the climb. But we were recorded in the museum in the city. Click the image for more information about the climb we did (along with other attempts to climb the Fitzroy). Our climb is detailed in the bottom right (no photoshop on the picture).
From El Chalten we went back to El-Calafate
El Calafate & Perito Moreno
March 25-27
Picture links (together with El Chalten):
http://picasaweb.google.com/lotanc/Fitzroyandperitomorenoglacier
El Calafate is a very touristy city, where the main attraction is the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is a large, accessible glacier, which grows constantly. It´s movement causes pieces of the glacier to break, causing great sounds, and large pieces of rock falling into the water (a spectacular sight).
After visiting the glacier we rented a jeep and drove through the Carretera Austral..
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