If Torres del Paine thought that it would be the only site in the Patagonia that I'd be taking in, it was incredibly wrong. The Patagonia just keeps on surprising me with every turn I take. I left Chilean Patagonia to venture north into the Argentinian side of it all. I was not let down.
First I stopped by the city of El Calafate which is the staging point to go see the impressive Perito Moreno Glacier. The sheer mass of this ice cube is astonishing. It's very hard to comprehend just how large it actually is right up until the moment that it calves off a piece of ice with the height of around a 10 story building and creates a massive wave surging toward you along with an absolute cacophony of sound crashing into your ear drums.
The front face of the glacier reaches up to sixty meters, just under two hundred feet and let's loose twenty-ton chunks of ice at a time.
The front face of Perito Morenop
10 story tall piece of ice crashing into the crystal blue water below.
After calafate took me in and showed me the insane capabilities of ice and time, I hitched my way up to El Calafate to do a few days of hiking in the Fitz Roy National Park. A few days was the plan anyway. After the first hike to the base of the massive granite tower of Fitz Roy, I was hooked. The hikes in this park don't compare to any treks that I have ever done. As I made my way through the beautiful autumn changing valleys with a backdrop of cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, I knew that I would be sticking around a while.
After I had made it back to town from my first few treks, I met up with my friend Reanna for some dinner. After we finished an amazing plate of pasta and salad, she asked me if I wanted to go up to this grill and after party that she had heard about from one of her friends. "Sounds good to me."
As if I didn't have enough of a reason to stay stuck in the beautiful Chalten, I met this group who had the traditional grill and party and I instantly melted in. This group was incredible. It consisted of a couch surfing host who always had an army of cyclists camping out in her back yard. When I say cyclists, I don't mean some ametures who are going around for a nice stroll. These guys a freaking nuts! Some of them were traveling from Alaska for the last 22 months all the way down to Ushuaia (the southern most city in South America... And the world) what?! Needless to say, I stuck around a bit to see what they were all about; I'm very glad I did.
Every day with this group was something amazing. We went on great hikes through the valleys straddling the city, we bouldered on some amazing rocks just behind Flor's (our amazing couch surfing host) house at the base of the mountains, along with some top rope climbing to top it off... during the day that is. By night fall we were grilling up a huge variety of meats the traditional Argentinian asado style and taking down bottles of delicious Argentinian and Chilean wines. Along with the typical asado, one night we had a mouth watering, fat dripping, smoke enriched, tender ripping Cordero!!! AKA, lamb on a stake sizzling over coals and smoking over logs of local trees.
Two or three days easily turned into just under two weeks. I'll have to take out a few places that I had on the check list but it was completely worth it!
On my way to Lago Los Tres, just under Fitz Roy
Relaxing in the hammock (Thanks to Taylor Gillis!) after a long trek through the Park
Bouldering with my buddy Kanaan (One of the crazy bastards (sorry, but that's the best way to describe them) who is twenty-two months deep in his biking adventure from Alaska to Ushaia.)
Part of the group. Our farewell to Andrew (the one who looks like Thor, the thunder god)
Now I'm off to catch my flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up with a few friends and then take in the rest of Argentina that's left on my list! Talk to you all soon!
Adios amigos!
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