The region I most wanted to see in South America was Patagonia and thing I had been most looking forward to in SA was trekking in Patagonia. There’s several good national parks and multi-day treks in both Argentine and Chilean Patagonia, but after much research we decided to spend all our time in El Chalten, a village within Parque Nacional de Los Glaciares, and focus our trekking in that region. I’d heard it offered the best trekking in Argentine Patagonia, even rivaling the nearby and legendary Torres Del Paine in Chile. Additionally, we could do day hikes out of El Chalten, rather than camp our way through a multi-day hike.

looking down on El Chalten

Our bus from El Calafate stopped at the national park office on the way into El Chalten. Park rangers gave us a 10-minute talk in English and Spanish. They told us some rules: no smoking (three forest fires last year, all of which began near trails), no feeding dogs in the village (they will follow you on your hike and can kill the endangered heumul), no relieving yourself near water (the lakes and rivers are safe to drink from here), no littering (not organic or otherwise), and a few others that I forgot. The ranger told us about their philosophy about managing the park. It was free and they wanted people to enjoy it. They talked about how they work hard to keep it free and they don’t want it to become like some other parks, where you have to pay entrance fees and all other kinds of fees. I thought it was funny, how he explained what would happen if there became a need for latrines, rubbish bins, more park administration, etc: “I will charge you to enter the park, I will charge you for every trail you use, I will charge you to eat, if you want to take a piss, I’ll charge you.” I admired the philosophy and appreciated their explaining how it’s the visitors’ responsibility to preserve the park: if guests leave no trace, then there’s no need to pay for the park’s upkeep. He wrapped up his talk by telling us that today was the first good weather in a week and, being only noon, to get out on the trails immediately.

After checking into a not so great hotel, we did hit the trails. We walked up to nearby Laguna Capri, from where we could see famous Fitz Roy. It was about an hour and a half walk each way, which was absolutely beautiful. We walked along one side of a wide valley, the aqua river meandering below across the wide valley floor, and snowy mountains all around. It was incredibly windy and I even got blown to my knees a couple times when trying to battle the wind to take a photo. To describe trekking is really pretty boring (we walked for so-and-so long, we climbed x-number of meters, and blah-blah-blah), so I’ll just use my photos.