El Calafate to El Chaltén

Blog post for Sunday, October 22 2023

After breakfast this morning in El Calafate we walked down to the shore of Lago Argentina. It is the largest fresh water lake in Argentina with a maximum length of 75 miles and width of 25 miles. It is fed by the glaciers in the mountains to the west.

Along the shore of the lake we were surprised to se flamingos

When we got back to the hotel we checked out. Today we drove around Lago Argentina then north and around the next large lake, Lago Viedma. We went up into the mountains to the west to the small town of El Chaltén at the base of Mount Fitz Roy in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.

We are very lucky to have absolutely perfect weather. The ranger at the visitor center said it is not uncommon for the peaks to be hidden in clouds.

El Chaltén is at an elevation of 1,345 feet and Fitz Roy has an elevation of 11,171 feet. The ice mass in these mountains is the Patagonia Ice Field. It is the third largest in the world after the Arctic and Antarctic ice fields. As you can see in this satellite image that was in the visitor center the ice field stretches from Argentina, where we are, across Chile to the Pacific and down the spine of Patagonia for hundreds of miles. We are staying at the west end of the northern of the two big lakes in the picture below.

After checking into our hotel, El Chaltén Suites we hiked to Mirador de Los Condores overlooking the town and the mountains.