White days in South Patagonia.

Hey lads! Today we changed countries and got to Chile after more than a week hanging around El Chalten and El Calafate in the Argentinian Glaciers National Park. And uff, again we were blown-away by all the natural marvels we saw. We have been rushing up a lot, with no relief, but it had to be done. We are feeling quite tired, loads of kilometres by bus, loads of hikes but it was extremely worth it, fascinating!
From Bariloche we went to El Chalten, a small village and gateway to the Northern sector of the Glaciers National Park. This area is more a trekking and climbing spot compared with the more fashionable and posh El Calafate, gateway to the world famous Perito Moreno. And definetely it will be one of the highlights of our trip.
The surroundings around El Chalten are absolutely breathtaking, spectacular! It boasts the Fitz Roy masif, indisputably on of the most impressive and majestic mountains we have ever seen. And on top of that, there are glaciers and lagoons around, and all is very accessible for trekking and camping. We dedicated three days to the area, but it could have been easily a week, but now that our trip is ending we are facing this type of short-time problem to dedicate to each place, when before if we liked a place we stayed until felt it was enough. Anyway, no complaints here eh! We were very lucky with the weather, considering that the area is constantly hit by strong westerlies and storms.
On the first day we did a hike to the Laguna Torre, just on the foothills of the majestic Mt. Torre, a granite pillar towering more than 3,000m. Here we had to cope with a blustery day and did not get a glimpse of the tower, but the lagoon and the glacier were more than enough to delight us!
The day after we left on a two days trekking throughout the park, with the main target of getting to Mt. Fitz Roy foothills and checking out some glaciers around. We left under the rain, but miraculously the weather changed and cleared up on the way offering the finest views of the whole masif. There was also time to reach the White Stones Glacier and its lagoon. Scrambling through massive rocks we got to the lagoon where loads of small icebergs where floating. Amazing guys!
In Patagonia it gets dark around 11PM, so we had plenty of time to walk around! We did pitch the tent in the foothills of Mt. Fitz Roy, in an unbeatable spot! The night was extremely cold, our sleeping bags are very light, so we had to put all our clothes on and survived! On the next day we woke up with the best views ever and walked up to a lagoon close to Mt. Fitz Roy to enjoy a really close-up of the peak. That is the closest than a normal hiker can get to the peak, the rest is left to the extraterrestrial climbers that dare to climb to the summit; beat that: around 36 hours of the hardest work walking on ice,snow and climbing vertical walls, unbelievable!
Regrettably we had to leave this paradise to move on to El Calafate, 220Km south and gateway to the Perito Moreno Glacier. Another marvel of the world, and extremely active glacier. It did not disappoint us, with a lake in his feet and impressive ice formations it is truly spectacular, and its noise when the ice blocks break is almost mind-altering. There is something about glaciers, something captivating, their changing colours, their noise, their huge size...All combined can really amaze anyone.
The day after we went on a boat trip through the Argentinian Lake, and got a chance to see more glaciers, some bigger than Perito Moreno but not as nice and perfect. But the most shocking thing was seeing huge icebergs floating in the lake, some of them massive with cool shapes and colours.
The whole Patagonia is a world apart, we really fell in love with it, and feel like that we would need at least 2 months to get to know it better. Jagged mountains, crashing glaciers, turquoise rivers, majestic mountains, national parks...An incredible array of natural beauty that can not leave indifferent any human being!
In El Calafate we splitted our paths with Pauline, with whom we have enjoyed so much the last days and today got to Puerto Natales, in Chile. From here we will go to the Torres del Paine National Park, where we plan to camp and hike for a couple of days. Then, ay,ay,ay, we will have to start to work out our way up to Buenos Aires. This is getting to the end, and strong feelings and emotions are starting to arise.
Loads of kisses from one of the southernmost points of the world!