El Chaltén is known as the hiking capital of Argentina, and for good reason! The town is quaint with little bakeries and pizza shops and sits near the impressive spires of Mount Fitz Roy. The best part is lots of the hikes start right from town.

We had taken an overnight bus down Ruta 40. It was surely the most expensive bus in human history and included several interludes on dirt roads as there was considerable roadworks going on, but we still arrived 2 hours ahead of schedule at 9am.

After checking in and grabbing a coffee we took one of the shorter walking trails to a lookout point above town. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. The lookout point at Mirador de Los Cóndores placed us at a great vantage point to see Mt Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre and their friends. The grey jagged peaks sticking up like serrated knives beyond the town.

Another trail took us from there to the Mirador de Las Aguilas, looking out over an entirely different landscape of Lago Viedma and the flat plains over which we had driven to arrive at the edge of this menacing mountain range.

We woke in the morning to another magic day, for which we were very lucky according to our hostel owners. Que Suerte! Since the weather was in our favour we decided to do the star trail, Sendero al Fitz Roy, which would lead us to the base of the 3,405m Fitz Roy Mountain. Depending which map we used, it was either 10km each way, or 12.5km each way. Fergs GPS watch suggested the latter distance to be more accurate.

The start was a slow incline which lead us to a fork with an option to take the Fitz Roy lookout path or the Laguna Capri path. We decided on the former and soon arrived at one of the most amazing views over the forest with the sun soaked spires of Fitz Roy behind.

From there we walked mostly along a flat valley, treated to views of the picturesque forest, small streams and Fitz Roy as we went. The Beech trees which at times looked like giant bonsai growing among mossy and sandy ground made us think we were in a Japanese garden in some spots.

Soon we reached the last 1km of the trail, which was steep uphill. It took us about 45 minutes puffing our way up. We reached a rocky area and when we made our way over the hilltop we found an incredible sight. The aqua blue crystal water of Laguna de Los Tres and a beautiful blue sky, separated by the contrasting grey peaks of Fitz Roy and Poincenot to the left.

We sat with the other hundred or so people that had appeared from nowhere at the top and ate our lunch with the amazing view in front of us. While we ate, a rather optimistic eagle came hopping along searching for crumbs, with a trail of eager photographers following behind.

It then jumped up on a rock right beside us, only half a metre away, and sat there for a good few minutes hoping we would share our food. It had placed itself perfectly for photos for us, much to the dismay of the other photographers, but eventually it moved on when it realised it wouldn't be getting any of our lunch.

After lunch the blue sky started to turn a bit cloudier. We walked down to the lakes edge, and around the side where we could also see a waterfall and the neighbouring Laguna Sucia, then farewelled the beautiful view as more clouds came over.

As we made our way back down the steep hill and across the valley, the weather started looking like it might turn, but fortunately it cleared up again. This was especially fortunate for those crazy people we passed still making their way up the hill late in the afternoon!

The next day though tired and sore from the walk the day before, we woke to another brilliant day so we decided to do another full day walk to Cerro Torre. This walk was somewhere between 11 and 14kms each way, again depending which map is more accurate.

The first 3 or so kms were uphill leading to the Mirador del Torre which provided the first views of Cerro Torre. Then the walk flattened out across a rocky valley and in and out of forested areas alongside the Río Fitz Roy until we arrived at the edge of Laguna Torre, where we were hit with ridiculous winds!

Behind the Lake was the 2nd most impressive peak of the area, Cerro Torre, flanked by Glaciar Grande. The path to the end of the trail at Mirador Maestri continued for another 2kms to our right, along the ridge of a rocky slope.

We set off and battled into the wind, at times having to hold onto rocks or duck down on the narrow ridge to avoid being carried away by the wind. Our eyes watered as the wind whipped at our faces. There were several path options and at one point we elected the wrong one, but it brought us out to an abandoned campsite just above the lookout. Corrugated iron cabins had been torn apart and bent in the strong winds over time.

When we finally found the mirador we were able to climb down to it. We managed to find a less windy spot to have some lunch and take in the view. We were now quite close to the glacier and could see the ridges, crevasses and blue colours of the ice. Another beautiful day in Parque Nacional Fitz Roy!

We made our way back down the ridge in the same strong winds, though it was more pleasant with the wind at your back rather than in your face. Down at the edge of the lake we found some ice bergs floating in the water, one almost perfectly shaped like a duck bobbing away.

On our way back along the trail we spotted a group of people all looking at something alongside the trail. On closer inspection we found 2 Huemul, an Andean deer. They were completely unperturbed by the crowd of people taking photos, and went about their way eating the grass by the river.

When we arrived back to the hostel we practiced our Spanish in a conversation about our day with the owners. We discovered that Huemuls are actually quite rare and difficult to spot, so we were very lucky. We were also lucky to have had incredible weather so far 3 days in a row! They told us Pumas are far more common than Huemul, but they tend to disappear at the sight of humans.

On our last day in El Chaltén we decided to take things more easily. We took a shorter walk to the nearby Chorrillo del Salto, a waterfall about 4kms from town. It was a pretty but crowded spot, popular with the less fit visitors to El Chaltén given you could drive to within 500m. The waterfall was bigger than we expected, and then flowed into a pretty stream.

Back in town we decided to enjoy a couple of beers. We could just see the top of Fitz Roy from where we sat at a table outside on the main street, and the sun was still strong and warm even late in the afternoon given it doesn't set until around 9. Patagonia had so far delivered sights and weather beyond our expectations.

LAPFWT