After our day at Perito Moreno Glacier we took a 3 hour night bus from El Calafate to El Chalten, a very small new (26 years old) mountain town famous for Cerro Fitz Roy. The next morning we hiked to Laguna Los Torres, a beautiful day hike which started right in town and traversed through a brightly coloured forest with mountains and a pretty waterfall. At one point the trail opened up giving us a great view of the mountains which were covered with bright red leaves and a river running beneath. The trail continued for a few hours and ended at a lake fed by a huge glacier that sat high up oon the mountain's side. We had a nice lunch then continued to the mirador of the glacier. Our second day we got up early, packed our day bags and headed out for the 25km roundtrip hike up to the famous Cerro Fitz Roy. We started hiking before sunrise, so we were unsure how clear the day was going to be. We had heard from other travellers to wait for a clear day to hike to Fitz Roy, otherwise you could hike for hours to reach the lookout, only to see that Fitz Roy is hidden by clouds. When the sun came up we could see it was cloudy but we continued with positive thoughts hoping they would lift. The trail is flat, then up and more flat then up for approximately 2 hours and the last hour is straight up the mountain side with snow or mud to slip in. On our way up the steep mountain the clouds began to slowly clear. We got our first glimpse of Fitz Roy mid-way up the climb. Once we reached the mirador the clouds were almost all clear and we were speechless at how beautiful and tall the granite spires really are! Cerro Fitz Roy sits at a lofty 3330 meters above sea level so we had read it has its own microclimate and usually is surrounded by clouds. We had also read that the area beneath the spires where you take photos is usually very windy. We totally lucked out and had no clouds or wind so we stayed up there taking photos and enjoying the view all day. The hike down was also spectacular as the whole valley surrounding us was clear! We couldn´t have asked for a better day! After our hike we went back to to the hostel, packed our bags and got ready for another early morning bus ride. In order to keep moving North we had to take a 3 hr bus South back to El Calafate, a 4 hr bus Southeast to Rio Gallegos, then we had a 4 hour layover and finally got on a 14 hr bus ride North to Puerto Madryn. When we were in Rio Gallegios we saw this hilarious alphabet poster!
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