Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, Argentina

 El Chaltén is a very popular hub in Argentinian Patagonia and provides amazing access by foot to several famous trails. I really didn’t care for the town itself (overpriced, crowded, touristy) but I did enjoy having access to trails with iconic views (permits now required to enter the national park). We camped at El Relincho in town since it was the cheapest place to stay. The camping area wasn’t very nice but we did have access to showers and a kitchen, where we prepared some food from a grocery store across the street, in addition to food we brought from the states. We did the 3 major hikes on 3 separate days because they are long with a lot of elevation gain. Laguna de Los Tres is the most famous, with the view of Cerro Fitz Roy (this is supposed to be the logo for the Patagonia brand). The trail was extremely crowded; we passed hundreds and hundreds of hikers but found that people had horrible trail etiquette and wouldn’t move over when we came in hot on their heels, even if we called out excuse me/permiso (apparently this wasn’t just us, and other hikers from the states have expressed the same frustration). The next most popular trail is Laguna Torre, followed by Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, with farrrr less people. El Chaltén is a great way to visit Patagonia when you don’t want to rent a car, as it can be reached by bus from the El Calafate airport and provides access to famous day hikes, the Huemul Circuit, and Lago del Desierto. However, by the end I was so desperate to leave the town and definitely wouldn’t recommend more than a quick stop to do some hikes of interest if driving around Patagonia (mostly because of crowds and prices).














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