Next Stop: Glacier Perito Moreno, the Argentinian capital of trekking El Chalten and Ushuaia, the end of the world

From Puerto Natales we went to el Calafate and we stayed at Buenos Aires hostel, which is very close to the bus station. Carlos, the owner is very attentive and helps you a lot in planning your stay there. For example, he advised us to buy a combined ticket from CalTur to go to Perito Moreno and then to el Chalten, as the price was discounted.

The day we got to Calafate we ate at a nicely decorated pizzeria called La Lechuza. From there we visited the center of the town and bought some food for our lunch in Perito Moreno the next day. We also visited a few travel agencies and we discovered that Patagonia Adventure offered an ice climbing activity on Viedma glacier in el Chalten. Victor was very excited about it and convinced Laura to do it.

The next day we went to Perito Moreno, which is one of the few glacier that is growing. We first took a boat to see the glacier from the water and then we walked through the walkways. The views from there are astonishing. The glacier is huge, with an average of 60 m high and a few kilometers wide. We were able to see some ice pieces falling and the thunder-like noise that it makes is impressive. We sat on a bench and contemplated the spectacular show while eating our sandwiches.

In the afternoon we went back to el Calafate and hopped in the next bus that took us to el Chalten, the Argentinian capital of trekking. The town is located in a gorgeous place, surrounded by mountains and rock climbing walls. We got there pretty late and went straight to our hostel, La cima. The hostel is very new and clean but it lacks a bit the dynamics and atmosphere of a youth hostel. That night we had dinner at a restaurant called "La Senyera" which is the name of the catalan flag. The owner is catalan, but the food that you can eat there is mostly argentinian.

The next day we did the ice climbing trek. We first took a bus to lago Viedma and then a boat to get to the glacier. There we met our funny guides Tato and Nacho. They took us to a dome where they gave us the gear and we left our food bags before heading to the glacier.

Then we put our crampons on and they showed us the basic techniques to walk and climb on ice. Then we went to the first climbing wall where the guides set up two top ropes and we started to climb there. We then moved to steeper walls and the last one was extremely difficult to climb.

After having lunch back in the dome we hiked through the glacier to see the ice formations. There the guides had a surprise for us. They prepared glasses of baileys with 400 years old ice from the glacier.

The following day we took it easy and did a short hike on the Fitz Roy trail. To reward us for the good work of the previous days, we had a snack after the hike at la wafleria.

The next day we took the first CalTur bus back to el Calafate and stopped at the airport where we had to wait around 8h for our flight to Ushuaia.

In Ushuaia we slept at a bed and breakfast called Mysten Kepen. It is managed by a very nice local family. The rooms are inside their house, so you actually live together with them.

We had only 2 days in Ushuaia. The first day we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park and the next day we did the navigation through the Beagle channel. We used our free evening to buy souvenirs because our trip was ending.