After our stay in Mendoza, we’re off to Patagonia for two weeks. From Buenos Aires it’s about 1600 kilometers to El Calafate. The flight is about 3hours, or you could take a bus with lie flat seats and get there in 42 hours. Flying seemed like the better option.

After an overnight stay in El Calafate we picked up our Toyota Hilux truck and headed north to the town of El Chalten which is the gateway to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares with numerous hiking trails for views of the jagged peaks of Mt. Fitzroy and Cirro Torre. If you’ve ever seen the Patagonia clothing logo, these are the mountains they represent.

Our drive from El Calafate was beautiful, along the shores of milky blue Lago Argentina and Lago Viedma, both filled with icy and sediment rich glacial runoff. Each turn in the road brought another spectacular view.

After checking in to our hotel, we walked down the street to the main drag, with numerous restaurants catering to the hikers, treckers and climbers who fill the town. We could see the mountains in the background, but ominous clouds were rapidly filling the sky, and the wind blew ever stronger. Weather reports for the next three days were not good. After a mediocre dinner in town we walked back and headed to our beds