We started early the following day by driving the three hours to the small town of El Chalten, which is the base for access the Fitzroy range of mountains. Mt Fitzroy is also known by its local name of El Chalten. In the afternoon we took a short walk to a nearby viewpoint and managed to see both Fitzroy and Cerro Torre, though there was also a lot of cloud about.
The cloud tended to be a feature of the next few days when we did day walks, typically 8 hours, and we did not really get to see too much of Fitzroy; it was usually just playing with us, with the top always seemingly just about to clear. I did manage one fairly spectacular sunrise when it appeared briefly.
There was some wildlife to be seen including a colourful Magellanic Woodpecker, Flamingoes and plenty of Condors. We also managed to see an Armadillo which was great as they are not that common.
On return to El Calafate we had a day trip to the spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier. This goes right down to the large lake, Lago Argentino and at times cuts off one arm of the lake completely. Then every few years the force of water causes the blocking part of the glacier to rupture in dramatic fashion; this last happened about 2 years ago. Although I've seen glaciers in many parts of the world this was an impressive one, especially the incredibly deep blue colour, enhanced by it being a cloudy day.
From here it was on to Chile for the Torres del Paine National Park, which I'll describe in a separate post.
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