Tag: Patagonia

Argentinian Andes and Mt Fitzroy trekking

I can’t even describe what’ve seen during our Mt Fitzroy trekking. How can I describe beautiful trees, mountains and valleys. We took photos, but it’s never the same as experiencing it yourself with sweat on your forehead and sun burned cheeks. Patagonia is a magical region of Argentina, the most beautiful part of this country I’ve seen.


Our trek was spontaneous. We’ve packed our backpacks with all-seasons clothing, a small trekking tent, sleeping bags and mats, we made grocery supplies, rented a stove and a lightweight portable cooking kit, container of gas and off into mountains we went!




Trekking around Mt Fitzroy is not a hard one, sometimes you need to ascend a bit to go down a minute later, mostly though you walk rather flat paths through sun dried or lush green terrain. Mountain peaks almost never escape your sight. It’s a real pleasure, you almost don’t feel the effort. There was only one steeper and harder ascend on the way to Lagoon de los Tres – we had to climb massive rocky stairs, which is still only moderately hard especially in the evening when sun is not that strong anymore. Yes, it was just before NYE and it was summer there – perfect timing and I have to say it was a nice surprice after what we’ve read about how picky weather here can be, changing course drastically and few times during the day – none of that happened.


Not only in mountains – we were blessed with perfect weather all the time we’ve spent in Patagonia. There was one night though during our last night on a camping site in Poincenoc when we were waking up in the middle of the night by an extremely loud and strong wind. Our tent didn’t move a bit though as all the action was happening in trees’ crowns. It felt like some giant was jumping from one tree to another. Tomasz says it was more like “the smoke” from LOST… It was so bizarre, people were getting out of tents to check out what’s happening outside.

Besides noisy nights we were enjoying blissfuly calm mornings. Starting with washing our faces in really cold but drinkable water streams. It may sound silly, but it was amazing! Area is still so pure you can drink water from streams without using any water purifying tablets! Try and do the same in polish mountains.

Argentyńskie Andy i Mt Fitzroy trekking

Nie potrafię opisać tego co widzieliśmy, bo jak opisać wspaniałe drzewa, góry i doliny. Są zdjęcia, ale i one nie oddają tej przestrzeni. Patagonia to magiczny obszar Argentyny, zdecydowanie najpiękniejszy rejon jaki w tym kraju widziałam.


A treking zaczął się dosyć spontanicznie. Spakowaliśmy plecaki w ubrania na każdą pogodę, namiot, śpiwory, karimaty i jedzenie, wypożyczyliśmy palnik, kupiliśmy gaz i ruszyliśmy w drogę. Treking nie należy do ciężkich, czasem w górę, czasem w dół, najczęściej po równi przez lekko wysuszone lub soczyście zielone tereny. Wciąż widać szczyty. Ciężej wspiąć się było do Laguny de los Tres, po skalnych schodach, ale i to można spokojnie zrobić, zwłaszcza wieczorem, kiedy słońce już tak nie pali.




Patagonia nie pokazała nam swojego przewrotnego oblicza i przez cały pobyt mieliśmy genialną pogodę. Jedynie w środku nocy na campingu w punkcie Poincenoc obudził nas niesamowicie głośny i silny wiatr, który buszował w koronach drzew, jakby ktoś skakał z jednej gałęzi na kolejną. Tomasza wersja to “the smoke” z LOST… Było to na tye dziwne, że ludzie wychodzili z namiotów, bo nie wiedzieli co się dzieje.


A rano szliśmy do strumienia, by przemyć w nim twarz, po czym nabieraliśmy z niego wody, którą piliśmy przez cały dzień. Spróbuj zrobić to samo w polskich górach.

Glaciar Perito Moreno in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

Loads of ice and that’s all. But we took a boat to go closer and kept looking at it for few hours. Because it’s not a regular ice. It’s blue-hued, is 60m high and 5 km wide wall of glacier 35 km long and it’s advancing up to 2m per day. When it breaks it sounds like a storm is coming.






And on the way there we stopped for a coffee and have seen a herd of goats (with dreadlocks on their bums) which behaved like dogs.




Glaciar Perito Moreno w Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

Kupa lodu i tyle. Ale łódkę wzięliśmy, żeby podpłynąć bliżej. I patrzyliśmy na ten lód, który czasem pęka i spada do wody, przez kilka godzin. Bo to nie taki zwykły lód, ma niebieskie cienie, jest wysoki na 60 m, szeroki na 5 km, długi na 35 km i rośnie do 2 metrów dziennie. A gdy pęka, to echo odgłosu sprawia, że ma się wrażenie, że burza idzie.






A po drodze zatrzymaliśmy się na kawę, jak to na wycieczkach bywa i widzieliśmy stado kóz z dredami przy pupach, które zachowywały się jak psy.



El Calafate

I arrived to El Calafate around 2:30 am. The bus terminal is located a stroll away from city centre so together with Nana (sweet japanese girl who’s name means 7 and who happened to be a drums player) we’ve started to look for beds. It seemed that everything is either occupied or very expensive (100 Ps for a bed in a dorm with no breakfast). We’ve started to walk back to the terminal to rest there throughout the night and check more comfortable options in the morning, but we’ve noticed a camping sites. We didn’t have a tent but sometime ago someone mentioned they also offer cheap dorms out there. As there was an information on a reception’s door that we can set up a tent when we arrive and register in the morning. We did exactly how they instructed us, instead of tent though we lodged ourselves into a dorms. The door was open, no-one there, few beds in a room, and no one to tell us that we can’t sleep over there. Next morning we were charged 50 Ps what included a giant breakfast.

Now it was a day when I was supposed to meet Mr T. aka Malina. I went to the airport (by taxi, cause it was too late to reserve a shuttle) and kept waiting. After an hour I’ve checked an email to realize that T. is already in the town waiting for me. I went back on a camping then. He wasn’t there. Then a guy from reception (just after he stopped laughing about me passing T. at the airport) gave ma a great advice – go to the city and let your heart show you the way. I did it (internet connection didn’t work on the camping) and I found him sitting on a bench eating eating some rolls! We decided to go and see lagoon, flamingos and drink a beer to celebrate.