El Chalten
The town of El Chalten nestled below FitzRoy in Los Glaciares National Park in Patagonia, Argentina.
El Chalten, the self proclaimed trekking capital of Argentina, is a small rustic town at the base of FitzRoy, in Los Glaciares National Park, about a 4 hour ride from El Calafate, the closest airport. The town itself revolves around hiking just as a ski town is all about skiing. If you walk to the end of almost any street you find yourself on a hiking trail. The shops, the restaurants-the food is surprisingly very good by the way, and hotels all seem geared to trekkers. With a very young summer populations it seems like party time every night- although everything closes early. A few miles out of town there is a scenic overlook, which we visited several times especially when it was raining in the mountains, where you have an unobstructed view of El Chalten nestled below FitzRoy. I made this image on one of our unscheduled late afternoon trips.