Patagonia; 2025

In January of 2025, I signed up for a hiking tour of three of the most famous national parks in Patagonia through G Adventures, a Canadian Adventure Tour company. Nine of us from Austria, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and the US met up in Buenos Aires, then flew down to El Calafate to spend three days in Las Glaciares National Park in Argentina. We then took a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile, a gateway city for the Torres del Paine (Towers of Blue) National Park, where we spent three days hiking parts of the famous "W Trek." Then we boarded another bus to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world (and departure port for most cruises to Antarctica), where we explored the city and hiked some of the trails in the Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) National Park. We wrapped up this fabulous trip by flying back to Buenos Aires.

Patagonia is waaay down in the far southern region of South America (Argentina and Chile) "generally defined by the Andes mountain range to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and including the Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel to the south; its northern boundary is not precisely defined but is often considered to be around the Colorado River in Argentina and the Huincul Fault in Chile" (AI summary by Gemini)

BUENOS AIRES: The nine of us met up in Buenos Aires (BA), a pretty fabulous Argentinian city. I arrived a few days early, to explore the city before we headed south to Patagonia. Here is a city view from Casa Rosada, an historic square in downtown BA

This is the Puenta de la Mujer (Women's Bridge), a cantilever spar cable-stayed pedestrian bridge which also functions as a swing bridge, It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, who says the lines and angles were inspired by the Tango, the dance style that BA claims as its own.

And here is the city skyline from the Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur (South Coast Nature Reserve), an urban park built on a former landfill, along the city shoreline

PATAGONIA: Then it was on to the End of the Earth hiking tour (hosted by G Adventures.com). Three Patagonian National Parks in ten days. We boarded a plane to El Calafate where we met up with our "Chief Experience Officer" Nacho Astrada (above), who proved to be a wonderful guide throughout the tour.

Patagonia is famously windy, and we were introduced to the winds as we landed in El Calafate. Shortly after we landed, the Argentinian authorities shut down the airport and the roads because of extremely high winds (120+ kph / 70+ mph)! We spent the day exploring the city on foot, and getting to know each other a bit.

EL CHALTEN and LOS GLACIARES NATIONAL PARK: When the winds calmed down and the roads reopened, we boarded a van and rode up to El Chalten, a gateway town for Los Glacieres National Park.

The next day we did our first hike of about 22 km / 14 mi to a great view of Mount Fitz Roy. The hike was relatively long and challenging, and was made more so by pretty windy conditions, though much calmer than our first day in El Calafate!

Hanging glacier off Mt Fitz Roy; we had lunch here

On the following day, we did a little less demanding but equally long second hike along the Cerro Solo trail, which provided excellent views of Mt Solo and Mt Fitz Roy from a different approach.

The Fitz Roy Peaks, from the Cerro Solo Trail

Cerro Solo (Solo Peak)

On the third (final) day at Los Glaciares, we headed over to the Perito Moreno Glacier, where we could walk along the front face of the glacier. Later, some of our group hiked (with gear) on the glacier; the rest of us got up close to the front of it in a tour boat. The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 km (3.1 mi) wide, with an average height of 74 m (240 ft) above the surface of the water of Argentino Lake. The glacier has a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft).

Four of our crew did a mini treking hike on the glacier. You can see the scale here

PUERTO NATALES and the TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK: Next, we headed west to the Torres del Paine National Park near Puerto Natales, Chile. It was a long bus ride, but oh so worth it. When we got to the park, we spend three days to hike three segments of the W Trek, sampling some of the best views of the mountains, glaciers, rivers and lakes that made this park so spectacular. Torres del Paine was established as a National Park in 1959 and listed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1978. This is the end of the Torres del Paine (The Towers of Blue) Trail

We made it to the base of the towers! Our G Adventures Crew

The Torres del Paine: One of the most beautiful places I've ever visited and my personal favorite of this trip!

The Horns and the French Valley: The Horns of the Paine are a dramatic set of granite towers that look a bit like (you guessed it) a set of horns! We hiked from our base camp to the base of the Horns, and then turned left into the French Valley to a pair of viewpoints of a hanging glacier. L - R: the Paine Grande (mountain range), the French Valley, and the Horns del Paine. The Towers are behind and to the right of the Horns; Lake Pehoe is in the foreground

The Horns of the Paine are on the left in the Paine Massif

The Frances Glacier was our destination for a 22+ km hike in the French Valley

USHUAIA and THE END OF THE EARTH: After that breathtaking visit, we spent an 11 hour day traveling by bus from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia, Argentina. Ushuaia (pronounced oos WHY ah) is the most southern city in the world, is the most common departure port for cruises to Antarctica, and is the gateway city for the Tierra del Fuego National Park (the main reason we're here). In addition to exploring the city, we took a six hour boat tour through part of the Beagle Channel and we sampled four highlights of the national park through short hikes in those four places

The boat tour through part of the Beagle Channel highlighted wildlife and gorgeous scenery. This was a wonderful six hour cruise and definitely worth the effort to join if you're ever in the neighborhood. Here is a view of Ushuaia from the boat

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, still functional, is also home to a colony of sea lions and a large number of cormorants

Our final destination was Isla Martillo, to see this large colony of Magellanic and Gentoo penguins!

On our last day in Ushuaia, we visited the Tierra del Fuego National Park; a park located just west of Ushuaia and along the Beagle Channel in the most southern part of Argentina. We had a guided five hour "sampler" tour, in which we stopped at four places and did short hikes to interesting places and viewpoints. Here we are at the southern terminus of the Pan American Highway (the northern terminus is in Alaska)

Lapataia Bay; Tierra del Fuego National Park

The Post Office at the Tierra del Fuego. Until this year, it was operated by a retired postal worker who had a mission to keep it open. More in references

A view from the Beagle Channel shoreline

BACK to BUENOS AIRES: At the end of the world and the end of our three parks tour, we headed back to Buenos Aires to wrap up this amazing adventure! Here we had our final dinner together...