Border Crossing & Things to do in El Chaltén, Argentina (Patagonia Expedition #05)

In the 5th episode of the Patagonia Expedition we are doing the 2 day border crossing from Villa O’Higgins to El Chalten and explore the best Things to do in El Chalten.
My Guide for Argentina:
Kristins Article:
--- equipment used to produce this video ---
Cam1:Sony A7 II
Cam2: Sony NEX 5
Cam3: GoPro
Drone: Phantom 3 Pro
Drone Backpack: Manfrotto D1
Amazon Tripod
Joby Gorillapod
Audio Recorder: Zoom H2n
SDHC Memory Card
Waterproof Memory Card Case
Backpack Osprey Farpoint 40
The Carretera Austral is a 1200km long road in the south of Chile which connects the most remote areas of the country. The ruta 7 is a paradise for adventure seekers as it is a mostly unpaved road which brings you to the lesser known parts of Patagonia in the stunning Los Lagos and Aysen Region.
Our plan was to get from Puerto Montt till Villa O’Higgins by thumb to get in touch with locals and fellow adventurers along the way. After finishing this adventure in the last episode we wanted to get to El Chaltén in Argentina with a visit to the O’Higgins Glacier and an overnight stay at the Farm Candelario Mancilla.
To do the border crossing from Villa O’Higgins to El Chaltén one first needs to take a boat to cross the O’Higgins lake and get to Candelario Mancilla on the other side. We opted in for the additional boat excursion to see the O’Higgins Glacier and have some whisky with ice from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
The next stretch we needed to hike for 22km to Laguna del Desierto where we took another boat to cross over to the southern shore where we spend the night camping before hitchhiking the remaining 37km to El Chaltén.
El Chaltén is the trekking capital of Argentina and one of the best spots for hiking and climbing in Patagonia. From the several hiking options in this area we chose the popular hike to Cerro Torre and Laguna Torre first before hiking to Fitz Roy and Laguna de los tres on another dayhike.
This part of the trip was executed within 1week by using altogether 2 boat, 1 bus and one car - following I list all the places we visited & Things to do in el Chalten:
- O'Higgins Glacier / Bernardo O’Higgins National Park
- Southern Patagonian Ice Field
- Candelario Mancilla
- Villa O'Higgins
- O’Higgins Lake / Lago O’Higgins or Lago San Martin
- Cerro Torre and Laguna Torre
- Monte Fitz Roy and Laguna de los tres / laguna sucia
- Lago del Desierto
- El Chalten
Boat company at Lago O’Higgins (transfer Candelario Mancilla & O’Higgins Glacier):
I'm excited to share all our experiences in Patagonia over the course of the next 6 weeks with you. In the next episode we will hike the Huemul Circuit in El Chalten, Argentina and meet impressive characters along the way.
The Patagonian Expedition is a 95% self funded video documentary project following my trip in 2012/2013. Our aim is to show you the beauty of the rather unknown parts in Patagonia alongside with the famous spots.
Beside beautiful landscape you can expect loads of information and our personal experiences and struggles along the way.
--- my travel equipment ---
insurance
packing list
Online Language Course
The whole trip was executed over the course of 2 months using mostly local transport such as busses, cars and trucks. A big thank you goes to Lufthansa for providing the flights into and out of South America in their new Premium Economy Class!
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