While the village of El Calafate wins the title of "south gate of the Los Glaciares national park" - and it's necessary to go here to reach the splendid Perito Moreno glacier - the village of El Chaten is the north gate of the park. A very recent village, built on behalf of the Argentinian government in order to appropriate Patagonian lands at a time the border with Chile wasn't strictly definite. We reach this village with the morning bus in 4 hours. On the way, the scenery has its winter color.

The village of El Chaten boasts about offering a great deal of outdoor activities : trekking, glacier-walking, rock-climbing, cross-country skiing, sledge-riding. In this part of the park, we can admire the fantastic Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The Cerro Torre is one of the hardest peak to climb up, just a handful of international climbers succeed in it each year. For us, it will stay a somptuous spike illuminating our eyes and our photos. In the afternoon, we go nearer to this peak. From a point of view, we stare at it for innumerable minutes.

The approach walk lasts one hour and it's exclusively in the snow. The quality of this park shows the multitude of activities offered by the Patagonia, in summertime just like in wintertime. Nature lovers, somptuous or dangerous, intoxicating or exhausting, this place is made for you.

The next day, we follow another path leading us to a point of view of the Fitz Roy.

Walking back, we enjoy our last "outdoor" pictures of the Patagonian nature. Tonight, we take the bus which drops us off at El Calafate and tomorrow another transportation will bring us to Punta Arenas. End of the Argentinian parentesis but we'll come back.