<p style="text-align: left;">Today is the first day of 2021. I think it's an understatement to say 2020 was hard for each of us! This photo album is for the second half of the trip to Patagonia in December 2019. I finally had the time to finish it during the holiday season. Let's hope in 2021 we will be able to pack up our bags and travel again! </p> <p>Chile - Customs Office</p> Argentina - Customs Office <p>We had to use Google Translate and talk to other travelers to figure out how the order of going through various queques. <br></p> <p>Amazing young ladies - the one in blue jacket rode bike with her boy friend all the way from California; the one with backpack came from Brazil and had been hitchhiking for 6 months. She told us that she planned to bike from Brazil to Alaska in 2020 - hope she made it!</p> <p>The gears of the blue jacket lady and her husband. Patagonia is notorious for its unpredictable weather and crazy wind, one can only image what it takes to bike through in bad weather!</p> <p>Two more road warriors we later encountered - this guy gentlemanly took off his hat. It was only when I got home and processed this picture in Photoshop that I saw the hat was badly worn out, a sign that it must have endured brutal elements on the road. </p> Hello road warrior! Colourful stickies from all over the world in the Argentina Customs Office. This is where we were going - Santa Cruz province Here we come Argentina! We stopped at this hotel for gas and first lunch in Argentina - thanks to an excellent advice from our host Anna in Punta Arenas of Chile. Our first stop El Calafate<br> Statue of Don Bosco who was a Italian Roman Catholic priest in the 19th century. Rare sign in English - must be catering to tourists. Many dogs roaming on the streets - they were well behaved and clean, must be looked after well. There is a conservation area in the outskirt of El Calafate Chilean Flamingos - Flying high Upland Geese I'm coming! I'm coming too! Where is s/he going? Daily standup Sorry...got to go! Get out of the runway! What's going on there? Who cares... I do! The Lesser Rhea - also known as Darwin's Rhea Has anyone seen a yoga post by a fox? Los Glaciares National Park (Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) - we took a half day cruise touring the Upsala and Bertracchi Glaciers and a couple of small ones.<br> Stunning blue icebergs There are 356 glaciers in the national park! The well known ones include Perito Moreno on which you can join the guided hike on ice, as well as Upsala and Spegazzini Glaciers that you can only see on a boat. Among the well known glaciers, we have seen Athabasca in Canadian's Rocky Mountain, Vatnajokull in Iceland, and Hubbard in Alaska. Each time words could not describe the awe and amaze these magnificent views struck in us. Hope mankind can work together to protect the environment and these majestic views can be enjoyed by many generations to come! Leaving the beautiful Lake Argentina, we headed north towards the trekkers' heaven El Chalten.<br><br> Wild flowers on the road led us to our next destination. Another encountering with an amazing couple - this 60+ Australian couple had been touring on bikes for 5 months, they started from Ecuador clocking 100km a day. Cerro Fitz Roy - here we come! <div>El Chalten was established in 1985. Chaltén is a term of the Aonikenk language by which the ancient Tehuelches named this mountain they considered sacred. It means "Smoky Mountain". <br></div> We rented an apartment here, the owner was a young man who spoke very good English - a rare treat for us. Supermarket Panorama view of El Chalten with Fitz Roy in the background. We took the 22 km Laguna Torre trails as our main hike. The trail was well maintained with sign posts along the way. Laguna Torre as at a base of a glacier. <p>On top of the world - she was an Argentinian Pilate teacher. Her companion was a German engineer who took 20+ hours long flights to come and see her. I snapped this shot while he was taking a picture of her. I emailed her this photo after I came back to Canada - she was very happy!</p> The Gang of Four - thank you my travel companions! One more look The next day we decided to take a portion of another famous trail Laguna de los Tres. Cerro Fitz Roy was in our view along the way. Laguna Capri This was as close as we got to Cerro Fitz Roy - hope we can come back one day to finish the final stretch! My friend recommended this restaurant in El Chalten - obviously the owner was a soccer/football fan. The beef steak was really good! Our visit to the Police Station - my husband didn't see the motor bikes parked behind us and inadvertently struck one of them when he backed out. At the policy station, none of the handsome policemen spoke English. So Google Translate came to rescue one more time! The conversations took place silently with numerous exchanges of the phone. It's mandatory to have insurance with car rental in Argentine. In the end everything got sorted out - my husband got a report in Spanish with Google translated English version. Another unforgettable moment that we can reminisce later on. Time to say goodbye.... Some more photos on the trip - hope we can go back in a not so distant future to finish the Laguna de los Tres trail and explore more! Cerro Fitz Roy in the morning glory Cerro Fitz Roy in blue hours Stunning Beauty <p>My related articles:</p><p><a href="https://www.meipian.cn/2xtl29jv" target="_blank"><i class="iconfont icon-iconfontlink"> </i>2019 PATAGONIA - CHILE</a></p>