Part 1: Argentina

Parque Nacional los Glaciares

This National Park was created in 1938 and declared a World Heritage Site in 1981. Its 726’900 hectares host 356 glaciers that cover a total ice surface of 2’600 km2. The beauty of lakes and mountains  combine with spectacular glaciers to shape a divine landscape. A photographers paradise you might say. So lets go see.

Hougaard Malan is the best landscape photographer I know. I’ve travelled with quite a few photographers, and each and every one taught me something, but from Hougaard I learnt most. So when he asked us if we wanted to come to Patagonia for 2 weeks in April, and gave us just about 2 days to think it over, it took us 2 minutes to say: yes please !

Tue 16: to El Calafate

We start off at the Jorge Newberry Airport  in Buenos Aires where we meet the group, we knew nobody but we recognized them instantly by their f-stop backpacks. So we all board the 3 hour flight to El Calafate, the guy even gives us the exit seats, without asking ! This is a brilliant start. In El Calafate we are met by Hougaard, and told we have the afternoon off due to overcast weather at the glacier, no photoshoot today.

We walk around the town, which is a bit of a mix between New Zealand and Canada, lots of tourist shops, restaurants, coffee shops and bars, so what better to do…we have a beer at a local pub. 

Wed 17: Perito Moreno Glacier

We leave at 7:00 sharp for the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is the largest in the park and the most accessible one. The walls are between 30 and 60m high, it has a 5km front and it stretches over 195 km2. We arrive much too early, so we wait 30 min at the gate, but that was the point, we are the first in the park. The sky turns red and the mountaintops glow pink in the first light, please go faster Sergio (our driver for the whole trip). Finally we get there and rush down the boardwalk to the first balcony or viewpoint. It is so beautiful ! Today is pano day, so set up your tripod, and click-click-click we go. 

After a while I head down to the 2nd balcony which is closer to the glacier, very nice, a bit further to the right is a cool spot as well. There are miles and miles of boardwalk, just find the best angle. The wind picks up and we are glad we put on so many layers, it’s bloody freezing.

We head back again, up another 150 steps or so, boy this is fitness training at its best. And all that with a 12 kilo backpack ! We do dozens of panos till at somer point I’ve had it, there’s only so many panos you can do, and the options or angles are not very different, our only hope is changing light. After 4 hours I’ve definitely had enough different of light as well. Shit its cold !

Thu 18: to El Chalten

Easy day today, we leave at 10:00 for El Chalten and he Fitz Roy peaks up north. The scenery is lovely, the lakes are extremely blue and the snowcapped mountains in the back look stunning. We see our first guanacos and stop to photograph condors, the latter don’t seem to fly where we want them too (in front of the snowy peaks that would be), so we move on and reach El Chalten after about 3 hours of driving. 

We are ready to do our first 2 photoshoots, the waterfall, where just about every tourist goes, and a scenic bend in the ice-cold river for sunset.  The waterfall is 300m from the parking lot and the scenery is stunning, which is an understatement to say the least. It is called Chorrillo del Salto. I don’t know what I like better, the waterfall itself or the forest around it which is a true color  explosion, red-orange-green-yellow, and about 10 shades of each ! We scramble through the bushes trying to find the best spot, this is so cool ! 

From there we go to a spot about 5 km before the town, where we climb over a fence to a scenic bend in the river, which of course leads directly to the peaks of  Cerro Torre. It is very overcast, but some rays of light come through so we give it a go. We almost get blown away, it is once again freezing cold. The light is so good that Hougaard, who expected little or nothing of this shoot and left his camera behind, even returns to the bus to get his camera. After that a lovely dinner with a few bottles of good wine, a Malbec of course, to end off an eventful day.

Fri 19: Cloudy day

The weather forecast says overcast so we do the bend in the river once more. That isn’t too brilliant, the clouds are much too low, so we do a bend in the road, only Michael and Jürg go for the river shot. Turns out once there was a little light, that was the better  choice, but they almost got blown away and the road shot was okay as well. 

At 17:00 we leave for the little waterfall once again. After checking our shots from yesterday we now know what to do better, what to change. This place is so brilliant ! Cecilia, our guide tells us we are very lucky. Only 4-5 days ago all the trees were still just green and yellow, we’ve picked the absolute perfect time.

Sat 20: Laguna Torre hike

The alarm goes off at 02:45, just get dressed and go. After the briefing we start our hike to Laguna Torre at 03:15. Cecilia sets a perfectly slow pace so we reach the first viewpoint after 1 hour, not much to see in the dark but time for a short rest and some water. It’s just after full moon, so we hardly need our headlamps. We take about 3,5 hours to get there and set up at the river leading out of Lago Torre. You can camp here, but we are the only mad ones that hiked up at this crazy hour, but it was worth it, we got the best spot ! So we stand in the riverbed and freeze our butts off once again. Hougaard said it was an 8/10 shot, so really pretty good. 

So lets head back to town, the scenery, now that we have light, is sensational. Beautiful forests, all the autumn colors you can imagine, gorgeous views towards the peaks and best of all, good company. 

Back at the hotel at around 15:00, first get rid of the bloody heavy backpack, then the shoes, aaahhh ! Then a cold beer, yes please !  We did about 25km today, total hight gain of 490m, of which the main part was the first 300m in the first hour, to get over the ridge, after that it was just a little up and down. No night or sunset shoot since there are no clouds at all and nobody is over eager after the long hike.

Sun 21: Lago Capri hike

The alarm goes off at 04:30, lets get going. At least its a lot later than yesterday and the boots are still warm…. Again we hike in the dark with some help from the moon and our headlamps. The first 300m we do in the first 45 min, after that it’s not to bad. We travel through a forest, which we will enjoy on the way back. Sometimes it is rocky, then we are on boards crossing a little stream, or in the mud, but mostly it is a good trail. There is a loop road to the waterfall and we take the slightly longer route which doesn’t go by the campsite to avoid waking potential other photographers.  When we get there we know why, we are perched on 10m2 of rock, a big drop after that. We, that is our group of 7 plus 20 others… ! Sort of like a group of baboons on a rock. 

The waterfall is splendid and once we get a spot we stay put in fear of losing it, as do all others. Except maybe for one or two assholes which walk around all the time, get in everybody’s frame and annoy all others. At first the moon lights up the scene, once the sun rises we see all the beautiful autumn colors around it, it is divine. Which, by the way, is Michaels favorite word 🙂

We return to town and have lunch at B&B, which here stands for Beer and Burgers ! And it was super, the best lunch on the trip ! The fries were freshly made, from real potatoes, and just right. The burger was very tasty as well. Beer is always good.

To be continued…(soon)

for our favourite photos go to galery