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El Chaltén

Posted by Mark Sullivan on February 18, 2026

Posted in: Argentina, South America. 2 comments

Fitz Roy is the king of the many mountain peaks that make up the Fitz Roy massif, towering over the town of El Chaltén. We were fortunate to get rare clear skies overhead the first couple days.

Fifteen years ago we spent six days at a lodge called Explora in Chilean Patagonia. We’ve described it ever since as one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been — and one of the best travel experiences overall. Patagonia is a dreamscape of rugged Andean mountains and bright blue glacier-fed rivers and lakes. And Explora offered a great combination of challenging day-time adventures, highly comfortable lodging, and great food.

Now that we’re at the very bottom of the South American continent anyhow, we decided to check out the Argentine side of Patagonia — and another Explora lodge. So we booked six nights at Explora El Chaltén, which sits at the base of the most iconic mountain peaks in Argentina. These are the very peaks depicted in the logo for Patagonia sportswear, in case you were wondering.

Our lunch spot the first day of hiking

El Chaltén itself is a village, founded in 1985, inside Los Glacieres National Park. It’s considered the trekking capital of Argentina and sits at the base of the dramatic Fitz Roy massif, a group of towering granite peaks, the tallest of which is Mount Fitz Roy.

From Ushuaia we caught a flight of a little over an hour, north and west, to El Calafate, followed by a 2 hour drive to El Chaltén, and then another grueling hour up a rough road to the lodge. That was the plan anyway, but for a little snag. As we awaited our bags at the airport in El Calafate, they took forever. The crowd started thinning out. Finally Jim’s bag came out. And then his second. (Yes, we are each traveling with two bags, something we’ve virtually never done before. But we have to have clothes for hot summer in Buenos Aires, possible extreme cold in Antarctica, and a few dressy nights on the ship.)

Then the moment of dread. The belt stops. Every single other person has trickled out. Every bag has been delivered except for my two. I’m supposed to start 5 days of hiking tomorrow in temperatures just above freezing, in a very remote area, and I have no clothes, no equipment, no shoes except what I’m wearing.

To my surprise, an airline rep pretty quickly determined that my bags were still back in Ushuaia, and that another flight could bring them up later that evening. The airline would send them on a bus to El Chaltén — but not the additional hellish hour up the mountain to our lodge. So we journeyed to the lodge without my bags, where the extremely helpful staff monitored the situation.

Eventually they announced that there was good news and bad. My bag had arrived in El Calafate, but the flight was late. The bus would get to El Chaltén around 11 pm, and I’d be required to meet it in person with my passport to take receipt of the bags. The wonderful staff person would accompany me — and provide a car and a driver. But I had to do that treacherous drive there and back late at night if I wanted to have my stuff to hike tomorrow.

Navigating the Rio de las Vueltas

I dreaded that trip, but it had to be done. As I gathered my passport and the luggage tags and lost bag report, I noticed something peculiar. Apparently, they’d put the wrong tags on our bags, so that my two lost bags had Jim’s tags on them. And the lost luggage report was in his name. So poor Jim had to go in person to claim the bags. He did so without complaint and got back on those hellish roads well after midnight. I was fast asleep.

So our five days were packed with hikes, usually followed by a soak in one of the outdoor hot tubs to soothe the sore legs. And the evenings meant mingling with interesting fellow adventure seekers over beautiful food and Argentine Malbec. As always at Explora, we’ve greatly enjoyed the company of both our fellow travelers and the highly competent guides and staff at this exceptional lodge.
We also did a rafting trip one day in a vehicle I’ve never seen before — a packraft. It’s inflatable, like a raft, but it’s shaped more like a kayak.

Tomorrow we will give our sore bodies a break and catch a flight back to Buenos Aires. We’ll spend a couple days there at a hotel with a nice pool before catching our flight back home. It’s been a month of great adventure — and finally checking off that seventh continent.

We were blessed with mostly fantastic hiking weather

Perfect hiking weather, sights, and conditions

Lago de Capri was named by Italian explorers, like many things in this area

Above Laguna Azul, the Blue Lagoon

Early explorers thought Fitz Roy was a volcano because it so often has a lone cloud clinging to the top

Hiking through lakeside forest

Hiking along these glacier-fed rivers, it’s so easy to fill your water bottle with the cleanest, coldest, tastiest water ever

We greatly enjoyed the company of Marjaneh and Jeff from San Francisco

Came across a family of woodpeckers doing their thing

Here I am with Stefanie (also from San Francisco), geared up in dry suits for the packrafting. If you were to fall into that water, barely above freezing, you’d be in serious trouble unless you stayed dry.

Our guides Cecilia and Diego lead the way on our rafting adventure. They only discovered during this ride that they were both former professional tango dancers lamenting that there was nobody to dance with here in El Chaltén!

We stopped for snacks after the raft trip, and Diego proved to be a truly full-service guide, here regaling us with a classic tango number

Our packrafting adventure ended at this scenic bridge

Our last hike took us to Laguna del Diablo. It’s clear now, but the weather would be all over the map soon enough — wind, rain, clouds, then clear and still again

The hike to Laguna del Diablo took us along the Rio del Diablo, often rushing loudly over rocks

On the way to Laguna del Diablo

The intermittent rain and sun kept rewarding us with amazing rainbows

Joaquin was our fun guide on the hike to Laguna del Diablo

Note the glacier up high that feeds this lake

The rainbow was so persistent this morning

One last Jim and one last rainbow!

Antarctica

Posted by Mark Sullivan on February 7, 2026

Posted in: Antarctica. Leave a Comment

Finally made it to our seventh continent!

After sailing for 2-1/2 days southwest from South Georgia we found ourselves surrounded by the glorious sights of the White Continent. And now we’ve spent the first 2 out of 4 days drifting between the Antarctic peninsula and the countless islands and icebergs just offshore. The scenery is stunning in every direction.

We’ve so far disembarked three times — twice for up close zodiac tours and once for a hike on land. We’ve been very lucky to have extraordinary weather. It’s been consistently around 30-32°F and pretty sunny. The water was rough during the crossing from South Georgia, but it’s been beautifully calm since we arrived in Antarctica.

The crew has warned us many times about how unpredictable the conditions can be, and how flexible we need to be in terms of expectations. We’ve heard lots of tales of recent tours where the planned landings have to get scrapped because the weather and the water just aren’t cooperating. But our tour has so far stuck ideally to schedule and plans. And the beautiful weather lets us enjoy our outings without the miseries of bitter cold, wicked winds, or driving rain. So far, at least! Let’s hope we stay this lucky for a couple more days.

A spectacular iceberg, miles wide, with lots of bright blue caves

Our last sunset before arriving in Antarctica

Approaching the continent we passed through an area with hundreds of whales. You could see their spouts in every direction, but I didn’t get any great pictures. But this guy popped his tail up just outside the dining room table.

Our first outing here was a zodiac tour of Astrolabe Island for a close up look at its penguin colonies, rock formations, glaciers, and incredible icebergs

Watching the sights from the zodiac

These stunning icebergs come in an endless variety

Sometimes we see dozens of penguins frolicking in the water, though I can never get a good picture — except for these two

Our second excursion was a zodiac tour of Spert Island, where our expert driver took us through channels filled with icebergs and surrounded by dramatic cliffs

It was thrilling to watch as our zodiac driver dodged around these huge chunks of ice

The iceberg formations on this tour were incredible

And so were the caves!

One more incredible iceberg group

Our third outing landed us a Palaver Point on King George Island, where we could climb through the snow to a lookout over a spectacular inlet

Mark arrives at the lookout point at the end of the hike

Jim at the top of the hiking route

Enjoying the scenery from the top of our hike

Starting the climb back down

Chinstrap penguins at Palaver Point

Our busy second day in Antarctica ended with a polar plunge into the 31ºF Southern Ocean

The initial shock of the freezing water was kind of cool, but then we had to do a short swim to the ladder to get out. There was a current working against us, so that it felt like I’d never get to that ladder. It maybe took 30 seconds to get there, but it was an excruciating 30 seconds!

We’ve had a bit of fun on board as well. We danced the night away with our Aussie friends at a white party. Front row: Lloyd, Guy, Fiona, and me. Behind them: Amanda and the ship’s captain, Fabien Roché

South Georgia

Posted by Mark Sullivan on February 1, 2026

Posted in: South Georgia, United Kingdom. Leave a Comment

Iceberg A23a — until recently the world’s largest iceberg

From the Falkland Islands, we began a long journey mostly eastward to South Georgia island. We spent three full days at sea before reaching this very remote and very rugged corner of the earth. The first two days were pretty uneventful. But on the third day we started to get a taste of what the world is like in the Southern Ocean — especially when we came across Iceberg A23a, a phenomenon of unbelievable scale.

This iceberg broke off from Antarctica in 1986. It was the largest iceberg on earth, with a surface area of 1,500 square miles, about the size of Luxembourg. It weighed a trillion tons. For its first 30 years it settled on the ocean floor near the continent. But in 2020 it freed itself and began moving northward. When it reached the somewhat warmer waters near South Georgia in 2025 it began shrinking and breaking into smaller pieces. These walls are still miles long and stick up 130 feet above the water. And the other 90% remains below the surface. It is mind-boggling to see.

We see lots and lots of icebergs as we approached South Georgia, though none are anything like the scale of A23a

A sunset from our dinner table aboard Le Lyrial

South Georgia — today part of the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands — was first discovered in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, who named it after himself. Captain James Cook was the first to land here, and he renamed it for his king, George III, as Isle of Georgia. For the next century seal hunters frequently came to make their fortunes. And by the early 20th century whaling stations were established. Some 175,000 whales were caught in these waters and brought to processing plants here to extract and export whale oil.

That industry came to an end in the 1960s, only after causing immense damage to the ecosystem of South Georgia — and largely wiping out the whale population. But more recent conservation efforts are a model of success. An eradication program has removed deer, rats, and mice introduced by the whalers. Serious fishing regulation and visitor monitoring have helped restore the native populations of flora, fauna, and marine life. The island is again home to millions of Antarctic fur seals, several hundred thousand King penguins, and tens of millions of native birds. And the whale population is growing healthy again.

So far we’ve spent one day exploring South Georgia, and we’ve got two more days ahead of us. Our first landing was at Salisbury Plain, where we were greeted by huge numbers of fur seals and King penguins. Rain and gloom added to the drama of the landscape but made it rough to take pictures. But eventually the rain let up and made for a much more enjoyable visit. Later that afternoon we went ashore at Fortuna Bay, a beautiful enclosed harbor where the weather was so calm and sunny it was like we were in a radically different place. Everybody had to shed all the layers we were wearing.

We’re got two more days of adventure here in South Georgia, but I’ve got to get these pics posted before they build up too much. You’re going to see a fair number of penguins and seals here, but don’t worry, lots more are coming!