INFORMATION
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and learn more about different places in Patagonia.
Explore our information section and learn more about different places in Patagonia.
El Chaltén is located in the southern Andes in the southern part of Patagonia within the Los Glaciares National Park. It is located in a valley where the De las Vueltas and Fitz Roy rivers converge in the province of Santa Cruz in the Argentine Republic. The landscape of this region is dominated by the endless plains of the arid steppe, where the two largest lakes in the country meet. To the west the plain collides abruptly with the vertical granite walls of the Andes. Of all the mountain peaks, Cerro Chaltén stands out for its height and unmistakable silhouette, about 3,405 meters high, clearly visible more than 100 km from the plane or the road.
The Chaltén or Fitz Roy hill is the predominant figure of the landscape.
The usual way to travel is to arrive by plane at the El Calafate International Airport and from there by land the last 213 km to El Chalten.
At 316 kilometers from Río Gallegos, capital of the province of Santa Cruz, is the city of El Calafate, which takes its name from the small homonymous shrub typical of southern Patagonia from which its fruit is extracted to make different regional products.
Since the year 2000, the city has El Calafate International Airport, which is located 23 kilometers from the city center and is the destination for direct flights arriving from different cities, including Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Puerto Madryn, Trelew, San Carlos de Bariloche.
El Calafate is today a world destination and an important tourist center that has acquired national and international significance in recent years. Its luxurious hotels and its typical restaurants have managed to position this city as one of the world destinations that deserve to be known.
The breaking of the Perito Moreno glacier, the typical Patagonian lamb that is served in restaurants and the possibility of carrying out the most varied excursions manage to summon thousands of visitors in any season of the year.
Los Glaciares National Park is located in the southwest of the province of Santa Cruz, has an area of 726,927 hectares and was created to preserve an extensive area of continental ice and glaciers, the southern Andean-Patagonian forest and samples of the Patagonian steppe. It is the most extensive of the National System of Argentine Protected Areas.
In 1937, through Decree No. 105,433, the status of Reserves for the subsequent creation of National Parks was established for different territories in Andean Patagonia. One of these territories was the Glacier Reserve. In September 1942, the Presidency of the Nation, by Decree No. 129,433, expanded the coastal margin of the Reserve on the Canal de los Témpanos and the north coast of Lake Rico.
Years later, in April 1945, Decree Law No. 9504, ratified by Law No. 13,895, declared several reserves National Parks, including Los Glaciares Reserve, which, from that moment on, assumed the category of Park National.