We just spent 9 days in El Chalten and hiked most of the trails around Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. The weather is highly variable, switching from sun to rain fairly fast. The wind has been pretty bad also. We are in Calafate today and take the 8 am bus tomorrow to cross into Chile and will hopefully be in Torres del Paine National Park soon. We are doing a 10 day backpack around the mountains and then have some extra time before we head back to Buenos Aires where all our mountaineering stuff is. Then it is to Mendoza. Hopefully we will start up the mountain around Feb. 21 which is when the low season starts. We have been seeing wild parrots everywhere from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, as well as magellanic woodpeckers, kingfishers, peruvian meadowlarks (bright red), llamas (domestic and wild), stray dogs, the sunrise on Fitz Roy, a nice Irish couple, and lots of sweet pastries...but still no penguins.