El Chaltén  El Chaltén is a small mountain village in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is located on the riverside of Rio de las Vueltas, within the Los Glaciares National Park (section "Reserva Nacional Zona Viedma") near the base of Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy spires, both popular for climbing. It is 220 km north of El Calafate. It is also a popular base for hiking numerous trails, such as those to the base of surrounding peaks and glacial lakes, such as Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres (near the base of Fitz Roy). For those reasons, El Chaltén was named Argentina's Trekking Capital or Capital Nacional del Trekking. Today the sole reason for its existence is tourism. In 1985, Argentina and Chile had a border dispute to gain and claim rights over El Chalten. There was no war in the end, and El Chalten was awarded to Argentina. Homes, government buildings, and flags of Argentina went up to mark the city settlement. The town is located at the edge of the 12,363 km2 (4,773 sq mi) Southern Patagonian Ice Field and about 350 inhabitants live there throughout all the seasons of the year. Snow and ice mostly fence the town, and the homes are low structured with roads mostly made of rocks and dirt. In October 2014, El Chalten took second place in a ranking of "Best cities in the world to know" of the travel guide Lonely Planet publishing in 2015, being the first city of Argentina. ""Chaltén"" is a Tehuelche word meaning "smoking mountain", as they believe it was a volcano for its peak is most of the time covered by clouds. Other visited tracks and sights are "Torre Glacier", "Laguna Capri", "Piedras Blancas Glacier", "Chorrillo del Salto", and "Laguna de los Tres." In 1877, Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno named mount Chaltén as mount Fitz Roy, in honour of Robert FitzRoy, captain during the Second voyage of HMS Beagle in the 1830s. Mount Chaltén/Fitz Roy makes the town worth visiting because one can seek the impressive peaks from any area. The whole village finds a gorgeous view that keeps expanding due to the tourism and beautiful location. The village provides national park information for visitors, as well as commercial camping (with showers) and a very limited number of beds, catering mostly for backpackers.