The most expensive place in Argentina?

So after the long bus ride from Puerto Madryn (watched The Cinderella Man which was excellent although apparently not supposed to be in black and white...dodgy pirate disc perhaps?) we finally arrived in El Calafate at about 5pm on Monday 10th to find that the hostel we wanted to stay in was full. As one of our little travelling family was on a tight timeline being near the end of his trip, we decided to get on another bus (just can´t get enough of ém!) and go straight to El Chalten 4 hours away where we wanted to do some hiking. We got a deal including a night in a hotel- 3* which was a real luxury after hostels- I fell in love with my bed, in a double room not a dorm- getting up to hike the next morning was painful! Nevertheless we did a good 3 hour walk up to a glacier on Cerro Torre- was pretty cold and windy up there but beautiful in a bleak kind of way.
ElChalten is a bizarre town, in the middle of nowhere quite literally! Apparently there are only 300permanent inhabitants, number swell massivly in sumer with the influx of climbers, hikers and the seasonal workers. The roads are dusy dirt tracks and the houses a hotchpotch of wood, brick and bright painted boards and corrugated metal. As its still not the high season, half the town is closed and the place has a deserted air. The wind blows pretty much consistently and its a cold one, the only thing missing is a few tumbleweeds rollong down the street!!!! As you may have gathered its not my favourite place!!! Also as the title indicates it bloody expensive- everything has to be brought in by truck and all the comms are viasatellite so the internet costs AR$12 an hour, min time 30 mins- more expensie that the UK!!! AR$6 for a hot chocolate was a bit of a blow too!!! On Wednesday the howling wind and the warmth of bed conspired to keep us from hiking and we spent the day between the supermarket, panaderia (bakery) and the hotel TV lounge- Finding Nemo went down very well :-) Back on the bus to El Calafate last night and got beds in the America del Sur hostel- AR$30 (UKP6) a night- more than double what I paid in Salta- but a lovely place with great views over Lago Argentina. We bumped into a couple of people from Bariloche here- Brid from Ireland and Rupert from Austria and ended up in apub called the Grouse(?) playing ´Circle of death´- playing cards and pints of Warsteiner heavily involved- need I say more!!
Today we got up early (ouch) and went to the Perito Moreno Glacier. One of the few advancing glaciers in the world it is increasing by about 7cm each Winter. It is an awesome sight with streaks of blue running through the white. The glacier is constantly battling the lake into which it flows and every few minutes you can here the cracking sound as the ice splits and fragments fall into the lake forming icebergs. When a big chunk falls as it did when we were there, the splash and the waves are huge!! We were lucky with a beautiful sunny day so I got some cool photos- I will add some to this blog at some point when I get them off my camera. We chilled out for a couple of hours on beach on the lake until the bus back to El Calafate- sat there thinking how lucky I am to be here doing this and to have met such great people- hope it continues thus!!!
Cooked a big pasta for the gang back at the hostel and resisted the call to the pub again (vanity- face healing well by the way). Tomorrow we will leave for Ushaia- 5 of us are heading there together doing the first leg by car to Rio Gallegos. Its a very small Seat hire car and we are 5 people with 5 big rucksacks so its going to be an interesting 300+km!!

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