El Chalten

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The guidebook says, "If the sun is out, El Chalten is heaven on earth." My idea of heaven doesn´t include trucks and coaches whipping up dust storms along the gravel high street leaving you with a gritty lining to your mouth, a campsite that we confused for a refugee camp and constant construction works - however we had a wonderful time there with constant sunshine and blue skies for the full 4 days, the dramatic backdrop of the mountains and great overnight walks. We went there to spend a few days communing with the mountains and did some great walks with views of the mountains, glaciers, bright blue lakes and non-refugee style camp sites. The mountain peaks are only visible for 50 days a year and we can bore you with multiple photos of them.

Our first walk from the town was to the ´tumbado´to view Cerro Torre (and a couple of other ´lesser´ torres). Actually as walks go this wasn´t the best we´ve done - it ends in a scree climb of about 500m, which becomes a little tedious after the first 250m. Still it was blissfully unpopulated and at the top we had one of those Condor moments - not a dodgy cigar from the 70´s, but the proper feathered variety - five in all, swooping and soaring above us and off to the magnificent Torres. Probably the best view of the holiday so far (but there have been so many!).

Days 2 and 3 were also spectacular. Much better walking and more superb views. The Laguna de Los Tres, which is another climb of 500m (in baking sun), sits in a hanging valley at the ´base´ of Cerro Fitzroy. With a glacier backdrop, this is getting closer to the ´heaven on earth´ of the guidebooks. We ventured to refil our bottles from the lake and drank the delicious ice-cold water. Marginally before a young lady stripped down to her undies and climbed in. Best not to wonder how many others have done likewise...

The campsite was interesting - a nice quiet spacious wooded area. Or so we thought when we pitched our tent. We got back from the Laguna to find a group of about 10 young Israelis litterally encamped around us. One girl was even sitting on our flysheet!! They were very apologetic, but we decided to decline the intimacy and moved to another pitch. Mad did well to stifle some politically incorrect jokes.

All in all, El Chalten region was a mighty fine destination, which we celebrated with a bottle of vino and some traditional Patagonian lentil stew on our final evening there before the 24 hour bus ride to Esquel, (which we caught at 1am the next morning). Excellente!!

Scores on the doors:
9s from both Mad and Paul. Muy Bueno.

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Photos

El Chalten
Heaven?

Top of the Tumbado
Paul relaxes after a hard days work. Cerro Torre in the distance.

Condor moment
It wouldn´t fly any closer

Tumbado
Another great view, worth dicing with death up the vertical slope of loose rocks

Los Tres (Cerro Fitzroy et al.)
Beautiful blue waters. Fancy a swim?

Comments

[Mum]

great
Sounds wonderful, wish we were there. Good to hear from you last week. Stay safe, don't get bombed by condors. Love Mum