El Chalten, Southern Patagonia, Argentina - 26-28 March

El Chalten is in Argentinas most beautiful region, Patagonia. It is a small village where everyone goes to trek the mountains there. The tallest mountain in the Andes (I think) is there... it is called Fitz Roy.. and you can see it as you approach, and everywhere it seems. Fitz Roy is a massive snow capped rocky peak and there are loads of other amazing mountains and glaciers in the national park all around it.

We had a few days there and LOVED IT. We did a few day treks and a small one (only about an hour) close to the village called Los Condores (because you are up there with the condors) which gives you an exceptional view of the village, the huge valley it is in and the mountains all around.

James went on a 14 hour ice trek from El Chalten. I opted for a day of doing the washing and other mundane stuff like downloading photos (and loved it). I will let James tell you about his ice trek if he EVER decides to write anything on our blog, but in case he doesnt.. he absolutely loved it.

There was a fairly large group of people from all over the world who set off together early in the morning. They walked for ages through gorgeous valleys and forested areas, up and down, up and down. After lunch they got to Glaciar Grande, got their crampons on and walked across the glaciar. The brave and danger-loving ones in the group (James of course) did some kind of ice walking uphill where you run up an almost vertical ice cliff pulling on a rope. James was in his element and showing off with the best of them. ;-) He got back in the dark full of beans and excitement after a brilliant day.

The next day we got up early and hiked to Fitz Roy, the biggie. The last hour was the hardest as it was up a really steep hill which was made out of loose rocks and boulders. So we were basically scrambing up, sliding down a bit, and then a bit more scrambling. It was one of those hills that, when you got to the top, there was another 20 metres to go, and so on and so on...!

We did get there, and the view was MAGNIFICIENT. A huge glacial lake at the bottom of Fitz Roy which was milky blue and gorgeous. We pulled up a rock and sat down for some packed lunch. The view was far better than our lunch which consisted of a dry bread roll each and a tin of cheap, cat food tuna dumped in it. :-)

We ran into Alex and Richard (James friends from Yeadon, Leeds who we randomly ran into in El Calafate a few days before. James hadnt seen them for 15 years before that!) again at that lake quite randomly, so we made plans to have dinner with them in town later that night. Which we did, and which was good.

After the Fitz Roy lake we took a short detour around to the left and stuck our heads over a massive cliff about 300m down, and saw another amazing glacial lake... stunning.. and just hiding round the corner. Every turn there was another postcard shot, it was amazing.

How could you not be filled with awe, inspiration, amazement etc etc....??

We could have stayed later in El Chalten. But we had to get off north to Bariloche and the infamous Ruta 40 (see entry!).

** One interesting thing about El Chalten is that is seems to be a town on the verge of a breakout. It clearly used to be a tiny little village in a tiny little valley but now so many people go there as the jump off point for some of the best trekking and best-kept national parkland in South America that it is being primed for expansion. There is some major money being poured in to El Chalten.. I guess from the government? The dirt roads have ALL had major concreting work done around the edges building up guttering and the foundations for some serious, paved roads. There are quite a few restaurants, shops, internets and other services but I reckon those will soon have more competition. I dont think this development will spoil El Chalten... but I would be really interested to go back there in 5 years to see how different it is..!

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