Route 40 - El Chalten to El Calafate

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Had a great couple of days in Bariloche. Sunbathed & swam in lake & also walked Tronador for views of glacier - very hot day but well worth it. Then spent 2 days on a bus along Route 40. Don't book a tour with Chalten Travel - total nightmare!! It was sold to us as a tour & we were promised a tour guide with commentary, stops along the way and it's supposed to be very scenic. What we actually got was a cramped bus that resembled a sauna as no aircon. Not great considering you're stuck on it for 12 hours in 30+ degrees heat. We did have a breakfast stop at a garage which was fine but lunch stop was literally in the middle of nowhere along a dusty road. Luckily we'd brought plenty of food with us as the "restaurant" looked dire. There was a bread shop though. Things became so unbearable on the bus that they stopped by a river so that we could get out & have a paddle. This helped temporarily. Our overnight stop was in Perito Merino as some dingy hotel. The town was souless but its one redeeming feature was a great pizza place which was also very cheap. We got up early the next morning to do an optional excursion to Cuevas de los Manos (cave of hands). Great trip & meant we had less time on a steaming bus. We had a short trek to the cave & saw handprints & drawings of animals that were 9000 years old. Also the scenery was stunning. Our minibus had windows that opened & we were given sweets on the journey - all in all great service. Unfortunately this was soon forgotten when we met the Chalten Travel bus to continue our Route 40 epic journey. Day 2 we had a different bus which was even worse than previous day - not that we thought it possible. Even hotter, more cramped & we met it by some shack in middle of nowhere. I just pity the people who'd been on it since 10am - this was their "lunch" stop! Journey was even longer. We had another river stop to cool down & we finally arrived at our destination El Chalten at about 10.30pm. Chalten Travel had arranged accommodation in their own hostel Rancho Grande Hostel - worst place we've stayed. Dorms not particularly great & 1 guy found bugs crawling in his mattress. Kitchen was tiny & not suitable for such a huge hostel & you had to go to the bar to ask for pots, pans, plates, crockery, stove lighter - in fact everything! We regretted asking tour company to book us a second night here!


Laguna de los Tres Hike - this was truly amazing with breathtaking scenery. I've decided that Patagonia is the most stunning place on earth. Route 40 was soon forgotten after walking 10 hours with fantastic view of Fitzroy glacier. The steep climb up was well worth the effort & we were rewarded with a great place to stop for lunch with panoramic views. A very long & tiring day but I wouldn´t have missed it for the world. You just walk out the back of town & you're in the park & the best thing is there's no entry fee! Also a good sheltered campsite near a river.

El Calafate Perito Merino Glacier - bit of aletdown after yesterday's walk!! Worth a visit but wish we'd found someone to share a taxi with as the bus leaves you there for 5 hours which is way too long. It's worth a couple of hours to look at glacier & watch pieces of it fall away but there's no hiking trail & some of the paths were closed off. We didn't leave there till 8.15pm & by then we were freezing cold & we didn't get back into town till 10pm!!

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