El Chalten, Argentina

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Like El Calafate, El Chalten is another Patagonian town that visitors are attracted to by its scenery. Near to the town is the Fitz Roy mountain range, which can be seen from the main street. It is not hard to see far from the town as it is tiny and only has about four streets running parallel to its main street. The town consists mainly of hotels, hostels and campsites; with the odd restaurant and cafe thrown in.

El Chalten sits within the National Parque de las Glaciers, just like the glacier Perito Moreno, and therefore offers a lot of outdoor activities. I went on a day hike to Cerro Torres, which is one of the mountains in the range. We didn´t actually climb on the mountain but instead walked on the glacier in front of it. This involve fitting spikes to my boots again and even doing some climbing using ropes.

The view from the area was worth the 30 km of hiking needed to get to and from the glacier. It is surreal to look out and see icy hills suddenly stop at a lake and be followed by small, dry, dusty grass hills and, after these, larger hills. In the other direction you get a spectacular view of the jagged rocky mountains that resemble something from the Lord of the Rings set.

As said, the walk was 30 km and it took over 13 hours to get there, trek on the ice and return. Needless to say I was extremely hungry on return and I marched straight off the trail without stopping and into the first restaurant, saying "steak please"! Steak has become a big feature of my time here in Argentina as it must be the tastiest and best value for money in the world.

I only had one full day in El Chalten; so this is quite a short blog. I am now in Bariloche, which will be my next entry in a few days.

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Comments

[Hadley]

Aye, bit gutted I didn't get to go to Arg! There was an Argentinian couple in my group for the Inca trail, they said Argentina had the best steaks in the world! You're kinda proving that now!