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Published: December 21st 2012
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El Chalten is a mere two hours drive north of El Calafate. It’s a 220km away on a nice paved road as we have to go around Lago Argentino. El Chalten is a new town, dating back to 1985 and erected by the Argentinian for a sole border claim with Chile. If you didn’t know, border issues in the region are still pretty hot, let it be with Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and even Peru…pretty often, for 200 years old issues!
There is only one fame to El Chalten today, and this is to be the trekking capital of Patagonia. Just behind the little town is the Cerro Torre and the Fitz Roy mountains….so it’s not only trekking, it’s also a serious mountain climbers paradise. The Fitz Roy is over 3400 meters, and a pretty serious climb…well….if you’ve got the right weather. We were welcomed by a sunny day. Next one would be great too…but on our third day, while we had only few minutes of light rain, the clouds were pretty low.
The little place seems to have been invaded by young Israelis who just completed their military service. In our hostal, it’s minimum 70%
of the guests…young, fit trekkers who leave pretty early morning and come back only pretty late.
Not a lot to find here, and for sure not a foodie paradise. The place is small, it’s just a base to head to the hills. There is a single petrol station, while a liter of super was 4.5pesos in El Calafate, it’s 7 pesos here! Just forget about a proper internet connection too…and once the young Israelis trekkers are back, with their little toys… internet simply crashes!
Trekking…shall we not more elegantly call this activity walking…or is it just the hip of giving a name to going up and down little hills of mid-mountain? The advantage you’ll tell me, is that this is fresh air, and it cost nothing!
Leslie is pretty used to long walk, so I was not really concerned there. It was way more an issue for Tiffany. Two years ago, words like adventure, initiative, effort, discipline or even outdoors were not really part of her vocabulary or education. It was rather television, DS, computer and candies. This little girl had never learn to push herself a little…and 2 years ago,
300 meters was a serious walk!
Well, today, I can be proud of my two little dead 12 and 10 years old kids! I know, their legs and feet hurt!
We arrived for a lunch of empanadas, and a quiet afternoon in order to organize our grand action plan of two days of “trekking”…we were going to defeat the mountain….and for Tiffany…to go way further than she never thought she could!
First morning, nice breakfast and we were ready to reach Laguna Torre, at the foot of the Cerro Torre. This is a 23km walk, with an altitude difference of 350 meters from bottom to top. Not a challenge for me, but something for a little girl of 10 years old. They made it…with a huge smile…a sunny day…and not much complaining. Bear in mind, we did it in 6 hours, including lunch break, which is way faster than a lot of adults we passed during the day. Well done guys! And for dinner, they deserved another nice patagonian lamb plate…plus few chorizos!
Next morning, the clouds were low…we had light rain for few minutes…and the temperature had
drop to the 8-11 degrees range. Hats stay behind us, proper camera too…today, we were doing the walk from El Chalten to Poincenot. It’s a good 19km return, another change of altitude of around 350 meters….and another good 5 hours and a half walking. We could have done more, but the little legs of Tiffany and Leslie would not have survived. They had a good 11 hours sleep that last night, but even! We could have gone up 400 meters higher to Lago Tres….but that woulnd’t have done it!
I won’t tell you the second day was all smiles. Tiffany found it tuff to reach Poincenot , but she did it. Just look at the pictures, the last ones are those of the return from Poincenot, when the young legs hurt…the smiles disappear! But they did, they push themselves, and made it in just over 5 hours.
Kids from the cities…electronics is what their daily life expectations are…not going bush or forest walking…so the good news, we still have the holidays to do it…and this is for sure not the last long country walk of these holidays! Two days and 42km were enough for
now. It’s already time to head back north…direction Bariloche for now…and further…Christmas is coming…in Argentina…on the beach!
So we are coming back soon with more adventures….did I tell you I’m a happy Dad…even if I would have loved to walk (“trek”) a little higher!
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