Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 11

El Chalten a tiny little town on the edge of the Glacial National Park set up for trekking. You can walk out of the town and into the mountains in little or no time. We did 2 treks, to Fitz Roy and to Laguna Torre, both about 25km. The landscape is awesome but the town itself is not much to write home about. Still the views more than make up for this. We stayed in Rancho Grande and then Patagonia hostel, the latter more our style.... read more

I'd hoped to sleep a little on the transfer, but the excitement had been a little too much to bear - my ticket said 8:55, in Buenos Aires they told me 9:55, my boarding pass said 10:55, and because it was aerolineas, we took off at 11:55! Anyway, I reached el Calafate at about 8pm, and was driven to a very plush hotel.. Where the german guys got out, and we were driven through a disused airfield to the hostel! Bit of a let down. Nevermind, dinner was included, a huge parilla with a good view of the lake. Another early start and I met the rest of the tour group; an austrian couple, a portuguese couple, 2 germans and 3 spaniards, and a second group of older canadians. We hopped into a coach and were ... read more

Apres avoir vu le glacier dans toute sa splendeur, nous etions gonfle a bloc pour aller marcher quelques jours dans le parc national...mais c'est comme si les elements s'etaient ligue contre nous. Jeudi soir, nous sommes passe par le centre d'information pour demander les horaires de bus en direction d'El Chalten et on nous a dit qu'un bus partait a 13h le lendemain, on a donc decide de passer une bonne nuit et de faire une petite grasse matinee. Le lendemain, une fois les courses faites, nous sommes alle au terminal pour apprendre que le bus de 13h ne partirai pas avant debut novembre...genial. c'est donc en taxi que nous avons du rejoindre El Chalten. Plus cher evidement, mais on allait pas rester la a ne rien faire. Une fois sur place, visite obligee au poste ... read more

So after marching me aournd the mountains for 5 days Ed then put me on a bus for the entire day, we eventually arrived into El Chalten at 10pm. I went srtaight to be bed while ed worked out what other mountains he could climb in the area. The first day we both took it farily easy, ed went for a cycle and I read my book. The second day we got ourselves together and headed up to see Mount Fitzroy, the main attraction of the area. Unfortunately pretty much just as we started out it started to rain. By the time we got to the camp at the bottom of the mountain it was pissing out of the heavens so I turned back and headed for the village, we could see nothing of the mountain. ... read more

Our legs are sore. Very sore. We have just completed a trek about 30km’s long, that went up and down the whole time. Our walking for the next while is over. In El Chalten we have walked a combined total of 140km’s over three days. Throw in a few mountains peaks and rather large hills and what you end up with is pain and exhaustion. We are not seasoned trekkers or by any means fit so what we’ve completed is an achievement. Michelle said she is rather sick of achievements and would like to be un-ambitious for the next few days. I agree. We had been promised good weather for the day and by god did it turn out that way. Blue skies and barely a cloud to be seen. It was cold out but when ... read more