Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 14

Day 652 (10.01.09) Having arrived late the night before we hadn't really been able to see what El Chalten was like but when we ventured out after a lie-in this morning we were to be impressed with the beautiful surrounding scenery. Set in a valley next to a milky green river and beneath some incredibly imposing jagged mountain peaks the village has the potential to be superb but falls a little short as, even though its a fairly recently purpose built place, it doesn't seem to have had the benefit of town planners. The buildings which make up the village (mostly accomodation and a few shops and restaurants) sprawl out around the main road so it has no real atmosphere. We decided to go for a short walk to the Churillo del Salto, a waterfall an ... read more

I have finally left the confinements of the big city. woke up at 4am in Buenos Aires to head to the airport to El Calafate. I then booked a bus to head to El Chalten, Patagonia, to begin my first day of hiking tomorrow. It has been a long day of traveling but all went well and i was able to find a hostel here in El Chalten, even though it was expensive.... still less than 20us for a night. and as a bonus it inlcudes a towel, this is the first to provide a towel, the second hostel to provide toilet paper as the first hostel did not... ha ha.. what do you expect for 10us a night... It is very windy here but upon entering the area we were forced to stop and listen ... read more

Nun waren wir also in El Chalten angekommen. Die erste dumme Ueberraschung - es gibt keine Bank und keinen Geldautomaten. Also mussten wir leider immer etwas mehr fuer Dinge bezahlen, da mit Kreditkarte alles teurer ist. Die zweite Ueberraschung - Argentinien ist so oder so verdammt teuer (teurer als Chile zur Zeit). Aber, wir genossen die Zeit trotzdem in allen Zuegen. Bei strahlendem Wetter machten wir eine 8-stuendige Tagestour zum Fuss des Cerro Torre. Was fuer ein genialer Berg. Nicht wahnsinnig hoch, aber wahnsinnig schoen. Dann marschierten wir noch fuer 2 Tage in die Region des Fitz Roy. Um den guten Kerl bei Sonnenaufgang zu sehen, standen wir um 4 Uhr morgens auf und kletterten mutterseelenalleine mit unseren Taschenlampen auf einen Aussichtspunkt. Wie Ihr sehen koennt, hat sich die Muehe gelohnt. Ein weinendes Auge bleibt uns. ... read more

The trekking capital of the country! So - we do what everybody does around here: hike and climb and look for Condors! Dreamland for Jan Willem actually - the climbing part! First day in the Glaciers NP we went on a hike to the Lago Torre - floating ice in the lake hint a temperature around here: icy! But the sun makes up for it. It took us around 2-3h to hike until there through really all kinds of landscapes: forest, valleys, along the river, through the bushes... really nice. On our way we did spot a Condor, though very far away... We also saw Woody the woodpecker! But he wouldn't come out of his nest. Shy little fellow. On the second day we did couple of shorter hikes. One of which to Mirador de Condores ... read more

fotos van El chalten : Fitz Roy en Cerro Torre photos of El Chalten : Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre... read more