Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 18

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South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 29th 2008

El Chalten erreichen wir nach 5 Stunden Busfahrt auf der berühmt berüchtigten "Ruta 40". Dieser Streckenabschnitt ist allerdings harmlos, da er mittlerweile grösstenteils asphaltiert ist. Ab hier geht's in Richtung Norden mehrere hundert Kilometer über eine ruppige Schotterstrasse. Aber dazu später mehr. Wir erreichen das argentinische Mekka für Bergsteiger und Trekkingtouristen und merken auch schnell, dass gerade Hauptsaison ist. Bisher haben wir immer schnell eine Unterkunft gefunden. In El Chalten erwiest sich dies als etwas schwieriger. Nach ca. 15 Gasthäusern hatten wir nur die Wahl zwischen Zelt leihen für 5€ oder ein Doppelzimmer für 200€ im teuersten Hotel des Ortes. Zum Glück gehen wir noch weiter auf die Suche und finden einen gesunden Mittelweg. Am nächsten Morgen brechen wir zu einer 22km langen Trekkingtour auf. Weiterhin sind ca. 400 Höhenmeter zu bewältigen um vom ... read more
Alpacas in El Chalten
Ausblick auf den Cerro Torre
kurze Pause an der Laguna Torre

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 27th 2008

The guidebook says, "If the sun is out, El Chalten is heaven on earth." My idea of heaven doesn´t include trucks and coaches whipping up dust storms along the gravel high street leaving you with a gritty lining to your mouth, a campsite that we confused for a refugee camp and constant construction works - however we had a wonderful time there with constant sunshine and blue skies for the full 4 days, the dramatic backdrop of the mountains and great overnight walks. We went there to spend a few days communing with the mountains and did some great walks with views of the mountains, glaciers, bright blue lakes and non-refugee style camp sites. The mountain peaks are only visible for 50 days a year and we can bore you with multiple photos of them. Our ... read more
Top of the Tumbado
Condor moment
Tumbado

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 21st 2008

I spent the last two days trekking in the Fitz Roy Range. The view here are amazing, with snow capped peaks, green valleys and blue lagunas. Yesterday I went up to Laguna Torre, beneath Mt. Torre. I started climbing at 14:00, but still got back before dark (which is after 23:00 now). Today I went up to Laguna de Los Tres, beneath Mt. Fitz Roy, which was even better (although a more difficult climb). I'm sorry, still no pictures because of the crappy internet here, but I'll try to upload them from El Calafate, where I'm going tomorrow.... read more
Laguna Torre
Mt. Fitz Roy

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 19th 2008

I spent the last two days on buses, crossing Patagonia - and Patagonia is big. On the first day of the bus ride, we went from El Bolson to Perito Moreno town (not the glacier), a small town in the middle of nowhere. Of course, we left El Bolson 2 hours later than planned, but after all, this is Patagonia. On the second day, we had an excursion to the cave of the hands, which is not really a cave at all, but a section along a canyon, where there are over 800 paintings of hands, that are 8000 years old. There are paintings of other things as well, like guanacos (sort of like an alpaca) and other animals, but it´s mostly hands. Then we continued with the bus to El Chalten. Of courrse, we got ... read more
First Look at the Fitz Roy Range
Old Paintings at the Cave of the Hands

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 10th 2008

After a late arrival in El Calafate (2am) and no plans we set up camp in a B&B´s backyard. We ended up there for three nights with a bunch of other folks from around the world. We got up late and used the day to do our errands and check out the town, which is very touristy. We spent that evening hanging out with a big group from around the world in the backyard. First we jammed and sang some crunchy tunes, passed the Mate around and then spent the rest of the night defending the U.S. against a handful of Colombians, Brazilians, and Italians. We had enough restraint not to tell them our new favorite line from Liz´s dad...."They are always there when they need us." We will be sending the state department a bill ... read more
Backyard Tenting!
Backyard Rap Session
Liz contemplating Ice

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén January 1st 2008

he last place I wrote about was Ushuaia, so after that I took a 10 hour but to Punta Arenas in Chile - on the way the whole bus got on a boat because we had to cross a channel, and dolphins swam near us... Punta Arenas is a very nice colonial city, with a surprising amount of impressive old buildings for such a remote part of the world. When I got there, I also had my official welcoming to the ¨Israeliada¨ - until then I barely travelled with Israelis, but since (besides now in Bariloche) all of the ppl that I travelled with were Israelis and half of the hostels I was in were full of Israelis - we simply took over this part of the world. I didn´t spend a lot of time in ... read more

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén December 25th 2007

Fitz Roy is for us the best area in Argentina we have visited. The wheather was awesome, the trails short and the views great. We had a 2 day rest here (for Xmas). Then we made 3 day trek around Mt. Fitz Roy masiv - was very beutiful and not much exhausting, so it was perfect after our illness. But then the wheather changed and we decided to move on to El Calafate. Rano sme sa prebudili v kempe, ktory sme si rano o tretej po prichode naslia videli sme nadheru, tak sa v nas opat prebudil horolezecky duch, zbalili sme stan a na sviatky sa presunuli do hostela, nech mame strechu nad hlavou. Den sme este polezali, kedze sme nechceli nejako uponahlat to ze sa uz citime lepsie, ale dalsi den sme si uz vysli ... read more
Nasa vianocna vecera
Mt. Fitz Roy vecer
My, Cerro Torre a Fitz Roy

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén December 24th 2007

Summary in English: Merry Christmas! Prajeme Vam vsetkym pozehnane vianocne sviatky plne pokoja a pohody. Poriadne sa napraskajte!!! Ale nech vam nezabehne kosticka :). Dufame, ze mate sneh a pravu romantiku - tu je leto a na vianoce namto moc nesedi, predsa len sme zvyknuti na zimsie, ale sneh mame na dohlad na okolonych stitoch - zdravime vas spod Fitz Roya.... read more

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén December 22nd 2007

Went on Route 40 for 2 days by bus from Bariloche to Perito Moreno to El Chalten. From tiny El Chalten we went on a 3 night hike around Mount Fitz Roy. We used our tent for the first time which we had bought 2nd hand in La Paz, it passed its first test pretty well. We were very lucky with the extremely changable weather, seeing Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, sunrise and sunset as well as snow annd very strong rainy wind (we almost got blown into the river as we climbed up the boulders to the Piedras Blancas Glaciar). Then we went a few hours further South to El Calafate where we ran into Angie and Golden again and got a lift to our hostel. We also ran into a Swiss girl we´d met in ... read more
Campamento Poincenot
Sunrise
Fitz Roy

South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén December 16th 2007

...so what´s at Fitzroy? Why do we need to go there? We arrived whilst it was clagged in, one went straight to the chocolateria, two did a sock stocktake...an hour later as we dragged ourselves away from our pressing engagements, one went off to the latrine and stopped in her tracks, "Good Lord!", another returned to find one lounging in awe in the middle of an empty paddock, "what are you doing out here?", "looking at the view" "What view...Holy Heck!!" The clouds had parted to reveal the formidable peaks of Cerro Fitzroy and Cerro Torre looming high above. Under which we enjoyed an amazing Argentine BBQ with the welcoming park ranger Alejandro, and some Norwegian climbers (wonderful to meet some Norwegians, given every corner we come around is apparently "Just like Norway"). Again, not in ... read more
Quite alot!
Just a few mountains




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