Blogs from El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America - page 20

It is official. I´m addicted to trekking. Even when I hate it, I love it. 3 days after Torres del Paine I found myself on a "relaxing" 4 day trek in the northern part of Parque Nacional de los Glaciares. Compared to the circuit in Torres del Paine, this definitely lived up to the relaxing description. I met up with Joel, the French Canadian guy who I had hiked with in Torres, in El Calafate and we decided to head up to El Chalten that afternoon in order to start the trek the next day. The sunset from the bus in between the two cities was absolutely stunning. Let me say here that none of the pictures I have taken have done justice to the scenery in patagonia...I don't know if it is possible to ... read more

Hi Everyone! Just back from 4 days camping in Los Glaciares National Park here in Patagonia. The first thing i should say about camping for 4 nights is that that´s a heck of a lot of food to carry. And stupidly I didn´t leave any of my stuff in the base town (El Chalten) on account of not liking the hostel i stayed in the night before the outing. So there I was hiking around with about 20kg in my rucksack! And whatsmore I ate all the nice food - 2 bars chocolate, biscuits, 4 peaches, cucumber, in the first two days and was left with the horrible stuff for the last two (corned beef... surely not how i remember as a kid, tortellini that tasted of mushed potato, and mouthfuls of patagonian grit courtesy of ... read more

After our mammoth journey all we wanted to do was find a place to crash out and relax. This proved to be rather difficult with El Chalten's growing popularity with climbers and trekkers; the first few hostels we tried were all completely full! We eventually found a little place after wandering around for a while, right opposite where we'd gotten off the bus in the first place! We had come to El Chalten to go trekking and climbing and spent the following day wandering around checking out the options available. We soon discovered that the local tourist information could give you all the maps and information you needed to go trekking in the surrounding area, which was great as it meant no need for guides etc. Whilst walking around we did find a few other ... read more

This time we (Will, Claudia, Talal and I) knew where the path to Lago de los Tres starts. Our hostel is very conveniently situated to the three most popular hikes. After some uphill that helped us warm up pretty quickly, the first view of the majestic Fitz Roy were revealed in front of our eyes. Along the way we met Carlos, Robert’s Argentinean friend, and some other guy. They were carrying all their gear and were going to camp out that night at Poincenot. Brave, we thought! We had a brief stop at Rio Blanco - a camp for climbers only. On my wander around the camp I noticed a wooden plank. It read “SAUNA” It was closed. But lucky climbers! The other camps are lucky if they get a stinking loo! On our way ... read more

The tiny village of El Chalten (1000 inhabitants in the summer and only about 200 in the winter) is big on the itineries of all trekkers, climbers and mounteneers. In the language of tehuelche (a South American tribe) El Chalten means "Smoking mountain" as they thought the Cerro Chalten mountain was actually a volcano for it was covered with clouds/smoke most of the time. El Chalten is at the base of Fitz Roy which is famous among the climbing comunity (apparently) due to its sheer granite faces and challenge it presents to those who scale it. This remote village with unpaved roads and only a few restaurants is unbelievabely charming, for now catering mostly for backpackers, but getting ready for the more comfortable crowds. As soon as we got off the bus and saw the stunning ... read more