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Published: March 11th 2007
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El Chalten and the Fitz Roy Massif - 15th to 19th February We get an early morning bus from Puerto Natales to El Calafate - within the hour we cross the border from Chile to Argentina. We feel sad to leave Chile after so much time here. We arrive at El Calafate and immediately book a bus ticket to El Chalten, to leave in a couple of hours, but then I see a sign saying that there isn´t an ATM or bank at El Chalten so we have no way of getting any money especially as I still don´t know my PIN numbers! We change our bus ticket to the next day and arrange accommodation at the local youth hostel. We spend the rest of the day wandering around El Calafate, looking in the shops to see if we can find anything warm for Antarctica. In the evening there is a "big party" in town - I guess its their version of Glastonbury! So we drop into the local field and watch a couple of horrendous bands playing, before we go for dinner. They are pretty terrible!
The next morning we have to be up by 6am
to catch the bus to El Chalten. We sleep on the bus as it takes 5 hours to get there. At the town we stop at the park office for a map and some guidance on walks. El Chaltén is a tiny village of about 200 residents and sits nestled in a circular rock outcrop at the base of the Fitz Roy and is fronted by the vast, dry pampa. This is the second-most-visited region of Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park and is visited for the great day hikes you can do from here into the mountains.
We check into our hostel. We´ve only been able to get into a dorm room with 4 people! Its a tiny room but the hostel is sweet with lots of character and the owners are great - very helpful. They also do great lunch boxes! We play a game of Yahtzee on the lawn enjoying the warmth of the sun. Then we have a wander around town, again looking in the camping shops for warm things for Antarctica. We have an early dinner, great homemade pasta.
The next morning we have breakfast with an annoying Australian from our dorm. We can´t
get away from her quick enough as she´s really negative about everything. She´s just come back from Antarctica so it is at least interesting to quiz her on stuff. Luckily she is leaving that day so we won´t have to see her again!
We go for a walk today to Cerro Torre. We climb 300 metres to a look out over Cerro Torre - a huge mountain surrounded by granite spires and a glacier hanging off the mountain. We continue the walk through forests and along a river bed to a glacial lake. Here we have a much better view of the mountain and glacier - its beautiful. We sit here for a couple of hours whilst Kate paints the scene and I read a book! We go back the same way - the walk takes about 6 hours.
The next day Kate wakes up with a cold :-( so is not feeling too good. We take it easy in the morning and just rest. But even more annoying, the Ozzie woman is still here so we try and avoid her as much as possible! Our friend Claire arrives today so we go for a coffee with her.
We book a tour for the afternoon for the 3 of us. We´re taken in a bus an hour and a half north of El Chalten. Its a nice drive with good views of the surrounding area and its interesting to see more of the area. We also get great views of the Fitz Roy massif - the huge granite peak for which this area is most famous. We get off the bus and get on a boat for an hours ride across Lago del Desierto. At the end we walk up to a steep lookout back across the lake. Its also really interesting as a bunch of people turn up on bikes seemingly from the middle of nowhere. They ridden across the mountains from Chile into Argentina and this is the border crossing for them!
We head back into town for beer and pasta! El Chalten is set in a beautiful location and for such a small town it has many fantastic restaurants - we´re surprised by how good they are.
The next day Kate is still poorly so we don´t head out until lunchtime. We walk to the north end of town and climb a steep
hill - of course only stopping a few times! We can see our friends tents (John and Claire from the Navimag) in a campsite nearby but we can´t see them - however we can smell their socks! We climb over 400 metres through woodland and open grassland. Again there are great views at to the countryside. After an hour and a half we arrive at the Fitz Roy lookout - with brilliant views of the granite tower and a glacier. We sit in the sunshine for a couple of hours watching the sunlight change colour on the towers, and we even have a little nap! We return and meet Claire for dinner. We´re off to bed early as we have to catch a 7am bus the next day back to El Calafate.
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Benny
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Hello Kate and Andrea
Have been receiving your blogs, great reading material and great photos (my wife has been enjoying them too!). Just to let you know I am home in Vancouver and readjusting to not sleeping in a tent. The trip was the experience of a lifetime. Hope things are going well with you. Enjoy Antartica, wish I could be there to do it too!!! Warmest regards, Benny