Patagonia: El Chalten

Yesterday we woke up early in Calafate to take a 3 hour bus to El Chalten.

We took a stop at a restaurant/souvenir place (that was unbelievably overpriced because it was in the middle of nowhere, Patagonia where the buses always have to stop) that had a pole out front with about 15 planks of wood pointing in the direction of the cities written on the wood from around the world. It also added the distance of those cities from that location.

Then we got to Chalten and stopped at a rangers station. They told us about the hikes we could do but they said the hike we wanted to do (Tres Lagos) was prohibited because it was windy and rainy. Boo!

So we went to our hostel, got our stuff together to hike and went for lunch to the cheapest place in town since most of the restaurants of the 28 year old town are extremely overpriced. I had a lentil and chorizo stew that was awesome! There we decided to take the Fitz Roy hike and just stop when the Tres Lagos part started.

Then we started our walk to the bottom of the mountain. It was TERRIBLE weather. It was incredibly windy and rainy in below freezing temperatures. But we were only in Chalten for one day so we were gonna do what we had to do!

There were some great pictures that came out of it too... Us all wrapped up in jackets, scarves on our heads and faces, and ponchos and rain jackets... It was actually so upsetting it was funny.

The walk took about 15 minutes to the bottom of the mountain to start our hike.

I got out my camera to take a picture of Sheridan and Sarah with the entrance sign and a miracle happened... The sun appeared out of nowhere! All of the clouds disappeared farther into the mountains! We were so happy!

The hike from then on was gorgeous! The snowy mountains and valley were awesome reflecting from the sun and the wind blew snow from the mountains to where we were on another mountain so it felt like it was snowing!

We felt like we were on top of the world.

It took us about 3 hours to do an hour and a half hike because we kept stopping, talking on the rock on the side of the mountain, looking at the views and taking pictures.

Then we got to a beautiful lake along the hike that started Tres Lagos. It was so sad because it was snowing so much in the mountains that there were too many clouds above them and we couldn't see Fitz Roy very well. But the rest of the mountains beyond the lake were beautiful.

We stayed there for a bit just relaxing when it started to snow on us! The amount of layer changes I did was crazy. I started the hike with three pairs of pants, three shirts, three pairs of socks, a flannel, a North Face fleece and a scarf. And I needed it all... at least for the walk to the base of the mountain.

I'd take off a pair of pants, scarf and my fleece, put my fleece back on, take off my fleece and flannel, and put those back on when the wind picked up or when we were sitting on the edge of the mountain, etc.

Layers were my friends!

Luckily Sheridan had an extra pair of gloves cause I sent mine (and most of my other winter clothes) home with Mommom.

After some relaxing time, we filled up our water bottles in the lake and headed back. The snow storm was pretty much above us so we didn't stop as much on the way home until it cleared up. Then of chose we would stop and take in the beautiful views.

There and back we had constant great conversation. We talked about politics, each of our near-death experiences, our friends with weird health problems, our scariest moments, and our families. I've had the best conversations during my hikes around Argentina. It's a way to really get to know the people with whom you're traveling.

Walking back through the tiny town of El Chalten, we stopped at a bakery to reward ourselves :)

Then we found a spa! We were kind of sore from hiking this weekend so we stopped in to look at prices. It was only $37 for an hour massage... We said we'd think about it.

We also stopped at a camping store that had Columbia, Timbaland and Patagonia advertised outside. We went in but with disappointment, we didn't see many Patagonia brand items... Lame.

We warmed back up at the hostel after we arrived around 4. We relaxed until dinner and had our leftover lunch. It was so weird because I guess we were so south that there's light from before 6am till after 9pm! It felt so early but we were all exhausted and finally forced ourselves to go to bed the second it got dark after dinner.

When I woke up this morning at 6:30 for the bus back to Calafate I looked outside and it was gorgeous! Not a cloud in the sky! And low and behold, there was Fitz Roy. At least he came out for us to see that beautiful morning.

Today were going back to Hostel America del Sur in Calafate to hang out a bit before our plane at 4 or 5.

I'm so happy I got to cross Patagonia of top things I want to see in this beautiful world. And what's funny? This weekend I was almost as close to Antarctica as you could get and last weekend I was in the northern jungle where I could see Brazil and Paraguay. 

All in one country.

I effing love Argentina.

Patagonia: Calafate

Since we had to be at the airport for our flight at 3:30am... I only got about two hours of sleep. We were exhausted by the time Sheridan, Sarah and I met at Las Heras y Pueyrredon to share a taxi to the domestic flights airport.

We got to the airport, drank a tea, befriended a kiosko worker (who then asked for our Facebook names...) and got to our gate.

This flight was actually terrible. The worst one yet.

I passed out right away, which I didn't even think was possible for me to fall asleep on a plane, with my neck in the worst position. Because I feel sleep I missed the food :( I was sitting in a window seat next to an older couple... Having to get out to pee was so annoying. Then like 30 min later I felt like I had to pee again; strenuously held that one in, though, until we landed.

Also, my ears hurt so bad from the altitude. Sheridan and Sarah said theirs hurt too so there was definitely something wrong with the airplane.

Another thing, it was so cold on the flight! I needed my long sleeve shirt, flannel and North Face and I was still cold.

Además, something was dripping on me from the ceiling... I was not impressed.

We landed 3 hours later in Calafate and took a booked van to our recommended hostel, America del Sur.

Our room wasn't ready yet but the receptionists told us to help ourselves with the breakfast that was still out.

The hostel is amazing. It has a compete view of the mountain range and a cool loft where I've if the receptionists came up to to explain the town and excursions. She was super nice and we could understand her Spanish perfectly.

We were thinking about doing the Mini Trekking excursion that cost 800 pesos but then she showed us pictures from an excursion called Big Ice. The pictures were so impressive we booked that one for 1,200 pesos.

We went to the super market after to get lunch and lunch for our excursion and explored town.

It was a beautiful tiny town with awesome views of snowy mountains everywhere. It was a little chilly but after walking around in the sun it warmed up.

We got back, made great pasta with sausage, lentils and peas and just talked.

By the time we were done chatting it was around 4:30 and we decided we needed a nap.

We set the alarm for 6 to watch the sunset behind the mountains though.... Jokes.

We slept right through that and vertically all the way until our 6am alarm. We got up once at 10 because my birth control alarm went off. We randomly got up, weirdly did some intense stretching, Sheridan showed, and a half hour later we got back into bed and slept till morning.... Great nights sleep.

Then we got up, got breakfast, and were picked up by our excursion van. We dove for probably 1.5-2 hours west toward Chile to a glacier called Perito Moreno.

On the way we stopped at an awesome viewpoint of a glacier that was 60 meters tall above the water and about 100 meters below sea. Our guide explained that the glacier was bigger than the city of Buenos Aires... Are you kidding me?? That's fucking enormous! Bigger than I could ever imagine. That was on the south side.

All of a sudden, I heard something like a gun fire then tons of loud rumbling. Turns out it was part of the glacier falling off. That kind of thing happened every 10 minutes or so.

So then went to the place where we were going to hike in the glacier (on the north side). We took a boat across the river and stopped at the "refugee" where we got our gives and into or groups.

We hiked for a bit, passing the Mini Trekking group to a right before we entered the glacier stop where we got our harnesses and crampons.

Then, we boarded the glacier. It was amazing. The Big Ice was a more intense hike on the glacier than Mini Trekking and I'm so glad we chose it. The views were beautiful and the delicate ice was such an experience to climb across.

We asked our two guides if there are accidents and they said not really. The ice is so thick even if there's water in top of it. There were lots of large cracks in the ice, some filled with water, some empty, that we had to cross over.

There were also rivers grooved into the ice with mini waterfalls. Also, we went through an ice cave! So cool!

Our total trek on the ice took about 3 hours and by that time, my feet and ankles were hurting me a bit because I was wearing running sneakers, not hiking shoes.

We hiked back to the boat with one of our guides, Luiz.

Once on the boat we each got a glass of whiskey and an alfajor! Such a nice end to the hike!

We went to Esquina Varela for dinner which is famous for their lamb so we had some yummy lamb stews and wine!