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.