El Chalten

Thursday 2nd December - Monday 6th December

Arrived into El Chalten (The 'trekking' capital of Argentina) on Thursday evening.

I had made reservations a few days earlier to stay in a hostel called Rancho Grande as I figured that this would be a busy spot and the hostels would be booked out. As it turned out it wasnt that bad. Andrew, Delyth and Victoria had checked into another hostel down the road which was really good and I ended up spending most of my time down at their hostel. Rancho Grande hostel was too big and was more like a big hotel rather than a small hostel.

After checking in and getting ourselves sorted we all met up and went for a nice meal.

Not much else to do in El Chalten to be honest. Seems to be the kind of place where people go to bed early and are up at the break of dawn to go off hiking and climbing mountains! El Chalten is a nice town .. very small and very touristy. There is still alot of construction going on the town and its still only being developed. Full of tourists ... all trekkers and hikers. Plenty of restaurants, cafeterias, and trekking shops.

We all decided to head off the next day (Friday 3rd Dec) on a trek to see a glacier. It was about a 7 hour trek in total .. but the weather was so bad. At some stages we were climbing over rocks to reach the lookout point and the wind was so strong. Not very nice. It was also really cloudy. Jenni from Finland who we had met in El Calafate and who only just arrived in El Chalten also came with us on the trek and we also met Jamie, a guy from Edinburgh who trekked with us also.

Had a quiet evening when I got back to the hostel and cooked myself some dinner. Before I went back I went to meet the others down at their hostel as Victoria was heading off on the night bus. Was sorry to see her go ... it was great travelling with her for the past week.

The following day (Sat 4th Dec) was super ... great sunshine all day. We went off for another long trek for the full day to the look out point up past the base camp for Fitz Roy mountain. Really steep climb at the very end for about a full hour ... I was shattered after it. My poor legs are really sore after it and its painful on the knees when you are climbing down .. although that could be just old age! Heres a picture of the 5 of us ... Jenni, Delyth, Jamie, Andrew and myself.

 A few pictures taken at the viewpoint just past base camp of Fitzroy mountain:

I said goodbye to Jenni that evening as she was travelling on elsewhere on Sunday morning. I cooked dinner again this evening. Trying to watch my budget a bit better .. if I dont I'll have to come home soon. I think I'll just end up living on pasta and tinned meat .. and of course .. ham and cheese sandwiches.

Glad we got some trekking done. Feel it would be a waste to come here and not do any trekking seen as thats what the main attraction is. Probably could have spent another few days here trekking but 2 days was enough. Had met a few other people in the hostel who were camping and trekking for 3-4 days. Would have been good to do that also but would have meant renting equipment etc... which was just too much hassle and expense.

I had originally booked 4 nights in the hostel but I told them on Saturday after I got back from the 2nd days trekking that I was checking out. next morning. I decided to get a night bus out of El Chalten on Sunday evening (5th Dec). I had to decide where my next destination would be. Andrew and Delyth were doing 'Route 40' which is the 'North-South' road along the Argentinan/Chilean border which is supposed to have fantastic views. I made up my mind not to go to Bariloche just yet and instead I decided that I would do the 'Careterra Austral' which is similar to 'Route 40' but on the Chilean side and is said to have much more spectacular views.  The 3 of us, (Andrew, Delyth and myself) all got the night bus together on Sunday night. They were to arrive in Bariloche on Tuesday morning, but I got off in Perito Moreno on Monday morning as I needed to make a connection for another bus to travel to a place called Los Antiguos (which is on the Argentinian/Chilean border). Was sad leaving Delyth and Andrew at the bus station and travelling solo again. Had been travelling with Andrew for the past 6 weeks since we met in Buenos Aires. Great times over the past few weeks and was great to have a good travelling buddy. Hopefully I will get to the opportunity to visit him in California before I get back to Ireland.