El Chaltén is known as the capital of trekking in Argentina and rightfully so. There are snow capped mountains in all directions, crowned by imposing Mount Fitzroy, the namesake of the range. The northern section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is within a stone's throw and there are several first class day hikes starting right in El Chaltén itself. Unfortunately though, Kev has injured his leg and has had to rest it most days. X-rays and advice from various people suggest that he's damaged the lining of his shin bone - it will heal but only with a lot of rest and NO long walks! So Kev's been relaxing at the hostel most days, keeping an eye on our petrol scented washing.
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| At the Chorillo Salta waterfall |
On our second day here, we both did a short walk to the waterfall Chorillo Salto. The majority was next to the glacier fed river, which is fast flowing and a gorgeous grey-blue colour. When we arrived at the 20m falls there were a lot of other people there taking photos, but once we walked downstream for five minutes it was lovely and quiet, with a magnificent view in the late afternoon light down the valley across to the mountains.
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| Looking down the valley from the waterfall |
The two most popular hikes here both go to lakes, crossing through spectacular scenery with trees in beautiful autumnal colours and views of the surrounding mountains. We met some great people in our hostel and they were kind enough to let me join them.
The first trek was mainly on the flat, proceeding past fields of silver birch trees and finally arriving at Laguna Torre, with lovely views of the peak Cerro Torre behind. The lake was a greyish colour rather than blue and extremely cold; there were icebergs floating in it! It was still enough to reflect three spire-like peaks behind, which we were lucky to see as they are often covered in cloud. A glacier flows into the lake and we sat listening to it making ominous creaking noises while eating lunch.
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| Cerro Torre overlooking its lake |
The second trek, to Laguna de los Tres, was even better - one of the best day hikes I've done. The views ahead to Mount Fitzroy were breathtaking all the way, and got better and better as we went along. We crossed several crystal clear streams and rivers, most with signs saying you could drink from them. The walk is 11km one way, but the final 1km took us an hour as it was so steep. Towards the top, Fitzroy had disappeared behind the hill we were climbing, but as we arrived at the end of the trail it suddenly reappeared, looking even more stunning behind the dazzlingly turquoise Laguna de los Tres. After a lunch break and some scrambling we found a different and possibly even better view. We were the only people there, which made it all the more special.
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| At the start of the trek to Cerro Fitzroy |
Today Kev braved a trip out and we took a minibus to Lago del Desierto, about 40km along a veeery bumpy gravel road. We then went for an hour' long boat trip on the lake, surrounded by thickly forested slopes. Although the weather was cold and rainy to start with, it cleared up and the gaps in the clouds revealed the slopes were capped with several glaciers. We could clearly see where they came down the mountain and turned into waterfalls flowing into the lake. Pretty cool!
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| Made it to the lake at Cerro Fitzroy! |
While here we've also spent a lot of time trying to sort out the petrol disaster described in our previous post. On the plus side, three laundry visits, a lot of airing and some soaking in buckets of vinegar (I got odd looks in the supermarket!) have improved most of our clothes. On the down side, we're not sure that our rucksacks will be salvageable. We asked one laundry if they'd soak them overnight, which they had done once already, and got a very curt reply along the lines of 'you made my laundry smell for three days, go away!' It looks like we're going to have to buy new ones...
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| Drowning sorrows with new friends in the cervecería |
El Chaltén is a good place to drown our sorrows though: it is the first place we've found that has its own microbrewery, or Cerveceria. It only has two beer options but we've still had a couple of good nights there and at the Vineria wine bar. We're here for another day and then heading to nearby El Calafate for more glacier action.
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