Hosteria Senderos El Chalten

... a frente. A San Martin eh a
unica rua pavimentada, dalih pra frente muito barro e gelo. Gostei muito de andar por aquela estrada, primeiro porque quase nao vih carros, dando uma sensacao boa de tranquilidade; depois porque o vale e um rio semi congelado formavam uma paisagens muito bonita a cada
curva. O unico problema de andar por alih, como jah tinham me falado, era o vento. Em El Chalten, ao menos no inverno, venta demais, chegando a atrapalhar a ...

... it went... Decided to climb to the summit of the Fitz Roy mountain.. read on the brochure 26km there and back.. about 10hrs in total.... recommended 2 day trip but us professionals decided we ...

... walk to Mt Fitz Roy for the day after, hoping for better weather. My plans worked out well as the weather was much better the next day and I had a lovely walk to Mount Fitz Roy. I cannot believe people climb this sheer rock face. It would have been great to see some people in action, but I think it was the wrong time of year. El Chalten had a great German Microbrewery and after each walk I rewarded ...

... trek to Laguna Torres, were Toby was busy building a wind breaker for us to have lunch which was tasty and crunchy as it had plenty of grit in it! Managed to camp back to the free campsite in El Chalten for that night. Booked the 36hour bus to Bariloche via Ruta 40, as decided hitch hiking might be too much of a challenge with distances to cover and lack of the spanish lingo! But as result needed to hike and camp another night in Park. Went on 8 hour hike ...

... and almost everyone agrees that El Chalten is lovely... but they always say "you need to get lucky with the weather." Most days, even during summer the mountains are obscured from view due to the cloud coverage. Hilary and I... well, we got so lucky I felt like I had won the lottery with the weather. :) It was magnificent ...

... now my custom in the mountains I started a week of vegetarianism. Vicky and agreed to walk together in the morning and if the weather stayed fine to take the most spectacular route here up to Laguna de Los Tres at the base of the glacier under Fitz Roy. We met next morning at 8.30 for another sunny day and hence the trek up to the base of Fitz Roy. This went quite gently up through what we called the enchanted wood, a pine and birch forest with ...

... avec Guy. on finira par aller faire un tour avec ses 2 potes au bistrot du coin. Dimanche 22 journee loose! peut pas marcher... je comptais faire la 2eme boucle jusquau pied du Chalten...ce sera pour la prochaine fois! dej avec Guy avant que lui ne parte en rando, journee a lhospedaje avec ma poche de glace, je rattrappe lecriture de mon journal. Claudia arrive de sa rando de 2 jours le soir, on se verra le lendemain matin dans le bus pour El Calafate.

... this is quite common). In addition, much to my horror the toilet doors didnīt have locks and many of them didnīt even close. Now I am not that fussy about toilets since travelling around India and China but its not as if the facilities are cheap, so a bit disappointed. In additionm there were security cameras everywhere (not the bathrooms - well not that I noticed anyway). The only plus side was the tasty lemon pie and good cafe con leche ...

... s truer colors and woke up to what seemed like near gale force winds battering at our little abode. Even with the winds and the ominous clouds, we couldn't pass on this hike so we were off to Laguna Las Tres to see the even more impressive Cerro Fitzroy. Well, more impressive in our memories as the top of this magnificent and intimidating (considered one of the five hardest peaks to climb in the world) peak was obscured by clouds for our entire ...

... over in the middle of nowhere (I still have no idea where the ambulance came from) and an incredible sunset behind a petrol station.

At 11:30pm we pulled into El Chalten, which I have re-named "Bobby" (think about it...), and which - despite the lack of light outside - appeared to be quite a large town nestled between very high mountains.

This is apparently one of the best places to trek in the whole of South ...