Posada Lunajuim El Chalten

... o som da agua caindo e o rio congelado criavam uma atmosfera bacana.

Jah era quase quatro da tarde mas resolvih ficar um tempinho e apertar o passo na volta para pegar o onibus. Com apenas um gole de agua restando na garrafa, julguei que certamente aquela agua era boa para beber. O problema era pega-la entre as pedras e o rio congelado. Acabei achando uma parte descongelada e um tronco de arvore para me apoiar. Com um pouquinho de jeito enchih minha ...

... say pain... all uphill... great views... stopping to catch breath every few seconds... only one couple has passed us out so far... not so bad.... 10:30am... get to first viewpoint... our first ...

Week 22 March 30th - 31st Monday, I awake weary eyed at about 6 a.m. and pack my bags, and head off to El Chalten. It was only 3 hours on the bus but the roads on the infamous route 40 are strange. It is like they are all under construction, that they started but forgot forgot to lay the tarmac on top. They are reasonably straight and wide, well planned out, but they are essentially just gravel tracks. I ...

El Calafate is known for one thing... ice ice baby! Perito Moranos Glacier, which was absolutely stunny to see, so dense bright blue that growned and creeked away, as chuck fell off of it... really cool to see...Appart from a good pizza, tasty ice cream, expensive skype and hostel tizzed up with barbie dolls there is not much to report... Arriving at el chalten at 10pm, was when we go a taste of the wind from the patagonian ice field that really did ...

El Chalten... now THIS is the stuff dreams are made of! I am left breathless from this place. I can not believe the beauty that exists in this world. Wow. I don't really know what else to say. OK- so I have to write a bit more than that... I KNOW! :) Hilary and I went on a hike today to see Cerro Fitz Roy- an absolutely exraordinary snowcapped ...

... while I reverted to my Himalayan system of 100 paces and then a rest. Now the wind was getting and the sky blue but scudded with fast moving white cloudlets. My Buenos Aries white sun hat fell off and shot into a ravine eluding the valiant rescue attempts of Andy Spink a keen trekker from the Peak District who was on the way down. Eventually I reached the top of the ridge, was greeted by two people who had also been on Polar Star - we recognised ...

... bad weather. We found a hostel to stay in, a 10 bed dorm which was basic but very warm. There were only 4 of us in the room. We drove about 20km out of town the next day and hiked for a few hours. Nice easy trail but very windy at the end. Quite cloudy as well, so we did not get great views. Back to town to a warm bed, very nice to have a bed to go back to ...

... Torres and the 2nd Cerro Fitz-Roy. We weren´t really lucky with the weather as much of the time the peaks were covered with cloud. But the walks were beautiful and the highlight for me was the condors on the final day. I have been looking out for them since we arrived. By the way the ice creams here (in Argentina generally) are amazing thanks to the Italian imigrants. Plus they are huge, I must take a photo to show you - not a Mr Whippy in sight!

... base of the peak. Around the corner was a hidden little nook in the cliffs nestled above a massive cliff face with views of the valley stretching one way towards even more lakes and glaciers and the other way towards the endless green plains of Patagonia. Gorgeous. Between all this walking and gawking at scenery, we had spent too much time at the local locutorio battling with the internet and the phones which no one in Chalten seemed to know how to ...

... in our basic but comfy hotel room.

We have very little to show for the last 2 days, and we didn't look out of the windows much because there was literally nothing to see! The landscape was monotonous and nondescript, the roads unsealed and indirect, but we were very glad to be at our destination.

We couldn't wait to get out there and use our hiking boots again!


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx